Head of Centre: East Coast

Head of Early Years

Teacher in Early Years

• South Australia University BEd(Hons) Early Childhood Education (Undergrad)
• Froebel Academy Diploma in Early Childhood Education
• Singapore Polytechnic Diploma in Science Technology

Shahnaz was a founding team member of Centre Stage School of the Arts in 2000 and has enjoyed seeing the company grow from strength to strength. She started work as an assistant teacher and was involved in planning all art and craft activities. Since then, she has grown with the company, initially being in charge of assistants and resources and now moving on to teaching. She has now been promoted to Head of Playstage and also runs the Art and Fun Factory programmes.

[/showhide]

Ballet Mistress

• City University – MA Culture Policy & Management
• Royal Academy of Dance – Professional Dancer’s Teaching Diploma
• School of Choreography and Dramatic Art (Romania) – Vaganova Syllabus

Liliana has been a professional ballet dancer with the Croatia National Theatre, Split, the English National Ballet and the Vienna Festival Ballet. In 2001 she completed the Professional Dancer’s Teaching Diploma with the Royal Academy of Dance in London and she has been embracing a teaching career ever since – teaching and choreographing for the London Theatre School in London, the Vienna Festival Ballet and The Ballet & Music Company in Singapore. After completing her MA in Culture Policy & Management she was appointed as a Community Dance Project Manager for the Trust Arts Project Lambeth in London. We are lucky to have found a teacher with such a rich history and experience of both the dance and ballet-teaching worlds.

[/showhide]

Jazz

Tap

Ballet

Contemporary

• Arts Educational Schools, London – BA Hons, Musical Theatre Performance

Josh began his training at The Yvonne Gray School of Dance. He started his professional training at Scottish Ballet Junior and Senior Associates, moving onto full-time Musical Theatre training at The Dance School of Scotland. After two years at The Dance School he was offered a full scholarship to ArtsEd London where he gained his Bachelor’s Degree in Musical Theatre Performance.

Theatre credits include Gypsy The Musical (Dundee Rep), Dennis All Shook Up The Musical (Citizen Theatre), Christmas in New York (Lyric Theatre London West End) Broadway to West End (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, West End) Olivier Awards (Theatre Royal Drury Lane London West End) Footloose The Musical (Arts Educational) ensemble/swing Evita The Musical (UK/European Tour) ensemble 42nd Street The Musical (UK Tour) Leo Frank Parade The Musical (Dundee Rep) Singer/Dancer (Jean Ann Ryan Productions Miami) Ensemble/Dance Captain/Understudy Prince Charming – Sleeping Beauty (Chris Jordan Productions) Dancer Rusulka The Opera (Scottish Opera)

As well as performing Josh has taught at many institutions, including:

• Junior school MGA Academy of Performing Arts
• Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
• Arts Educational Schools London
• Vivace Theatre School
• London School of Musical Theatre
• Yvonne Gray School of Dance
• Showcase
• The Street
• plus many workshops accross the UK!

Josh is very excited to start working at Centre Stage and looks forward to meeting everyone!

[/showhide]

Amanda Thornton

Singing

Musical Theatre

Drama

[showhide type=”profile-Amanda” more_text=”Show More” less_text=”Show Less”]

• Royal Academy of Music, London – Postgraduate Diploma in Musical Theatre
• Motherwell College – Higher National Diploma in Musical Theatre
• Coatbridge College – Higher National Certificate in Acting and Performance

Amanda Thornton Trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London where she gained a Postgraduate Diploma in Musical Theatre and has gone on to work professionally as both a performer and a teacher in the industry.

She was born and brought up in Scotland. She has always been interested and involved in the performing arts from a young age and began her training early on.

Whilst growing up she concentrated her time, energy and training in Acting and Performance, and then moved in to Musical Theatre, attending both Coatbridge and Motherwell College where she gained HNC and then on to HND levels in these subjects.

She then moved to London where she worked in the industry for a while as a performer whilst she continued her training.

Amanda, fuelled by her passion for Musical Theatre, specialised her training further at the highly respected Royal Academy of Music.

On leaving The Royal Academy, she worked professionally as both a performer and as a Teacher, Vocal Coach, Director and Musical Director. Amanda has taught in Schools, Theatres, Drama schools, Stage Schools, Youth Theatres and Drama Clubs. Delivering classes and workshops to young and old from the keen amateur to the professional performer.

She is trained in Estill technique and was taught by the renowned Andrew Lippa, Luis Garcia and Mary Hammond who has taught many West End stars.

Some of her favourite roles as a performer have included:

Julie Jordan in Carousel, Emma in Jekyll and Hyde, Bird Girl in Seussical, Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, Pitti Sing in the Hot Mikado, Queenie in HONK! and the title roles in Oliver!, Aladdin and Sleeping Beauty.

