The Montage team is led by the Artistic Director and includes freelance tutors, administrative workers based in the office and
at the school, and volunteer classroom assistants.

All Montage staff and volunteers are checked by the Criminal
Records Bureau, training in child protection is regularly updated.




Judy Gordon ARAD, BA (Hons) English and Theatre Arts (Goldsmiths)
Artistic Director
Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre Teacher

Training and Awards:
Mannheim/Heidleberg Akademie des Tanzes, Germany (Guest Scholar); Doreen Bird College, London; Royal Academy of Dancing, London; Queensland Ballet School, Australia; Finalist Cosmopolitan Ballet Award at Sadlers Wells, London.

Qualifications include:
Royal Academy of Dancing: Advanced Ballet (Qualified teacher), Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance: Advanced Ballet (Honours), Advanced Modern (Honours), Intermediate Tap (Honours), Character dance (Honours)

Background:
Born and brought up in London and Australia, Judy is an experienced theatre director, performer, choreographer and
teacher and has worked in England and abroad. She is a Genesis Young Vic Young Director, an Equity member and holds a First
Aid Certificate (2005).

She is currently dramaturg for Mem Morrison’s ‘Leftovers’,
currently touring and in London. She is also working on her own devised physical theatre piece, ‘Grandmother’s Footsteps’, to be shown later in the year.

Her work as a soloist classical ballerina in Germany includes:
Snow Queen in The Nutcracker (Bielefeld); Koblenz Ballet;
Die Puppenfee (German tour/Swansea Grand). Plays, musicals
and pantomimes include Aladdin (Coventry), The King and I (Aberystwyth) , Cinderella with Des O' Connor (Birmingham Hippodrome/Plymouth Theatre Royal), Godspell (Jackson’s Lane), The Marriage (director: Lucy Pitman-Wallace), BBC television (Monster Café, Grange Hill, Maid Marion). She created roles
with Josette Bushell-Mingo in site-specific works including
‘the young girl’ in The Tango Room (Loughborough Inn, Brixton) and ‘Goatess’ in Love, Lust, Desire and Longing (Camden Roundhouse), Rose Talbot in Quiet (BAC/London tour).

Judy's freelance teaching work includes national theatre-in-education projects, local schools, the RSC's Education Department (Stratford), musical theatre at National Theatre's Summer Arts College (Albany, Deptford), digital arts residencies and lectures
at University of Greenwich, University of Brighton, for Stour Valley Arts with Kent Institute of Art and Design, and Penn State University, USA. As an arts consultant her work includes Quality
in Youth Culture Youth Led Action Research Project for Lewisham and Children and Young People’s Strategic Plan.

Nicky Swift

Leigh Coleman AISTD
Dance Teacher (taking maternity leave in Summer 08)

Leigh started child modelling, dancing and performing from
the age of 2! She trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School
full-time from the age of 11 to 16. While Leigh was there,
her experience in television included Eastenders, Anything's
Possible (mini-film for Channel 5) and Hale & Pace. Other work included various advertisements for ITV and BBC radio plays for children's schools. Musical theatre work included Annie (the lead role), The Wizard of Oz, Fiddler on the Roof all at Greenwich Theatre, The Nutcracker (Ballet), Fairfield Halls, Croydon, variety shows at Orchard Theatre, Dartford, pantomimes and cabaret
acts in London.

Kiki Oladapo

Kiki is our newest staff member at Brockley Primary School.
He has studied and continues to study at Laban and is an experienced dancer in his own right, he joins the team following
a year as our dance assistant, becoming very popular with our students. He is pioneering a new course in Breakdancing for our youngest members of Montage.

Kiki has just completed his A levels at Bacon's College where he studied Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Performing Arts and looks forward to entering his first year of study in Engineering.
He started dancing at the age of 14 where he attended the performing art school “Step Up” and where he had opportunities
to perform a range of different styles of shows. This included
dance styles from street dance to contemporary, as well as acting and singing.
 
From then on Kiki developed a desire for street dance and started his own dance class at The “Bridge” which competed in many
shows such as the ‘London Street Dance Championship.
As well as teaching a dance class, Kiki also dances with a group called Genesis, where he has competed in many competitions, including “GWI International Street Dance Weekend”.
At the moment he is also developing his skills as a freestyle dancer.

