Teaching Staff
Angela Kirkham
Vocational Ballet & Tap, Musical Theatre
M.I.D.T.A R.A.D R.T.S LIFE MEMBER OF ROYAL ACADEMY OF DANCE
Angela began her training at the age of 3 in Middlesbrough. By the age of 12 she had won the English Ballet Championship and successfully passed her Royal Academy of DanceIntermediate examination – being the youngest in the country to do so at the time.
On moving to Ryedale at the age of 14 her dreams of continuing with her training were shattered when she found no dance school in the area could take her on as she was too advanced for any classes they could offer. So with encouragement from her parents she travelled to Leeds to start her teacher training. Meanwhile, after finding out about Angela’s dancing abilities new friends of her parents requested that she taught their children to give them something to do on a Saturday morning. Therefore the Kirkham School of Dancing opened in March 1971 at St. Joseph’s Church Hall, Pickering for 1 hour with 7 pupils. Angela opened the Kirkham Henry Performing Arts Centre together with Jennie Henry in 1989 and the Centre currently has 400 students with over 100 on the waiting list
Angela has worked over the years as an adjudicator for Dance Festivals/ Choreographer on touring shows, choreographing children’s ballets for summer schools, directing RyedaleYouth Theatre for 19 years, helping support The Louise Browne Yorkshire Ballet Scholarship Centre as Chairman, helping organize backstage for the Nureyev/Fontaine young dancer award, coaching ballet children for examinations and auditions throughout the country and coaching male dancers for the Billy Elliot school. Angela has also taught under-privileged children, who did not want to do anything with their life, to dance and be proud of their achievements. She also teaches senior citizens to help them stay young and mobile.
Over the 40 years that Angela has been teaching she has trained thousands of students to professional level, many of whom are now performing in musical theatre productions in theWest End and on tour, on Cruise Ships and in The Royal Ballet Company and ballet companies across the world. Others have chosen to become professional musicians, theatre technicians, stage managers, teachers of dance, music and musical theatre etc. or to study for alternative careers at Universities and colleges throughout the UK with the help of the transferrable skills taught at Kirkham Henry.
Angela Is a life member of The Royal Academy of Dance
Together with Jennie Henry, Angela opened Kirkham Henry Performing Arts in 1989. The rest is history.
Sarah-Louise Ashworth
Jazz
Sarah Louise is from Yorkshire, England. She trained at the Kirkham Henry School of Performing Arts since the age of three. At sixteen she went on to train at Laine Theatre Arts on the dance and musical theatre course where she gained her ISTD Ballet Associate teaching certificate in which she received Honours. She is also a qualified dance teacher of the IDTA and a mutually recognised teacher of the RAD.
Sarah-Louise has worked extensively as both a dancer and singer in both theatre and television. Her credits include:Cinderella – The York Grand Opera House, Best Foot Forward – Epsom Playhouse, Aladdin - Sunderland Empire Theatre, Queen Mother’s 100thBirthday Celebrations – London, M/V Ocean Majesty – Dancer, An Evening with James Bond – UK Tour, M/V Ocean Majesty – Singer/Dancer, QE2, Broadway Bound NY – Dance Captain, World Cruise. She has taught at Kirkham Henry since September 2005. In January 2006 she founded the Sarah-Louise Ashworth School of Dance inKirkbymoorside.
Alison Aungier
Music
Alison started playing the piano at the age four. She has played in Germany, America and the UK as a soloist and accompanist. Alison played her last concerto in York in 1990. She studied music at university with the main emphasis on piano accompaniment. She started teaching in 1988 and has 100% pass rate with ABRSM in piano, piano duet, and theory exams. Alison has also played for many societies, choirs and exams throughout County Durham and North Yorkshire. She is currently based in Harrogate where she plays for The Dale Singers – a 4part choir – and Associated Board exams. Alison has been accompanying students at Kirkham Henry for their singing and ballet exams since 1990 and currently teaches music theory.
Madelaine Cartwright
Vocals
Madeleine’s career as a musical director and pianist has taken her to many parts of the world, not least because of her role as Musical Supervisor of Riverdance which encompassed not only a successful Broadway run , but also pan American, European, Australian and Far East tours, as well as television and corporate appearances world wide. She was responsible for sourcing, auditioning all musicians and singers for the productions, as well as maintaining the performance standards throughout the world.
