Our Teachers
Jody Marshall
Founder and Director
Jody has more than 30 years of dance teaching experience under her belt, as well as diplomas in Jazz, Tap, Acrobatics and Classical Ballet.
She trained with Norma Atkinson Dance Academy from age 4 to 14 and commenced choreography for Norma at the young age of 13. At age 15, she opened a small dance school in Mt. Claremont, and by the time she was 17, she had opened Jody Marshall Dance Company in Warwick.
Jody won the Queen Elizabeth Trophy for Outstanding Public Performance Exam in 1977, and was the winner of the CSTD Teachers Aggregate for 11 years. She was the Director and Choreographer of over 30 annual productions at The Regal Theatre, Perth Concert Hall and Burswood Theatre, and had choreographed productions of West Side Story, 42nd Street and Oklahoma! in Australia.
Besides teaching at her own studios, she often travels to Hong Kong and Singapore as a guest teacher and choreographer. The JMDC Singapore students never fail to pick up loads of tips and pointers whenever Miss Jody is in town!
Originally from Mount Gambier, South Australia, Symiko trained with MJ Dance Studio and Dance Force in Gold Coast.
She then went on to apply herself to full-time dance education as a graduate from Sydney’s ‘Ev & Bow’ Studios, under the guidance of Sarah Boulter. Symiko was a Top 30 finalist on the TV series So You Think You Can Dance Australia- Season 4. She was also an original cast member of Marko Panzic’s The Dream Dance Company ‘Genesis’.
At the age of 19, Symiko made her professional debut with the Australian cast of THE LION KING, touring nationally, and then went on to perform with the Shanghai Disneyland production of THE LION KING.
Symiko was named dance captain/swing with Disney Cruise Line performing award-winning shows such as Beauty and the Beast, Frozen, and Aladdin onboard the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy.
Symiko is now venturing into the world of choreography and creative direction. After teaching and choreographing since 2013, Symiko is diversifying her repertoire to meet the creative culture of today's performing arts industry. She is passionate about coaching and nurturing the next generation of talent to develop strong and versatile performers as well as resilient and kind people that can handle the challenges of today’s world.
Symiko De Van Der Schueren
CHOREOGRAPHER
Cheryl Leo
RAD Ballet Teacher
Cheryl started RAD (Royal Academy of Dance) ballet training at the age of 6. She completed all RAD graded exams with distinction and went on to complete the vocational exams as well. She later attained RAD Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies (CBTS) in 2014. Cheryl is an Associate of the RAD as well as a RAD registered teacher.
Besides teaching ballet, Cheryl also teaches yoga. She dived into the teacher training programme in 2018 when she discovered that yoga complemented ballet. She began to integrate her yoga knowledge into her ballet classes to improve students’ body awareness and alignment.
Cheryl has since gone on to attain other yoga certifications, namely the 95hr Children's Yoga (2019) and 60hr Yoga Therapy Immersion (2021).
Cheryl emphasises on body awareness and alignment in classes to encourage her students to cultivate a good understanding of their body.
Qualifications
- Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies (RAD, 2014)
- 200hr Vinyasa Flow Yoga Teacher Training (Yoga+, 2018)
- 95hr Children’s Yoga (Divine Light Yoga, 2019)
- 60hr Yoga Therapy Immersion (Pure Yoga - Arun Rana, 2021)
Daniel began dancing at age six at Conroy Dance Centre. He debutted in the musical 'Jolson Story' at age ten. Daniel obtained his first professional contract with the 'Pacific Princess' at eighteen. Later, Daniel played in the production of 'LazyTown Live', and collaborated with some of the best choreographers within and outside of Australia. Daniel made his UK debut in 'Dick Whittington' in 2010, and enjoyed his triumph when he made his London and West End debut in 'Love Never Dies’.
