COMPANY MEMBERS
Judith Sibley - Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer
ARAD PDTD RTS RBS Dip.
Dublin born Judith Sibley is one of Ireland's most prestigious ballet artists. She studied at the acclaimed Elmhurst Ballet School and the Ballet Rambert School, London. She has performed with Vienna Festival Ballet, Rubato Ballet, New Balance Dance Company, Ballet Ireland, Spirit of the Dance, Phantom of the Opera in both Belgium and Germany, Cork City Ballet, Irish National Youth Ballet, Youth Ballet West, The Great Waltz, and Coisceim ( for the Ryder Cup). Judith has toured internationally, performing principal and soloist roles in all the major classical ballets including Swan Lake, Giselle, La Bayadere, Cinderella, Coppelia, and The Nutcracker.
She has choreographed for Cork City Ballet, Baboro Festival, Macnas, Cuirt Festival, and Catastrophe Theatre Company. Her work has been invited to The Galway Arts Festival, The Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin Absolute Fringe Festival, Flights of Fancy Festival, Feile na Bealtaine, Louisburgh Arts Festival and Instruments of Peace.
Having gained the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) Professional Dancers Teaching Diploma with Distinction, Judith teaches at Shannon and Corrib Dance Academies. She has tutored internationally for the RAD, and has taught ballet as far afield as Singapore and Italy. She spent six years as Chairperson of the RAD's Regional Advisory Committee in Ireland and is currently a Director of Irish Ballet Forum.
She has choreographed Strings, Wishes and Waves, Love and Other Disguises, Soul/S, Ways You Wander, Connect For, Four Seasons of Peace, The Space Where Thought Once Was and Scatenato for the company. She is also Artistic Director and lead choreographer of Youth Ballet West and both companies are supported by The Arts Council.
Paul Hayes - Producer
Paul has a BA in Drama from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and an MA
in Drama and Theatre Studies from the NUI Galway. Paul is Artistic Director
of Catastrophe Theatre Company in Galway for whom he has directed 16 plays
including Up the Yard and LOVE and other disguises. He produced The Race of
the Ark Tattoo for the Abbey Theatre island tour and he produced Strings,
Wishes and Waves, Soul/S, Ways You Wander and 3 Piece Suite for Chrysalis
Dance. Paul was Head of Drama at Monaghan Institute for three years before
moving on to become Community Arts Officer with Meath County Council. He
has been a script reader for Druid and the Abbey. He worked as General
Manager for Upstate Theatre Project in Drogheda for three years and was both
producer and dramaturg on At Peace and Submarine Man. In 2010 he directed
The Ones Who Kill Shooting Stars by Conall Quinn for Upstate. Paul is
currently Manager of The Barbican in Drogheda.
Leighton trained at Arts Educational school, London. After graduating he travelled to Israel to work with Bat-Dor Company where he remained as a soloist for two years. Leighton has performed with companies including English National Opera, Rotterdam Dance Group, Wayne Sleeps Ballet Company, and Vienna Festival Ballet. He subsequently became a member of the English National Ballet where he stayed for three seasons performing in all the major classics. He then joined the hit musical Cats as lead dancer Mistoffelees, followed by Anything Goes and the UK and World tour of Saturday Night Fever. Among various TV and film appearances Leighton has worked with directors including Oliver Stone. In Ireland he has worked with Ballet Ireland, Cois Ceim, Cork City Ballet and Irish Modern Dance Theatre. He has performed in ‘Love and Other Disguises’, ‘Soul/S’ and ‘Ways You Wander’ and '3 Piece Suite' and 'Four Seasons of Peace' with Chrysalis Dance. Leighton teaches for the Corrib Dance Academy, Shannon Dance Academy and is principal of the Mayo School of Dance and Tuam Academy of Dance. He is also choreographer and rehearsal director for Youth Ballet West.