She has also lived in Switzerland where she was assistant conductor of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s own production of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and London, where she was musical director of the World Premiere of THE BETRAYAL OF NORA BLAKE, and was a regular keyboard player for West End shows such as BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, MISS SAIGON, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND , THE PRODUCERS, THE LION KING, MAMA MIA and LES MISERABLES.
Her work as a conductor and musical director in her native Dublin includes WEST SIDE STORY, THE WIZARD OF OZ and GREASE for the Olympia Theatre, MARY MAKEBELIEVE for the Gate Theatre and a Leicester Haymarket co-production of GUYS AND DOLLS for the Gaiety Theatre. She continues a long relationship as pianist and keyboard player with the RTE Concert Orchestra with whom she has also played on five Eurovision song contests. She has also worked with orchestras throughout the UK, including the Orchestra of Opera North, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, City of Birmingham Orchestra and London Concert Orchestra as well as The Odense Symfoniorkester in Denmark and Helsingborg Symfoniorkester in Sweden.
Martin Dixon
Vocals & Piano
Martin studied Piano Accompaniment, Conducting and Singing at the Royal Northern College of Music. He subsequently gained a Post-Graduate Certificate in Music Education at the University of Reading.
For many years he served as Head of Music at Archbishop Holgate’s School in York. During this period he planned and implemented Carol Services in the Minster and directed the music for shows such as Calamity Jane, The Boyfriend, Grease etc.
An experienced accompanist, Martin now teaches piano and singing and enjoys a wide range of music making. He has accompanied the Stavanger Symfoniorkesterets Kor at both Castle Howard and the University of York and has also performed with the Yorkshire Bach Choir.
For the benefit of his Saturday Singing Groups at Kirkham Henry, Martin uses Music Technology to engage pupils and to ensure that everyone has fun!
Sarah Ferguson (nee Richardson)
Jazz / Modern Dance
Sarah is a former pupil of Kirkham Henry, attending from an early age up until sixteen, when she continued her studies at Brian Rogers Performers College, Essex. During her time there she took part in many Royal Variety and Palladium performances, charity events, backing vocal recordings and some hair modelling contracts.
Sarah has choreographed extensively for shows and demonstrations and is a regular attender of ‘MOVE IT’ London.
Andrew Foxton
Drama (GCSE) 
Andrew has been involved with Kirkham Henry Performing Arts since the age of 3. Since then he has been involved with many projects and productions both as a student and teacher. For a number of years, Andrew was a member of Ryedale Youth Theatre. Credits include The King and I’, ‘Crazy for You’ and ‘The Wiz’ and was also fortunate to be chosen to appear in stage versions of Rhoald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’ and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Evita’ both at The Grand Opera House, York. Andrew took his love of performing arts to Huddersfield University where he gained a BA (Hons) in Theatre Studies and then to Bretton Hall, Wakefield to complete a secondary school teaching certificate specialising in drama. He taught drama at Kirkham Henry for a number of years and occasionally helps out between his teaching commitments as Head of Drama at Immingham School, Cleethorpes.
Joanne Green
Foundation (Bt, Tap & Theatre-craft)
Joanne started at Kirkham Henry Performing Arts at the age of four years, taking part in many professional pantomimes and shows. She was a founder member of Ryedale Youth Theatre and performed with them for 11 years, including Crazy For You at the Edinburgh Festival.
Joanne assisted in teaching and quickly realised she would like to make a career out of it. She studied for her Associate IDTA Teaching Examination under Miss Angela and passed with flying colours.
Joanne teaches Ballet Tap and Theatre Craft at Malton. She has choreographed Malton Pantomime since 2003. Joanne has herself appeared in many professional performances and helped Michaela devise the ‘Lets Pretend’ syllabus.
Michaela Kemp 
Foundation: Ballet / Tap / Theatre craft
Head of our Angelina Ballerina Dance Academy.
Michaela started dancing at the age of 5 with Angela and worked through all her exams until leaving school and studying for her Associate IDTA Teaching exam and passing with great results.Since then, Michaela has been with Kirkham Henry and has over 20yrs of teaching experience behind her, teaching Ballet, Tap and Musical Theatre.
She has taking many leading roles in local productions over the years and now choreographs for the local pantomime.
