MEET THE TEAM
KIM SANTARELLI: Director
Fellow and International Major Examiner I.S.T.D.
I.S.T.D International Representative Australasia
Certified teacher for Acrobatic Arts
F.I.S.T.D. Modern Jazz L.I.S.T.D. Tap I.S.T.D. Ballet
Founder and School Director
Kim has over forty years of dance teaching experience behind her and twenty years of running her own dancing schools in Italy and New Zealand.
Kim's first professionally paid show was at the age of twelve where she was in the pantomime "Puss in Boots" and her first paid teaching position was at the age of fifteen. Never being able to get "performing" out of her system she entered into a career of dancing, travelling all over England, and then all over the world for a luxury cruise line company, firstly as a dancer then as choreographer for the company.
She has been associated with Selwyn College for the past twenty-five years, working very closely with firstly June Renwick, who was the founder and Director of the Selwyn College Tertiary Performing Arts, and the very successful on-going programme of the Junior Performing Arts and now with Duncan Allan, HOD Drama, working on Selwyn's Productions and Musicals.
With all her years of teaching, experience and knowledge she is able to help students to fulfill their dreams in the world of dance as she has always done and continues to do today.
CARL MYERS
RAD
RTS
ARAD
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Trained with Sissie Smith (England) Rosella Hightower & JoséFerran (France)
and Royal Ballet School (London)
Joined the Royal Ballet Company, with Sir Frederick Ashton choreographing
‘Lament of The Waves’ for Carl.
Became a Senior Principle with Sadler’s Well Royal Ballet dancing the leading
roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, La Fille mal Gardée, The
Two Pigeons, Romeo and Juliet, Raymonda Act III, Pineapple Poll, Grosse Fugue,
Tilt, Dances at a Gathering, 5 Tango’s, Les Rendezvous, Daphnis and Chloe.
Worked with choreographers –F. Ashton, K. Macmillan, P. Wright, J. Robbins, R
Hind, L. Massine, G. Tetley, H. Van Manen, R. Petit, N.de Valois, and D. Bintley.
Retired from dancing to become a ballet teacher, taking over from Louise Brown
to be the Director of Yorkshire Ballet Scholars and Seminars. Guest teaching Laine Theatre Arts London and other various schools and seminars in England, Sydney Australia and International RAD Seminars in Singapore, Jakarta and Wellington.
Arrived in New Zealand 1998, teaching for NZSD, Alison Pond, and Paula Hunt,
Artistic Director of ‘International Ballet Academy’
Director of IBA Foundation Course Christchurch.
Guest teaching for the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Adjudicator for New Zealand competitions.
Freelance teaching and coaching.
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SALLY MAJOR
A.I.S.T.D Tap dance
Sally started tap dancing at 6 years old then picked up modern/jazz at 7 years
and followed the ISTD Tap and Jazz syllabus. Sally was late to start ballet at 13
years old but it gave a solid foundation to all genres.
Sally reached her advanced Tap at age 16 and Advanced Modern at age 17. After
that, she continued with open classes and included Contemporary and even
Cabaret. She was involved in teaching tap classes from age 15 taking the juniors
and over the years she was assisting with the senior and even adult tap classes.
Over the years, Sally also enjoyed drama and singing classes, which along with
the dancing, allowed her to be involved in several amateur musical theatre
shows including The Wizard of Oz and Calamity Jane.
At age 19 Sally successfully auditioned for a chorus part in the Australian cast of
42 nd Street. The show played at the Aotea Centre for 8 weeks and was a
wonderful experience to work with such a fine cast.
Dancing took a back seat for a few years while she had her children but in 2010
Sally became a qualified ISTD Tap teacher thanks to the wonderful guidance of
Kim Santarelli.
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MARTINA BUZAK:​
A.I.S.T.D DIP Modern Jazz
Martina has been dancing since the age of 5 years old. She started it off with RAD ballet and continued until Adv 1 ballet. She picked up jazz at the age of 8 doing American Jazz (AJDA).
At 11 years old, she wanted to do contemporary (NZAMD). Her love for contemporary grew from there! She completed all levels of contemporary and became a teacher! At the age of 15, she moved to Kim Santarelli’s dance academy to do ISTD Jazz.
Then on, she has been a part of many musical and dance shows. In August 2018, she sat her final ISTD Modern (Jazz) exam (Adv 2), and achieved distinction! Martina has finished studying and is now a certified Physio therapist.