Kelly-Marie Gibbs FISTD LIDTA

Principal

Kelly-Marie was born and bred right here in Berkshire, with an early start to classes when she was just 3 years old at Lubrek School of Dancing in Slough.  She continued to train under excellent teachers in all genres of dance and had many successes including becoming a finalist at Miss Dance of Great Britain and reaching the All England Dance Finals on numerous occasions, notably receiving a bronze medal for her solo at the age of 7.

Kelly-Marie balanced her academic studies with dance training and was able to achieve outstanding academic results. However she chose to follow her passion for dance and was awarded a scholarship place at London Studio Centre where she trained in Musical Theatre. 

After several years dancing and choreographing professionally, Kelly-Marie was asked to cover a friends class. She discovered a passion for teaching and decided to re-train as an ISTD teacher in both Modern Theatre and Tap Dance. She passed all her teaching qualifications with distinctions, including 98% for her Modern Certificate in Dance Education, during this time Kelly-Marie worked in events and marketing for a corporate company as well as teaching in many dance schools. Rather than stopping with the required teaching qualifications, Kelly-Marie felt she wanted to achieve the highest dance teaching qualification, equivalent to a Masters degree and went on to achieve phenomenal results. She received distinctions for her Licentiate and Fellowship qualifications with the ISTD making her the one of the few people trained to the very highest level with the ISTD. Kelly-Marie completed all of her teaching qualifications at The Linda Sweetzer Teacher Training College.

Kelly-Marie has been teaching for almost 25 years, working along side various Performing Arts Schools, Dance Schools, full-time Theatre Schools and Colleges, including Head of Dance at Redroofs Theatre School for the performing arts on the full-time programme, spending over 13 years at the school.

Kelly-Marie has a passion for Jazz, Modern and Tap dance and enjoys choreographing within these genres. She has had countless successful students working in the industry from TV to Film, Theatre and radio during their time at Azure Theatre School, numerous students go on to train at full time of the UK’s leading theatre schools and colleges and many go on to become successful performers, Kelly-Marie has trained International competition level students, finalists of the ISTD Ballets Awards, ISTD Janet Cram Awards, ISTD Star Tap Awards and The All England Dance Competition.

Kelly-Marie founded Azure Theatre School in December 2007, and has successfully grown it so that it now has almost 300 pupils in their very own studios in Marlow, Bucks. She is enormously proud of her pupils' achievements, and looks forward to the exciting future of Azure Theatre School.

Owen Malone

commerical, contemporary

Owen is a versatile performer and choreographer who recently graduated from the prestigious Wilkes Academy, where he trained under industry-leading artists including Kane Silver, Josh Wharmby, Kamila Zalewska, James Bennet, Ricky Jinks, and many more. His professional career has already taken him across Europe, including a recent tour of Greece as a dancer for major music events. Owen’s performance credits include dancing with the world-renowned group Diversity, as well as choreographing for the iconic Royal Albert Hall.

Alongside his performance work, Owen has over seven years of teaching experience, leading classes, workshops, and masterclasses across the country. His passion for nurturing the next generation of talent is evident through his work on shows and competitions, where he inspires students to push boundaries and reach their full potential.

Maisie Morris

jazz, tap, contemporary

Maisie Morris graduated from London Studio Centre in 2021 and quickly began her professional dance career with a cruise contract on the Aida Nova. After nine months at sea, she continued performing with Headliners Theatre Company on P&O's The Azura. Maisie has also performed at the Rhyl Pavilion Theatre in her first pantomime, Aladdin, as an Ensemble Dancer, and has danced at numerous corporate events, hip-hop, and commercial projects. Passionate about dance and musical theatre, Maisie loves working with young dancers and supporting them as they pursue their dreams.

Aimee Palethorpe

BALLET, TAP, JAZZ, ACRO, ADULT CLASSES

Miss Aimee has been dancing since she was three. She trained in Ballet, Tap and Modern Dance with the Jeannine Greville Dance Academy up to 18 years of age. From there she went on to take her teaching qualifications in Tap and Modern at the Linda Sweetzer Teacher Training college. She has 9 years experience teaching Ballet, Tap and Modern across Berkshire, Oxon and Surrey. She now teaches full time classes for students aged 2 through to adults and graded classes up to Advanced 2.  

Grace Clarke

TAP, ACRO, MODERN, COMMERCIAL, CONTEMPORARY

Grace began her performing arts training from the age of 3 where she competed in many dance competitions throughout the country winning numerous awards. Along side this Grace was lucky enough to begin her acting career with being featured on Nickelodeon ,BBC, Netflix and more. Annie the musical was her first professional musical theatre credit where she played Molly , followed by Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat.
In 2012 Grace was offered a dance scholarship for Redroofs Theatre School where she trained for 5 years going on to study at The Urdang Academy.

Assistants