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Mark and Eileen first opened our doors in 1991 at the “Abbotsquare Mall." Eileen had been teaching a parent/tot program, known as “Scribbles” for the Abbotsford Rec commission. Initially, she taught at the Abbotsford Ag Rec Centre and later the McCallum Activity Centre, but realized a more permanent space was needed to continue to run this program. So “Abbotsquare” was the answer. Back then, the school was known as “Creative Edge Music & Activity Place." To make the best use of the space there, Eileen ran “Scribbles” in the day while Mark, who has a degree in music education, began offering afternoon music lessons. Soon afterward they added art classes and within a year had already grown to 135 students. After the first year they moved into the Clayburn Centre to make room for this growth, and the addition of new programs in dance and drama.

In the new facility they became known as “Creative Edge Kids Centre”. Here “Scribbles” became an official licensed “child minding” and soon after became an official licensed preschool offered 5 days a week. Since then, Creative Edge have experienced unprecedented growth, with enrollments peaking at over 1500 registrations. In 2013 they welcomed Andrew, Mark and Eileen's younger son, and his wife Stephanie, home from University in Victoria and they began teaching and helping with the everyday operations of the studio. Around this time Creative Edge also outgrew the second location and moved to a larger space within the Plaza, where they are today.

Creative Edge now offers fine arts programming 6 days a week for ages 1-Adult! It has the largest youth Theatre program in Abbotsford; an incredible recreational and competitive dance program with award winning dancers, teachers and choreography; an ever-growing Visual Arts program; a huge selection of group and private music classes; aerial hoop, acrobatics and creative writing classes and, of course, the Fine Arts Preschool which started it all!

In December 2016 Mark passed away. He would be very proud of how the studio has continued to grow and uphold the standard of excellence and family values that he strove for in the 25 years he devoted to Creative Edge.

After nearly 30 years Creative Edge is still proud to serve the Abbotsford community and will continue to do so for many years to come.

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Stephanie graduated from the University of Victoria in 2012 where she studied Visual Art, Art History, Art Education and Psychology, with a focus on child development. While living on the island, Stephanie instructed adults and children at The Paint Box School of Art in Victoria in Mixed Media, Water Colour and Acrylic Painting, Drawing, Sewing and Clay Sculpture classes and several fun camps and workshops. She also instructed art workshops at The University of Victoria for teen and adult students in an exchange program. Stephanie instructed art at Creative Edge for nearly 7 years total before transitioning to full-time administrator eventually shifting into the position of studio director.

Stephanie loves her job with a passion and recognizes what a huge privilege it is to do what she does. She seeks to ensure that Creative Edge continues to be a safe and inclusive hub for high-quality fine and performing arts instruction and childcare for decades to come.

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Andrew holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre as well as a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Victoria. He has fourteen years of experience teaching drama and music to students ages 3 to adult. He is also the recipient of the 2016 Abbotsford Arty Award for Outstanding Theatre Artist.

Andrew has a strong background in live theatre as an actor, writer, and director including acting in a leading role in the Victoria Shakespeare Festival and writing and directing a play for the Victoria Fringe Kids Fest.  Over the past 20 years, Andrew has been involved in nearly every year-end production at Creative Edge! 

As a BC Certified Teacher, Andrew also has experience in K-7 public school classrooms.  He currently teaches drama for the Abbotsford School District. He is a patient, outgoing and creative teacher, who brings energy, enthusiasm, and artistic knowledge to his drama classes.

As the drama program coordinator and teacher, Andrew instructs weekly drama classes and organizes and directs 4 major productions a year, plus several in-class performances. As the Artistic Director, Andrew plays a key role in conceiving the idea for, producing, directing, and running our huge Year End Show, our Mainstage productions, and more!

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Yoshi is a versatile and innovative Hiphop dancer/ bboy who values the integrity of Hip Hop culture and Hip Hop dance. Yoshi is a well experienced teacher who loves sharing his knowledge to everyone who is interested in the art form.

Yoshi has been teaching professionally since 2003. He focuses on hip-hop basics and fundamentals, the important hiphop steps, grooves and rhythm. He also teaching, Breaking, locking, popping, house and hustle the same way; with a strong focus on building off a solid foundation.

