PCDA STUDENTS
N ACTION
KAREN GALBRAITH
Karen Galbraith studied at Port City Dance Academy for 12 years, during which time she performed with the student ensemble, Felicità, and earned her I.S.T.D. Cecchetti Advanced 1 qualification.
After graduating from Saint John High School with high honours in 2007, Miss Galbraith went on to study in the Teacher Training Program at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts (Halifax), where she pursued further studies in the Cecchetti, Russian, and CDTA methods of classical ballet, as well as CDTA jazz, modern, national and character dancing, and continued to dance with the Conservatory Ballet Ensemble. Following her graduation in 2010, Miss Galbraith continued to pursue an honours degree at The Conservatory in 2011.
Miss Galbriath is an Associate Member of the Canadian Dance Teachers Association, and she has also successfully completed the Royal Academy of Dancing Advanced 2 exam, and Elementary Russian.
Miss Galbraith is loving life, and is happy to be back in New Brunswick to teach at Port City Dance Academy in Saint John and St. Andrews. And Port City Dance Academy is happy to welcome her home!
Double click here to add text.
Mission Statement,
Artistic Staff, Media
info, our students...
ARTISTIC STAFF
MISSION STATEMENT & PHILOSOPHY
Encouraging excellence - in technique, artisry, and creativity.
Committed to encouraging excellence, Port City Dance Academy is a community arts organization and a registered charity. With an emphasis on the educational value of dance classes, the academy's well-qualified teachers offer an exceptional dance education for pre-professional and recreational students; encouraging the development of strong technique, artistry and creativity, and helping each student to realize his or her greatest potential and personal goals.
With ongoing efforts to increase scholarship and bursary funds, the academy encourages enrolment from any sector of our diverse population. PCDA is a vibrant, creative, and collaborative organization, and an active member of the arts community in our city, province, and region.
As the performing arm of the organization, Felicità is closely affiliated with but distinct from Port City Dance Academy. Felicità exists to promote dance as an expressive performing art, and to encourage pursuit of the art form on a professional level. To this end, Felicità provides opportunities for our aspiring professionals to perform, to experience a broad range of choreographers, teachers, and dancers, and to choreograph their own works.
Felicità also exists to help build and educate an audience for the art of dance, by presenting performances of classical and contemporary ballet and modern dance to the widest possible audience; engaging established professional Canadian and international artists, emerging dancers, and student dance ensembles to perform in a variety of venues. As an active member and a leader within the local arts community, Felicità continually cooperates and collaborates with other local artists and arts groups.
PIPPA WENNBERG
Pippa Wennberg began her dance training at Port City Dance Academy in 1995. Miss Wennberg was one of only a few applicants accepted into a joint ballet/kinesiology program at the Alberta Ballet School and the University of Calgary. Injury and fate led her instead to the University of Toronto, where she received an Honours B.A. degree with a specialty in Linguistics. After working for a few years as a communication assistant for individuals with physical disabilities, Miss Wennberg completed some graduate courses in Dance Studies at York University.
Miss Wennberg is now very happy to be back in Saint John, working as an EAL tutor in School District 6, and teaching private piano lessons. She is also currently pursuing her certification as a Dalcroze Eurhythmics instructor through summer study at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Port City Dance Academy is extremely lucky, and positively thrilled that Miss Wennberg will also weave her special magic at Port City Dance Academy.
LOGOS FOR MEDIA
Felicità graphic
Felicità graphic & text
GEORGIA RONDOS
Georgia Rondos is a modern dance choreographer, performer and teacher. She is originally from Montreal and also lived and worked in Toronto for six years, where she began her choreographic debut. When Georgia and her family moved to Saint John in 1995 she formed the city’s first professional dance company, Rondos Out of Proportion Dance (ROoP). Since 1995, Georgia has been Resident Choreographer and contemporary dance teacher for Port City Dance Academy. She has also taught dance at UNBSJ, for the Saint Andrews Arts Council, at Danceability and on the Kingston Peninsula.
