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Inspire School of Dance and Drama

Our Team

We inspire every pupil, in a nurturing, professional and positive environment.

Miss Katie

AIDTA ATCL BA hons – Principal

Miss Katie has been dancing since the age of 2. Alongside her weekly dance classes in Hull she was also awarded a place at York Scholars where she trained every Saturday morning with other successful candidates from the Northern Region. Miss Katie was also Hull’s Champion Singer for 2 years and was extremely successful in the local singing festivals.

At 16 Miss Katie was accepted into a professional dance college in London, Laine Theatre Arts where she trained for 3 years gaining professional qualifications in Dance, Musical Theatre and Drama, leaving as an associate to Trinity College London. Upon graduating she was also awarded the Valerie King Drama Award for her outstanding work in Drama. It was here at Laine that Miss Katie developed a passion for teaching when she assisted her ballet teacher on weekends in the children’s branch of the college.

Following her return home from Laine Theatre Arts and completing her degree in dance and professional practice, she completed her teacher training passing all her IDTA examinations with 96% and above (Distinction) She is a proud associate member of the International Dance Teachers Association (IDTA)

Miss Katie opened the doors to Inspire in 2010 in Etton where she quickly outgrew the village hall and moved to Bishop Burton Sports Centre and also expanded into Beverley, opening 3 more branches.

Over the years the school continues to grow due to Miss Katie’s passion and dedication to her pupils. Due to a demand for more classes, Miss Katie began training Miss April a former graduate and   Miss Katie’s assistant at the time. Miss April went on to pass her IDTA teaching qualifications with Distinction and became a member of the teaching team. Miss Katie also trained Miss Jenny through her second associate exam, which she passed with Distinction and Miss Jenny stayed at Inspire after covering Miss Katie’s maternity leave.

In addition to running Inspire, Miss Katie has been teaching in local Primary and Secondary schools for over a decade across Hull and East Yorkshire where she has also awarded scholarships to children providing opportunities for dance experience.

Miss Katie is DBS checked, has completed Level 2 Safeguarding and is First Aid Trained.

Miss Katie is also a Mummy to two wonderful girls, Primrose and Bonnie they both keep her and Mr Katie on their toes!

She is passionate about quality teaching and strives to ensure the school is run with energy, inclusivity, care and professionalism.

Miss April began dancing at the age of 9 at Butterfly Dance Studios in Goole, she competed locally winning awards such as Most Entertaining Dancer, she has completed exams in ballet, tap modern, Latin American and rock and roll. She was chosen to dance at The Royal Albert Hall age 10 and Disney Land Paris age 11.

At 13 she was accepted into English Youth Ballet for their performance of Sleeping Beauty performed at The Royal Opera House in York.

She then moved house and started a new dance school in her home town of York where she was chosen to play the lead role Clara in their performance of The Nutcracker, performed at Royal Opera House York. She also assisted with the younger pupils from age 14. At the age of 16 she was accepted on a dance course at York college performing arts department.

Miss April joined Inspire as a senior dancer at the age of 17,  travelling from York each week to attend her classes. She continued her Inspire journey becoming Miss Katie’s teaching assistant in 2016 and starting her teacher training with Miss Katie alongside furthering her tap and modern exams. Miss April has passed her IDTA teaching exams with distinction most recently achieving 91% .

In 2017 she began running one of Inspire’s street dance branches which has gone from strength to strength with pupils all passing their IDTA street dance exams with outstanding results. Miss April still travels from York to teach showing her dedication to her pupils and the school.

Miss April is DBS checked, First Aid trained and safeguarding trained.

Miss April is passionate about teaching dance, passing on her knowledge and experience and seeing all our pupils discover the love for dance that she has herself.

Miss April

Teacher

Miss Jenny

Teacher - Head of early years

Miss Jenny started dancing at the age of 6 at the Debbie Briggs School of Dance in Hull, where she trained in all genres of dance, and also trained in musical theatre.

A few years later Miss Jenny went on to train at The Skelton Hooper School of Dance and Theatre where she focused on classical ballet.