His passion and dedication to the art can be seen performing or battling with his crews Over the Influence, Robson800 and Rhythm Recall. He is an award-winning choreographer who specializes in a unique and abstract blend of multiple street styles. He has coached multiple national championship groups as well as coaching a variety of local street dance battler winners.

He also embraces the competitive element of street dance himself. He has twice represented Canada at the Hiphop International Championships. He is also a winner of the World of Dance Vancouver Hiphop battle.

Yoshi is an important active member of the street dance community and continues to passionately guide his students through all the best aspects of street dance culture.

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Sam discovered her passion for dance at the age of 3. She began competing at age 6 and danced competitively for 12 years. Sam started her teaching career subbing dance classes at Creative Edge in 2015 and has been a part of the faculty ever since. Sam has also choreographed numerous successful solo and duo routines in Tap and Musical Theatre genres, even earning choreography awards for her work.

In 2015, Sam had the amazing opportunity to compete with Team Canada Tap! She was accepted onto the large group Jr team and invited to the special small group team as well. Her teams competed in Reisa, Germany at the IDO World Championships and took home a 3rd place bronze medal, as well as 6th place!

Sam has been trained in Tap, Musical Theatre, Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical, Hip Hop, Song & Dance, and Stage with many different teachers and choreographers around the lower mainland. Sam has participated in several workshops in many different genres. All of her experiences have contributed to her thriving career as a sought after teacher and choreographer in the Fraser Valley. Sam is the recipient of multiple choreography accolades including winning Top Choreographer at Shine Mission 2023 among many other awards. Sam is a hard-working instructor who will always strive to help her students improve their technique and grow their love of dance!

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Leticia’s passion for dance began at the early age of 4. Her studies began in the local dance studio where she grew up in Maple Ridge, BC. Starting out with jazz and tap. It instantly became evident to her family that Leticia was a natural performer. She then started taking on different styles of dance including hip hop, lyrical, contemporary, musical theatre, and ballet. Leticia was part of the Northwest Dance Project, competitive dance team in her teens. She has had the opportunity to travel and train in New York City, perform, compete, and has trained under many well-known choreographers in the industry. She was the lead choreographer in her High School Dance Program and received Best Choreographer awards each year. Leticia has continued to enhance her skills professionally by attending Dance Conventions in Canada and the US, taking classes at Harbour Dance Center in Vancouver, BC, and was a member of Elevate Dance Crew directed by Leigh Hilary Lee. Leticia believes education is key to keeping things fresh and current. She attended the Dance Life Teacher Conference in Arizona ran by Rhee Gold in the Summer of 2015 and most recently got certified in Sugarfoot Therapy, a physical therapy-based conditioning for dancers. Leticia has had many performance opportunities including the 2015 Western Summer Games in “Big Spirit Sky.” Vancity Project, Monsters of Hip Hop, Next Level Hip Hop, and the BC Ride to Conquer Cancer to name a few. Leticia’s journey led her to Fort McMurray, AB in 2013 where she resided and taught for 5 years. She enjoyed being apart of such a unique city and tight knit dance community full of such wonderful opportunities; Leticia choreographed for Keyano Theatre Company’s 2013 Farce “Boeing Boeing.“ She also was a celebrity dancer in Fort McMurray’s 2014 Dancing with the Stars in support of the SPCA. Leticia was the Dance Director/Choreographer for Keyano Theatre’s Drama Force Youth Intensive. She choreographed 2014 Jr. Musical “Disney’s Aladdin,” and 2015 Jr. Musical “Disney’s The Little Mermaid,” and the 2016 Jr. Musical “Disney’s The Jungle Book Kids.” She also spent her time as a Dance Instructor and Educational Assistant with the Fort McMurray Public School District. Leticia has been back in BC for about 5 years now after becoming a mom, and has been enjoying teaching and doing choreography through out the lower mainland. Leticia has extensive experience teaching students of all ages, levels, and styles and her choreography has been recognized for numerous awards at competitions and festivals. Leticia brings a fun and positive vibe to all of her classes at Creative Edge.

