Meet the Collective

Elena did gymnastics until middle where she then connected with teachers and owners of what is now known as Flash Art School of Dance in Varazze, Italy. This is where and when her love of dance truly began.

While pursuing her Master’s degree in architecture, Elena took a break from dance but eventually, after moving to Canada found herself in Squamish taking adult jazz classes at TPAC. The people she met through those classes became her closest friends and she had the chance to perform again for the first time since she was a child.

Elena took another break from dancing to become a mom of two beautiful boys. When she discovered the Collective, she tried a drop-in class and attended every class offered since then! After being inspired by WILD, Elena joined the open-level performance group for the Collective’s summer season and was dancing with the group as an emerging artist/non-performance role. After months of hard work, Elena is now part of the performance group.

When Elena is not dancing, she is working as the COO at Quantum Technology corp and cofounder of Rocco Natural Wellness. She loves biking, skiing, snowboarding, and hanging out with her 3 (little and not ) boys.

Sarah grew up dancing jazz, ballet, and tap in Ottawa until she turned 18 and moved to the East Coast for university, where she brought her dance moves to the pubs of Halifax. Over the years she felt drawn to the dance floor exploring various styles including salsa, swing, and bachata. She especially loves contact dance, which gets her out of her comfort zone, and moving freely through ecstatic dance, expressing whatever wants to be expressed in the moment. Sarah joined the Sea to Sky Dance Collective in 2022 and has loved coming back home to ballet, jazz, and contemporary dancing.

Hannah has always preferred to dance than walk and usually did as a child, twirling and spinning unaware of the world around her. She danced ballet, tap, character and modern from aged 3 at a welcoming and inclusive local dance school in Knaresborough, England. She was taught by an inspirational teacher, Anneli Robinson, a Finnish woman who could do the splits in her 70’s and led an army of 300 dancers in a full ballet production each year. The friendships and community Hannah built there have been long lasting and dance has always been Hannah’s escape and a way to process emotions.

Moving to Sheffield for university, Hannah continued to find community through dance in the lively salsa scene. Learning a mixture of New York and Cuban styles as well as bachata and rueda de casino for both social dancing and performances, Hannah built new skills in dancing with a partner and following a lead. As treasurer in her university salsa society Hannah enjoyed engaging other students to learn dance though organising classes and teaching beginners steps. She continued attending salsa classes and events whilst living in Madrid, Spain.

Hannah has always joked that ‘dancing saved my life’ - in the sense it dramatically helped to develop her co-ordination and awareness of space - two aspects a person, like Hannah, with developmental co-ordination disorder (aka dyspraxia) finds more challenging. Hannah has continued to embrace learning new physical skills as an adult - coming to Canada in 2017 and learning to snowboard at Silverstar then in Whistler.

On returning to Canada as a permanent resident in 2022, Hannah chose Squamish as her base and became quickly absorbed in the creative community including Sea to Sky Dance Collective’s drop in classes. These classes gave her the sense of freedom and community she had forgotten dance provided. Inspired by the RISE performance and wanting a new challenge, Hannah has joined the collective as an emerging artist.

Paula Bridget Johnson is an artist and dance educator who recently moved from Vacouver to Squamish, BC. She teaches high school dance, drama, and physical education at Howe Sound Secondary.

After being mentored at Cameron Academy of Classical dance, teaching there and at Betty Cross School of Dance, Paula went to university at Ryerson and SFU. Paula taught dance for seventeen years at Frank Hurt Secondary, completed her masters in Fine Arts in choreography at Jacksonville University in Florida, spent a year teaching dance at North London Collegiate in Jeju, South Korea, before finding her new home at Howe Sound Secondary.

Paula is a passionate collaborator. While teaching in Surrey, she helped found the Surrey Secondary Dance Teachers’ Association, a non-profit organization that puts on events, workshops, and runs field excursions for their local dance community. She has collaborated with dance artists around the world on projects like Seven to the Seventh, Event Horizons, The Sand Dance Project, and The Journey. She recently stepped down from being vice president of the BC Dance Educators’ Association which connects dance educators in BC, puts on a yearly conference and provides scholarships to dance students.

But what kind of dance does she do? From ballerina to breakdancer, Paula has studied ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical, contemporary, street styles and is fascinated by fitness for dance programs like Progressing Ballet Technique and Sugar Foot Therapy. She has also completed teacher education for yoga and barre. She loves to move and keep the vibe alive. She has a wicked Beyonce Ballet class, will get you grooving in old school Hip Hop, but also loves to roll around to Smashing Pumpkins.

“Let’s connect the world through art.”

“Any BODY can dance.”

Emily has always been drawn to creating joy, and a show for those around her. From starting dance at the age of 8, she practised in Jazz, Contemporary, Tap, Hip Hop & Heels, whilst participating in local & state Cheerleading competitions. She soon grew to realise she loves life behind the curtain as much as in front of it! This passion has seen her grow to train with various companies, always volunteering her efforts to the production and behind-the-scenes action.

Through dance & cheerleading she was able to compete at state levels, with the highlight of her training being, when her studio was selected to perform at Disney Land & Disney World during their 60th Diamond Anniversary, followed by training at Alvin Ailey & Broadway Dance Centre, in New York.

Coming from Brisbane, Australia, Emily has been living in BC since 2017, and when she met Squamish, and discovered this town could also offer dance, she knew this would be the perfect town to compliment her life.

She now spends her hours as an independent event contractor, working with major festivals and events in the local Sea to Sky region, always sharing her workplace connections with the local production world she has fit perfectly into. She keeps her life busy teaching at Dance Directions, and performing with Luminesque, working on local performances both in Squamish and Whistler!

