INSTRUCTORS

Jennifer Thorogood is the director of Alive Danceworks. She has been dancing for 22 years and continues to dance professionally. Jennifer has had extensive training in Ballet with the Banff Centre for Performing Arts with numerous internationally acclaimed teachers as well as with Alberta Ballet. She has also studied everywhere from Calgary to New York City in many other dance disciplines such as modern, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, hip-hop and was a competitive gymnast at a young age. Jennifer has performed in many professional shows including six years in Alberta Ballet’s production of the “Nutcracker”, Northwest Ballet’s “Cinderella”, numerous Banff Centre productions, television, and various half time shows. As co-founder of the group “Dance Attack”, she traveled to the United Arab Emirates and Greece with country singer Lisa Brokop and other professional artists in 2002.  Jennifer’s teaching experience includes classes at Alberta Ballet as well as the children’s roles in their production of the “Nutcracker” and “A Midsummer’s Night Dream. She taught for Integrated Dance Arts and has enjoyed teaching dance options in high school programs and in various workshops. Jennifer started Alive Danceworks in an after school program that quickly outgrew the space. She enjoys teaching She is thrilled to be in year five at our present location sharing her love of dance with children of every age.

Rocky Mejia is an exciting energetic performer, teacher and choreographer. He has trained and performed with the modern dance company POWER dance in Manila, Philippines. He has appeared in numerous films and TV shows including “Honey I Shrunk The Kids”, commercials for FORD, and the motion picture “I’ve Seen You Before”. He has traveled the world performing on international stages with companies such as Princess Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruise Lines, and Murray Hatfield. His unique style of blending Tap, Jazz, and Hip-Hop with a soulful urban feel has won him affection with students of all ages at home and abroad.

Jody Szott has toured across Canada with the Murray Hatfield Company and has numerous performances in the Calgary Stampede Grandstand Show to her credit as a member of the Young Canadians.  In addition to dancing, Jody has been in many musicals and plays including the role of Rizzo in the popular regional production of “Grease”.  Whether singing, dancing or acting, Jody is still a triple threat performer who brings excitement and energy to both the stages she performs on and the classrooms she teaches in.  Jody believes in a strong work ethic and explores the emotions and feelings in her works.  This develops a unique expression of the individual in their dance.



Tarra Wiegel
Tarra was a shy child so didn’t start dancing until the age of 11. She started out training in Hip Hop in Victoria, BC at Stages Dance Company but that soon grew to a love of dance that would take her into many different styles including jazz, ballet and lyrical. Tarra soon joined Stages Dance Performing Company and performed locally in Victoria with a team that she both trained with and taught. At the age of 19, Tarra moved to Vancouver to train at Harbour Dance Studios but was only there 3 months before signing onto Carnival Cruise Lines where she spent 14 months performing and traveling around the Caribbean. Since then Tarra has traveled, trained and performed in Singapore, Indonesia, Bali, LA and now Calgary. She is very happy to be a teacher at Alive Danceworks and to be a part of “Vivo” The Alive Dance Company!

Amanda Mak is an energetic teacher who brings lots of creativity and experience to all of her classes.  Amanda has 17 years of formal dance training and has traveled all over the world as a performer.  Her most recent endeavor has been to Reisa Germany where she was a soloist and member with the Canadian National Tap Team competing to win a world title.  Amanda is very passionate about teaching and has a lot of experience with children of all ages and abilities.  Currently Amanda is working towards finishing her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary .


Telisa Dubasov
Dance has always been a significant part of Telisa’s life. She began dancing 12 years ago at Dance Innovations in Yorkton, Saskatchewan and continued her training at George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario where she completed the Dance Performance Foundation program. Telisa has trained in many areas of dance including jazz, ballet, pointe, modern and hip hop and has taken vocal and acting classes as well. In addition to dancing, Telisa has also been teaching for the last 7 years and is a fully qualified and certified ADAPT (Associated Dance Arts for Professional Teachers) Jazz and Tap Teacher. The moment Telisa stepped foot in a dance studio she knew she wanted to pursue a career in dance. Since that moment, it has been her dream to share the passion she feels for dance with others through her teaching.

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