When she was 14 she travelled to America with Miss Carmel who was her drama teacher and Miss Katie. They toured North Carolina performing in theatres and schools which was an experience of a lifetime leaving her with many fond memories.

After taking a few years out to get married and have her two children, Matthew and Faye, Miss Jenny returned to dance and began her teaching qualifications. Miss Jenny has passed her IDTA teaching exams with Distinction.

Miss Jenny joined the Inspire team in 2016 when she covered Miss Katie’s maternity leave with her first baby Primrose and soon became a permanent teacher of the school. She is a wonderfully caring and nurturing teacher and is extremely experienced with Pre School and younger pupils.

Miss Jenny ran the school along with Miss April in 2019 when Miss Katie had her second little girl Bonnie. She is extremely proud to be a part of the Inspire family and hopes that her passion for dance and performing inspires others.

Miss Jenny is DBS checked and has completed training in Safeguarding and First Aid.

Miss Jaz

Guest Teacher and Cover Teacher

Jaz began dancing at the age of 3 and trained in various styles of dance, including modern, jazz, ballet, tap, commercial, lyrical, contemporary and Irish. She took part in many professional pantomimes and summer shows, both as a junior and senior dancer.

Jaz was very successful when competing in solo and group dance competitions across the country and also attended musical theatre classes performing in musicals.

Jaz enhanced her skills further by taking singing and piano lessons, and was a teaching assistant at her local dance school.

In school, Jaz played the lead role as Blousy in a production of Bugzy Malone, and was also the singer of a school band.

At 16 Jaz auditioned for and gained a scholarship to train at one of the leading professional training grounds for Dance and Musical theatre, SLP. She spent 3 years developing her craft to become a professional dancer. On completion of the course Jaz gained a level 6 Trinity diploma in dance / musical theatre and an IDTA teaching qualification.

Jaz regularly visits London and Manchester to attend classes to keep up to date with industry professionals, and to watch musicals.

She has been teaching in West Yorkshire for the last 9 months and is looking forward to sharing her passion with the dancers/performers at Inspire.

A big welcome to Miss Emily who will be our new dance teacher at Inspiring Young Performers and our new Acrobatic Arts teacher for our Acro branch on Mondays.

Miss Emily first discovered dance at the age of 3 when her mum took her to a local class in hull for a fun activity, from that moment on she progressed into years of training in different dance styles ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, street dance and competed in regular competitions.

Miss Emily furthered her dance knowledge and skills achieving Btec Dance & Foundation Degree in Dance.

Whilst in her second year of university Emily was given an opportunity to work in the industry and sharehery passion for dance, touring dance shows for entertainment companies in Cyprus, Greece & Uk where she continued a performance role for 10 years as she loved performing on stage.

Miss Emily loves sharing her trained dance skills, industry experience and creative choreography with young performers and she’s excited to keep developing her teaching experience. She is also a qualified Acrobatic Arts teacher having taken her training with the renowned company Acrotrix.

When Emily isn’t in a dance studio she enjoys being outdoors on hikes exploring and taking in the wonderful views & sunsets.

Miss Emily

Teacher

Miss Zoe

IYP Faculty - Drama and Musical Theatre

Miss Zoe began attending dance classes at the age of 2.5 discovering her love for performing and has never looked back!

In 2019, Zoe earned a first-class BA (Hons) degree in Drama and Theatre Practice from the University of Hull. Zoe has always been passionate about working creatively with young people and specialised in Children’s Theatre whilst also receiving a 1st class mark on her final year dissertation about the importance of drama for children.

Miss Zoe has ten years experience teaching and facilitating creative arts classes across Hull and East Riding working in out-of-school, primary, secondary, SEN, care and home education settings. Alongside this, Zoe offered free online singing lessons during the 2020 pandemic and later launched vocal classes aimed at improving people’s mental health and wellbeing through the power of music!

