Abbie is a fully qualified and registered ISTD Dance Teacher in Imperial Ballet, Modern Theatre and Tap Dance and is also a qualified Fitsteps Instructor.

Abbie started dancing with a Hampshire dance school when she was only two and a half years old, studying Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) Imperial Ballet, Modern Theatre and Tap Dance and continued with the Academy until she had completed all her major dance examinations.

Abbie also attended the Urdang Academy in Covent Garden for two years from the ages of 11 to 13 on their Musical Theatre course where she performed in a revue show and in the musical Godspell.

To further her studies, Abbie attended Chichester College and studied a BTEC National Diploma in Dance and a BTEC Subsidiary Diploma in Musical Theatre, passed with Distinction and Distinction*, alongside the ISTD Teaching Qualifications, Diploma in Dance Instruction (DDI) and Diploma in Dance Education (DDE). Full qualification and registration with the ISTD were awarded in 2012 after 3 years of training. In 2017 Abbie graduated, after a further 2 years of training, from the ISTD Level 6 Diploma in Dance Pedagogy in which she specialised in Tap Dance.

Alongside Funtime Dance and Drama Abbie is also Principal/Owner of AJ Dance and Fitness which is based in Chandlers Ford. Abbie is also the Programme Coordinator and Senior Lecturer for the Musical Theatre (Cabaret) BA (Hons) Degree programme at University of Chichester. She has most recently designed and developed the syllabus and curriculum for the Ballet, Tap and Jazz on the Musical Theatre (Cabaret) and the Musical Theatre (Music) degree routes.

Abbie has choreographed many shows professionally throughout her dance career so far including many dance school shows across Hampshire and West Sussex as well as the Hampshire professional tour of ‘Bouncers’ (twice!) with Blackbox Theatre Company, the ‘AJ Adult Tappers’ routines for their performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London in 2018 and for their own 20-minute performance in the heart of Disneyland Paris in 2019 and most recently many shows with the University of Chichester including Cabaret routines, Marvellous Musicals and agent showcases and industry days.

If you hadn’t realised, Abbie loves dance and passing her passion and knowledge on to her students. 

Katherine started dancing at the age of 3 at Carmichael school of theatre arts in her home town of Telford, Shropshire. This is where she fell in love with dancing and soon knew this is what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

Katherine went on to train full time at Merseyside Dance and Drama Centre in Liverpool where she gained her ISTD teaching qualifications in Ballet, Modern, Tap and National. She also gained my diploma in Dance & Drama.

After graduating Katherine’s first job was teaching at the Conservatoire of Dance in the Seychelles where she taught Ballet and Modern for a year. Once she returned to the UK Katherine decided to try dancing professionally and performed cabaret in several countries. After two years she was missing teaching so she decided to come home and pursue a career in teaching.

Since returning to the UK Katherine has taught in Guernsey, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Middlesex and is currently teaching in Surrey & Hampshire.

Gillians early training began at Joyce Butler Academy in Ealing, where she studied RAD Ballet to Intermediate, ISTD Modern and Tap up to Advanced.
 
She joined Royal Ballet Junior Associates at 12 and moved into full time training at London School of Contemporary Dance. During this time she gained Advanced examinations in Ballet, Modern and Tap.

A year performing with London Contemporary Dance Theatre on completion of training, was followed by contracts at Stugartt Ballet and London City Ballet, before moving into Musical Theatre in the West End. West End credits include My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls, Cats.
 
Following her marriage Gillian moved down to Hampshire and retrained as a teacher with Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. She established her own school in Farnham, Surrey in 1994.
 
Gillian loves teaching and really enjoys watching her students and processing through grades and taking part in performances.

I am Laura and I have been working for Funtime for nearly 10 years! I started off as a work experience student and then was able to assist a few classes while I was at college studying level 3 performing arts.

I have a strong passion for drama, singing and dance. I studied performing arts at Winchester University, in which I graduated with a 2:1, and progressed to teaching with mum classes, tots classes and street dance.

When I was at university I learnt puppetry skills, immersive theatre skills and so much more that I love sharing with the children.

My skill set is; with mum classes, tots, preschool, mini performance, street dance and drama.

I am also a supervisor for wrap around care with my level 3 play worker qualification.  

I look forward to teaching your children!