Georgia has played an integral role in developing the dance community in Saint John. In 1996, 97 & 98 ROoP co-produced a dance event called Saint John Dance Works. The purpose for this annual dance event was to bring the dance community together and to foster an interest in modern dance. It was here that ROoP premiered its first work, a solo titled Wrapped (1996) danced by Andrea Scott. In later years, the piece was remounted and performed in Saint John, Halifax and Toronto. The work was also performed by Tara Butler, of Ballet Jörgen Canada at Imperial Theatre and in the ROoP film titled The Coat the Wrap the Hankie: Dance Images from New Brunswick. In 2007 ROoP premiered the multi-media work Stages, in 2008 Gnossiennes and Places Unknown, in 2009 Urban Tracks (a multi-media work) and Ask Alice, in 2010 One Woman, One Potato as a gift to the city of Saint John and D'Andy. In 2011 dancing bodies &Rondos Out of Proportion Dance Co. presented a retrospective of the work Rondos has produced over seventeen years. In 2011 Georgia participated in Culture Days at the Saint John Arts Centre, she premiered a new work titled Pink at Magpie Dances in Toronto, was co-choreographer for PCDA’s The Nutcracker & the Girl with the Shell and Winterfest Dance Works 4, an annual contemporary dance festival held at the PCDA Black Box Space. In 2012 as part of ROoP’s community outreach program the company performed at the Mill Rats halftime at Harbour Station and for the Canadian Cancer Society at Rothesay Netherwood School.
For the 2012/13 season The Royal Winnipeg Ballet School has offered Georgia a residency to create a new work for the Aspirant Dancers.
Georgia has also worked as Choreographer and Assistant Director for St. Thomas University Theater productions of The Kitchen and Oh What a Lovely War. And she has choreographed and performed in Opera New Brunswick’s productions of Carmen and Amahl and the Night Visitor.
From 1995-2012, as Resident Choreographer for PCDA, Georgia choreographed original works for Felicità including; Falling, Seeing Circles, Dancing with a Bowl of Pasta, Desert Walk, The Coat, H20, Untitled, Rendezvous, Eights, Ballerina and Clown, Urban Rush, Brandenburg, Dress Up, Dress Down, Waltz Four Three, Where Have all the Flowers Gone, New Beginnings, Step, Turn, Jump..., Le Gros Costaud and Mr. Tom.
Georgia trained in Montreal, Toronto and New York, in modern and ballet technique. For four years in Toronto she pursued Independent Dance Studies at York University. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and a Minor in Women's Studies from McGill University. Georgia has served as a juror for the New Brunswick Arts Board. In 2012 Georgia was chosen as a finalist for the Saint John Arts Awards.
Rondos Out of Proportion Dance continues to collaborate with local and national artists and bring professional, original and thought provoking dance theatre to Saint John.
ANDREA WEBSTER SCOTT
A graduate of The National Ballet School's prestigious Teacher Training Program, Andrea Webster Scott has studied with, worked with, and observed some of Canada's finest teachers. Andrea holds an Honours B.A. from the University of Waterloo (Major in Dance, Minor in Philosophy), and is an Associate of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (Cecchetti Society Classical Ballet Faculty and National Dance Faculty).
Mrs. Scott began her teaching career in 1990 at The Dancers' Studio in Mississauga, Ontario, under the directorship of Kathleen Duffy, and in 1994 accepted the position of Assistant Director. In 1995 Mrs. Scott returned to Saint John, NB, becoming the founder of Port City Dance Academy and Felicità, its student performing ensemble. Under her artistic direction, both are extremely vibrant organizations which contribute greatly to their community. Mrs. Scott’s students have been accepted to study professionally at The National Ballet School, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, and the schools of Alberta Ballet, Ballet Jörgen and Quinte. Mrs. Scott has also entered students from Port City Dance Academy’s Intensive Program for professional level Cecchetti exams, and they have received marks of distinction.
Mrs. Scott has been a teacher and choreographer for a number of schools and festivals, including in Toronto: The Katerina Evanoff School of Ballet, Interplay School of Dance, and The Pia Bauman School of Ballet and Creative Dance; in Mississauga: The Dancers Studio, The Mississauga Ballet Association, and Music 'N Motion; in Aurora, Ontario: The Somerville Dance Academy; in New Brunswick: The Studio, DanceAbility, Dance Fredericton, and The Festival of the Arts in St. Andrews; in Nova Scotia: the Ballet Society's Celebration of Ballet, and the Studio to Stage Dance Academy. Mrs. Scott is also an Associate Staff Member of the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts in Halifax. Mrs. Scott has worked with a number of musical and theatrical groups in Saint John including The New City Theatre Company, The Saint John Theatre Company, Fourth Avenue, The Friends of Music, the KV Players, Dansing, and Opera New Brunswick.
Voted one of Saint John’s top ten most interesting people, Mrs. Scott is a member of the Saint John Community Arts Board, and a former member of the board for P.R.O. Kids. Mrs. Scott has been a juror for the New Brunswick Arts Board (NBAB), and is honoured by her recent nomination to be a member of the NBAB. In 2005, Mrs. Scott received The New Brunswick Day Merit Award for Arts and Culture, and she was also nominated for the NBAB’s Award for Excellence in Dance.
