Chantal Pinguet
Owner/Director
Born and raised on the Kapiti Coast, Chantal trained in many dance styles. She was a New Zealand School of Dance Classical Associate, part of the Royal New Zealand Ballet Mentorship Program and completed her final RAD ballet exams under Bronwyn Bennett at Chilton Dance Centre.
At 16, Chantal moved to the Gold Coast to begin her full-time ballet training at Atelier Australia before moving to Switzerland to accept a scholarship at Ecole-Atelier Rudra Bejart. Here she trained for 60 hours a week in classical ballet, Martha Graham modern technique, classical voice, percussion, kendo, theatre, acrobatics and classical Indian dance.
With Rudra Bejart and the Bejart Ballet Lausanne company, Chantal performed a number of neo-classical and contemporary works on stages across Europe.
Chantal accepted a contract with the Poznan Opera Ballet in Poland at 19, performing in traditional classical ballets and more modern ballets such as Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Serenade and Anna Karenina.
Wanting a new challenge and the chance to perform more styles, she began working with an agency in Greece in 2017. Since then, she has performed in 5 star resorts during the summer season on a number of Greek islands. She gained experience as a choreographer, fitness instructor and MC and was soon working as an Entertainment Manager organising the evening shows, sports and fitness programs, parties and kids entertainment. As well as producing a number of shows over the seasons, Chantal loved the chance to upskill and perform street dance styles, latin dance and musicals.
When in New Zealand, Chantal coached students and taught at numerous schools and events nation-wide. Chantal has also enjoyed adjudicating many competitions and examining the Dance NZ Made syllabus.
In 2020, whilst back in Aotearoa due to Covid-19, Chantal created ‘Stage to Studio’ and has been running dance workshops and competitions for dancers in the lower North Island ever since.
She started to teach at Kate Martin School of Dance in 2020, and took on a bigger role in 2021. Chantal is thrilled to be a part of the evolution of this school and become the owner and director in 2023.
Ashley West
Teacher
Ashley started dancing at the age of 4, and fell in love with it right away! She attended Judith Fuge Dance School where she trained in a number of styles including jazz, hip hop, tap, contemporary and ballet.
In 2018 Ashley graduated from Paraparaumu College as Cultural Captain and was awarded Te Ako Patuia Award for Learning and Leadership.
Following that, Ashley spent 6 months working in 5 star resorts in the Greek islands. She performed in a number of shows and was also responsible for leading fitness classes and children’s’ activity programs.
Currently Ashley is working at Kenekena primary school where she works hard to create an exciting and motivating environment for all the students she supports.
Charlotte Gilmour
Teacher
Charlie began her training in 2007 at the Maureen Ax School Of Dance in Palmerston North, where she trained under Maureen Ax, Louise Baker and Brooke Parsons. Upon completion, Charlie was offered a full scholarship to Village Nation Performing Arts in Sydney, Australia where she trained under Jacqui Howard and Wayne Aspinall.
Charlie has worked as a performer on ‘The Voice Australia’, with Joe Jonas, Kelly Rowland, Delta Goodrem and Boy George. She was also a dancer for the launch of ‘SBS Football World Cup’ and was part of the live filming for an Australian tv show, ‘Dance Boss’.
She had accepted a dance contract in Greece with Remarc Agency for 2020 however stayed home due to Covid.
In her return to New Zealand, Charlotte has been choreographing, teaching and adjudicating nationwide while also working in ‘Unity Dance Company’, based in Wellington
Mekaela Anderson
Teacher
Ashley Snow
Teacher
Ashley was a competitive gymnast for three years before starting dance with Kate Martin School of Dance at age eleven. She also competed as a regional representative for taekwon-do, swimming and netball throughout her childhood.
She has years of experience as an assistant teacher, and later as a teacher, working with children aged 3+ in both dance and taekwon-do.
In 2020 Ashley gained her ‘Acrobating Arts Module One Teacher Certificate’ through Acrobatic Arts.
The following year she was the Head of Arts prefect at Waiopehu College and graduated with Excellence Endorsement.