Carla Trim Vamben
Streetdance: Montage @ Crossways

I have a BA Honours in Performing Arts and am a Professional Studio Instructor. I have been dancing since the age of four studying ballet and tap. When I started college I started contemporary and street dance lessons. While at University I started to teach street dance to other students and found I
enjoyed it and the feedback was positive so I started to teach at
a dance school I attend teaching children and adults.
This lead me to become a freelance teacher for companies such as East London Dance, Studio 3 Arts and Impact Dance, who I also perform for as a professional dancer. These companies bring dance workshops to schools and youth centres teaching children of all abilities. I also teach at gyms using jazz dance to deliver fun exercise classes. With my qualifications, experience and enthusiasm I hope to help others to enjoy and challenge themselves in dance with the added satisfaction of seeing my choreography being performed and enjoyed by others.

Hannah Tyrell-Pinder BA English, PGDIP Theatre Directing
Drama Teacher

Hannah, a very experienced drama teacher and theatre director
and has been with Montage since last autumn - some of you may have seen her as Buttons in the Montage panto. She studied English at the University of York, before completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Theatre Directing at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. After graduating, Hannah co-founded Box of Tricks Theatre, currently Associate Company at The White Bear Theatre, for whom she has directed three productions so far. Hannah has worked with the National Theatre's Education Department on their Shell Connections youth theatre festival during their '99,'02 and '03 cycles, the Shakespeare Schools Festivals in '06 and '07, and Lost Youth Theatre One Act Festival '06 at the Courtyard Theatre.





Francois Awad
Dance Teacher

Francois has recently finished a three year contract as the Dance Captain of Disney's The Lion King Australia. Previously he has worked as dance trainer of Cirque de Soleil Alegria Asia / Pacific Tour and appeared as a featured performer of the Sydney 2000
Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies. He has also worked
as an events producer and choreographer for Entertainment
Alliance Australia.

He is a hugely experienced teacher and choreographer of all
dance styles including work at the School of Contemporary Dance,
Sydney, Pineapple Dance Studios, London and Elmhurst School
of Dance, UK.

Eamonn O’Dwyer
Singing Teacher

Studied Musical Theatre at the Royal Academy of Music and holds
a music degree from the University of York. He has been teaching professionally for the last five years alongside a blossoming acting career.  He was Head of Singing at Greenwich Theatre Train,
and ran the History of Musical Theatre course at Colin’s Performing Arts Academy in 2007.  He also teaches privately from his home
in South East London, and has coached many actor-singers both
for auditions and roles in the West End.

Jillian Wallis
Drama Teacher

Jillian trained at Dartington and has worked in theatre as a performer, director and teacher since 1987. She has produced
and toured theatre all over the UK with her own companies,
as well as working freelance. In the 90’s she toured with the innovative Twisted Stocking Theatre, and directed two of their shows. Locally, she directed the Lewisham Our Town Story, performed by 50 teenagers at The Dome, and has worked
on performances with Emergency Exit Arts, and at Blackheath Halls.

In 2007 Jill was awarded an MA in Media, Arts and Philosophy,
and made a film based on her own research into the nature of improvisation and play-time.

She recently directed Money From America for Croft Productions.

Administrative staff

Susan Edwards B.A (Hons), Postgrad. Diploma in Arts Admin (City)
Company Manager

Susan has been involved in community theatre since 1993 when she was one of the founders of the Telegraph Hill Festival,
and company-managed the Festival community musical for several years. She graduated from Leeds University a very long time
ago with a B.A in English and went on to train as a journalist
with the Mirror Group. Since being awarded a Post Graduate Diploma in Arts Administration by City University in 1995 she
has worked with Spare Tyre Theatre Company and the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival before becoming a freelance consultant working with a number of community projects
including the Millennium Passion Play in Greenwich Park and
the People's Play, 'It'll All Come Out in the Wash' at Greenwich
Theatre. Recently she has been continuing to develop drama and new writing projects with Telegraph Hill while also working with
the Albany Theatre in Deptford.



Jane Barclay
Administrator

I have been an arts administrator for 10 years but I first fell in love with theatre whilst studying English Literature at the University
of Lancaster in 1999 where they had a brilliant theatre course.
I was mainly involved with costumes and also worked as a wardrobe assistant at the Dukes Theatre in Lancaster.

By 1997 I was lucky to find myself working at Sadler’s Wells
theatre and to find my niche in arts administration.
I had a wonderful time working on the rebuilding and running
of this amazing lyric theatre before moving onto Angels the Costumers which used my administration skills and my love
of costume. This was a vibrant and exciting place to work and
we never knew when we would come across costumes from well know films such a Star Wars! In 2003 I took up the position
of Project Administrator at The Young Vic, another amazing theatre dedicated to working with the community and following another rebuild we moved into our award winning building in October 2006.

