Instructors

Caulfield School of Dance

Cori Caulfield B.F.A.- Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Tap, Acting, Musical Theatre

Cori Caulfield started teaching in her parents’ basement when she was thirteen years old and officially founded the Caulfield School of Dance in 1989. Cori has also instructed and choreographed for many performing arts groups and institutions both locally and abroad including the Goh Ballet Academy and Company, Dancestreams Youth Dance Company, Main Dance, the University of Lethbridge, Concordia University and Ballet Divertimento in Montreal, the University of Alberta, and Patravadi Theatre Company in Bangkok, Thailand. She has been a guest speaker at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, Main Dance, and Grant McEwan College. Cori toured her full length solo piece molt this spring and has been commissioned to create a piece for the dance company of the University of Alberta this fall. In the 2005-2006 season, she performed her solo show "molt" in Edmonton and Banff and her show of “portrait solos” at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

Cori has a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University and a diploma in Limon Modern Dance Technique from the Limon Institute, New York. She has toured extensively with her “meticulously crafted solos” (The Globe and Mail) in Canada and in several cities through China, Singapore, and Malaysia. Her solos have been presented in New York City in 1998, 2000, and 2002; in Zagreb, Croatia in 2003; and in Portland, and twice in Seattle in 2004. She has also performed as a dancer, actor, and singer in the works of other well known Canadian choreographers, most recently for Crystal Pite’s company Kidd Pivot, with whom she continues to tour internationally.

Please click here to find out more about Cori Caulfield.

Isabel Yuan R.A.D. R.T.S., A.I.S.T.D., Cecchetti, & N.B.S. P.D.T. - Ballet, Character, Chinese Dance

Isabel Yuan, formerly known as Kasumi Hayashi, is a Royal Academy of Dance Majors Vocational Examiners, one of only forty in the world.

Isabel Yuan also holds the National Ballet School Professional Dancers’ Teaching Certificate, Cecchetti Associate and Advanced Certificates, and Royal Academy of Dancing Registered Teacher Certification.

Born in China, Ms. Yuan began professional Russian training at the Beijing Ballet Academy at the age of ten. After graduating with distinction in all subjects, she immediately went on to dance professionally in Japan. As a principal ballet dancer for 15 years with Japan’s Tani Ballet Company and as a Guest Artist with the Houston Ballet Company in the USA, and with the National Ballet of Canada, she danced leading roles in the most famous classical ballets,such as Les Sylphides, Don Quixote, and Swan Lake.

After sustaining dance injuries in 1995, Isabel retired from performing and came to Canada to study at the National Ballet School in Toronto. After her teacher training, Isabel taught Teacher Training at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School as well as students of the Professional Division and the General Division.

Isabel recently guest taught at the Beijing Dance Academy for the National Ballet School in China. We look forward to her ninth year with the Caulfield School of Dance!

Jennifer Green R.A.D.T.C.

We will miss Miss Jennifer’s enthusiastic and caring teaching. We have so benefited these past seven years from her love and knowledge of theatre and dance. We wish Miss Jennifer all good things as she begins her new life in Merit. Married just one year ago, Miss Jennifer and her husband Spencer have just welcomed thier first child. Congratulations Jennifer and Spence!

Sommer Thome B.F.A.- Hip Hop, Jazz, Ballet, Modern, Tap

Sommer has trained extensively in the disciplines of ballet, jazz, tap, and hip hop since childhood. Her training has taken her up and down the West Coast and across to New York City. Sommer joyfully received her B.F.A. with a major in dance at Simon Fraser University in June 2002.

While at SFU, Sommer was involved with many student and faculty shows as well as performing and touring with their modern dance ensemble Off Center Performance Company. Some of her other performance credits include tapping with the Vogue Tap Troupe in conjunction with the Vogue theatre’s presentation of the Gershwin tap musical Crazy For You, performing with Vancouver’s own Kokoro Dance in presentations of Wreck Beach Butoh and Crime Against Grace, and performing with Coriograph Theatre, in it’s presentation of EVE.

More recently Sommer has danced as a part of choreographer Henry Daniel’s company Full Performing Bodies in its presentation of SKIN, for choreographer Monica Strehlke in a piece entitled Shoe Wop for 12 Minutes Max, and was last seen rollerskating around a spoken word poet in Urban Flow Productions genre-mixing show, Injected, and shaking her groove thing in Cardinal Productions disco review, Boogie Wonderland. Sommer has also appeared in fashion shows for Point In Time and M.A.C. Cosmetics. Sommer has been teaching and choreographing throughout the Lower Mainland for over ten years, she enjoys sharing her love of dance with each and every one of her students and strives to inspire them to achieve their goals in technique and performance.