Miss Angela says: ‘ Miss Kyla is like Super Nanny as she has such an amazing way with the very young children ‘
Ali Kirkham
Jazz, Cabaret and Choreography
Ali began her stage career with John Hanson with the musical ‘A Student Prince’ touring major cities in the U.K. From there she was very lucky to be asked to sing for the birthday of King Kaled of Saudi Arabia in the beautiful ski resort of Gstaad, Switzerland where she performed in a gala along with stars such as Shirley Bassey, Liz Taylor and Roger Moore.
In 1977 Ali successfully auditioned for the famous BBC ‘Black and White Minstrel Show’ where she stayed for many years as George Mitchell’s leading lady. Wanting to travel the world, she got her first taste of ‘cruising’ in 1984 and since has performed on board some of the world’s first class cruise liners – including P & O’s ‘Canberra’, Sea Princess and U.S. based ‘SS Oceanic’. In 1986 Ali was asked again by impressario Robert Luff to appear in summer season for the centenary of the fabulous ‘Tiller Girls’ as lead vocalist where she met Roger Green again and they became the double act ‘Deja Vu’!
For many years they worked the act on board Fred Olsen’s ‘Black Prince’ before they expanded to produce and direct the production shows on board Black Prince, Black Watch’ and M/V Discovery for Discovery Cruises, all under the name of Deja Vu & Company.
T.V. credits include Harry’s girlfriend in ‘Boon’ Carlton, ‘Home to Roost’ with John Thaw (Yorkshire T.V.), ‘Chancer’ and Jerry Sadowitz Comedy Show (Pebble Mill BBC).
Roxanna Klimaszewska.
Drama 
Theatre and live entertainment is what I thrive on, performatively, creatively, strategically and voyeuristically I am one of the co-founders of a Theatre Company in York, Six Lips Theatre. I am an in-house performer, writer and I make up the team of Administrators for the company, specialising in Marketing, Press and Applications. We run writing and performance workshops, events and full scale performances. My long term goal is to work full time on this business; I hope over the next few years to work in Theatre Marketing as I believe I will gain valuable influence that will inform my practice as a Theatre Maker.
In April 2010 myself and two other York Saint John Graduates founded Six Lips Theatre. It was out intention to create provoking and poignant theatre with beautiful and lasting aesthetics despite the often aggressive or implicating nature of the work produced. We are self sufficient in that there are two in house writers, and are each endowed with complimentary skills that can be shared throughout our projects. Six Lips has allowed us as individuals to speak out about how we feel, and showcase talents we have otherwise had to wait for opportunities to share.
Rebecca Neacsu
Dance Training
Northern Ballet School (2002-2005) Dance and Drama Award Scholarship
Head Girl 2004-2005
Kirkham Henry Performing Arts (1989-2002)
Louise Browne Yorkshire Ballet Scholarship (1999-2002)
Performance Experience
MSC CRUISE LINES-MSC Orchestra-Dancer LEAD ADAGIO
COSTA CRUISE LINES- Costa Romantica-Dancer
JAZZ GALORE COMPANY- ‘Sing and Swing’
MANCHESTER CITY BALLET-‘Giselle’‘Coppelia’‘The Nutcracker’
‘TOSCA’- Russian Touring Opera
‘JOSEPH’- Bill Kenwright and Tim Rice Touring Company
Other Experience
A Generation of Visions Liverpool Based Dancing Film- Lead Classical Dancer
Jimmy Carr Live- Dancer
BBO Jazz Demonstration with David Needham
NATD Jazz Demonstration with David Needham
BBO Jazz Demonstration with David Needham
Molly Lake Awards Demonstration with David Needham
Studies and Qualification
RAD Ballet passed Advanced II and Grade 8
ISTD Examinations passed in Ballet, Tap and Modern
IDTA Examinations passed in Ballet, Tap and Jazz
LAMDA Examinations passed in Acting, Verse and Prose and Reading
Associate Board Examinations passed to Grade 6 Singing.
Other Skills: Basic Acrobatics, Double Work, Pas De Deux, Contemporary, Pointe Work, Singing, Drama and Choreographic Skills.
