Lisa Pakenham (Schofield)
Owner and Studio Director
Lisa was born and raised in East Yorkshire, England. At the age of 19 she moved to Canada with her family and came straight to Beautiful Vernon, where she has made her home for the past 15 years.
Lisa started her dance career at the age of 3. Her extensive dance training started at Pamela Gray Dancing Academy, Hull, England, where she was trained and completed exams in Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) Imperial Society of Teacher of Dance (ISTD) and also trained in International Dance Teachers Association (IDTA). After school Lisa was accepted in to the Hull College of Performing Arts where she received her degree in BTEC National Diploma of Dance and Musical Theatre.
Throughout her 31 years of dance, Lisa has been professionally trained in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Modern, Hip Hop, Lyrical, Contemporary, Musical Theatre, Greek dance, National Dance, Ballroom, The Can Can, Broadway, Fosse, Burlesque and Street, she is also a qualified Zumba Instructor, PIYO Instructor and 1 of the first qualified BOKWA Fitness instructors in all of Canada.
Lisa is a certified Aerial instructor, and is excited to have Aerial classes a part of the studio. Elevate Aerial-Hammock/silks and Aerial Hoop.
She has won many awards for her dancing and choreography.
Over her years of dance, Lisa has had the honor to have been accepted in to some of the largest dance training schools in all of England, where she spent years of her dance career as a York Scholar at the Yorkshire Ballet Scholars, a Junior Associate with the Royal Ballet School and a ballet and contemporary dancer of the Northern Ballet School, where she has been trained by world renowned professional dancers and choreographers including Mark Silver, Yoko Ichino, Ronald Emblem and Jill Caplan. She has been one of the lead roles in many Ballet productions at Pamela Gray Dancing Academy including Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Don Quixote and many more.
Lisa has also Choreographed full main stage productions, including 'The Producers', 'Pirates of Penzance', 'Honk', 3 years running of the 'The Rocky Horror Show',' Fiddler on the Roof', 'Beauty and The Beast', 'Chicago' and 'The Sound of Music', which was accompanied by the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and directed by Vancouver Director Matthew Bissett.
Lisa is also Trained and certified in Standard First Aid / AED Level C.
Miss Chantal
Ballet / Contemporary / Dancers-Pilates / Lyrical / Jazz / Acro
From her first Jazz class as a young child, Chantal discovered her immense passion for dance. Progressing quickly into competitive level training in Jazz, Ballet, Modern, Lyrical, Contemporary, Musical Theater and Hip Hop, with medals in both group and solo performances. She spent most of her youth in the dance studio, accomplishing RAD Ballet examinations up to Intermediate level, and even achieving distinction.
At 17, Chantal began her teaching journey. Her focus as a dance teacher is to build up dancers confidence, strength and technique.
Having studied Therapeutic Movement, and Trained as a Certified Acrobatic Arts Instructor and Barre Above Instructor, Chantal has the knowledge to train dancers safely and effectively while she continues to seek improved dance training methods.
When Chantal is not at the studio, you can likely find her trail running, mountain biking, or enjoying nature with her family.
Miss Ariel
Kinder Ballet and Tap, Musical Theatre and Singing.
Ariel Klim started dancing at the young age of three and by twelve years old she found her passion in the performing arts. She performed with Center Stage for over 8 years. Some of her featured roles were Marta in the Sound Of Music, Gingy in Shrek, and Mrs. Brill in Mary Poppins. After graduating she got accepted into the prestigious Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria B.C. She has won countless awards for films and singing. Ariel is excited to share her love and knowledge for the performing arts with the students at Diversity dance.
Talia
Junior Hip Hop
Info coming soon...
Esmee
Contemporary
Info coming soon...
Erin Dekok
Assistant Teacher, Sub teacher.