Our Instructors

At Pointe of Grace we take great pride in providing our students with some of the finest teachers that the Ottawa area has to offer.

Nancy Pidgeon, BA (Carleton), TTP - Dip. (NBS), LISTD (Cecchetti)
Registered Teacher Royal Academy of Dance - Ballet Instructor
Nancy Pidgion's early training was in the method of the Royal Academy of Dance. She completed her Intermediate Executant Examination and later went on to achieve her RAD Teaching Diploma. She graduated from the Teacher Training Program of the National Ballet School in 1983 after completing the National Dance Branch Elementary and Intermediate Examinations with Honours (ISTD), the Intermediate Cecchetti Ballet Exam, and the Associate Level Teaching Exam with Distinction, (ISTD). Ms. Pidgeon spent another year at the National Ballet School working as an Assistant Teacher and completed her Licentiate Level Teaching Exam, (ISTD). At the conclusion of that year Nancy received a Canada Council for the Arts grant to study at the Virginia Tanner Creative Dance Workshop which was held at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Since her return to Ottawa, Ms. Pidgeon's teaching experience has been diverse and extensive. In 1986 she and three partners established National Capital Dance Educators and she worked there for fifteen years as well as at a variety of other schools in the Ottawa area. In addition, Nancy has examined students at Canterbury High School and at Ecole Secondaire de la Salle in their ballet programs, as well as spending one year teaching the senior class at de la Salle and another year as Arts Consultation. Ms. Pidgeon now enjoys being a free lance dance instructor in and around the Ottawa area, where she has entered students in both the RAD and Cecchetti examinations with great success.

She is a frequent guest teacher at the Cecchetti Seminars offered in Toronto on a bi-annual basis, and she regularly attends the National Ballet School Teaching Seminars featuring the work of renowned Neuromuscular Specialist Irene Dowd. Ms. Pidgeon was recently elected Ontario Representative for the Cecchetti Society of Canada.

Ping Feng- Ballet Instructor
Formerly Soloist, Ottawa Ballet. Mr. Feng is a graduate of the Beijing Dance Academy, and holds a B.A. in Dance Ed., from Beijing U. His professional performing experience includes the Beijing Dance Academy Ballet Company (Central Ballet of China), Les Ballet Jazz of Montreal, 1990-92 and Theater Ballet, Ottawa Ballet. He has extensive teaching experience in both classical ballet and character.

Holly O'Neill-Veit- Step Dance Instructor
Holly began her stepdancing education at age 5. By 8 she was competing at traditional stepdancing competitions across Ontario and Quebec. At 11 her interest grew from simply performing to choreography. She developed her own "studio" in her basement and prepared routines for competition. That same year she was presented with the "Best Choreography" award from a local competition, (Footloose) for a routine she prepared for her sister.

This was the beginning of her numerous successes in teaching, performing and choreography. At age 12 she was commissioned by the NCC to prepare and present a 20 minute show for Canada Day which went off with great success. As a performer Holly often is on the stage being presented with prestigious awards and last year was presented with the "Innovation in Dance Award" at Dance, Dance Canada. She has also been awarded many scholarships including a week in Toronto to learn from international choreographers.

Holly's dance education and successes also include many years of jazz, tap, lyrical and ballet.

Amber Fishman- Ballet & Jazz Instructor
Amber started dancing in Calgary at the age of three and continued until the age of nine. Moving to Ontario, she started to learn different styles of dance including tap, jazz, modern, and hip-hop. Her preference would quickly grow to be ballet.

She has studied the RAD syllabus in ballet, and completed many ballet exams using this syllabus. Recently, she has been introduced to the Cecchetti syllabus and completed her grade 5 examination in 2005 using this style. She has choreographed dances for her high school fashion show and competed with Pointe of Grace's winning competitive team for the past 2 years.

Amber is pleased to join Pointe of Grace teaching staff as a ballet and jazz instructor, after assistant teaching for the past few years, and teaching with the studio's summer dance camps for a number of years.

Nicole Haire - Instructor
Nicole will be teaching with Pointe of Grace this year in the disciplines of Jazz, Ballet, Modern, Latin and HipHop.

Carolyn Hebert - Instructor
Carolyn began her formal dance training at the age of four in her hometown of Guelph. She studied ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop and lyrical at Backstage Dance Studio under the direction of Sheila Webster, achieving many overall awards including Rhythm Dance’s Highest Scoring Senior Soloist in 2006, Dance Dance Canada’s Highest Score in 2008, and the DDC Performer Award. With extensive training in acting and voice as well, Carolyn continued her arts education as a triple threat major attending Kitchener’s Eastwood Collegiate Institute. There, she studied the art and theory of choreography and won a choreographers award at the Kiwanis Dance festival for a solo choreographed for a fellow classmate. She was awarded the Achievement in Dance award upon graduation for obtaining the highest grade in the dance program. At the age of 15, Carolyn starred as Jocelyn Gaudet in the critically acclaimed presentation of “The Steven Truscott Story” under the direction of Louis B. Hobson. That same year she danced in Greece and Turkey representing Canada on a national show team where she was chosen to perform a tap solo and to dance on a cruise ship.

She began assistant teaching at Backstage at the age of 14 and fell in love, eventually teaching her own classes and choreographing competition routines in 2007. She continued to instruct dance at Backstage’s Summer Sizzle from 2004-2007, eventually taking over direction of the camp in 2008 and 2009. She also acted as dance instructor for the Guelph Youth Music Centre Camp program in both March break and Summer camps of 2006 and 2007. At the age of 17 she founded “Gotta Dance!”- a very successful 12 week dance program for under privileged children at the Guelph Youth Music Centre. She is currently pursuing a B.A at the University of Ottawa, but dancing and teaching continue to keep her breathing. Carolyn is very happy to be a part of the Pointe of Grace family, sharing her passion for dance and creativity.