Children's March Break Dance Intensive

Dance with us in person, this March. Dance students will enjoy ballet, contemporary, and hip hop classes all in The National Ballet of Canada’s beautiful studios, led by our talented and experienced teachers.

Dates: Monday, March 13 – Friday, March 17, 2023

Times: 9:30 am – 2:00 pm

Age and Requirements: Dance students ages 8 – 11, with at least two years of dance training.

Classes Offered: Ballet, Repertoire, Contemporary and Hip Hop

Fee: Early Bird Rate until February 1 $425.00. February 1 and onwards, $525

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Please contact instudio@national.ballet.ca with any questions.

Faculty

Kate Kernaghan
Classical Ballet

A graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School’s Teacher Training Program, Kate Kernaghan received her Royal Academy of Dance Teacher’s Certificate, as well as her Associate from the Imperial Society of Teacher’s of Dancing. She is also a Fletcher Pilates Licensed provider as well as a CanFit Pro Personal Trainer. Having had former students go onto Canada's National Ballet School, The Ailey School, the School of Alberta Ballet and Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Ms. Kernaghan’s dedication to teaching and to her students never goes unnoticed.Ms. Kernaghan’s wealth of teaching experience in both the dance and fitness community lend to her confident, dynamic yet caring teaching style.

Alejandra Valiente
Classical Ballet

Alejandra Valiente is a professional performer, instructor, adjudicator and choreographer who specializes in Ballet, Floor Barre and Competitive Ballet Choreography. With 35 years of extensive experience performing and teaching, Ms. Valiente graduated from The National Ballet School in Mexico City and went on to receive her teaching certificates from The Royal Academy of Dance, Vaganova, Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) Associated, Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT) and Cecchetti. She has worked as a performer in classical and neo-classical ballet, folklore European and musical theatre and as a choreographer for TV shows as Sesame Street. She worked as Creative Director for Conexion en Movimiento in Mexico and worked on events such as the Para Pan Games Guadalajara 2011 and the presentation of the mascot at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. Ms. Valiente is committed to sharing her knowledge to help all generations of dancers to understand the value of ballet technique through their dance journey.

Shavar Blackwood
Hip Hop

Shavar "Caution" Blackwood has had the opportunity to work with choreographers and performers such as Allen Kaeja, Luther Brown, Sean Cheeseman, Siona Jackson, Mandy Moore and Bill T. Jones.

His passion for dance lets him take his ideas of the Hip Hop culture to the next level by fusing it with different forms of dance such as Contemporary, House, Vogue, Popping and Krump. These principles led Mr. Blackwood to achieve a Top 14 spot on Season 3 of So You Think You Can Dance Canada and to perform in the Lifetime movie Aaliyah The Princess of R&B, Family Channel’s Naturally Sadie and with artists such as Cascada, Mcfly, George Nozuka, Divine Brown and Jacksoul.

Mr. Blackwood has taught for many institutions such as Canada’s National Ballet School, City Dance Corps, OIP Dance Centre, among others. He has choreographed for events with SickKids Canada, Toronto’s Choreographers’ Ball, Bazaar, Fever, TDSB Martin Luther King Remembrance Day celebration at Roy Thompson Hall and was the winner of Manifesto Dance Competition.

Josh Nitkin

Josh Nitkin is a graduate of the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts and holds certification with PAA (Professional Adjudicators Alliance), BATD (British Association of Teachers of Dancing) and PAEC (Performing Arts Educators of Canada) in Tap, Jazz and Urban with which he helped develop the syllabus. Josh has 30 years of training and performance in Tap, Jazz, Acrobatics, Modern, Hip Hop, Lyrical, Musical Theatre and more. With almost 20 years of teaching, Josh's students have gone on to win numerous overall awards and have garnered choreography awards as well. Josh is a sought-after Adjudicator across Canada and the United States. Having adjudicated for Dance Masters of America (North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Houston, Great Lakes), American Dance Awards, Terpsichore Dance Celebration/Dance Starz, AmeriCup, Dance Xtreme Nationals, Millennium Productions Nationals, Peak Invitational and many others. Josh is also a former dancer with Celebrity Cruise Lines and Corpus Dance Projects, having performed in Alaska, France, the UK, Belgium, Japan and all over Central and South America.

Allen Rho

Allen Flosive Rho is a passionate educator, dedicated to connecting with each and every student that he works with. He takes a cultured approach to street dance informed by fourteen years of intentionally selected experience. Allen is on a never-ending journey of growth and development both in his personal life and his chosen craft. He applies this mentality to his teaching style, believing that there is an art and psychology to effective learning. Allen’s teaching method is based on nurturing a “growth mindset.” With concerted effort and taking action his students learn the skills needed to overcome any turbulence that comes their way. Through street dance, Allen aims to inspire his students to pursue their creative goals and explore their artistic curiosities. His mission as an educator is to provide his students the tools to experience and express their own creative energy.