Ashley is currently studying at Massey University.
Louise Baker
Regular Guest Teacher – RAD Ballet
Louise completed a Diploma in Commercial dance at the Wellington Performing Arts Centre (now Whitireia) in 2010, receiving the first year scholarship for the most promising student. During her time at WPAC she performed in the Wellington Musical Theatre production Gleevent as a solo dancer and was a Hurricanes cheerleader.
Louise became interested in hip hop dance when she was accepted into Wellington’s Infinite Dance Crew and went on to travel internationally with them, receiving 4th Place in the FISAF world championships.
After a busy few years in Wellington teaching for Pump dance and Step out Dance Co, Louise moved to Melbourne where auditioned successfully for a dance contract which took her to the Dominican Republic. Louise returned home to teach for 8 months before setting off for London to travel, dance and teach. During her 2 years there she taught at Spencer Stage School in Notting Hill, became a London Cheerleader and continued to take classes at the famous Pineapple Dance and Studio 68. In 2014 Louise attended Urban Dance Camp in Germany where she was able to learn from some of the best jazz, contemporary and hip hop tutors in the world.
Louise returned to NZ and completed her Royal Academy of Dance Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies (CBTS) while teaching at the Maureen Ax School of Dance. Louise has been a judge/tutor and guest taught at various summer schools, workshops and competitions over the past 7 years as well as teaching ballet, jazz and contemporary casually for DanceWorks studios in Palmerston North. In 2022, Louise moved, with her family, back to her hometown of Pahiatua and restarted Tararua School of Dance. The school has grown to over 100 students in just under a year and Louise is now a registered teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD).
Charis O’Conner
Regular Guest Teacher – Acro
Charis is from Guildford, UK and trained professionally at Laine Theatre Arts, London and the Royal Ballet School, Senior Associates. She worked on board Norwegian Cruise Lines as a dancer and aerialist as her first job. Her London West End debut was in Sinatra: The Man and his Music at the prestigious theatre, the London Palladium. She worked in Disney’s Tarzan the Musical, Germany for 3 years, as Assistant Flight Captain, aerialist and dancer.
In her career, she has also performed in many UK professional dance shows, modelled for the olympics as an athlete, an actress for ITV, a dancer for TV shows, choreographed shows for Holiday resorts, adjudicated competitions, and more… Charis has taught at various dance schools throughout the UK and NZ, including Te Auaha Wellington training young adults to go on to have a career in dance.
Alongside dance, Charis was a high jumper for Great Britain and Northern Ireland competing at the World Youth Championships, and placed 6th in the world. Since moving to NZ 7 years ago, Charis set up Charis O’Connor Theatre Arts, a dance school in Waikanae Beach to train and inspire young kids.
Now being a mum, Charis teaches just a handful of classes and can freelance for other schools to have more family time, and teach a wider range of dancers. She specialises in acrobatics, being Acrobatic Arts qualified and examiner in training. She is also trained in ISTD, and has her teacher qualifications AISTD.
Corinne Pinguet
Administrator
Born in Wellington to French parents, a very young Corinne once turned down an offer to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet as it was not her thing.
After 10 years living in London as a young adult, working in IT and travelling around Europe, Corinne returned to NZ with her husband Steve to bring up their imminent family.
Dance soon did become her thing, as both daughters fell in love with dance, and over time Corinne developed a huge appreciation for all things dance. She enjoyed many fun filled years volunteering on the committee of the Kapiti Ballet Society / Kapiti Dance Comps.
When her girls were very young, Corinne retrained, gaining an Early Childhood Teaching degree from VUW. She then spent the next 18 years working full time as a kindergarten teacher on the Kāpiti Coast. The last seven years were spent as Head Teacher at a local kindergarten, culminating in receiving a National Excellence in Teaching Award in 2022.
In late 2022 Corinne and family moved to Horowhenua, and in 2023 she moved to a part time teaching role so that she could support Chantal and join the Levin The Movement team. She is really excited to see Levin The Movement flourish, and to see young dancers develop a love of dance much earlier than she did!