Natalie's journey in the world of dance began at seven years old when she first stepped into the local ballet school in her small Nova Scotia town. Her passion for ballet eventually led her across the country to the University of Calgary, where she not only pursued ballet but also discovered and fell in love with Contemporary dance.

While completing her dance degree at the University of Calgary, Natalie had the invaluable opportunity to work with numerous talented choreographers based in Calgary and performed in both Calgary and Edmonton. After graduation, she continued to dance and perform, cherishing every moment, until life led her to Vancouver, where she embarked on a career as a Registered Massage Therapist. For years, dance had to take a backseat as she focused on her massage therapy education and worked to build her practice.

In search for an alternative means of self-expression and movement, Natalie turned to the world of yoga. This eventually led her to complete her yoga teacher training in Bali. A year later, Natalie and her husband decided to make another life-changing move to Squamish, seeking to escape the city and start a family.

Upon settling in Squamish and working as an RMT for a few months, Natalie's deep-rooted connection to dance resurfaced. Her dance background naturally attracted local dancers to her clinic, where she learned about the adult dance classes being offered in town. This reignited her passion for dance, ultimately leading her to the welcoming embrace of the Sea to Sky Dance Collective drop-in classes.

This will be Natalie’s first year with the collective, and she couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of this new dance community. Beyond the dance studio, you can find Natalie working at Garibaldi Active Wellness as an RMT or embarking on adventurous hikes, bike rides, and climbing excursions with her beloved family and their endearingly exuberant dog.

Robyn danced for over 20 years in her earlier life, primarily in ballet, jazz, contemporary, modern and various traditional and international styles. She holds diplomas in both Modern Dance and Jazz Music, and has had the opportunity to tour and perform across North America and Europe.

After completing her professional training in Alberta, Robyn lived and danced in Montreal for 5 years, juggling seasonal work as a guide in the outdoor industry before eventually returning home to BC in 2004, hanging up her shoes and starting a family. Unable to give up the love of dance entirely, Robyn turned her focus to yoga and other forms of movement and currently teaches and works as a Yoga Therapist and movement teacher.

After seeing WILD in 2022, a friend convinced her to come try a class with the Sea to Sky Dance Collective and the flame was sparked again.

Heather is a Certified Pilates and Yoga teacher and a mother of two. She began dancing at a very young age focusing primarily on ballet, but she soon began taking jazz, tap and broadway. Following a short stint at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet school (and suffering some unexpected injuries as a teen) she took a break from dance after high school. It was during this time that she discovered her love for Yoga and quickly became an avid practitioner of Vinyasa and Ashtanga. Heather holds a BA from the University of Toronto where she studied Literature and Drama. It was during her years at Uni that she began dancing again with a student-led company that focused only on the joy of Dance and the love of performing. With these girls, Heather truly experienced authentic Contemporary style for the first time as well as a dance environment far-removed from the stress of competition.

After she left Toronto she completed her first Yoga Teacher Training in Vancouver, followed up by her Mat Pilates Certification. She went on to teach Yoga and Pilates in the Vancouver area for 8 years, until she and her husband made the move up to Squamish to start their family.

Once her kids began school in 2021 she resumed her Pilates training on the apparatus and joined the teaching team at a then-new local studio. Last year she was given the nudge to start taking dance classes again, which led to an introduction with the Sea to Sky Dance Collective. Heather is thrilled and honoured to be among such a wonderful group of women who share their passion for dance.

When she is not with the collective, Heather can be found teaching Pilates at Seed Studio, ferrying kids to/from activities, or probably out for a hike with the dog enjoying the natural beauty that surrounds us.

Natalie has been dancing since the age of 4, primarily in jazz, ballet, lyrical and tap. Dance is her happy place. Throughout her adulthood, Natalie had the opportunity to live in different provinces across Canada. No matter where she lived, Natalie has always found her feeling of home in dance. She is happy to be able to find a new home in the Sea to Sky Dance Collective and the opportunity to give back to the community through dance.

Born and raised in the lower mainland, Marnie’s love of dance began at the age of seven when she joined Delores Kirkwood’s ballet school. She worked through the Royal Academy of Dance levels until the age of twelve when she decided she wanted to pull back from her time commitment to ballet and participate in other sports.

Marnie hung up her ballet shoes and fully embraced her soccer cleats. She became an avid soccer player and had the privilege to be on the Simon Fraser University women’s soccer team the year it was inaugurated as a varsity sport. Through the years, her other adventures included hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from the border of Mexico to the border of Canada, biking the Great Divide Trail from the border of Canada to the border of Mexico, and playing in various other activities such as triathlons, climbing, cross country skiing, and mountain biking. Her most challenging adventure began in 2013 when she was blessed to become a single mother of twins.

Marnie currently practices as a physiotherapist, specializing in women’s health and she also does life coaching. She is drawn to empowering women through both movement and the mind. After seeing the performance of ‘Rise’ by the Sea to Sky Collective, Marnie’s yearning for personal expression through movement was rekindled and she is thrilled to be part of the Sea to Sky Dance Collective as an emerging artist.

Sophie danced throughout high school and completed a diploma in Preforming Arts Dance. She then left dance behind to focus on her career, although that did not stop the frequent dance parties in the kitchen at home.

Later Sophie found yoga as a way to reconnect with the body through mindful movement. She then competed her 500 hours teacher training and taught yoga in the UK.

It wasn’t until coming to Canada that she found the drop in sessions at Sea to Sky reignite a love for dance. Sophie now feels grateful to be an emerging artist with the Dance Collective, dancing alongside wonderfully talented performers.