Instructors

Janek Schergen is from Göteborg, Sweden. Since 1971, he was invited to many dance companies to take on various positions – a dancer, teacher, ballet master, and artistic director. These companies include Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Washington Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and Norwegian National Ballet. As artistic director and board member of the Choo-San Goh & H. Robert Magee Foundation, he has staged 11 of Choo-San’s works for Singapore Ballet (SB), and more than 120 worldwide. In 2008, Janek was appointed as artistic director of SB. Since then, he has initiated programmes such as One @ the Ballet, Ballet Associates Course, Scholars’ Programme, SB Choreographic Workshop, and the Intensive Ballet Programme. Over the past decade, he has been part of several panels and committees for the National Arts Council, and has been frequently invited to judge at international ballet competitions. He was also honoured with the ‘Award for Culture’ by Singapore Tatler at the Leadership Awards 2015, a prestigious award that recognises the contribution of influential leaders in Singapore; and was conferred the Public Service Medal (PBM) by the President of Singapore at the prestigious National Day Awards 2017.

Albert graduated from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts on full scholarship. He was a professional dancer with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (Taiwan) and guest artist with Hong Kong Dance Company, resident Choreographer and training master for Frontier Danceland. ​ As a choreographer his works have been presented across many platforms including Singapore Arts Festival, NUS Arts Festival, M1 Fringe Festival, Esplanade da:ns Festival, M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival. He has also participated in dance exchanges programmes and performances in various countries including Colorado, Fukuoka, Macau, Shanghai, Busan, Beijing Dance Festival and Brisbane. He was invited multiple times to conduct academic exchanges with Beijing Dance Academy and Macau Academy of Performing Arts (Dance Academy). ​ Albert is now teaching at T.H.E Dance Company, NUS Dance Synergy and SCAPE.

Baptiste graduated at the National Conservatoire in Paris in 2000. His career began in Norway with Nye Carte Blanche before returning to France where he worked with Luc Petton and Gilles Schamber. In 2002 he joined Scottish Dance Theatre and worked with various choreographers such as Ruy Horta, Didi Veldman, Hofesh Shechter, Janet Smith, Willi Dorner. From 2006 Baptiste freelanced and worked with different companies such as Compagnie Maryse Delente, Ballet Lorent, Acronote, State Of Flux, Company Chameleon and Kieran Sheehan Dance Theatre. Baptiste has been teaching release and floorwork at the London Contemporary Dance School at The Place since 2012 and became Director of Undergraduate Performance and International Development in 2019.

Brent Parolin is a Canadian born dancer, teacher, coach and choreographer. Brent started his training as a student of the prestigious National Ballet School in Toronto where he received awards such as the Lawrence Haskett and Peter Dwyer Scholarships. After graduation Brent moved to Stuttgart, Germany, to continue his training at the John Cranko School before joining the Stuttgart Ballet in 2006, where he attained the position of Halb Soloist. In 2014 Brent moved back to Toronto to dance with the National Ballet of Canada and to teach at Canada’s National Ballet School. Brent has danced works by John Cranko, Maurice Bejart, Wayne McGregor, Christian Spuck, Demis Volpi, Kenneth MacMillan, George Balanchine, Crystal Pite and Marco Geocke among others.

Brent has been a teacher around the world, including Canada, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. After creating multiple pieces for the Noverre: Junge Choreographen and the National Ballet of Canada’s Choreographic Workshop, Brent has shown his passion for the entire process of dance, from training and creation to performance and production. Brent currently holds the position of Balletmeister which encompasses being a rehearsal director, choreographic assistant, coach and teacher at the Ballett am Rhein in Dusseldorf, Germany. 

Queensland Ballet Academy, Academy Director, Christian Tátchev, trained at the National School of Choreography in Sofia, Bulgaria. Performing his first leading roles shortly after commencing his professional career at age 16, Christian was promoted to Principal Artist at 21. His repertoire includes principal roles in the major classical repertoire as well as in numerous works by celebrated choreographers of modern times.