Kim Steger B. Music(Voice), M. Music(Musical Theatre) - Musical Theatre, Acting, Voice Training

Kim grew up in Mission, BC studying piano and voice. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance at UBC and went on to a Master’s degree in Musical Theatre at The Boston Conservatory. She has been performing musical theatre professionally since 1999 in locales such as New York, New Jersey, Toronto, and for Renaissance Cruise Lines in Tahiti.
Since returning to Vancouver three years ago, she has enjoyed performing locally in roles such as “Claire” in On the Town (APPLAUSE! Musicals in Concert), “Queenie/Maureen” in Honk! The Musical (Ophidian Entertainment), “Maria” in The Sound of Music (Royal City Musical Theatre Co), and “Fruma-Sarah” in the Playhouse Theatre Company’s Jessie Richardson Award-winning production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Kim has been teaching voice and musical theatre since 2001. We are excited to have Kim with us for her second year at the Caulfield School of Dance.

Ken Kajiwara - Ballroom and Swing

Bio to follow.

Krista Adamic B.F.A. - Acro and Modern

Krista grew up doing competitive gymnastics, dancing, and cheerleading. She graduated from the Caulfield School of Dance in 1999. After performing with the BC Lions Cheerleading Team for two seasons, Krista entered the Simon Fraser University School for Contemporary Arts Dance Program. While at SFU, Krista had the opportunity to work with such choreographers and teachers as Serge Bennethan, Wen Wei Wang, Judith Garay, and Megan Walker-Straight.

Since earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2004 she has created and performed new works with 30Toes, a collective of emerging dance artists, for 12 Minutes Max, Garden Dances, The West Coast Chocolate Festival, and various other venues. She has also performed with Coriograph Theatre, and is currently an apprentice with MovEnt, a Vancouver-based contemporary dance company.

30Toes has been selected as Artists-In-Residence by the Scotiabank Dance Centre for the 2006/07 season and will be creating new works, and developing dance workshops for school children during that time. As well as working in the Caulfield Schol of Dance office, Krista has been teaching dance to students of all ages and abilities, and choreographing routines for competitive gymnasts since 2003.

Crystal Wills - Ballet, Character, Jazz

At the age of three, Crystal Wills began her training at the Caulfield School of Dance. In her graduating year, she won the Provincial Senior Modern and Contemporary Dance Championship at the BC Festival of the Arts. In 2003-2005 she trained for two years in Ballet British Columbia’s mentor program.

Recently, Crystal has performed in 12 Minutes Max, Vancouver International Dance Festival 2005 and 2006, and various MOVE performances.

Crystal has received scholarships from the Vancouver Ballet Society, Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre, Royal Academy of Dance, Scotia Bank Dance Centre, Coquitlam District Music Festival, and Surrey Festival of the Arts.

She has had the opportunity work with talented world renowned dancers and choreographers such as Serge Benethan, Cori Caulfield, Carolina Fitzner, Margi Gillis, Mark Godden, Christopher House, Edmond Kilpatrick, Simone Orlando, Kathryn Ricketts, Acacia Schachete, Almond Small, Helen Walkley, and Sharon Wehner. It has been a joy for Crystal to join Caulfield’s fantastic staff and work with such wonderful students.

Hailley Caulfield - Jazz, Tap, Musical Theatre

Hailley officially started taking lessons from her big sister Cori when she was three. After fifteen years of training in ballet, jazz, tap, modern, musical theatre, and acting at the Caulfield School of Dance she graduated last year and immediately got work as a dancer in two feature films and MOVE: The Company. She had her professional dance debut at age 5 with Ottawa choreographer Anic Bouvret and performed with Midnight Hags, and Coriograph Theatre. As an amateur solo competitor, Hailley won many awards and honours including the LA Dance Force Solo, Duo, and Trio Under 15 competition with her jazz solo “Scream” when she was 11, in California.

She has won first place at Coquitlam District Music Festival and Surrey Festival dance competitions in Ballet (including set solo), Jazz, Lyrical Jazz, Modern, Contemporary, Song and Dance, Stage, Tap, Choreography, and Music Interpretation and was chosen as a Provincial delegate three times and runner up twice. She has received three Provincial titles: Runner up for Intermediate Jazz, Tap and Stage; Runner up for Intermediate Modern and Contemporary; and Runner up for Senior Modern and Contemporary. She has been selected to the prestigious Vancouver Ballet Society Spring Seminar, and trained at other intensives in BC, and Alberta. Hailley has also trained in England, Italy, Holland, and France.

In March Hailley began an eight month contract dancing for the world’s largest cruise line on their largest ship, touring Mexico and the Caribbean.