Andrea Simpson-Fowler has been dancing her whole life.  Transplanted unwillingly to the Yukon at the age of 11 she was devastated to realize the lack of dance training available in Whitehorse.  After spending some of her high school years away from her family to pursue dance in Toronto at a school for the Arts, she realized the need for intensive, excellent training in Whitehorse.  At the age of 20, Andrea began to work on the development of the local dance community.  In the early 90's she took the enrollment at Northern Lights School of Dance from 20 participants to 250 over the course of 2 years.  Realizing the need to further her education in dance she completed a Contemporary Arts Degree Program in Dance at Simon Fraser University.  Upon her return to Whitehorse, and a review of the state of dance here in 1998, Andrea began to develop her philosophy of teaching life skills through dance, and she focused on the phrase, "Dancing Through Life".   In 1999 she opened Leaping Feats Creative Danceworks, and with an innovative approach to dance instruction, she began to train dancers in the genres of tap, ballet, creative modern, jazz, contemporary, breakdance, and hip hop, while focusing on  the idea of life skills through dance.   In 2000 she founded the organization, Extremely Moving Youth Society, a non profit that offers a professional dance training program for children age 11 and up.  As Artistic Director of  Extremely Moving, she spear headed the professional training program (an intensive  program for 36 kids, in three levels, age 11 - 18), and  the  Repertory Development Project, where high profile Canadian Choreographers visit the Yukon to Choreograph and teach to all ages and levels. .  In 2004 she was part of a group of parents that founded  the organization Breakdancing Yukon Society, which focuses on the development of the Hip Hop Community in Yukon.  As Artistic Director of BYS, Andrea developed Recreational Hip Hop Camps, Street Dance Intensive (with internationally renowned faculty), Cypher for Change (a national B-boy/girl Forum), Yukon Energy: Klondike Heat, a national breakdance battle, and the Young Emerging Artist Development Project. Currently Andrea is working on a Community Centre, The Heart of Riverdale, which will offer  recreational programming for all members of the community, and aims to be an intergenerational hub of activity in Riverdale.

Mellisa Kwok was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon and has been dancing since 1998. She danced at Leaping Feats Creative Danceworks for nine years training in almost every style of dance including: hip hop, modern, ballet, jazz, contemporary and more. She has performed at national and international events such as the Arctic Winter Games in 2006, as part of the cultural contingent, the closing and opening ceremonies for the Canada Winter Games in 2007 and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. After graduating from high school, she moved to Toronto to pursue her life long dream of becoming a professional dancer. She graduated from York University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, in dance. Since moving to Toronto she has auditioned to multiple performance opportunities and has even landed a music video appearance, as a backup dancer, for Universal Music’s “Operator” by Shiloh, which has been aired on Disney’s Family channel, Much Music and MTV.

    Iris Binger is a dancer, choreographer and performer from Whitehorse, Yukon. Iris graduated in from Simon Fraser University in 2012 with a BFA in contemporary dance and studied at York University’s contemporary dance program for 2 years. Passionate about dancing from an early age, Iris has trained in ballet, jazz, contemporary, pointe work and many other styles of dance. In 2011 Iris had the opportunity to spend three months in Accra, Ghana studying African dance forms and drumming. She hopes to transform her love of dance into a rewarding career and looks forward to teaching at Leaping Feats this fall.

Stephanie Bourgetel started dancing at Leaping Feats. She has been dancing for three years and quickly went up from Teen Rep to SPP. Stephanie has participated at the Grande Prairie competition in 2009 and at the 2010 Arctic Winter Games in Grande Prairie. She has worked with artists such as Kim Sato, Joanne Pesusich, Kelcey Chase, Sho-Tyme, Jamieson de Guzman, Moe Brody, Lisa Stevens and many others. Her favorite styles of dance are Ballet, Jazz and Locking. She is currently dancing and teaching up to 20 hours per week in Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary and Hip Hop. She definitely wants to continue dancing for the next years to come and be the best that she can at the art form.

Starting dance at the age of four, Michaëla has been dancing for more than thirteen years. This is her firth and last year in the Senior Pre-Professional group of Extremely Moving Youth Society, with whom she trains ten hours a week mainly in Ballet, Jazz, and Modern. In addition, Micha dances four and half more hours a week of Cecchetti Ballet and Pointe, and is part of the Northern Impact Dance Ensemble. The Leaping Feats studio is basically her second home. Michaëla also loves Hip-Hop, Musical Theatre, Locking, Popping and House. She has expanded her dance experience outside the territory by taking part in many dance conferences such as Street Groove: The Hip-Hop Convention in Vancouver, the Rocky Mountain Dance Project in Jasper, Broadway Bound International Dance and Theatre Convention in New York, and the FRESH dance intensive in Stratford Ontario. She also represented team Yukon in its Cultural Contingent at the 2010 Arctic Winter Games, and danced in the 2012 Arctic Winter Games’ opening ceremony here is Whitehorse this past winter.

Michaëla loves to share her passion for dance not only through performing but also by teaching. This will be her fifth year teaching at Leaping Feats studio and she is so excited to teach the Kids and Teen Hip-Hop classes this year!

B-boy Taiyo is a world-famous b-boy hailing from South Korea. His crew, "Last For One", came from a small town outside of Seoul, and made a big splash in the mid 2000's. Most notably, winning the International Battle of the Year 2005 in Germany. Taiyo's crew was highlighted in the feature film "Planet B-boy", that followed the story of each crew that went to Battle of the Year 2005. Taiyo's style is based off of his belief that a well-rounded b-boy is a good b-boy. He combines style, power, and foundation to create his dance, and passes it on to his students with great enthusiasm. Taiyo will be living in Whitehorse passing on his love and knowledge in the field of b-boying to his eager students.