Christian joined Queensland Ballet, Australia, after participating in the Company’s 2008 International Ballet Gala. Following his retirement from the stage in 2011, he was appointed as the Company’s  Ballet Master. He took up the position of Director of Training in 2013 and became the Queensland Ballet Academy Director in 2016. 

In addition to Queensland Ballet, Christian has worked with The Sofia National Opera and Ballet, the Bulgarian contemporary dance company Ballet Arabesque, Performing Arts Council of Transvaal (PACT) Ballet, Cape Town City Ballet and the South African Ballet Theatre, where alongside his role as a Principal Artist, he was engaged as a Répétiteur.

Christian continues to perform with the Queensland Ballet as a Character Artist and frequently adjudicates at various national and international ballet competitions. 

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Iain trained at the Royal Ballet School. 

In 1999 he joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet under the direction of David Bintley where he rapidly rose through the ranks of the company becoming a Principal dancer in 2003. In 2007 Iain joined Corella Ballet Spain – a company founded by the international ballet star Angel Corella. There he performed Principal roles in all the company’s repertoire before re-joining Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2010, finishing his dance career in January 2018. 

During his career Iain danced all of the leading roles in the classical repertoire. He also created several roles in David Bintley’s ballets as well as other creations by a number of prominent choreographers. 

Since 2018 Iain has been Director of the Yorkshire Ballet Seminars. He was appointed the first Male Dance Ambassador for the Royal Academy of Dance 2014, was a Trustee for The Royal Academy of Dance 2014 – 2020 and has been a Governor of The Royal Ballet Companies since 2020.

Born in Canberra of Polish parents, Joanne studied ballet with Katerina Druzins until the age of eleven, after which she went to Bryan Lawrence and Janet Karin, both former Principals of The Australian Ballet. At the age of fifteen Joanne was accepted into The Australian Ballet School and in 1977 she was accepted into The Australian Ballet Company, reaching the rank of Principal in 1982 where she remained until 1986. Throughout her dance career, Joanne had the privilege to work with many choreographers including Glen Tetley, Graeme Murphy, Jiri Kylian, and danced leading roles in Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Onegin, Romeo and Juliet, to name a few. She was awarded the Pavlova Prize by Serge Lifar in 1981 and the Inaugural Dance Australia Award for the most popular Female Dancer. In 1987 Joanne began teaching, freelancing around Melbourne and also adjudicating for the RAD and Cecchetti Society. In 2002 and 2003 she was Ballet Mistress for The Dancers Company Tour, having been a Guest Artist on the first tour in 1980. Since 2004, Joanne has taught the graduate year female students of The Australian Ballet School.  

Silvia is the Associate Artistic Director of T.H.E. Second Company, the youth training company of The Human Expression (T.H.E) Dance Company. She is currently teaching at School Of The Arts Singapore (SOTA). Silvia holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Dance Education and Training from the London Contemporary Dance School, as well as a Masters of Arts in Contemporary Dance under the NAC Arts Bursary awarded by the National Arts Council of Singapore. Silvia is currently Silvia’s dance career began with the People’s Association Dance Company in 1990. She was a principal dancer with Odyssey Dance Theatre from 2000 to 2004. In 2008, she was a founding member of T.H.E Dance Company, and has performed in all the company’s works till 2011. Silvia has taught at several arts and education institutions and organisations such as National University of Singapore Dance Synergy and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Currently she is teaching at School of the Arts Singapore. She has also created several original works. The prominent projects that she has led include: Singapore: Inside Out, a commission by Singapore Tourism Board celebrating SG50 and involving the Second Company; da:ns Festival 2015 commission, Above 40, as co-choreographer and performer; the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre’s inaugural Cultural Extravaganza in 2017, featuring a work by Silvia performed by T.H.E Second Company.