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Miss Kirsty began her dance life at the age of 3 with Scottish Highland Dance then adding Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Modern, Hip Hop and Musical Theatre. She performed Nationally and Internationally before beginning her career as a Dance Instructor. Kirsty has taught generations of dancers in the Lower Mainland for the past 25 years with many of her students going on to be dance professionals. She has won many Choreography awards over the years and is a registered member of the Scottish Dance Teachers Alliance.

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Shania has 22 years of dance experience in various genres, focusing mostly on R.A.D classical & character ballet, variations, modern, contemporary, lyrical & jazz. Shania has received numerous awards in dance and is now passing along the same opportunities to her students. Shania has been scouted out by Barcelona Ballet Project and offered a scholarship, but chose to decline the offer to stay local to raise her son near family, while focusing on various other dance studies. Shania has been taught by renowned R.A.D mentors such as Anushka Roes T.T.P Director, Barbra Chonin R.A.D examiner and educator, Teresa Randall R.A.D examiner and teacher all from the Canada National Ballet (CNB). She’s also had the privilege to be educated by numerous other outstanding teachers such as Jo-Ann Adams, Marissa Visnjak, Mary-Anne Stephans, Carlin Swift and Judi Kellet to name a few. Shania has also performed in ballet teaching intensives along side dancers from some of the worlds most well known classical ballet schools such as the GOH academy, Coastal City Ballet, and Royal Winnipeg ballet. Shania has 10 years teaching experience in R.A.D ballet, contemporary, modern, lyrical, and jazz. As well as has achieved all 3 levels of Progressing In Ballet Technique (PBT). Shes actively working towards achieving multiple other teaching courses. Her biggest joy is dance and having the opportunity to create and inspire todays youth by creating a safe environment, where all students develop proper understanding of music, technique and foundations of dance, to enhance artistic quality of movement, and bring out each students confidence as an individual. She believes everybody can learn to dance, and that dance is therapeutic way to express oneself freely.

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Bio to come!

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Bio to come!

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Keira took her first ballet class when she was 3 years old, and knew that she had fallen in love. Since then, she has continued training in ballet and later pointe work, as well as lyrical, jazz and musical theatre. Keira has trained in RAD levels from Grade 1 to Intermediate and has been dancing competitively for 9 years. In 2016, Keira begin her teacher training as a volunteer assistant in ballet classes. She continued assisting for several years and started substitute teaching dance and ballet classes in 2021 before taking on classes of her own in 2023.

Keira has attended the Shine Top Ten Dancer workshops in 2020, 2021, and 2023. These workshops gave her opportunities to learn from Canadian dancers and choreographers in the industry, like Louise Hradsky and Sarah Brewer Clowes. In 2023, Keira won a scholarship for the Lightning Elite Performance Team. The team consisted of dancers from across Canada and the USA. She performed with Lightning Elite in Disneyland and while there, got the opportunity to attend a workshop taught by a Disney cast member.

Keira hopes to share her love of dance with her students, and aims to make the class environment fun and engaging.

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Tia began dancing at the young age of three. She trained in many styles of dance including jazz, tap, lyrical, ballet, and hip hop. At the age of ten, Tia was presented with the amazing opportunity to take tap lessons under Bonnie-Jean Anderson. Tap dancing immediately became her most intense passion. People were extremely impressed to see someone begin to specialize in a dance style at such a young age!

 Tia quickly immersed herself in all things related to tap dancing and took as many classes as possible pertaining to her interest. It was typical for her to spend numerous hours per week working on just one genre of dance. Almost every year Tia was a member of at least two different tap routines, attended extra technique classes, and also learned a variety of solos, duos, and trios over her dancing career.

 Tia was provided with yet another amazing opportunity to become a member of the Canadian Tap Dancing Team and traveled to Reisa, Germany two years in a row to represent Canada. There she performed multiple routines, including small and large formations and a tap trio. She and her amazing team were able to bring back an impressive amount of titles, including two silver medals, one bronze medal, and a sixth place. The groups’ Tia was a member of competed against many different countries, some categories totaling up to 40 different routines.  Tia is now happy to be a Tap instructor and to share her knowledge, experience, and love of the genre with her students!

