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A Rewarding Summer Intensive with an Exceptional Faculty
2024 Faculty
Kira Hofmann
Kira is a sought after ballet coach who resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her love of dance began at an early age in her hometown Kelowna, British Columbia, where she trained and competed in ballet, modern, tap, jazz, hip hop and musical theatre. At the age of 13, Kira accepted an offer to move to Winnipeg to train at Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. Kira went on to become a graduate of distinction from the RWB School. During her time there she was an annual scholarship recipient and represented the RWB at Assemblé Internationale, an Olympic-calibre gathering of the world’s top pre-professional dancers and artistic directors from leading ballet schools. From there, Kira accepted an offer to train in the State Ballet Academy at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart, Germany. Kira’s professional career began in Europe when she received a contract with the Stuttgart Ballet at the age of 19. She performed several ballet and contemporary works with the company, including Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, and Onegin. In 2015, Kira returned to Canada to pursue teaching. She received her Teaching Certification from Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and became a member of the Artistic Faculty in 2017. With the professional division, Kira taught ballet, pointe, conditioning, classical and contemporary repertoire. She enjoyed educating students in the professional division for close to 5 years. From 2017-2020, Kira also worked as Artistic Assistant to Choreographer, Jera Wolfe to set contemporary works on Canada’s National Ballet School, The School of Contemporary Dancers, and Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company. In April of 2019, she adjudicated for the Surrey Festival of Dance in British Columbia, and has adjudicated for Be Dance and Purpose dance competitions in Brampton and Brantford Ontario and will be adjudicating again this spring in Ottawa and Guelph Ontario. She has gracefully taken on Workshops and Intensives across the country as a Guest Instructor. Kira continues to teach and choreograph, with the goal of creating a safe space for her students to explore their art. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge and experience with the future generation of dance.
Scott Augustine
Scott Augustine grew up in the lower mainland of BC and has become well known as one of this country’s most versatile professional performers. As a contemporary dancer, he has toured extensively with Wen Wei Dance and the 605 Collective/Company 605, among others. Scott is often seen in professional Musical Theatre, performing regularly with the Arts Club Theatre Company, and others, including playing the role of Riff in Vancouver Opera’s production of “West Side Story”. Scott has worked on projects/music videos with "So You Think You Can Dance" choreographers Stacey Tookey, Adam Shankman, Paul Becker, and R.J. Durell; and for such film/T.V. companies as NBC, CTV, Nickelodeon, Disney, and Touchstone. He has also had the honour of working with such choreographers as Kathleen Marshall, Suzi Taylor, Patti Columbo, Lisa Stevens, and Simone Orlando; and such artists as Michael Buble, Maestro Fresh Wes and The Humans. Scott's choreography credits include “Oliver!” for the Vancouver Playhouse, Once for the Arts Club Theatre, collaborative work in “Unbound” and “Under The Skin” with Wen Wei Dance; for the films “The Cleaner”, “Reefer Madness” and for commercials for Honeycomb Cereal, Burger King, and NCIX. Scott was featured in the Fosse episode of the T.V. show “Hellcats” and the movie musicals “Reefer Madness”, “Once Upon a Mattress”, “Totally Awesome”. Most recently he was part of the creative team for the shows “Magicians”, “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, “Once Upon a Time”. Scott was also a Principle Dancer for the grand opening of Tokyo Disney Sea’s show “Encore!” in Tokyo, Japan, as well as a Principle Tapper for the Opening Ceremonies for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. He just currently ended his fourth season dancing with the professional jazz company Decidedly Jazz Danceworks.
Matthew Cluff
Matthew Cluff started his dance training at Judy Russell’s Enchaînement Dance Centre in Prince George, BC, where he studied ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, contemporary, musical theatre, modern, acro, and lyrical jazz. After completing his training there, Matthew moved to San Francisco to further his dance studies at the San Francisco Ballet School before graduating in December 2012.
In January 2013, Matthew received his first contract from Ballet Victoria, where he quickly rose through the ranks and performed many lead roles in both classical and contemporary repertoire, including title roles in "Romeo and Juliet", "Amadeus", "Dracula", "Frankenstein", "The Nutcracker", and main roles in excerpts from "Don Quixote" and "Le Corsaire".
In April 2016, Matthew performed the role of Older Billy in the Vancouver Arts Club Theatre Company’s production of “Billy Elliot”, an opportunity that combined his love of dance (ballet and tap) with singing and acting.
In July 2016, Matthew joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal as a Corps de Ballets member, and was later promoted to a Demi-Soloist in 2020. There, he danced numerous featured roles, such as Albrecht in Giselle, Bluebird in Sleeping Beauty (excerpts), and the Chaneteur Populaire in Vendetta, amongst others.
Matthew has taught workshops and dance classes at studios in Prince George, Kamloops, Kelowna, Victoria, Nanaimo, Courtenay, and Montreal. He is thrilled to be returning to the Okanagan this summer to teach for the Canadian School of Ballet.
Joanna Lige
Joanna Lige is the Rehearsal Director for Ballet Kelowna. She is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, a RAD Registered Teacher, a Certified Progressing Ballet Technique Instructor, a member of the Council of Ontario Dance and Drama Educators, and a member of the International Association of Dance Science and Medicine.
She grew up in Kelowna and has trained with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, The Banff Centre for the Arts, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, and SITI Theatre Company. She has performed work by Sharon Moore, Michael Trent, Danny Grossman, Julia Sasso, Peter Chin, José Limón, Bill James, and Sarah Chase. She has recently collaborated and performed with the Evolve Arts Collective, the Body Project, and the Inner Fish Theatre Society. She performed in Looks Like Sounds, an improvised evening of music and dance as part of the Living Things Festival 2023, and was invited to the FACT/SF Summer Dance Lab in San Francisco in 2022.
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Creating Physical Art Through Dance