Faculty

Alena Loboda is a Toronto-based ballerina, choreographer, and poet. She found herself
enchanted with classical ballet when the art form challenged her to explore the beauty in
every emotion, both positive and negative. This lead to her experimentation with
choreography as well as a furthering of her education in the Vaganova method abroad at
the Perm State Choreographic College (Perm', Russia), the Kiev State Ballet School (Kiev,
Ukraine), and Koltun Ballet Boston (Boston, USA).

Alena is currently studying poetry and creative writing at the University of Toronto, while
working towards a specialist degree in Arts Management.
Alena has danced for Columbia Classical Ballet, (Columbia, SC), Coastal City Ballet
(Vancouver, BC) and currently performs with Kulkat Dance Entertainment, Little Pear
Garden Dance Company, as well as taking on freelance projects in the Greater Toronto
Area. Her recent choreography and performance was recognized with the Audience Choice
Award at the Lights Dance Festival 2018.

Holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Specialized Honours) in Dance from York University, Associate
Teaching Diplomas with the British Association of Teachers of Dancing (BATD) in Ballet, Jazz, Tap
and Modern, Certificate with Progressing Ballet Techniques (PBT), as well as teacher training in
children’s yoga, Annie is a versatile dance artist and ACTRA member.

Professionally, Annie has collaborated with artists including Xing Ban Fu, Courtnae Bowman,
Emily Cheung, Jeff Dimitriou, Danny Grossman, Ame Henderson, Laurence Lemieux, Lopa
Sarkar, Veronica Tennant, Rina Signa, and Bageshree Vaze. She is privileged to have worked
with the highly renowned artist Tino Sehgal who primarily choreographs his installations within
museums including the AGO (Toronto), The Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), MoMA
(NYC), and the Guggenheim (NYC).

Annie has worked with companies such as Cadence Progressive Contemporary Ballet, Cirque
du Soleil in the 2015 Pan American Games, Divine Heritage Artistry, Hercinia Arts Collective,
Little Pear Garden Dance Company, Tropicana Queens, Rhythm and Grace Productions Inc.,
Bash FX Creative, Pratibha Arts and Xing Dance Theatre.

She has performed at venues such as the Air Canada Centre, Art Gallery of Ontario, Betty
Oliphant Theatre, Burlington Performing Arts Centre, Fleck Dance Theatre/The Harbourfront
Centre, Roger’s Centre, Royal Ontario Museum, Princess of Wales Theatre, and Toronto Centre
for the Arts, to name a few. She also enjoys spending her time dancing at festivals, corporate,
and other events.

Additionally, some of Annie’s film and television credits include, ballet dancer in A Nutcracker
Christmas (Hallmark Channel), tap dancer in Warehouse 13, hologram dancer in Make It Pop 2,
dancer in Reign, dancer for Kids’ CBC, samba dancer in the Pan American Games Opening
Ceremonies 2015, featured contemporary dancer in the Austin Strange music video Words,
dancer in the music video Victory by Lachesis, as well as a featured dancer in the instructional
Bollywood dance DVD.

Outside of performing, Annie has built an extensive teaching roster. For the past three years,
Annie has performed/held workshops throughout GTA elementary schools in the Prologue to
the Performing Arts programme. Independently conducting workshops based upon anatomy,
nutrition, conditioning, ballet and other dance genres, choreographing musicals and teaching
extensively at studios in both Toronto and Kingston, ON, Annie loves teaching children to adults
both recreationally and competitively.

Born and raised in Ontario, Emily's passion for dance started at the young age of 3. She trained at Nicole Jacklin School of Dance for 15 years and became a teacher in 2011. During this time she completed several R.A.D Ballet exams including Advanced 2. She attended various summer programs including the Canadian’s Children’s Dance Theatre, Canada’s National Ballet School and The American Ballet Theatre. After high school, Emily attended George Brown College and graduated from the Dance Performance Studies program in 2015 with honours. Continuing her professional development, Emily performed as a member of Danza Corpus Toronto in their 2016 season and trained with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks in Calgary, Alberta in 2017. Always striving to develop her teaching skills, Emily has most recently completed the Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies with the Royal Academy of Dance and is now a certified teacher. Emily teaches all styles of dance and is certified as a Junior Level 3 Acro teacher with the Acro Dance Teachers Association. A new pathway for Emily has lead her to study Pilates with the Merrithew Institute. She is certified in STOTT Pilates Matwork and is excited to integrate her dance background into the world of fitness.

Émilie Brunelle is a Toronto based dancer, choreographer and performer originally from Penetanguishene, Ontario. Émilie grew up as a competitive dancer with an award winning studio that led her to perform and train throughout Ontario and in the US. She holds an honors Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance specializing in choreography and performance from York University and has over 19 years of dance experience. She is the recipient of the Grant Strate Award in Dance as well as the Dance Scholars Award from her achievements at York University. Émilie has had the opportunity to work with artists such as Allison Plamondon, Tracey Norman, Syreeta Hector, Catherine Glasser, Kylie Thompson and Allie Laliberte to name a few. Showcasing diversity as an actor and singer, Émilie has most recently been involved in musicals such as Chicago (Wavestage Co.) and Grease (TCDS) and continues to expand her artistic practice. Outside of performing, Émilie aspires to share her love of dance through teaching and choreographing. With a strong foundation in classical/contemporary modern and ballet, jazz, tap and musical theater, Émilie strives to support and guide her students in a holistic environment to shed light on their passion.