Born in Oxford, Amy trained at the Central School of Ballet, London where she won the Molly Lake Performance Award, she then completed her training at the Ecole National Superieure de Dance de Marseille. She has danced with Atlanta Ballet, European Ballet, National Ballet de Marseille and English National Ballet performing “Swan Lake” and “Romeo and Juliet” at The Royal Albert Hall. Amy played a feature ballet dancer in the film” Phantom of the Opera” and worked on the fourth Harry Potter film “The Goblet of Fire”. In addition Amy has performed in “The Great Waltz” and “The Magic of Vienna”, two Jim Molloy Productions at the Gaiety Theatre and National Concert Hall, Dublin. She joined Cois Ceim in staging the opening Ceremony for the 2006 Ryder Cup at the K Club, Co Kildare. Amy has performed in recent productions with Crux Dance Theatre and is currently a soloist with Cork City Ballet with whom she has performed a wide repertoire since 2004. She has performed in ‘Strings’, ‘Wishes and Waves’, ‘Souls’, ‘Ways You Wander’,'3 Piece Suite' and 'Four Seasons of Peace' with Chrysalis Dance. In 2011 she gained The Professional Dancer's Teaching Diploma with the RAD.
Andrea Santato was born in Padova, Italy. He started his dance studies at the ‘Progetto Danza,’ school directed by Greta Garbo. At the age of 20 he moved to London and attended London Contemporary Dance School. During this time he had the opportunity to work with Lorena Randi, Jan De Schynkel and Hofesh Shechter. He took part in the students LC3 Tour. His own choreography, ‘Strangers’ was selected to be part of ‘Danses de Mai 2007’ at the Dance and Music Conservatoire in Paris. He also took part in Resolution 2007. He joined Michael Clark Company for the ‘Stravinsky Project’ and yet again for the ‘Stravinsky Project Tour’ in 2008. Andrea has danced as soloist with Swansea Ballet Russe in Coppelia and Swan Lake. He has also danced the principal part of the Prince in The Nutcracker with the same company. In 2009 he joined Cork City Ballet for their Winter Season. He has worked with the artist Michael Creed performing “Ballet: work n. 1020”. He was a member of Ballet Theatre UK, touring the UK in Cinderella and The Nutcracker. With Chrysalis Dance he has performed ‘Ways you Wander’, ‘3 Piece Suite’ and 'Four Seasons of Peace'.
Joanne trained at the acclaimed Royal Ballet School, London and Elmhurst School for Dance, Birmingham. While still a student she performed with The Royal Ballet Company and Birmingham Royal Ballet Company in many well-known classical ballets. After graduating, Joanne gained her Pilates Teaching Qualifications and began teaching privately in Birmingham. She is a member of ‘DNA 3D’, a dance and research company with whom she regularly performs with in Wolverhampton. She has performed in the opening and closing ceremonies for the European Gymnastics Championships 2010 and the World Wheelchair Basketball Championships 2010 at the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham.
Joanne joined Chrysalis Dance for ‘3 Piece Suite’ and has performed with the company on National Tour, as well as at The Dublin Dance Festival and The Conference Centre, Dublin for World Peace Day in 'Four Seasons of Peace.'
Jane Magan
Artists Who Have Performed With Chrysalis Dance
- Lindsay Ashe-Brown
- Greet Boterman
- Lucy Casson
- Aisling Cook
- Michael Cooney
- Quentin Harris
- Maurice Kelleher
- Sophie Kiddle
- Icleiber Klaus
- Monica Loughman
- Clarissa Michaux
- Nicola Murphy
- Danny Reubens
- Claire Rooney
- Sanna Eriksson Ryg
- Emma Teixeira
- Lisa Tyrell
- Jessica Westwood.
Apprentice Dancers: - Stephanie DuFresne
- Elsbeth McKeever
- Jenny McKeever
- Alma Ryan
- Tara Shine
- Lisa Tighe
- Mary Walsh
