Faculty
Krista Damant
Director, Business Owner for the past 17 years of Stars On Stage, Krista continues to bring her passion, love and dedication thru the arts to Caledonia and area. Having studied dance from the tender age of 3 she has continued for over 30 years learning and honing her skills all over Ontario and the United States. Krista has her Canadian Dance Teacher’s Association accreditation in Tap, and a graduate of Recreation & Leisure Studies.
She has been teaching Competitive and Recreational for over 20 years. Her students have won numerous awards in High Scores, Best Choreography, OverAlls, Most Entertaining & Most Potentials.
She has had the privilege of working with Mia Michaels, Brian Friedman, Barry Youngblood, Tara Jean Popovich, Gregg Russell, Chris Judd, Dave Scott and the thrill of meeting Patrick Swazye and Ben Vereen. She had performed in many Musical Theatre Productions with Hamilton Theatre Inc. and Players Guild. Krista also studied Classical Operatic Soprano for 5 years. Her love of Musical Theatre has brought a lot of joy and the thrill of seeing the Rockettes and New York and Toronto Musicals. This has added to her wealth of knowledge in the arts which in turn she has instilled into all that enter Stars on Stages door. Opening a Performing Arts studio was a dream of Krista’s since she was 10 years old. She is thrilled to be living and working here in Caledonia, being very involved within the business community and Chamber of Commerce of Caledonia.
Stephanie Lyel
Stephanie has been a dedicated dancer for over 25 years, and had competitively danced for over 18 years throughout Canada, United States and Germany. At the age of 15 she was chosen to represent Canada at the National Tap Championships in Reisa, Germany. The Canadian Team brought home the Gold, as well Stephanie competed solo in the adult division and placed 3rd ! Stephanie studied RAD Ballet under the wonderful tutelage of Mrs. Pauline Zamprogna and obtained her Intermediate Level RAD. She is a graduate of Guelph University with a major in Biological Sciences and Minor in Zoology. She spent those 4 years being a part of the Award Winning Dance Pak Team. She was thrilled to be part dancing with some the finest Ontario Dancers anywhere. She still dances and performs with GEOMETRIX, a dance crew run by Dustin Pym in Toronto. Stephanie is a very talented and accomplished choreographer and her students over the years have won Top Choreography awards as well as, Top Overall, Judges Choice and Special Scholarships. Miss Stephanie teaches Competitive Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary and Hip Hop.
Lindsay Tompkins
Lindsay began dancing in Hamilton, Ontario at age 3 and competitively danced in jazz, tap, hip hop, and lyrical until age 18. She moved to Toronto where she pursued dance professionally. She has worked with artists such as Cali, Dallas Lovato, Jordan Francis, S.Davis, Billy Newton Davis, and Reverse, and was also cast as a principle dancer in the Bollywood movie The Captain. She has performed for Much Music, Molson, TD Bank, Snowball Events, Design Exchange Gala, Yorkdale Mall, Art for Heart, Touch International, Waterhouse Cooper, Toronto Bazaar, among many others. She has worked with So You Think You Can Dance Canada's Luther Brown, and many new upcoming Toronto choreographers. Miss Lindsay is a wonderful choreographer whose talents transcend to her students who have won numerous awards every year. She teaches Competitive Jazz, Lyrical, & Hip Hop.
Mercedes Bernardez
Mercedes, an Argentinian born Ballerina, has trained and taught Ballet all her life. She brings with her vast experience teaching all levels of students in ballet and contemporary ballet. We are so blessed and honored to have her as part of our Stars On Stage family. She has trained and taught at many professional companies in Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, and Canada.
In 1997 she moved to Canada to become Artistic Director of Quinte Ballet School of Canada (1997-2003) and Ballet Mistress for The Alberta Ballet Company (2003-2006).
She currently teaches Company Class for the National Ballet of Canada and Ballet Jorgen in Toronto.
We here at Stars On Stage offer a PreProfessional Ballet program run by Mercedes. She teaches most levels of Ballet Technique, Pointe and Guided Improvisation for creation of Choreography.
Natalie Spencer-Katzmann
Miss Natalie is a vocal major graduate of the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She studied voice with Eraine SchwingBraun, mother of the famous Russell Braun who performs regularly at the Canadian Opera Company. She has performed in musicals, operas and competed for years in voice and piano. Miss Natalie has also taught workshops, camps and was the Musical Director for musicals including Cats, Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Fiddler On the Roof and Beauty & The Beast. Miss Natalie teaches our fabulous GLEE Club as well as Private Vocals lessons & our New popular Triple Threat classes!
Theresa McCormac
Miss Theresa has trained in Jazz, Tap & Theatre Dance. First a student at Stars on Stage she became an amazing Teacher's Assistant and now has been a Teacher for over 5 years. Book a birthday party with the studio and most likely Theresa will be running it! She currently studies at Redeemer College University where she is in the Concurrent Education Program. Working with children is her passion, Teacher of Tap, Jazz, Musical Theatre & Lyrical and co-teacher of KinderDance!
Madison DeGelder
Miss Maddy has danced competitively for over 11 years. She’s trained in Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop, Lyrical, AcroJazz & Contemporary. Her award winning solos have brought home Special Judges Choice Awards, Overall Top Scores & many scholarships. She was also a Competitive Gymnast for over 8 years and a competitive Cheerleader for over 2 years! Maddy Loves to perform! In Summer 2014 she was chosen to attend Dance Theatre USA as a Company Dancer in both Orlando & Charleston. She danced for 2 weeks straight learning from top choreographers from the US and Canada.
In summer 2016 Miss Maddy obtained her Module One Teacher's Certification In Acrobatic Arts , Professional Curriculum for Acrobatic Dance! Miss Maddy teaches AcroJazz, Jazz, Lyrical, Musical Theatre & Hip Hop.
Jose Carret
Cuban born Principal Dancer , Teacher , Choreographer Jose A. Carret is the founder Artistic Director of Danza Corpus Cuba ( 2001) and Danza Corpus Canada(2013) he has toured in Cuba, Spain, Guadalupe, Canada. He has been a Ballet Creole guest teacher and choreographer since 2008 , a modern dance teacher for the Cuban Ballet School in Hamilton (2014) and the Artistic Director of the International Summer Dance Event : Open Space Temporada in Matanzas , Cuba that takes place for a week every July.
Mr Jose was a guest dancer for Decidedly Jazz Dance Works (2004) Dance Immersion (2010, 2012), a guest teacher and choreographer for Oakville School of Dance (20078) Dance Immersion (2010, 2012) and Newton Moraes Dance Theatre (2010).
Jose choreographed more than 40 works, is an awarded principal dancer and choreographer , member of the Artists Union of Cuba (uneac) and has been teaching contemporary dance at Stars on Stage since 2014.