ARTISTIC STAFF
Shelley Ebeyer – YOUTH & ADULT BALLET, STRETCH, JAZZ & TAP
Shelley Ebeyer is the Director of Expression Dance School. She began her dance life at the age of two and half years old in Canada. She trained at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School (Canada), Elmhurst Ballet School (England) and at The McDonald College (Australia). There she was trained in Classical Ballet (R.A.D, Cecchetti and I.S.T.D), Modern, Jazz (I.S.T.D), Hip-Hop, Tap and Contemporary. She is also a member of the Royal Academy of Dancing.
Shelley’s performance credits include ‘The Nutcracker’ with the Alberta Ballet Company, she has danced with one of Australia’s leading dance-in-education companies Darc Swan Dance Company for three years where it saw her touring nationally performing onstage and at schools Contemporary pieces by Director/Choreographer Chris Jannides. Shelley has also performed in the pantomime ‘The Dancing Princesses’ in London, she was a dancer at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in the Tom Jones Concert and has performed in numerous corporate and concert shows around Sydney.
She has taught all ages from pre-school to adults at numerous dance schools. She has also taught at primary and high schools around Australia.
Provide highly qualified and experience teachers who are currently working in the industry as professional dancers or choreographers.
She encourages her students to incorporate a lot of body movement with emphasis on rhythm and personal expression.
Lauren Birdsall – YOUTH JFH
Lauren is an all round performer and fully qualified dancer, actor, singer and model. She trained fulltime at Brent Street Studios and at the University of Western Sydney where she completed her Certificate IV in Performing Arts and Bachelor of Performance.
Credits include Home & Away, All Saints, back up dancer for Young Divas, Telstra, Anything Goes and much more.
After years of training and being involved in many areas of the entertainment industry, teaching for Lauren is an exciting way of passing on everything she has learnt to young up and coming performers.
Her classes aim to build a standard of excellence in dance for every student and are fun, fast-paced, friendly and encouraging!
Damien Grima – ADULT BALLET, ADULT TAP & ADULT JAZZ
Damien Grima began his training at the age of six, at Theatre Arts Mackay under the direction of Lynette Denny. Starting with tap, he then moved onto all styles including Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, Acrobatics, Drama and Singing.
After completing his CSTD Gold Cross and RAD Intermediate exams he then moved to Melbourne to train at the Australian Ballet School. Here he also performed some small roles with the Company.
Damien's first full time dance job was with Princess Cruises, which resulted in a few fill in contracts in the years that followed. In between these Damien worked as a commercial dancer for ads in Taiwan, Star Struck on Ch 9, The Helpmann Awards as well as two contracts with Opera Australia.
He now trains the full time students at Mango Dance Studio.
Johanna Irwin – YOUTH BALLET & JFH
Johanna attended Newtown High School of the Performing Arts. She graduated in the top 10% of Australia for dance.
She has toured twice to the United States to partake with the Alvin Alley Company in New York and to perform at the International High School Dance Festival. Whilst in the United States, Johanna auditioned and was accepted to the New World Performing Arts, Miami Florida.
There she was trained by the Martha Graham Company, Phoenix Dance Company, Alvin Alley Company and many more. Dance is Johanna’s life, her passion and she loves sharing it with others.
Warren Roma – YOUTH & ADULT JFH
Warren has been dancing since he was 6yrs old and specializes in the style J.F.H. (Jazz/Funk/Hip Hop). Warren has trained at top dance studios including Sydney Dance Company, Urban Dance Centre, Mango Dance Studios, Brent Street, Caramell Studios and J-Town Studios.
He has trained in all styles of dancing – hip-hop, jazz, contemporary, lyrical, funk, JFH, and ballet and enjoys fusing all forms of dancing into his personal style and choreography. He has also taken many master classes from internationally renowned choreographers and dancers.
Warren is currently choreographer and dancer for upcoming dance music artist Dion Leigh. He is also currently choreographer and dancer for upcoming RnB singers Amante and Carlos.
His performance, choreography and dance credits include many local fashion, corporate and charity shows, dancer for NRL Football Semi-Finals Telstra Stadium, and was co-choreographer for Hiphop crew ‘BKD’ who won many competitions.
Warren teaches at several dance studios around Sydney and has taught all ages and levels. He has also completed studies in Performance Psychology and Sports and Performance Counselling and applies this to obtain the best from his students.
Julie McQuire – Classical Ballet
Julie McQuire began her journey in dance at the age of eight studying ballet, jazz, contemporary and character. At fifteen she began her full-time training under the watchful eye of Tanya Pearson where she completed her RAD training and examinations.
Julie has performed in productions of The Nutcracker, La Bayadere, Swan Lake and various contemporary pieces.
She specialises in teaching classical ballet and contemporary dance for all ages including eisteddfod work for both solos and groups.
