Meet the Founder & Director

Dayna Goldman

Dayna grew up as an artistic gymnast, competing across Canada, as well as internationally until age 17. As a gymnast, she always loved the floor exercise and naturally transitioned into contemporary dance once she decided to put away her chalky hand guards in 2010. In 2011, Dayna participated in the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company’s summer program in Israel and then returned home to Montreal to complete her Bachelor’s of Education. Throughout her degree, she danced and performed with the Sonia Balazovjech Dance Company SBDC Montreal- a non-profit organization that uses dance as a powerful tool to raise funds and awareness for local charitable organizations. She had the opportunity to work with amazing choreographers such as Jordan Clark, Saxon Fraser, Lynsey Billing and Danielle Davidson, and perform in several full-length productions such as “A Midwinter Night’s Dream”, “Addicted to LOVE'' and “Rêve". 

Dayna made the difficult decision to leave SBDC in order to pursue her teaching career abroad, but could not leave dance behind altogether. In 2016, Dayna taught English, French and dance to students in France, the Dominican Republic and Switzerland. After some incredible experiences abroad, Dayna wanted to put some roots down back in Canada. She moved to Squamish in September 2019 to teach elementary school and enjoy all of the incredible outdoor recreation opportunities that the Sea to Sky has to offer.  Inspired by her time dancing with SBDC, hoping to connect with local dancers and expand the performing arts opportunities for adults in town, Dayna began the Sea to Sky Dance Collective in November 2020.

Meet our Dancers

  • Carmen Chornell has been a dancer all her life in many forms. 

    Some of her favourite dance memories include: putting on living room shows for her family growing up, laughter fits in strict ballet classes, performing in Disney World, Sea World, and on Carnival Cruise, choreographing a finale for her medical school graduation, dancing with her sister performing duets from the age of 6 to 30, and discovering Ecstatic Dance for the first time in Edmonton.

    Whether it be a kitchen shake down, a challenging tap combo, a rich contemporary piece, or a hilarious contact improv session, she loves being able to express herself through movement. 

    Being able to get back into dance more seriously as an adult with the Sea to Sky Dance Collective has brought immense joy, balance, and satisfaction to her life. When she’s not dancing you can find her working as a family doctor and yoga teacher, on her mountain bike or surf board, and hanging out by the rivers and forests in town.

  • Elena did gymnastics until middle school 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 in an emerging artist/non-performance role. After much hard work, Elena is now part of the performance group and is thrilled to be dancing again after a year off recovering from knee surgeries.

    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.

  • Erica is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and somatic therapist. She enjoys exploring her artistry in the fields of dance, writing, and experiential art. She is the executive director of the Verge Art Collaborative, an organization dedicated to exploring the intersection of art and healing modalities. She holds a Hons Bachelor of Health in Kinesiology, and has studied several techniques in the fields of movement, healing, and trauma recovery. She has been in private practice supporting the Squamish community through her professional offerings of somatic therapy, kinesiology, fitness training, teaching energy work and ritual for almost 20 years.

    Her joy and passion is Dance. She has studied many styles of dance over the years in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver including ballet, jazz, modern, contemporary, character, heels, and ecstatic ritual dance. Her love of dance and movement has always influenced and inspired her work and continues to be a growth and learning edge. Her current area of interest lies in exploring the intersection of consciousness and expression through movement, specifically somatic movement modalities in supporting health and trauma healing. In particular on how movement and the relationship between movement and self expression can lead to a greater sense of embodiment and active engagement with the world. She has taught dance and movement for most of her life; her favorite being ballet, jazz, contemporary, ecstatic and ritual dance, and conditioning and rehab for dancers. 

    She feels dance is a human birthright and is an advocate for creating safe space for people to engage in dance so they can connect to their sense of wholeness. She loves the creative process and takes great satisfaction in performing and dancing in groups and overall the collaboration and community that dance brings.

    Erica supported the collective in the roles of assistant director and co-producer from 2021-2024.

  • 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 England 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 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. 

    Upon 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.

  • 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.

  • Jenna is a seasoned performer and dance educator whose training blends classical technique with contemporary and commercial forms. Originally from Northern Ireland, she began dancing at the Kim Arlow Dance Academy at age two and a half and went on to complete all BTDA Vocational Qualifications in Tap, Modern, Lyrical, and Ballet, alongside dedicated training in Hip Hop and Street Dance. She also holds a Diploma in Musical Theatre from the London College of Music.

    Her performance career spans stage productions, musicals, and competitive work across the UK and Ireland, enriched by training with leading UK choreographers at institutions including Laine Theatre Arts.

    Alongside performance, Jenna contributed to dance education in Northern Ireland, delivering curriculum-based programs through the NI School Education Board and creating award-winning choreography for national youth competitions.

    Now based in Canada, she returned to the studio in 2024 after a decade away, quickly rekindling her passion and reconnecting with the dance community.

  • 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. She is aware of how empowering it is to restore freedom of movement in the body. After seeing the performance of ‘Rise’ by the Sea to Sky Collective, Marnie’s yearning for personal expression through movement was rekindled. She danced as an emerging artist in the 2024 performance of ‘Rhythms’ and is thrilled to now be a core member of the Sea to Sky Dance Collective.

  • 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 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.

    A few years after relocating to Squamish, Natalie was introduced to the adult dance community and, following a ten-year hiatus, rekindled her passion for dance and creative expression through the Sea to Sky Dance Collective. 

    Beyond the dance studio, you can find Natalie working at The Wellness Room as an RMT or embarking on adventurous hikes, bike rides, and climbing excursions with her beloved family and their endearingly exuberant dog.

  • 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.

  • Paige has been dancing for as long as she can remember. By the age of six, she had quit all other hobbies to spend most of her time in the studio. She had the privilege of performing into her twenties before deciding to pursue a Bachelor of Environment. After completing her degree, she moved to Squamish to work in fisheries research. With few opportunities to dance in 2020, she fell out of practice — until discovering the Sea to Sky Dance Collective in 2024, where she was able to reconnect with dance.

    While Paige has explored many styles of dance, her favorites are jazz, ballet, modern, and acro. She thrives on the technical side of dance — pushing her body’s limits, perfecting movements and angles — and finds fulfillment in embodying the melody and lyrics of a song.

  • 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 Edmonton, 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 and Movement Therapist.

    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 once more. Thrilled to be dancing again, she performed in the productions of RISE and RHYTHMS. Robyn is very grateful to be part of the Collective, and to have dance back in her life.

  • Sarah’s love of dance began in Ottawa, where she grew up training in jazz, ballet, and tap. Her passion for movement followed her to Halifax during her university years, where she embraced the rhythm of life on the East Coast.

    Over the years, Sarah has explored a range of dance styles, including heels, latin and swing. She loves exploring movement through contact improv, and ecstatic dance, where she can freely express whatever arises in the moment.

    Feeling drawn to the mountains, Sarah moved to Squamish in 2021 and found her dance family with the Sea to Sky Dance Collective in 2022. She loves dancing contemporary and spending time with this community of creatives!