Janice was the co-founder and director of the Blue Quill School of Dance for nineteen years, and opened The Edmonton Dance Factory in September 2003. Janice has choreographed for various companies, instructed at home and abroad, and enjoys adjudicating. Janice has trained extensively in Tap, Jazz, Ballet and Musical Theatre. She has a dance minor from the University of Alberta and has attended professional studios, seminars, workshops, competitions and performances across Canada, Los Angeles and New York. Janice is a certified teacher of Al Gilbert and Brian Foley dance syllabus and has completed major RAD dance syllabus. She performed with company and the Alberta Dance Company for several years. As a teacher with over 30 years of dance experience, her forte is jazz dance. Her passion for dance has inspired her students to progress into professional careers.

Kelsey began her dance training at the age of 3 at the former Blue Quill School of Dance and it has been an integral part of her life ever since. As a dancer, she participated in many competitions throughout North America and has taken classes from many recognized choreographers in New York, Los Angeles. She danced on the Canadian National Tap and Jazz teams in 2004 and has successfully completed her RAD Grade 8 Award and Al Gilbert tap syllabus up to and including grade 9, for which she received highest honors.

Kelsey has almost 20 years of teaching experience in the areas of Jazz, Lyrical and Tap. She works hard to ensure that she provides a strong technical background as well as providing an environment to grow every student’s passion and confidence. She recognizes that every dancer dances for their own reasons and strives to ensure that each dancer reaches their highest potential. She is looking forward to continuing the amazing legacy that is Edmonton Dance Factory and can't wait to share her passion and love for dance with every student who walks through our doors. 

Born in Langley, BC, Miss Johnston began her ballet training under the guidance and teaching of Gwen Grant at Tri-Dance Academy. Throughout her training she attended summer intensives at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and was a featured dancer in the Merrit Motion Picture's television series of "Ballet Girls" and "TuTu Much".

Miss Johnston is a two-time Surrey Arts Festival's Ballet representative and scholarship winner at the Performing Arts BC Provincial Championships. Upon graduating from the Goh Ballet Academy in 2009, she spent time at Boston Ballet School and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's graduate program on full-scholarship, later joining Vancouver City Ballet Theatre.

Miss Johnston began her immersion at VJPD as an IAP student in the Senior Preparatory program, and also spent a full year training under faculty at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. She further more returned to the school a second time to work with Marcia Dale Weary and other teachers to gain more knowledge of the CPYB curriculum. In doing so, Melissa uses much of her personal training and teacher training lessons of the CPYB program to help train her students

Toronto native Nicholas began his training at the age of 7 with Ukrainian folk dance at the Ukrainian Academy of Dance/Arkan Dance Company. He then went on to attend George Brown College where he studied dance/performing arts. He has also attended the Oakville School of Dance, School of Alberta Ballet, L’École Supérieure de Ballet du Québec, and has attended the summer dance intensive at Canada’s National Ballet School. Aside from his roles in The Nutcracker and a character role in Alberta Ballet’s Swan Lake, Nicholas has performed with Cirque du Soleil in the opening ceremonies of the C2-MTL Conference in Montréal. He has also traveled across Canada and internationally to Ukraine, South Korea and Indonesia performing with Arkan Dance Company. Nicholas is also an alumni of Ballet Edmonton, Edmonton’s resident ballet company. 

Since the age of 3 Emma has been heavily involved in ballet. She spent her dance career at Doris Sitter School of Dance in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan, successfully completing her RAD Advanced 2 exam. Emma is certified in Progressing Ballet Technique and completing her certification to become a registered RAD teacher this fall. She has attended summer programs at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Alberta Ballet School, various competitions and conventions and is looking forward to teaching and inspiring her students during her first year at EDF. 

Debbie England began her dance training at private schools in Edmonton and continued her training at Grant McEwan College as well as workshops, seminars and classes in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York. She specializes in tap and tap history though she has studied all disciplines of dance along with performing with Kompany, Alberta Dance Company and 4Tap. With 40 years of experience, Debbie has been a guest instructor, choreographer and examiner for workshops, schools and colleges in Alberta and Saskatchewan as well as an adjudicator for competitions and festivals across Canada. Her students have been awarded many scholarships and many have developed a similar passion for dance enjoying much success across North America. Debbie is an active member of the Alberta Dance Educator’s Association and is a recognized instructor of the Al Gilbert Syllabus

Since the age of three, Kristina has studied numerous forms of dance in the disciplines of Polynesian, jazz, tap, ballet, musical theatre, lyrical jazz, & stretch technique.  Her dance training originally began at Blue Quill School of Dance, under the instruction of her mentor Janice Winter, and has grown to include training at Sandra Gray School of Dance, as well as Shelley’s Dance Company.  Both as a dancer, and now as an instructor for the past 17 years, Kristina’s ambition and dedication…’to be the best that she can be’ has given her wonderful opportunities to attend various competitions & workshops in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Los Angeles, & Hawaii.  As an instructor, Kristina has enjoyed watching her students grow personally both on & off stage.  Kristina has also been fortunate to watch some of her students embark onto professional dance careers, as well as become dance instructors around the city.  Kristina is eager to start the dance season and to share her love of dance with her students!