BIO COMING SOON.

Ben Robinson started dancing at the age of 11. He is now a member of Whitehorse’s one and ONLY B-Boy crew, Groundwork Sessions (GWS). Most of Ben’s training is in Breakdancing, but he has also been training in Popping, Locking, House and Hip Hop. Ben has participated in the Breakdancing Yukon Society Leadership Development
Program and has been teaching breakdancing at Leaping Feats for the past 4 years. In the past year, he has also worked in the office, getting a taste of the administrative side of the Arts. As well as in the studio, Ben has been out and about performing for the public at different events including: Atlin Music Fest, Dawson City Music Fest, Winterlude Music Fest in Ottawa and he also had the privilege to perform for 2010 Winter Olympics representing the Yukon. Ben has an invested interest in the up-andcoming B-Boy scene in Whitehorse and hopes to watch it grow and evolve.

Riley Simpson-Fowler has been breaking since he was 11 years old (well maybe a bit longer) and now he is a member of Whitehorse’s one and ONLY Bboy crew, Groundwork Sessions (GWS). Riley enjoys all forms of street dance including Breaking, Hip-Hop, Popping, Locking and House. Along with other members of GWS, he has performed at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the 2007 Canada Winter Games. Besides that, he has also done performances at Atlin Music Festival, Dawson City
Music Festival and other local events. He’s participated in the Breakdancing Yukon Society Leadership Development Program and has been teaching breaking at Leaping Feats for the past 3 years. Following graduating from highschool in 2011, Riley will travel the world to battle with his crew, GWS.

Amoree has been teaching with Leaping Feats Creative Danceworks for a couple of years now. She completed her dance diploma at Grant McEwan College in Edmonton and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. Her experience ranges from organizing and teaching summer schools to choreographing main stage performances for university-level dancers. She is a strong dancer with training and experience in teaching technique, choreography and improvisation. She teaches for all ages and levels in jazz, tap, ballet, musical theatre and breath work classes.

Valerie Herdes started her dance life out of Leaping Feats Creative Danceworks when she was nine. At the age of eleven she entered Extremely Moving Youth Society’s Pre-Professional Program. She is now in EMYS’ Senior group and trains 14.5 hours
weekly in a large variety of styles including Ballet (Cecchetti, Vaganova and Pointe), Contemporary, Jazz and Hip-Hop (including many street styles like House, Popping and Locking). Last year Valerie was 1 of the chosen 11 to represent Yukon at the
2010 Vancouver Olympics. This past summer Valerie went to New York to train with various artists at a dance convention. Aside from being a dancer, she is also a dance teacher. She has taught Pre-Dance in the past and now teaches Jazz. Valerie loves all the people she has gotten to work with and all the people she has met along the way.

Jada Powell has been dancing since she was 8 years old at Leaping Feats Creative Danceworks.
She presently dances up to 16 hours a week with Extremely Moving Youth Society. She has training in Cecchetti, Russian Ballet, Point, Street Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Popping, Locking, House, Ballroom and more. She has also been teaching weekly Hip Hop classes to kids ages 7-12 for the last three years. She has worked with professionals from Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and parts of the United States. She has had a private session with Joanna Numata, the Choreographer for the Black Eyed Peas, Fergie, Nelly, Busta Rhymes, P.Diddy,
Pharrel, Nike, Adidas, the film “I Am Legend.” She performs in dance shows at the Yukon Arts
Center four times a year as well as other spontaneous events. Her dance group travels to dance competitions where she has won awards for her choreography as well as solo performances.
She has been selected as a performer to represent Yukon at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Canada Winter Games, Arctic Winter Games, The Olympic Torch Relay, SYIDA and the Contingency Plan. To
further her dance training, she attends annual dance conventions in different parts of Canada and the U.S. where she has been awarded scholarships for her hip hop dancing. Her biggest goal is to pursue a dance career. Dancing is her life.

Dale, originally from Montreal, came up to the Yukon to perform as a dancer in the Frantic Follies. Although her training began at Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, she studied at various dance studios across the country including: Studio 103, Pavlachenko Studio, and Toronto Dance Theatre in Toronto; Spectrum Dance School in Victoria; Juliette’s School of Dance and University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon; and Harbour Dance in Vancouver. In Whitehorse, she ran her own school, Gotta Dance, was one of the founders of Northern Lights School of Dance and Dancers With Latitude and has been the resident dance teacher/choreographer for the Music Art and Drama program since its inception.  She also lived in Dawson City for several years and ran her own school of dance through the Dawson Rec. program. Versatility is Dale’s strong point as she enjoys teaching and choreographing in a variety of styles, including: jazz, lyrical, contemporary, ballet, musical theatre, Latin and Bollywood. As well as teaching, Dale has choreographed and performed in several professional and community productions including the Gaslight Follies, Diamond Tooth Gertie’s, Frantic Follies, Rendezvous Comedy Revues and various Guild Hall productions. Dance is what Dale loves, and she is happy to be able to teach wherever the call may take her.

This classically trained singer has been involved in the Canadian music scene for most of her life. Her vast musical history includes performing on Definitely Not the Opera, Madly Off in all Directions, Canada AM, The True North Concert, Musique Plus in various bands including Inconnu who reigned the national summer festival circuit in Canada for more than a decade and will be appearing in her new Salsa Band as the lead singer in the upcoming months.  She is just completing her Master’s of Education, is founder of Salsa Yukon and is wildly enthusiastic about teaching GLEE for a second time this year, using a resiliency-based, person centered approach to teaching.