He later reprised his role as 'Sportacus' and 'Dance Captain' in 'Christmas in LazyTown'. Daniel joined the ensemble of 'The Hairy Maclary and Friends Show' in 2013 as Dance Captain and toured with 'Giggle and Hoot and Friends - Live Stage Show'.
Daniel was a member of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Flag Handover Team. He performed with Guy Sebastian as part of the opening halftime show of the NRL season this year.
Dan Gourlay
GUEST CHOREOGRAPHER
Nichola Lim
Ballet/Jazz Teacher
As an alumnus of LASALLE College of the Arts, Nichola has since been actively involved in the dance industry as a performer, an educator and backstage crew - mainly as an Assistant Stage Manager. In LASALLE, she was privileged to be given opportunities to work with directors and choreographers from Singapore, Italy, Cambodia, the USA, Croatia and Hong Kong.
She has also performed at the Singapore Night Festival, Singapore International Festival of the Arts (SIFA), Da:ns Festival, G30 event and was also invited to perform in Italy and Beijing for their respective arts festivals. In commercial works, Nichola was also an active mascot performer with Pen2Stage Productions (Australia). Nichola’s interest in artistic gymnastics began her teaching career at The Junior Gymnastics Training Centre.
She has taught extensively for CCAs and enrichment programmes from various schools such as Hwa Chong Institution Trampoline school team, Nanyang Primary School, Singapore Chinese Girls’ School, Marymount Convent School, Global Indian International School, including special-needs schools like AWWA and MINDS, just to name a few.
In 2019, Nichola decided to explore overseas employment and was granted the opportunity to teach the RAD syllabus in China. Her overseas experience has unfortunately been shortened due to the uprise of Covid-19. Nichola currently holds a BA(Hons) in Dance, General Gymnastics Level One Coach under Singapore Gymnastics and is a certified Progressing Ballet Technique instructor.
She is also a registered coach for Artistic Gymnastics with National Registry of Coaches and MOE-IRS registered instructor for both gymnastics and dance. Awarded in the Essential Learning Module for the Teaching of Dance by NAC and a valid first aider, Nichola ensures that safe dance practice remains top priority in her dance and gymnastics teachings.
William Brougham
GUEST CHOREOGRAPHER
Originally from Albury, NSW, William trained as a dancer under the guidance of Tim Podesta before moving to Melbourne to continue his training at Patrick School of The Arts with Todd Patrick and Andrew Hallsworth.
At age 19, William made his professional debut dancing behind Katy Perry on The Voice Australia. He went on to perform with Opera Australia in ‘The Nose’, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘BRING IT ON the Musical’.
William then spent two years with Disney Cruise Line performing shows such as Frozen, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.
William is excited to share his passion for performing with the students at JMDC.
Natalie started Ballet at the age of three, training under both the Commonwealth Society of Dance and Royal Academy of Dance. As she discovered the intricacy of Ballet, her passion for the art form grew stronger and it became her form of expression.
She furthered her pre-professional training with the Singapore Ballet’s Scholars Programme, and later with the Australian Conservatoire of Ballet in Melbourne.
Natalie Chew
Ballet Teacher
Sammi Seet
Ballet, Tap & Jazz Teacher
Sammi was introduced to dance in 2004 in the form of tap. She continued to hone her tap dancing skills and completed the C.S.T.D syllabus with honours in 2014. During that time, she developed an interest in dancing and started jazz classes with the C.S.T.D syllabus and completed it in year 2014 with honours. Before graduating NAFA with a diploma in dance, she worked with choreographers such as Filomar Tariao, Ezekiel Oliviera, Richard Chappell to name a few.
Dorisa was introduced to choreography during her final year in secondary through a post exam activity, and knew right then that she wanted to dance - This led to her eventual enrollment into the Diploma in Dance program at NAFA at age of 19. As a late starter she braves through the storm with a vision - using dance to bring joy and hope to others. Which also led her to join the dance ministry in church. Dorisa enjoys teaching different dance genres such as ballet, contemporary, lyrical, jazz and hip hop and will often infuse styles of it together to create dance works for competitions and performances. She is now pursuing her Bachelor of Arts in Performance Making under NAFA and University of the Arts London and will be graduating in 2023.