Catherine Rodgers 
Ballet / Head of Speech & Drama
Catherine trained at ‘The Kirkham School of Dancing’ which later became ‘Kirkham Henry Performing Arts’ under the direction of Angela and Jennie and with Mrs E. L. Game in York for her L.A.M.D.A. Speech and Drama examinations. To further her training she studied for three years at ‘The London Studio Centre’ under the direction of Margaret Barbieri and Anita Young for Ballet and Marcia Taylor-Brooke for Singing and appeared in ‘Dance Overture ‘91′ for Prince Edward at The Royalty Theatre, ‘92 at The Wimbledon Theatre; ‘93 at Salder’s Wells; Equity ‘91 at The Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre and Best of the Assessments ‘93 at The Shaw Theatre.
Catherine has also worked for Yorkshire Television appearing in ‘Book Tower’, ‘Darling Buds of May’, ‘Emmerdale’, ‘How We Used To Live’, ‘Stay Lucky’ and other productions.
On returning from The London Studio Centre, Catherine came to work for Kirkham Henry Performing Arts. She furthered her studies taking a three year Ballet teaching course with ‘The Royal Academy of Dance’ and currently teaches Ballet and Speech and Drama at Kirkham Henry.
Chloe Shipley
Jazz / Musical Theatre
Chloe begun her love for performing arts at Kirkham Henry where she trained for many years. She then went on and studied a national award in musical theatre at York college and came out with triple distinction. During her time at Kirkham henry she was a regular face in Ryedale Youth Theatre and also MNMT pantomime, in which she played roles such as Mrs Wilkinson in Billy Elliot and Killer Queen in We Will Rock You. Also taking part in UK tours at the Grand Opera House such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Tosca and Carousel. Chloe was lucky enough to get the chance to teach in New York for 4 months teaching 500 children how to dance, which then lead on to her receiving a promotion to dance head specialist. As well as performing Chloe enjoys choreographing and over the past few years she has choreographed musicals and pantomimes in the ryedale area. Chloe is thrilled to being back working with the team at Kirkham Henry!
Paul Webster
Breakdance
Jake and Paul are performers, choreographers and founder members of The York Breakdance Crew, ‘Gravity Control’ They have competed at various national competitions such as ‘Battle of Britain’ and performed around the country at productions such as the ‘Streets Ahead’ showcase held at the London Palladium. Having worked on their own breakdancing skills for a number of years they decided to share their knowledge with younger people enabling this art to continue through generations. Jake is a former member of Kirkham Henry Performing Arts and Louise Browne Yorkshire Ballet Scholarship Centre.
Barbara Wood
Drama
Barbara first began ‘treading the boards’ as a dancer in Wetherby pantomime at the age of five and has been ‘hooked ‘ever since. She has appeared in many productions with York Light Opera Society, Malton and Norton Amateur Operatics, York University Choir and the Kirkham Henry Adult Tap Group. Her professional debut was as a ‘Witch’ in the Roald Dahl classic at Leeds Grand Opera House in 1993! All three of Barbara’s children trained at Kirkham Henry and are now working professionally in the world of music, dance and TV. As a result of the many hours spent waiting for her children to finish classes, Barbara became involved with the Friends of Kirkham Henry and Ryedale Youth Theatre, with whom she has so enjoyed working for the past 20 years. In 2002 she decided to fulfil her ambition to gain a degree and embarked upon a 3-year fulltime course at York St. John University. Since graduating in 2005 with a B.A. Hons Degree in Communication Arts, specialising in Drama, Barbara has thoroughly enjoyed putting her years of experience and knowledge into practice by teaching the wonderfully talented students at Kirkham Henry Performing Arts.
Audrie Woodhouse
Drama 
Audrie Woodhouse is a Professional Actress and Performance Coach with more than ten years of teaching experience. She is an accomplished and sensitive teacher who strives to draw the best and most individual performance from her students. Incorporating her knowledge as a performer and reinforcing her work with academic theories, she has the tools and ability to both nurture the rawest talent in the youngest performer and provoke the most accomplished actor to exceed their expectation. As well as a varied portfolio of teaching expertise, she specialises in Mask and Physical theatre. In this field she is proud to have worked with practitioners such as John Wright, Paola Cavallin, Toby Wilshire, Luke Dixon, Emily Grey and Gregory Doran as well as companies including Trestle, NTC and for The Royal Shakespeare Company as Mask Consultant.
In her full and varied career as an actress she has enjoyed roles in Theatre, Film and Television. Audrie is a fully trained dancer and gained her first professional job at the age of 16. She has a diploma in Musical Theatre from LSMT at The Old Vic and a BA in Performing Arts from Middlesex University. She most recently graduated from University of York with a Masters in Theatre: Writing, Directing and Performance for which she gained distinction and won the Outstanding Project Prize for Highest Achievement.
