MELISSA
After many years of figure skating, Melissa discovered the world of dance at 11 years old. She instantly fell in love and began taking classes in all disciplines. From then on, Melissa went on to take R.A.D. ballet exams (both graded and vocational), competed at numerous competitions and attended conventions and workshops in both Canada and the United States. She has been teaching dance and choreographing since the age of 16.
During her post-secondary years, Melissa danced in Edmonton and was offered positions dancing for Norwegian Cruise Lines, Crystal Cruises, and Princess Cruise Lines where she ultimately ended up accepting a position. During her time with Princess, she spent two months dancing in Los Angeles and went on to dance professionally at sea for two years.
Upon returning to Grande Prairie in 2005, Melissa happily returned to teaching dance, feeling inspired from her time away. At the same time, she earned a Bachelor of Human Resource Management with great distinction from Athabasca University. In 2014, she became a certified *Stott Pilates instructor as well as a certified barre instructor. She loves to share her passion for pilates, anatomy and functional fitness with her dance students and continues to teach pilates and barre classes as well.
In 2016 Melissa became a certified Member of the Canadian Dance Teacher’s Association (CDTA) in jazz. From 2017-2019 Melissa spent three summers in Toronto, Ontario studying the Adapt syllabus under Bryan and Faye Foley and became an Adapt syllabus certified dance instructor in the summer of 2019. She enjoys continuing her education at various teacher summits across Canada and the United States. It brings her an immense amount of joy to share all she has learned with her students and apply it in the classroom!