I live locally and I am thrilled to be working with Montage in my own community and look forward to meeting everyone.

Karen Wood BA/BSC Combined Award Psychology and Dance Studies
Courses Manager/Cover Tap Dance Teacher

Karen has recently completed an MSc in Dance Science at Laban and is currently working at Laban as part of the Dance Science
team alongside her job as Courses Manager here at Montage.  
She is an active researcher, teacher, project manager and dance artist.  She trained as a dance teacher after receiving teacher training from the IDTA and RAD and has completed
an undergraduate degree in dance and psychology. Karen has worked in various community settings in a management/
co-ordinator role for the last 6 years including the DanceXchange
in Brimingham. She has performed in a dance film called the
Wild Party and in various small scale performances and musicals.

As a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity Montage is guided by its Board of Directors.

The Board meets every three months and in between times supports the Montage staff and keeps a close eye on how the company is meeting its objectives.




Helen Shreeve
Chairperson

Helen became the company’s first Chairperson in January 2006. Helen is a broadcast journalist at the BBC and has worked on numerous radio and television programmes as diverse as Breakfast News, Yesterday in Parliament and Woman’s Hour. Helen was Business manager of BBC News for three years before being seconded to be Managing Director of Youth Culture Television,
a charity with its own studio, location and post production facilities working with 11-20 year olds to teach young people to make their own TV programmes. Helen is currently Editor of BBC News School Report, which gives 11-14 year olds the opportunity to make and broadcast their own news programmes at school.
click for link > (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/default.stm)
She has been a local councillor in Southwark and a school governor and is a dance enthusiast.





Sheryl Aitchison

Sheryl is Montage’s vice-chair Education: Studied Dance
Education at Laban Centre. This was followed by an additional
two years at University of London Goldsmith college. I left with
a Certificate in Education (Cert Ed) and Bachelor of Education degree (B.ed).  In 1993 I completed my Masters degree (Arts Administration) at City University.
 
Work: I taught Dance and Drama at a secondary school in Hammersmith for 4 years. I left teaching looking for a new direction, but still wanted to stay within the dance education
field. I started my MA City University and worked as a supply teacher( pt) and part time  in the education department various dance companies to get a ‘feel’ for the work. I was eventually offered a fulltime post as Community Development Dance Officer
at Sadler’s Wells in 1987.  After two years I was promoted to Assistant Education Manager. Eventually I was made Community
& Education Manager in 1992. I left Sadler’s Wells in Dec 2004. 
I am now working freelance in dance education.


Board and Committies: 

ADAD: Founding member
Islington Dance Project: Management Commtee member
Adzido: Education Committee
Greenwich Dance Agency: Board Member
Montage Theatre: Board Member (current)
Greencandle Dance Co: Board Member (current)

Mem Morrison

Mem Morrison is a performance artist who has been making his own, highly personal, work since 1995. He is interested in exploring performance as a healing process and as a way of finding a voice. With a strong emphasis on design and colour, the work often draws upon personal history and environment to evoke the complexities of acknowledging and accepting cultural differences. The work varies
in scale and location, from solo to group performances.

Lisa Spirling

A true Lancashire lass, Lisa has recently graduated from LAMDA
via Royal Holloway and an ongoing stint on the streets of Deptford as project manager on the National Theatre Education's Art of Regeneration program.

As Director: No One Move (Barons Court Theatre), Oleanna (LAMDA), Gas & Air and New York Threesome (Edinburgh Fringe and The Pleasance, London). The Potato Play (Edinburgh Fringe).

As Assistant Director: 1001 Nights Now (Northern Stage Tour), Cloud Nine, Stags and Hens, The Provoked Wife, Kiss Me Kate,
The Peoples Temple, Macbeth (LAMDA). Saucy Jack & The Space Vixens (ALBANY) and The Little Tempest (NT Education).

Paul Crawford

Paul is a senior tutor with the Drake Music Project which uses specialised computer hardware and software to enable physically disabled people of all ages to compose and perform music regardless of impairment.  He has been a professional musician,
for over 15 years, leading his own workshops, recording albums, including percussion on two albums ‘One And One Is One’
and ‘We are Three’ for Peter Gabriel’s, Virgin subsidiary
‘Real World’ label.

Touring with inflential Asian dance music band ‘Joi’ includes with BBC Asian Music Award winners 1999. Toured extensively in the UK, Europe and USA. Supporting Spiritualised on their 1998
UK Tour and The Eurythmics on their 2000 tour for Amnesty International & Greenpeace.