Jennie Henry
Singing
Jennie, retired from her full time teaching at Kirkham Henry in 2007, when she taught voice production and music to pupils aged 5 – 75 yrs. Jennie began her musical teaching career at the age of 20.
Her professional engagements include a Sunday Summer Season with Moira Anderson at the Futurist Theatre, Scarborough and musical broadcasts from the BBC Leeds studios. She has been closely involved for many years with York and Ryedale operatic societies both as a performer and ‘out front’ as chorus mistress and musical director. Extensions of Jennies work have reached as far away as West Africa where her first post as musical director was made in association with the British High Commissionin Gambia.
Even though Jennie has retired, she keeps her hand in and still enjoys teaching her long standing pupils here at Kirkham Henry.
Guest Teachers
Samantha Raine 
Samantha Rai
Samantha was brought up in Malton, north Yorkshire and trained at Kirkham Henry Performing Arts (her mother’s school) before joining The Royal Ballet School. She was awarded the Kenneth MacMillan Choreographic Award in 1995 and the first Dame Ninette de Valois Award in 1998. She joined The Royal Ballet in 1997 and was promoted to Soloist in September 2006.
She dances a range of corps de ballet roles in the Company’s repertory, including The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Swan Lake, La Bayadere, Raymonda Act III, Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, La Fille mal gardée, Scènes de ballet, Kenneth MacMillan’sRomeo and Juliet, Concerto (Third Movement), Manon, the Woman in Ashley Page’sSleeping with Audrey, the Lady in Antony Tudor’s The Leaves Are Fading, In the middle, somewhat elevated, the Lead Girl in Nacho Duato’s Por Vos Muero, Pas de sixin Peter Wright’s Giselle, Mark Morris’s Gong, the Silver Fairy and Fairy of Temperament in Natalia Makarova’s The Sleeping Beauty, La Grêle in Bintley’s Les Saisons, the Autumn Fairy in Ashton’s Cinderella, a Cygnet, the Act I Pas de trois in Anthony Dowell’sSwan Lake, Second Sylph in August Bournonville’s La Sylphide, the Fourth Sister in MacMillan’s My Brother, My Sisters, Moyna and pas de six in Peter Wright’s production of Giselle, the Fairy of the Golden Vine and Silver Fairy in the Monica Mason and Christopher Newton production of The Sleeping Beauty, one of the two Blue Girls in Les Patineurs, Jemima Puddle-Duck in Ashton’s Tales of Beatrix Potter and a courtesan in MacMillan’s Manon.
She has created roles in Tom Sapsford’s Last Night at the Empire (2001), Lisa Torun’stic(k), Vanessa Fenton’s Frozen, Christopher Wheeldon’s Tryst, David Bintley’s Les Saisons, Wayne McGregor’s Qualia (2003), Alastair Marriott’s Being and Having Been(Linbury 2004) and Tanglewood (2005).
Pippa Raine 
Pippa started her training at Kirkham Henry Performing Arts centre in Malton, and went onto Laine Theatre Arts, Epsom, Surrey where she recieved the Laine Award for the most potential in the field of Dance.
Headliner Theatre Company, P&O Cruise ship ‘ Adonia’ ; Amanda in Private Lives..’ Adonia’
Theatre work : Gad’s wife in Joseph and his amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat ( Adelphi)
Young Stella in Follies (Royal Theatre, Northampton ; Featured singer in ‘Sinatra’( London Palladium) ; Mary Poppins original cast ( King Edward and Bristol Hippodrome) ; Cooper, Jus like That( Garrick) ; West Side Story (Leicester Haymarket) ; Kate Bush in Hot Stuff (Leicester Haymarket) ; understudy ‘Frankie’ in On Your Toes (Japanese tour, Royal Festival Hall and Leicester Haymarket) ; Fosse (original cast,Prince of Wales) ; Silly girl / Babette understudy in Beauty and The Beast ( Dominion) ; Royal Variety Performance 1994 ;
Royal Gala Performance for VE Day ( Coliseum) ; Royal Gala Performance for The Princes Trust ( Royal Albert Hall) ; Olivier Awards 2004 ; World cruise as lead production singer.
Film
The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Joel Schumacher
