Angela Cantan

Founder and Principal

Angela is a Life-Member of the Royal Academy of Dance and of the National Association of Teachers of Dancing. She is also a member of the British Arts Association and the All England Dance Organisation. Angela also holds a Teacher’s Certificate in Dance & Drama from London University. She is well-known in Haslemere and the surrounding area having taught General Education, Dance and Drama in both State and Private education for over 50 years. She has performed in, directed, co-directed and choreographed many Musical Theatre productions for both children and adults.

Many of her own pupils have gone on to perform in professional productions including the West End and around the world. Former pupils have appeared in television and films and the discipline that she has instilled in pupils for dancing and drama has given them the confidence, ambition, adaptability and communication skills to be successful in other areas of employment as well.

Shakira Alleyne

Festival choreographer and Saturday workshops

From the age of three, Shakira found her greatest joy at Haslemere Performing Arts, where she trained and grew alongside the stage, competing extensively and earning numerous first-place honours throughout her early years. At eleven she joined Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, before moving on at sixteen to The Brighton Academy, graduating with a BA Honours Degree in Musical Theatre.

Her professional career began with Hey Duggee, which brought the honour of an Olivier Award. She then took the lead role of Bluey in the Bluey UK, Ireland and Europe tour, another Olivier-nominated production.

Throughout it all she has never strayed far from where it began. She still teaches here, guiding the next generation of performers, and her work has been recognised with the Overall Best Choreography Award for The Coven, alongside countless first-place wins for her students.

Suzie Brockett

Dance, musical theatre and drama

Suzie teaches dance and choreographs for the Saturday workshops and the festival groups, including our Stage 3 tap and modern numbers and several of the pieces we take to the British Arts Awards. She also co-runs StageShine, the musical theatre group that meets at Haslewey on Mondays, and coaches drama and singing for festival work. She trained at Bird College in all aspects of dance and musical theatre, and is an Associate of LAMDA. She has performed in the UK and internationally for Graham English Productions, appeared in a filmed production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce, modelled, worked on advertising for Mitsubishi and appeared as an extra in Bollywood features. She co-founded Suzie Songtime, a children’s singing group and party entertainment company, works with several entertainment companies and private functions, and is currently compere and performer at Skyfest in Petersfield.

Her pupils have taken the poetry trophy and the musical theatre solo song trophy at the Chichester Festival, first places and many awards at the Surrey Festival of Musical Theatre and the Arts, and trophies in the drama and singing sections at British Arts in London.

Fiona Johnston

Ballet, acro and Saturday workshops

RAD RTS, ARAD. Royal Academy of Dance Registered Teacher, Acrobatic Arts Module 1 Qualified Teacher, PGCE Primary Education, BA (Hons) Dance, HND Professional Dance Performance.

Fiona was a student here, competing and taking ballet and modern examinations until she was eighteen, and was a company member of the Sussex Youth Ballet Company. She went on to Ballet West, studying ballet, contemporary, jazz and commercial dance, and continued with the RAD vocational syllabi while performing in professional touring productions of Swan Lake, Giselle and The Nutcracker.

She has taught since 2019, holds Registered Teacher status with the Royal Academy of Dance, completed her PGCE in Primary Education at Southampton University, and has Acrobatic Arts Module 1 and Pre-School acro teaching certifications. At HPA she teaches on the Saturday workshops, choreographs for the festival groups and is our wardrobe mistress.

Sheila Johnston

Adult tap

Sheila teaches all three adult tap classes on Monday evenings at Haslemere Methodist Church, beginners through to advanced, and is who to contact about joining them. The classes are informal and good fun, a good way to meet people and keep fit, and they suit all ages: our tappers run from 18 to 75. For anyone who wants to, there are festivals, the Children in Need Tapathon and the school show, though none of it is compulsory. The group took first place at the Bognor Regis Dance Festival and joint second at the Portsmouth Festival of Performing Arts.

Kamal Sharma

Drama and improv

Kamal was a pupil here, and came back to HPA years later through his own children. He has spent years in improv classes himself, first as the terrified new person at the back and eventually as the one volunteering to go first, and trained at the Meisner Institute London.

Inspire is the class he would have wanted at fifteen. Nobody hands out scripts and nobody learns lines for a play: it is games, scenes made up on the spot, and characters built from nothing. Instinct is difficult to teach, but instinct can be emboldened by a method. Inspire is that method. It runs on Tuesday evenings at 2 Kings Road.