Wendi has been involved in the dance and entertainment industry for over 20 years. She has touched a wide range of the performing arts, television, modeling, stage performances, adjudicating as well as owning and operating over 3 successful studios. Wendi started her training at the young age of 4 in Edmonton; and throughout her later years followed her passion for dance to training facilities in New York and Los Angeles studying with some of the most well-known and respected teachers in the dance industry. As an established and well respected teacher, free-lance choreographer and Creative Director Wendi continues to travel across Canada, the US and Asia with her dance career. As the Director of Entertainment for the 2000 Winter Games and 2002 Alberta Summer Games she choreographed the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. She also choreographed the opening ceremonies for the International Aids Walk and Cancer Walk for Life in 2001. Wendi’s has choreographed for numerous local artists for both live performances and music videos most recently for up and coming artists Jasmine Singh and Kelly Nall. She also sat on the judging panel to select the 2013 CFL Edmonton Eskimo Cheer Team as well as choreographed for the team. Her field choreography was also broadcast on CNN and major Canadian Broadcasting stations for the 2013 CFL Grey Cup Extravaganza in Toronto. Recently, Wendi returned from Asia after 3 months of teaching and choreographed for So You Think You Can Dance Vietnam. Wendi believes her greatest accomplishments have been the ability to train, mentor and inspire hundreds of students, many of whom are now teachers, choreographers and professional dancers around the world.

Christie began dancing at the age of five and has studied several forms of dance including Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Lyrical, Contemporary, Hip Hop and Musical Theatre. Her dance training began at Blue Quill School of Dance where she won several awards through dance competitions and completed her Al Gilbert Tap Syllabus up to and including Grade 9, which she achieved with highest honors. Her training then took her to include Shelley’s Dance Company in Edmonton, where she also taught dance in several disciplines, before traveling around North America to train and dance professionally in Las Vegas, Vancouver and most recently in Toronto.  Christie looks forward to her return to teaching and is excited for the upcoming season with Edmonton Dance Factory.

Taylor began dance classes at the age of two and has performed, competed, attended workshops, travelled, and taught ever since. Training up to 30 hours throughout the school year gave a lot of time to study Ballet (Vaganova & RAD), Jazz, Tap, Lyrical/Contemporary, Modern, Musical Theatre, and Hip-hop. Never wanting to settle she has also trained aerial silks and hoop dancing. She has been fortunate to compete and perform in New York, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Her goal is to spread her love of dance and bring out the very best in every student that enters her classroom. She is excited to start another wonderful year at EDF.

Richard Andries has become one of the key driving forces within the Hip Hop dance scene in Edmonton and across Alberta for the past 15 years. With his high energy classes and his passion for the art, he continues to share his vision of the positivity of hip hop culture in everyday life. His personal style is heavily influenced by the foundation of hip hop dancing; popping, locking, breaking, house, etc, and newer forms such as Krump, and Street. Richard stars in the hit music video “Bounce With Me” by Kreesha Turner, which was directed by world renowned director, Little X. He has accompanied Canadian artists Kayle and Gary Beals as a background dancer and has toured Europe with Urban Metropolis, and 4 Korners the Toronto Raptor's official DJ's. He has also toured across Canada with Snoop Dogg, Sean Paul, and The Game.

With his dynamic style and energetic choreography Richard maintains the true techniques of hip hop including Popping, Locking, Breaking, Tutting and more. Richard has traveled to Detroit with the Xtreme Dance Convention Faculty. There he assisted Bradley Rapier of the "Groovaloos", and was along side of some of Americas finest choreographers including Liz Ramos, Brian Friedman and many more. Richard has also taught internationally in China and Spain. Richard is currently teaching throughout Alberta and continues to train, perform and teach with North America's finest.

Ally has been dancing in the hip hop community since 2008 training with a wide range of Edmonton's finest choreographers and mentors. Throughout this journey Ally has performed and competed in many local as well as international competitions and shows. Craving a taste for the international dance scene Ally began traveling to los Angeles training at Millennium dance complex, Playground LA, Movement lifestyle and many more renowned studios in the Los Angeles area. These experiences sparked a passion for her to share her knowledge with the very same community who started her journey. Ally hopes to bring that same passion to her style of choreography and class atmosphere. In doing so she hopes to inspire people to explore the same passion she has developed over the years for the art of dance.  