Miss Zoe has also worked as a professional actor and assistant producer with Spinoff Productions for many years, appearing in several touring productions, events, and advertisements. Zoe has taken on lots of leading roles for local theatre companies too, including playing Elle Woods in Legally Blonde The Musical at Hull New Theatre in 2018.

Miss Zoe is DBS checked and holds her Level 3 First Aid and Level 2 Safeguarding certificates.

In November 2024, Miss Zoe gave birth to her baby girl Amber and is loving mummy life!

Miss Zoe absolutely loves what Inspire stands for and looks forward to teaching our students every week.

Hello, I’m Amelie! I’m 15 years old and I joined inspire when I was 8 and my first ever class was theatre works. I now do senior street and contemporary dancing and I help out with younger classes on a Wednesday and Monday evenings. I love going to the dance workshops too!

I also love seeing my friends and listening to music. Dancing is one of my favourite things to do and my favourite thing about Inspire is the opportunities it opens up for us and the supportive environment it creates! I have made lots of new friends and love dancing along side of them. I took part in the Christmas panto in 2022 and loved every second of it! The Inspire shows are amazing, some of my favourite memories are from being backstage with my friends in fun costumes and makeup.

I am so excited to get to meet more of the Inspire students and can’t wait to work with the other head girls!

Amelie

Head Girl

Amelie

Head Girl

Hello, I’m Amelie! I’m 15 years old and I joined inspire when I was 8 and my first ever class was theatre works. I now do senior street and contemporary dancing and I help out with younger classes on a Wednesday and Monday evenings. I love going to the dance workshops too!

I also love seeing my friends and listening to music. Dancing is one of my favourite things to do and my favourite thing about Inspire is the opportunities it opens up for us and the supportive environment it creates! I have made lots of new friends and love dancing along side of them. I took part in the Christmas panto in 2022 and loved every second of it! The Inspire shows are amazing, some of my favourite memories are from being backstage with my friends in fun costumes and makeup.

I am so excited to get to meet more of the Inspire students and can’t wait to work with the other head girls!

I am 11 years old and I am so excited to be junior head girl and working with everyone especially Miss Katie, Poppy, Amelie and Emilia.

I started Inspire when I was 2 and a half and haven’t stopped since. My first classes were ballet, tap and modern. I then started ECT (Enhancing Classical Technique)

The Inspire shows are amazing all of the students are so supportive. What I love most is being back stage with my friends and dancing to the music in the changing rooms. I also love waving the little ones off as they go on stage.

Inspire gives great opportunities such as pantomimes. I recently took part in beauty and the beast pantomime (2022) and it was incredible.Being on stage feels amazing.

I love seeing all my friends and learning dances for shows and exams. Inspire means the world to me and can not think of anything better. I love everyone there and can not wait to see what happens in the future for Inspire.

Elina

Junior Head Girl

Sarah

Administrator

Sarah started dancing at the age of 5, and since then dance has always been a part of her (and her family’s) life. Whilst at school, she took classes at the Italia Conti Associate School (Guildford) and Pineapple Dance Studios, before moving up north to study Drama at Hull University.

Sarah started teaching dance and formed a street dance group who went on to perform in a showcase at the London Palladium. She was also selected to join the National Youth Music Theatre as an Assistant Stage Manager, working on productions in London, Exeter, Edinburgh, and she even got to tour a show to Japan!

After graduating Sarah continued working freelance as a dance teacher, before becoming an Assistant Stage Manager at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. Following a season there, she then started working at Hull Truck Theatre, working her way up through the production department to the position of Deputy Production Manager. After starting a family of her own, she took a step away from working in theatre, but it is still a huge part of her life, and she frequently attends performances with her children (when able!)

Sarah first became part of the Inspire family when her eldest daughter started preschool ballet back in 2015. Since then, all 3 of her children have been Inspire pupils, and Sarah also attends the adult street and tap classes (whenever life allows…)

Sarah officially joined the team as Administrator at the end of 2019, she’s the queen of all things behind the scenes and is thrilled to be part of such a busy, thriving, inspirational school that brings a love of dance to so many children.