Squamish Dance Centre began it's journey with one studio and 86 students in January 2016. Fast forward to today and we are boosting with 530+ students and four large studios. We can contribute our continued growth to our loyal and supportive dance families, dedicated and talented instructors and our warm, efficient office team. Squamish Dance Centre is a place for dancers of all ages and abilities to express, enjoy, and learn in a supportive, inclusive and caring space. Offering a wide range of programs, SDC's instructors promise to create a safe space for your child to flourish, both inside the studio and in everyday life.
Miss Sara
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As the owner/director of Squamish Dance Centre, Sara Constantin truly believes that what can be learned in the studio goes beyond dance steps, and she recognizes that it is the soft skills like learning team work, setting goals, confidence, problem solving, creativity, self esteem, kindness and so much more that makes dance a worth while pursuit.
Miss Sara began her dance studies at age of three under the roof of Squamish's first dance school, Garibaldi School of Dance and then onto Miss Debbie's former dance school, Still Dancing. Miss Sara credits the skills she acquired through dance for shaping her into the person she is today. Born and raised in Squamish, Miss Sara is ecstatic to share her love of dance locally in the Sea to Sky Corridor. Miss Sara spent countless hours attending workshops, conventions and summer camps across the Lower Mainland. During her high school days, she found herself spending much of her time behind the studio walls of Vancouver Tap Dance Society. Where she studied under numerous world renowned tap dancers; learning routines, steps and absorbing an incredible amount of history. After graduating from Howe Sound Secondary School, Miss Sara began her full time teaching career at Still Dancing School of Dance. It was then that she expanded her passion for working with children. Miss Sara is ADAP (Associated Dance Arts for Professional Teachers) certified and qualified in Jazz and Tap. She continues to attend classes and workshops, furthering her knowledge and skills to pass along to the next generation. Miss Sara teaches our Kinder Combo, Jazz and Tap classes and is also our Studio Director, Developmental Program Director and part of our front desk personnel team. |
Miss Kim
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Kim started her gymnastic career at the age of four. When she turned nine years old, Kim won the Western Canadian Gymnastics Championships and was subsequently asked to train with the U.S. Olympic Coach. As Kim continued her gymnastic career, she was also training full time in dance (Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Lyrical ,Musical Theater, Song and Dance, and Acrobatics) at Vi Cameron School of Dance. Kim was a Cast Member of the Surrey Arts Theatre which produced plays such as Finnians Rainbow and Fiddler on the Roof.
Kim has maintained fitness and learning to this day. Kim has successfully completed "Acrobatics Dance Teachers Association " courses from 18 months - Adults - Kinder , Junior, Intermediate, Senior, and Male Acrobatics, ADTA Certified Acrobatics Adjudicator“ also completed " Training Turnout and Flexibility” Workshop for Teachers. Kim is very passionate about teaching and loves working with every level of dancer who expresses interest in Acrobatics, For the past two decades, she has been an Acrobatic Dance Teacher and Choreographer for both competitive and recreational levels at both the National and International Levels for Acrobatics. Kim is a very talented Coach and Choreographer which has led her students towards a successful path and future. Many of her performing groups have won top honors at Local and International Competitions including taking top spot at the Tacoma Regionals and Hawaii Dance Experience in Waikiki Hawaii. During the 2016 and 2017 Dance Competition season, Kim led both of her Competitive Acrobatics Teams for both years to be undefeated and Provincial Acro Champions, and continues to lead her Competitive Acrobatics Teams, soloists, etc. with Overall High Scores, etc. each year. Kim has achieved high honors as a Trainer and Choreographer over the years and continues to do so each year. This includes Choreographer of the Year, Diamond Choreographer, Adjudicator's Choice and Teacher’s Choice at numerous competitions across the Lower Mainland. Additionally Kim has been recognized and was selected to receive the Arty Award in 2005 for all her contributions to the community of Abbotsford, Some of Kim’s credit in the community of Abbotsford includes choreographing for our very own B.C. Summer Games in 2004 and 2016, collaborative credit for the opening ceremonies for the Senior Summer Games and she has also had the opportunity to work with the community of Vancouver with the Fortheloveofit Youth on Granville Island,. Kim continues to share her love of dance and acrobatics with her students of all ages. Miss Kim teaches our senior and competitive Acro. |
Miss Samantha
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Samantha (she/her) is a dancer, educator, and choreographer in the Vancouver and Squamish area. Growing up in a dance studio since the age of 8, she has trained in contemporary, modern, ballet, jazz, lyrical, musical theatre/stage, and hip hop. After graduating high school, Samantha was accepted into the Simon Fraser University School for Contemporary Arts Dance Program, graduating in April 2018 with a BFA with a major in Dance.