As a dancer, teacher and mother she is constantly inspired by the opportunity to share her love of dancing with the spirt of children and feels there is no greater synergy than that of children and dance.
Ilona Fabiszewski – Guest Teacher
Ilona Fabiszewski has extensive performance credits, including Top 20 dancer for ‘SYTYCD’ (Aust) Season 3, TV commercials for Bonds 'Paddycake', and the NSW Deaf Society as a lead feature dancer, Guy Sebastian's 'Like It Like That' music video, stage performances such as ‘Lord Mayors Ball’ with Jason Coleman, ‘Urban Music Awards’, ‘Choreographer’s Carnival’ (selected by US choreographer Jian Pierre-Louis), Company Dancer for leading Bollywood group Sirens, ‘Sleazeball’ with Katie Underwood, Nevermind for Courtney Act, ‘Rize’ film launch, ‘Luna Park NYE’, ‘Battle of The Year’, corporate clients Deutsche Bank, Intel, British Airways (London), crew battles dancing for Caramell in ‘Elite Championships’, ‘Groove’, ‘Shakedown’, ‘Dancekool’ and much more.
Ilona’s choreography remains in high demand, with elite choreography credits such as Grammy Award Winner ‘Duffy’ for Channel 7 and a ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ guest appearance, ABC's 'Dance Academy', choreographer and dancer for Jessica Mauboy for Sony, Vanilla Ice's performance at ‘V Festival’, Seany B’s ‘Happy Today’ music video, in addition to movement coaching Australia’s Next Top Models and Seany B, as well as Indian pop star Aiysha on her Australian/ NZ tour.
Ilona’s diverse choreography and performance experience is a reflection of her training. Her passion and hunger as a dancer has lead her to train not only in Australia, but also in the UK and USA where she learnt from the likes of Dave Scott, Wade Robson, Mia Michaels and Brian Friedman. Ilona’s versatile style reflects her background in hip-hop, popping, locking, breakdance, jazz and Indian classical. Her passion and style is predominately but not limited to hip-hop with powerful moves incorporated within fluid choreography, demonstrating an intrinsic feel for the music. Ilona loves teaching around the country and at her resident classes in Sydney, which include reputable studios such as Sydney Dance Company.
Ilona continues to choreograph and perform at various clubs and events showcasing herself as a creative artist.
Launce Roma – Guest Teacher
Launcelot started his professional dance career at the age of five years old performing on stage productions and on variety television shows in Asia. From a young age, his family migrated to Australia where he pursued dance by forming a troupe for the underground Sydney Hip Hop scene and at thirteen years choreographed routines which would win Hip Hop battles in Sydney’s west. Since then, Launce has trained in Jazz, Lyrical, Hip Hop and commercial styles in a variety of professional dance studios in Sydney and abroad including Sydney Dance Company, Brent Street Sydney, Broadway Dance Company - New York, Pineapple Studios - London and Kim Kan Dance Studio in Paris.
He has performed as a backup dancer and alongside various Sydney dance & RNB artists and musicians such as Human Nature, CdB, Belinda Emmett. Launcelot is also NIDA trained in acting and stage performance. In 2004, he coordinated youth workshops in movement and dance in Sydney’s west for a major Christian Rock concert event. 2004 & 2005 main cast role in Rent the musical. In 2006 & 2007 he was a director and choreographer for an independent theatre company producing musicals and stage performances. He has also taught in various dance studios and in high schools.
At present, he is a high school teacher who is passionate and involved in performance and dance education. He is an organiser and instructor of “Dance Off!” a NSW Department of Education and Training initiative for gifted and talented young dancers in the Sydney Western Region involving a three day camp & workshops to develop students with potential in dance.
Rhiannon Villareal – Guest Teacher
Rhiannon was one of the TOP TEN dancers on Ten’s SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE in 2008. Rhiannon Villareal began dance classes when she was just two years old. She started dance classes at Brent Street when she was 11 and then trained full time at Brent Street’s Talent Development High School, which gave her the confidence to pursue performing as a professional career. She was a semi-finalist in Australia’s Got Talent, performing with a dance group called Raptous.
She performed on Mornings with Kerri-Anne, at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award and the Australian and New Zealand Urban Music Awards. She was part of a TV series called Dare to Dance, which followed four performers’ lives for nine weeks whilst training at Brent Street. And she’s no stranger to the world of video clips either, having performed in big-budget clips for Aussie pop acts Rogue Traders, Girl Band, Nikki Webster and Young Divas. She was even part of Michael Jackson’s HISTORY tour in 1996, where she got to give him a rose as part of the act and he kissed her forehead (“I didn’t wash it for a week!”). Rhiannon loves all styles of dancing but feels most comfortable with the sharp, fluid moves of Jazz.