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Carmen is a Hip Hop and Acro teacher. Carmen started dance at the age of 3 and fell in love. As Carmen got older she continued her passion and took classes in Ballet, Pointe, Contemporary, Jazz, Modern, Tap, Hip Hop, Acro, and Song and Dance. She was a competitive dancer for about 9 years and traveled around the lower mainland for most competitions. Representing Canada in the Hip Hop world’s competition was a highlight. She also passed a number of her AIDT jazz tech exams before graduating and leaving for University. Throughout her years of dance she would help her teachers with the younger kid’s classes to gain teaching experience as well as help pay for her own classes.

When Carmen returned from university she started teaching Hip Hop and Acro at various studios and rec centers. It was also at this time that Carmen started training Hand to Hand with her partner Jason. They dedicated a lot of time and hard work into training and soon enough were performing professionally. These gigs included corporate events, weddings, birthdays, city events, and commercials. They have had the opportunity to train with Cirque Du Solei performers as well as traveling to Montréal to broaden their Circus knowledge and abilities.

Carmen’s passion for dance and circus is always growing and there is nothing she loves more than to share that passion. She believes in hard work, commitment, and most of all having fun.

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Brianna has been training as a competitive dancer since she was 5 years old. She explored as many styles as were available to her, training in Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Musical Theatre, Tap, HipHop, and Ballet. Brianna knew from a young age that she had a passion for teaching and thus wanted to get started as soon as she could. She began teaching at 15 years old and has continued developing her craft ever since. She’s utilized her abundance of training to create pieces that are inventive and challenging for her students. Her devotion to developing both her students and her choreography has enabled her to find success in both local and international competitions. As a result, Brianna has won a variety of awards for her choreography. Furthermore, Brianna has performed in the 2010 Paralympic opening ceremonies, as well as in a variety of performances at the PNE. Brianna also trained with United by Unify, under the direction of Lex Burnham and Alex Shigetomi. She aims to share her love of dance and learning with her students in a fun and constructive environment.

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Brandie has been working with kids for over 25 years. She earned her Bachelors's degree in Psychology from Washington State University and a Masters's degree in Social Work from the University of Washington. She began working with children within the schools of western Washington, then relocated to Los Angeles, California specializing in art and play therapy with high-risk kids and their families. Brandie feels strongly in letting children express themselves through art and writing, finding their own voice and style. Making learning fun, helping to foster ideas, and watching them grow and develop skills as well as confidence that they can carry with them even outside of the classroom.

When Brandie isn't teaching, she is homeschooling 5 crazy kids, chasing chickens and other furry creatures. She is excited to spend this time with the students at Creative Edge School of Arts sharing the joy of learning that will last a lifetime.

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As a child and teenager, Gabrielle competed regularly in Abbotsford and Chilliwack piano festivals, often taking first place. Gabrielle completed her Grade 10 RCM piano exam in 2000, scoring first class honours with distinction, as well as completing all the corresponding theory by age 12. She studied under Bernard Duerksen. Gabrielle has been teaching piano since she was 14 years old .

For Gabrielle, music is both extremely serious and profoundly joyful. In her teaching Gabrielle leans towards a classical approach, but she is flexible and happy to adjust her teaching methodology to suit each individual student. Gabrielle loves working with advanced students (e.g., Grade 5 RCM and higher), but she also enjoys setting a strong foundation for newcomers to piano. Successful students with Gabrielle strengthen their piano technique through daily practice, and also deepen their love and appreciation for all music.

When not teaching piano, Gabrielle is busy taking care of her six children. Her ten year goals include; completing her ARCT in piano performance, and completing her bachelors degree in nursing .

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Miss Sarah is a new addition to our Preschool Family, although you may have seen her friendly face around the studio over the years. Miss Sarah is a dance Mom of two daughters who enjoy classes at Creative Edge.

Sarah graduated from the University of the Fraser Valley and has her Early Childhood Educator Certificate and Community Care First Aid. After working in Japan as a Preschool English Teacher, Sarah knew that her passion was working with Children. Miss Sarah has worked in-home daycare for the last 9 years. After being a stay-at-home Mom, Miss Sarah is excited to return to a career she loves teaching Preschool.