Blake has been dancing since the age of 8 and ever since he took his first steps on stage he loved the art. Since then he has pursued dance as a career and travelled all around the world with dance. He has even competed professionally on world stages such as hip hop international. His goals as a teacher are to give his students as much knowledge as he can and help them to fall in love with dance.

Edrick Ochoco began dancing in 2012 at the age of 16. His career in teaching and choreography started in 2015 where he has been highly influenced by choreographers such as Carlo Atienza and Alexander Chung. Edrick has trained in places such as the Millenium Dance Complex and Movement Lifestyle in Los Angeles California, and is highly motivated to bring that level of teaching and skill to wherever he may teach. Edrick’s style consists mostly of movements inspired by the Hip-Hop Culture, but he does not consider himself strictly Hip-Hop as he cultivates and believes in free movement of the body. In his first year of teaching, Edrick has brought many groups that he created to the top three finalists in competitions including his main crew “BathTubbs”, who received 1st Place at the competition titled “In The Zone 9” in Winnipeg. Although he is proud to receive these awards, Edrick does not believe that placements in competitions matter at all. Edrick’s passion has taught him much about dance and that it is so much more than winning. To him, dance is a lifestyle and can teach people many things about themselves, the cultures of other people and places, and also serves as an outlet for any pain and struggles that he may experience. With this in his heart, he hopes to incorporate his beliefs into his teaching and hopes to one day move the hearts and minds of his students.

Bio coming soon!

An active part of the teaching staff at Edmonton Dance Factory for the past 7 years, Sabrina aims to inspire her dancers to grow as artists and challenge themselves in all aspects of their lives. As an instructor Sabrina has had the good fortune of taking her students to compete and train across North America. Watching her students excel and grow throughout the years has been truly rewarding and she is excited to begin this new dance season!

Kennedy danced Edmonton Dance Factory for 13 years. She trains in all forms of dance, but especially enjoys contemporary, lyrical and freestyle. In 2017 Kennedy received a scholarship to attend Harbour Dance School in Vancouver. She then auditioned for the ITP program at Harbour, was accepted and has spent the last two years in Vancouver where she has studied with many different dance and acting teachers as well as well known choreographers from around North America. Kennedy is excited to be back where "it all began" and bring her experience to the improv class at EDF. (Ask her to show you her tattoo). 

Bio coming soon!

Since the age of three, Roja has studied various dance styles such as ballet, tap, jazz, musical theatre, improv, lyrical, contemporary, South Indian classical dance, bollywood, and hip hop. In her competitive dance career, Roja had the opportunity to train on EDF’s Intermediate and Senior companies on which she won numerous scholarships and awards both as a soloist and in groups. Roja’s dance training has taken her to many conventions and master classes around Canada and the United States as well as given her the opportunity to perform in many high profile events such as the FIFA Women’s World Cup Opening Ceremony and the Disneyland theme park parade. Just last year, Roja completed her Al Gilbert Grade 9 Tap exam with distinction! When she is not in the dance studio, you can find Roja at the University of Alberta working towards her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. Roja is continuing her training as in dance as the Vice President of a student led dance company - MOD Contemporary Dance Movement. She is so excited to share her passion with her students this dance year! Welcome to all new and returning students!   
 

Brenna Grewal started dancing at the age of three, and started her training at Edmonton Dance Factory when she was seven. She has trained in Jazz, RAD and Vaganova Ballet, Lyrical, Contemporary, Hip Hop, and Acro.  While student teaching and assisting in her senior years of dancing at the studio, Brenna discovered her love of teaching. She has had the opportunity to travel to Vancouver, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles to participate in various competitions and workshops, as well as work with competitive figure skaters from the Royal Glenora and the Derrick club. In 2015, Brenna completed her first Acrobatic Arts certification and is looking forward to continuing to further her learning. In June of 2018, she graduated from the University of Alberta Faculty of Science, majoring in biology and psychology. This fall, Brenna will return to school and begin working towards becoming a registered nurse. She is excited for her fifth year with the Edmonton Dance Factory teaching staff, and she is looking forward to sharing her love of dance with her students.

Haley An was a dancer with Edmonton Dance Factory for many years and a student teacher for 4 years. During her years in dance, she was a part of EDF Senior Company and won numerous awards/scholarships with both the group and as a soloist. Haley has trained in many genres of dance from ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip hop and more. Currently, she is going into her third year of university and has continued her dance training, as a member of the student dance company - MOD Contemporary Dance Movement - at the University of Alberta. Through her work with MOD, she has also increased her creativity and choreography skills. She is truly excited to share her love and passion for dance with her students.