At the age of 15, Sam became a devoted teacher’s assistant, and her love of teaching grew from there. Having now taught students from age 2-19, both competitive and recreational, Samantha’s passion for dance shines through her students. She has led soloists and groups to earn high score awards, and has won numerous choreography awards. In 2016, she had the opportunity to create a contemporary piece for the opening ceremonies of the BC Summer Games, which was performed for an audience of 8,000 spectators. Despite the awards, Sam’s favourite moments are the in-studio ones, when dancers allow themselves to fully give into the feelings and movements, whether it’s in a competition piece, technique class, or improv moment! All dance teachers should be well educated, so Sam is certified through the International Dance Teaching Standards program. In addition, she also attends teacher-physiotherapist workshops to stay up to date on the current science behind flexibility, turnout, and injury prevention. In February 2020, she attended the Sugarfoot Physical Therapy program for teachers and is certified in their dancer strengthening and injury prevention course, and uses their techniques in class daily. Sam is still furthering her education and will be pursuing her Masters degree in Physiotherapy in the coming years. (But she will never fully leave teaching!) In addition to teaching at SDC, Sam is excited to be taking on the role of Competition Director this season. She has worked in various studio administrator roles since 2013, and is thrilled to bring this knowledge to the studio |
Magnus
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I’ve been breaking for 11 year’s, and teaching online for 3. I teach all over the lower mainland in studios, and throughout the whole world through youtube and privately. Growing up I never felt like I knew my place, or my identity in life, until I found breaking. Being a Bboy was not just a chance to do the art form for me, it became the way I gained confidence, social skills, health, wealth and relationships from close friends to family. My dance family is Now Or Never Crew (look them up!), I have the opportunity to now dance, perform and compete next to my teachers/mentors and now brothers, which to me was always my goal growing up. But to be fair, what child doesn’t want to be exactly like there mentors? Well I’m lucky enough to be able to have achieved that. Dancing to me is the greatest foundation for life, as it was and still is my foundation to everything, there’s countless mental, physical and emotional tools, concepts and lessons that dance has taught me, that I apply to my life daily. I can proudly say that dance has supported me full time since I moved out of my mum’s house, I am blessed enough to be able to have over 100 students locally, along with over 10,000 students internationally that follow my online endeavours. My single goal with teaching is to become the best version of myself possible, by providing my students the tools they need to become the best versions of themselves possible, so that they can become the version of themselves that they’ve always dreamt of becoming.
Magnus teachers our Breaking classes. |
Miss Sarah
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Sarah spent her early and late schools years taking classical dance classes with Still Dancing School of Dance, while also being a helping hand at her mom's former daycare centre. Sarah's dance background coupled with her natural talent for working with children, makes her our official preschool queen! Sarah balances our high energy Preschool program with her soft voice, gentle nature, embracing hugs, voice of reason and negotiation skills that are like no other. You'll find Sarah around the studio helping a dancer with an untied show lace, giving a hug where it's needed, giggling at witty three year old remarks and so much more!
Miss Sarah is in the process of becoming a certified Intellidance instructor. Miss Sarah teaches our Kinder Ballet classes, is our Preschool Program Director and part of our front desk personnel team. |
Miss Briana
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Briana’s love of dance began before she could even walk! She was constantly found moving and grooving to the music. She took her first real dance class at the age of three and the rest is history! Briana spent countless hours at the studio, practicing and pushing herself to be a better dancer and peer. She completed her RAD & AIDT examinations, as well as competing in many competitions across the lower mainland and also participated in dance conventions world wide: New York City, Las Vegas and more. Dance has continued to be her happy place and she still enjoys taking class, teaching and performing.
Briana joined the the SDC team in 2017 as our receptionist (aka child wrangler) and has enjoyed every minute of it. The amount of love and positivity SDC creates is such a heart warming experience and Briana cannot wait to see what this year has in store for everyone. This year she is making the part time switch from behind the desk to Hip Hop teacher! Briana is very excited and eager to begin teaching and creating with her friends! Let’s get hoppin’ & boppin! Miss Briana teaches our Hip Hop, Lyrical, Jazz, Variety and Kinder Combo classes. |
Miss Katherine
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Katherine is a French Canadian dance artist and teacher living and working in Vancouver. She began her dance journey as a baby in her jolly jumper, and then her formal training at the age of three. She has had the opportunity to train in ballet, contemporary and lyrical, and perform in Turkey, Japan and Norway, as well as across Canada.