She is very much looking forward to meeting all her new students and become part of the Centre Stage family. We hope you will join us in welcoming her to Centre Stage

[/showhide]

Gersom De Koning

Acting

Music

Drama

• BA Social Work in Arts Education, University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht
• MA Drama & Theatre, University of Kent
• MA of Arts Education, University of the Arts, Utrecht (Graduating 2016)

Gersom has taught Drama & Theatre for 5 years now in the Netherlands, Thailand, England, and now Singapore.  He has taught in youth theatres, university, international schools, and Dutch and English curricula schools. He finds teaching to the most rewarding job in the world! Gersom went to university in the Netherlands where he attained his BA of Social Work specialized in Arts Education. Gersom then decided to pursue a MA in Drama & Theatre specialising in Applied Performance at the University of Kent in England. Gersom believes drama and theatre can be used to enable students to understand difficult topics and to explore the world around them in a safe environment. As a drama practitioner, he has worked with a wide range of participants including from the mainstream, juvenile offenders, children with PMLD (Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities), and university students. Gersom has directed and written for comedy sketch shows and plays. He has also composed music for feature films, (Clean Money, Julia Rose Marks) arranges acapella on Youtube with his band, and has performed in all sorts of shows including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Importance of Being Earnest, Seussical, Oliver!, and A Reluctant Tragic Hero. Besides this, he has improvisational theatre performances with Striding Backwards. Gersom’s favourite styles of theatre are improvisational theatre and sketch comedy. He is also a keen performer of slapstick and choreographs stage fighting.

[/showhide]

• BA (hons) in Education, Culture and Society – Goldsmiths, University of London

Roshni has a varied and deep interest in the fields of education and the arts, passionate not only about performing, but also about how the arts can positively contribute to individual, societal and community wellbeing and be used as a tool to shape education in an innovative and engaging way. From a young age, Roshni has dived into the performing arts both in school and in her local community, and throughout has engaged in aspects of teaching and child development, gaining work experience in nurseries, schools and eventually working as a special educational needs teaching assistant after graduating secondary school. During school, Roshni discovered her dream for combining the arts with teaching and travelling through the aid of The Young Americans, a non-profit globally touring music and dance outreach group. After a successful audition, Roshni moved to Southern California at the age of 19 to train as a performer and arts outreach teacher, grateful to be able to combine her love for teaching, travelling and performing, and take music, dance and arts education worldwide over a period of four years as part of the group, conducting workshops in Japan, Germany, The Netherlands, The USA and all around The UK. After many years with the group, Roshni moved back to London to fulfil her goal of getting a degree, and went on to study at Goldsmiths, University of London, gaining a Bachelors in Education, Culture and Society. Roshni is a bilingual Gujarati/English speaker. As well as the arts, performing and education, Roshni is also passionate about languages, travelling, conservation, animals, politics, human rights, and the environment and hopes to someday start her own non-profit organisation to combine all of her greatest loves and positively impact the world. Roshni is very happy to be on such a wonderful adventure in Singapore and hugely grateful to Centre Stage for this great opportunity!

[/showhide]

Creative Drama

On Stage Acting

Theatre Workshop

Musical Theatre

• Laine Theatre Arts
• Trinity College National Diplomas in Musical Theatre & Drama
• Gold Medal LAMDA award
• ISTD dance teaching qualification

Lucy originates from the North of England and has recently moved to Singapore. Theatre has been a part of her life from the age of 3 when she first started dance lessons. Aged 4 she was already competing across the country and she first worked professionally at the age of 8. She continued to perform until she moved down to London aged 15. She attended Laine Theatre Arts for 3 years where she was Head Girl. She graduated with Trinity College National Diplomas in Musical Theatre and Drama, gold medal LAMDA, ISTD dance teaching qualifications and was awarded the Drama Cup at graduation. During college she was fortunate enough to work for ITV in a sitcom and perform several times at The Epsom Playhouse. Since graduating, she has trained professionally with TVI in LA and at Manchester School Of Acting under the direction of Mark Hudson.Training also includes workshops with The Actors Centre, Actors Platform and Actors Studio in London.Lucy has worked professionally in theatre, both West End and Regional. She has worked in television and film for BBC, ITV, Sky and many independent film companies. She was also fortunate enough to perform in the London 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony.After back packing around the world on her own, Lucy began teaching with The Princes Trust in London running their successful programmes and projects as well as continuing to perform. She has taught for Stagecoach and has choreographed and directed many plays and musicals. She has also successfully coached students for West End auditions and professional theatre schools. In addition to this she spent the last year working for a charity in London, teaching English Language to autistic children and young people who had been excluded from mainstream education due to behavioural issues.Lucy is a high energy, hard working teacher with an absolute passion for getting the best out of every single child. She is very excited to be joining the Centre Stage team![/showhide]

Speech and Drama

Early Years

Creative Drama

On Stage! Acting

. Drama & Theatre Studies BA (Hons)   Roehampton University

. LAMDA Solo Acting Award 

Sophie has been performing and teaching for many years. She has had the opportunity to teach in England, America and the Middle East. She has worked with children 18 months – 16 years. She has also  worked with several organisations  delievering  drama and dance  classes and workshops. Sophie has much experience in performing herself from the theatre, radio plays and several small parts in blockbuster films such as the Muppets 2. She combines her love of teaching with her passion for travelling and is thrilled to be a part of the Centre Stage team.

[/showhide]