She is also concurrently working as a dance teacher in studios and schools as well as being an artistic coordinator on a freelance basis. Her choreography achievements includes; Singapore Youth Festival, Get The Beat Singapore/Asia/World Tour, CSTD, Comdance Australia, Haisu China Competition, IMPACT Dance Adjudicators, Starlight Australia, Asia Pacific Dance & Singapore International Dance Challenge. Her performances include, Sarah Knox from New Zealand, 2nd production “Still, In the Face of Uncertainty” in Singapore. M1 Fringe 2022 Singapore directed by Rei Poh and Goh Shouyi where she was given her first acting role, Community Chest Charity Gala “Beauty World” by Dr Filoma Tariao where she was tasked to sing and dance, she also appeared in Mediacorp television series “Mata Mata 3” as a backup dancer. She is grateful and blessed to have parents and loved ones that supports her pursuit in dance, as well as God.
Dorisa Chan
Jazz & Hip Hop Teacher
Natalie Lin
CSTD Jazz Teacher
Born and raised in Singapore, Natalie was a Business Informatics student before she made a leap of faith and embarked on full-time dance training at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. She then went on to attain her Bachelor in Fine Arts (Dance) at Purchase College, State University of New York in 2016.
During her time in the USA, Natalie danced with the Salvatore Larussa Dance Theatre as well as with Kelly Donovan & Dancers. She performed in various shows in and around New York, and also toured with the company to Boston.
Natalie believes that dancing is for everyone as it builds self-confidence and discipline, and also encourages poise and a good body posture. Outside of Dance, Natalie enjoys practising Yoga and is also a certified Yoga instructor.
Esther is a Dance Practitioner, Dance Educator and Performer. Chinese Dance (specifically Fan dancing) was her first love, she later ventured into Ballet, Contemporary, Hip Hop, Jazz, Salsa and Tap dancings.
In her journey she was blessed to work with many talented local and international choreographers namely Celeste Theunissen (Malaysia), John Mead (United States/Singapore), Kalpana Raghuraman (Netherlands) Yvonne Ng (Canada), Jimmy The Macspencer (France) who continues to inspire her to date as an artist.
Through her dance residency as Coach of YStars (Youth with Down Syndrome under YMCA 2014 - 2019), Esther delivers the joy of movement through the vast dance vocabularies she has attained.
Fueled from love and joy of sharing/giving, her passion for dance education strives when there is significant growth in confidence, joy and discipline from students she had the honour of coaching with. With hard work and (gr)attitude individuals can grow their talent and love in art surpassing their limits. She believes life should be filled with lots of love, laughter and dancing, “Live Love Laugh Dance!”.
Esther Yong
CSTD Jazz Teacher
Kee Keng Hwen
RAD Ballet Teacher
Ms. Kee Keng Hwen has over 20 years of ballet teaching experience in Singapore. She joined Jody Marshall Dance Company (JMDC) West in 2017.
Ms. Kee graduated from London College of Dance with BA(Hons) Degree in Dance and Related Arts accredited by The University of Buckingham, United Kingdom. She started with the People’s Association Dance Company as professional dancer in 1996 and had represented Singapore to perform in Japan and Taiwan.
Ms. Kee is a Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) Registered Teacher (RTS) since 1998. She has been awarded the RAD Teaching Diploma and the prestigious Associateship ARAD from RAD, United Kingdom. She is also a certified Imperial Classical Ballet teacher of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD), United Kingdom.
Ms. Kee started teaching full-time, offering both RAD Graded and Vocational Graded syllabi in various community clubs since 1999. Endeavor in bringing up to the students’ potentials, she has trained many children who achieved Distinctions in their exams. She has also been engaged by RAD to be the mentor for Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies (CBTS) where she has trained and groomed several young teachers.