In 2015, Katherine completed her RAD Advanced 1 and 2 with distinction, and shortly after moved to Vancouver to complete her Bachelor of Arts at UBC. While studying, she began training in Pacific DanceArts' half-day intensive program under the tutelage of Li Yaming, and subsequently Erin McNeill. Her performances have included an extract from Sylvia as the title role, and the premiere of Symphonie en Quatre by Yoko Kanomata (Ballet Edmonton). Katherine also trained in Montreal under the guidance of Sona Vartanian, and in Toronto with Ballet Jorgen, where she had the opportunity to participate in the creation of Anne the Ballet and a new work by Hanna Kiel in 2019, and was invited to the junior company in both 2020 and 2021. Katherine has a great love for people, and thrives on being surrounded by kids, teens and adults alike, which is why she has now turned her focus to teaching. She currently teaches ballet, conditioning, contemporary and lyrical and continues to work on various contemporary projects across the Lower Mainland and the Sea to Sky corridor. Katherine has been greatly inspired by her teachers, including Ping Feng, Li Yaming, Erin McNeill, Yana Dragieva, and Isak and Eowynn Enquist who have not only been great mentors to her, but have made the dance studio her home. She strives to create a challenging, engaging and joyful space for her students to feel the same. She is excited to be able to give back to the dance community that has brought her so much vitality throughout her life, and to inspire the next generation of dancers and dreamers. Miss Katherine teaches our Senior Ballet classes. |
Miss Jamie
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Jamie is a contemporary dance artist and teacher located in Vancouver, BC. She has studied at Modus Operandi under the direction of Tiffany Tregarthen, David Raymond, and Kate Franklin, and EDAM under the direction of Peter Bingham. As an independent artist, Jamie has had the pleasure of interpreting works for Justine Chambers, Company 605 and Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg. As a choreographer, she has created works that have been shown at Dance Victoria, Boombox, Gold Saucer Studios, The Banff Centre, The Scotiabank Dance Centre and Citadel+Compagnie in Toronto. She is the most recent recipient of The Dance Centre’s biennial Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award. Jamie has been commissioned to create original works for Festival of Recorded Movement and The Happening’s Senior Company. She has created multiple movement based film works which have been screened both nationally and internationally. Jamie is an experienced and engaged teacher, having had the opportunity to lead multiple classes and workshops throughout the lower mainland. As a teacher, she hopes to empower students through technical and creative development, encouraging them to develop their own interests and excitements surrounding movement. She intends to create classes that are fun, safe, and fulfilling and that can value each individual's experience equally.
Miss Jamie teaches our Youth Ballet, Contemporary and Lyrical classes. |
Nicholas
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Nicholas has an extensive performance career starting from the age of 11. By the time he was 15, he had already been part of several major productions and had guest performed with Desrosiers Dance Theatre in Toronto. A graduate of Canada's National Ballet School, Nicholas was praised by his teachers for the virtuosity of his jumps and his extensive partnering skills. Shortly after completing his studies there, Nicholas performed in The Canadian Opera Company's world premiere production of The Golden Ass. He then went on to perform in over in over 10 world premiere productions on stage and in film. His last major stage production Shéhérazade: Les Mille et Une Nuits, by composer Félix Grey, was performed at the famous Folies Bergère in Paris, France, where Nicholas played the lead character dancer role of Alazim, to critical acclaim. Nicholas also danced with Ballet BC for two years, where he portrayed many roles including the character of Demetrius in, The Faerie Queen (A Midsummer Night's Dream) both on stage and in the CBC filming of the same production. He has worked closely with many choreographers over the years including: Rudi Van Dantzig, John Alleyne, James Kudelka, Robert Desrosiers, Brian MacDonald, Allen Kaeja, Debra Brown, Peter Darling, Lisa Stevens, and Paul Becker, to name a few. Nicholas has been teaching full-time now for over a decade, and has won several awards for his choreography at various dance competition across the province and is praised by his students and their parents for his kind and generous nature. He loves to teach various forms of dance including ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, acro, and partnering.
