Children’s Summer Camp

Originally from Devon, Jo was performing professionally in pantomimes alongside the Carry-On team and Freddie Davis from an early age. She trained at the Arts Educational School in London, going on to perform principal roles with the Dublin City Ballet Company and dancing with the Dublin Grand Opera.  

Joining the original cast of the West End tap musical 42nd Street at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Jo went on to play the role of Phyllis Dale and, later the juvenile lead Peggy Sawyer – a role she also played on the first national tour and return season to the West End at the Dominion Theatre. 

On television Joanne appeared on the Royal Variety Performances, A Royal Night of 100 Stars, Casualty, House of Elliott and Little Englanders to name a few. In film she appeared the James Bond movie Goldeneye. 

A scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dance led her into a teaching career, and she graduated with distinction from the Professional Dancer’s Teaching Diploma in 1995.  

Jo runs her own dance school in Surrey, entering students into their RAD Syllabus Examinations and is also principal for the RAD dance school at the global headquarters, supporting the teaching faculty in their artistic delivery of all the weekly classes. She has taught numerous children’s workshops and Summer Schools for RAD, in the UK and internationally over many years, and is also a licensed RAD Silver Swans teacher. 

Maria is an inclusive dance practitioner alongside her choreography and movement director work. Her ethos as a dance practitioner is an inclusive one and she strives to make movement accessible to all. 

She graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance with a BA(Hons) Dance Theatre and is the founder and teacher at Tip Top Dance School. She is also a movement tutor at Rose Bruford College and an associate artist at Utopia. From 2008-2015 Maria was Artistic Director of RedTape Dance Company in Malta. She has been a recipient of Kensington and Chelsea Arts Grant and Greenshoots fund for dance work within the North Kensington youth community, in the aftermath of the Grenfell Fire. Maria was also an inclusive dance practitioner for Tavaziva Dance Company from 2020-2021. 

Maria works for the RAD’s school programmes – Step into Dance and RADiate, teaching creative dance, alongside teaching across the RAD’s summer courses.