Teachers

Tap/Jazz/Musical Theatre: Philip Joel

Theatre credits include: ‘Aladdin’ at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking and Milton Keynes Theatre, ‘Celtic Journey Dance Sensation’ at The Churchill Theatre, Bromley, Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage and Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, ‘Performers Reloaded’ and ‘Back to Our Roots’ at the Towngate Theatre Basildon, ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ at the London Cruise Terminal, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ playing the role of narrator/dance captain and ‘Live at the Bloomsbury’, Bloomsbury Theatre, London. I have also appeared as a dancer at the ‘Daisy Ball’ and the ‘Candy Ball’ at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London.

Film and Television credits include: dancer in ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, click track dancer for the lead in ‘Nutcracker-The Untold Story’, dance captain MTV ‘Living On The Edge’, ‘Top of the Pops’ as a backing dancer for Inaya Day and GMTV ‘100th Anniversary for the British Heart Foundation’.

Choreography experience: Choreographer/Assistant choreographer, ‘Celtic Journey Dance Sensation’ and ‘Celtic Journey’ auditions. Assistant choreographer, First Family Pantomime auditions.

Commercial Jazz/Musical Theatre: Ben Skevy

Ben began trained at London Studio Centre where not only was he awarded a coveted place, but a scholarship too, After 3 years intense full time training, majoring in Jazz dance, he graduated to begin his career in the professional dance world.Ben has worked continuously and extensively since his graduation. He has an extremely versatile dance style and technique, his work encompasses all aspects of dance from Jazz to Commercial to Hip Hop to Musical Theatre. His dance career has taken him to countries all over the world, on UK Tours, performing for Pop acts, in Musical Theatre, Music Videos, DVD's, Feature Films, and TV Shows.Ben is also a successful model with a lucrative career spanning Photographic work, TV Commercials and Fashion Shows.He has now opened the door to acting too, and has begun work in TV, Film and Theatre.

Ben is a focused talented individual and still trains regularly to further his performing skills and technique. Ben is an excellent choreographer and is incredibly passionate about helping young dancers who attend Talent Time achieve standards of excellence both technically but also in performance. With his finger firmly on the pulse Ben is a choreographer you will wont want to miss working with!

Vocal Coach: Gemma O' Duffy

Theatre includes: ensemble/1st cover Scaramouche in We Will Rock You(West End), Rusty in Footloose (West End and UK tour), Seagulls Dance (Soho Laundry), Irene McNally in The Piper (Savoy) and Puss in Boots inNursery Crimes (King’s Head). Gemma was proud to be part of the critically acclaimed Spring Awakening (Lyric, Hammersmith, and West End) and then joined the newly directed Les Misérables, which took the production back home to Paris (original company, 25th anniversary international tour). Also, the Les Misérables 25th anniversary concert at The O2 and The Royal Variety Performance with the Les Misérables cast. Most recently, soloist inShoes (Peacock) and Pricilla (Palace Theatre)

Concerts includes: Gemma was a finalist for the BBC Radio 2 Voice of Musical Theatre 2006. She has worked extensively as a soloist in the UK and abroad with various orchestras, including The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Music of Bond, Summer Nights (Tonbridge Castle) and concerts for the Hallé Orchestra under the musical direction of Carl Davis CBE (Bridgewater Hall).

Television includes: Celtic Soul Brothers, Children in Need, Paloma Faith music video New York and T-Mobile commercial

Vocal Coach: Nicky Newman

Nicky a singer/songwriter/vocal coach and choreographer, has been heavily involved with Talent Time for the last 6 years, helping to put together productions such as Annie, Gypsy, A Chorus Line and many of the companys annual Summer Shows!. She has perform in many productions herself such as Les Miserables, A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, A Little Shop Of Horrors, and Hair to name but a few and has also appeared singing live on ITV’s This Morning. Nicky has toured France and Italy with a 60 strong choir, which she co-directed, including a performance in Disneyland Paris. Nicky now works as a freelance vocal coach within London and the surrounding areas and privately at TT Dance Studio.Nicky has been involved with a lot of session work and has recently finished recording the lead vocals on a brand new musical entitled Kane.

Ballet: Katie Ventress

Katie completed a three-year Musical Theatre Diploma at the Italia Conti Academy in London and has since had a wide experience of teaching children. She holds a ‘Foundation in Dance Instruction’ in Imperial Classical Ballet and Modern Theatre dance and also ‘Certificate in Dance Education’ in both genres too.

Katie previously performed professionally appearing in numerous musicals and plays, both on the London fringe circuit and touring the country. She's also a qualified fitness instructor. She' s delighted to be TT Dance Studio's head of Ballet.

Musical Theatre/Jazz: David Lyons

 
David started as a Ballroom and Latin dancer at the age of eleven, he then won many awards and competed in the world Junior championships.He then joined the BRIT school followed by Laine Theatre Arts graduating with honours and teaching qualifications.On leaving college he went straight into the original West End cast of "The Beautiful Game" followed by "Saturday Night Fever", "Copacabana", "Fame", "What A Feeling" and the U.S. tour of "Ray Charles".David has danced for Lionel Ritchie, Gareth Gates, Sinita and many other pop stars and recently Starred in Living TV's "Dirty Dancing". His choreography credits include: "Swing Fever" - UK tour, "It Must Be Madness" - Central School of Speech and Drama, "Jazz Company" - UK tour, "Mama Mia" - Emirates Palace, "Lovely Girl" - Pop video releasing world wide this year, and David is also a Regular choreographer for Sinita from the X-factor.
 

Musical Theatre: Matthew Shannon

 
Matthew was born in Devon. He attended the Brit School of Performing Arts before furthering his professional training at the Arts Educational School, London on a full scholarship where he completed a BA Honours degree in Musical Theatre.

Parts played at college include: ensemble, understudy Pat Denning in 42nd Street, Cat in the Hat in Seussical and the Gatekeeper in The Wiz.Other credits include: Dancer in the World War 2 Commemorations (BB1), Genie in Aladdin (Newport), Slave of the Ring and Dance Captain in Aladdin (Camberley) Giant in Jack and the Beanstalk (Reading) Silly Billy in Jack and the Beanstalk (Dorking) Silly Billy in of Robin Hood and Babes in the Wood (Grays) Butch and Dance Captain in Vavoom- A New Musical (Brighton), Lead Dancer in Desire- A New Musical (Albany Empire) and Harry with the RTE Concert Orchestra in My Fair Lady at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.Matthew has also performed all over the world on a couple of P&O Cruise Ships. Credits onboard include: Ugly Sister in Cinderella, Father in Elvis the Musical and lead vocalist in Side by Side and Magic of the Musicals. Apart from being on stage and choreographing he is also a trained fitness instructor getting people into shape.