Nicholas is a certified and qualified AcrobaticArts instructor. He is looking forward to passing on his experience and skills to his new students this year at SDC! Nicholas teaches our Aerial Hoop and youth Acro classes. |
Miss Katheryn
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Katheryn found her passion for all things movement at a very young age as an avid dancer and tree climber. She spent many of her formative training years in the pre-professional ballet program at Pacific Dance Arts in Vancouver, studying mainly ballet, pointe, and pas de deux. At 16 she decided to broaden her spectrum and dove into dancing competitively in Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Modern, Tap, Stage, and Hip Hop . She was fortunate to receive many scholarships that enabled her to train from Paris to Los Angeles with some of the worlds top professionals.
She then began a 3 year journey as a member of the Canadian National Dance team, and represented her country at the world dance championships in Germany & Poland. For 2 years she was the Team Canada Junior & Children’s team assistant, overseeing and helping with the creation, instruction, and rehearsal of the teams. After graduation, Katheryn was hired by Princess Cruise Lines as a production show dancer, fulfilling a lifelong dream of hers, and over the course of two years she completed four contracts, around the globe and has the privilege of performed a dozen shows varying in styles from Disco, to Latin, to Waltz, and Jive. Following a near career ending injury, Katheryn stumbled upon the world of Circus and her life was changed - spinning, daring, acrobatics was all she could ever want, so she spent 3 years training aerials, rou cyr, handbalancing, and importantly strength, flexibility, and injury prevention, as a part of The Circus Lab’s Artist Preparatory Program. After being privileged enough to spend the past few years train with professional artists from Cirque du Soleil and other various companies, it was a natural next step to begin to share her knowledge and love of all things acrobatic with as many people as possible. Katheryn’s has a deep affection for the performing arts and has been lucky to share that with thousands of students over the past decade. She is committed to continue to learn and improve and share her knowledge in teaching the next generation of artists in the studio. She is currently registered with the Acro Dance Teachers Association, and is so excited to help you grow! Miss Katheryn teaches our Aerial Hoop and youth Acro classes. |
Miss Paula
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Paula grew up in Langley BC where she began her dance training at the age of 6 years old. She has extensive training in Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical and Modern, as well as Traditional Ukrainian dancing. She is also well versed in conditioning and improvisation for dancers. Receiving the award “Most Promising Jazz Choreographer” from Surrey Festival of dance at the young age of 13, Paula continued to and has been choreographing and teaching since then receiving numerous awards from festivals and competitions. Paula's choreography can been seen on the TV hit show “Supergirl”. She has trained throughout BC, and Ontario, at such schools as York University, and Toronto School of Dance.
As education is very important to Paula, she continues to educate herself on a regular basis taking workshops and teacher intensives. Most recently Paula graduated from the Royal Academy of Dance CBTS program and she attained her Registered Teachers status. She also has completed her level one and two in the International Dance Teaching Studies, as well as became certified in Marie Walton-Mahons Progressing Ballet Technique program. Paula’s passion for dance really shines through in her teaching and she is very concerned with the health, happiness, and positive learning experience of the individual dancers and helps them strive to be the best they can be. Miss Paula choreographs for our Competitive Team. |
Charlotte & Bob
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Here's a bit about our irreplaceable right hand man and lady. Charlotte (aka Miss Sara's momma bear) helps keep things in order at the studio. She enjoys chatting with parents and dancers, assisting in any way she can. Although Charlotte has no dance training herself, she has a good grasp of the industry while being a huge driving force during Miss Sara's training and career. During her years behind the scenes, Charlotte has become an expert in helping with Recital and other event preparations and attending countless performances; all while keeping up with the fast paced environment. Charlotte has a vast resume in the customer service industry from retail to food. She spent 3 years in management for Fields and administration for her husband's business. Miss Sara's dad (aka Bob The Builder) is our handy man around the studio. You may see Bob working on maintenance or bringing a construction plan to reality. Bob has been an appliance repair technician for over 25 years, owning and operating his own business, Combined Appliance Center. Bob has proven himself to be a brilliant handy man, devising and building structures around his home. Now he does the same for our dance home! You can chat with Bob while he does odd jobs at Rehearsal, Recital and other studio events.
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Located at Unit 3 - 38924 Queens Way, Squamish BC
Across the bottle depot and beside Golden Crust
Across the bottle depot and beside Golden Crust
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Our 6,700 square foot dance home includes:
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