Erin McNeill - Artistic Director
Erin began training with Dolores Kirkwood in New Westminster when she was four years old. She joined Royal City Youth Ballet Company where she performed and toured many ballets including The Nutcracker, Cinderella, and Coppelia as well as being a part of Royal City Musical Theatre Company. In 2003, Erin joined Pacific DanceArts in Vancouver and was accepted into the pre-professional division under the direction of Li Yaming attending YAGP Finals in NYC 2009. Upon graduating, Erin moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to dance professionally with Atlanta Ballet, directed by John McFall and Dean Sharon Story performing and developing different styes and repertoire including; Michael Pink's Dracula, David Bintley's Carmina Burana, James Kudelka's Four Seasons, Christopher Wheeldon's RUSH and Gaga technique for Ohad Naharin's Minus 16. Erin was one of eleven girls invited to attend The School of Jacob's Pillow in 2014 under the directorship of Anna-Marie Holmes. In 2015, Erin joined Cork City Ballet in Ireland as a Soloist performing Yury Demakov's Swan Lake under the direction of Alan Foley in the Cork Opera House. Erin joined English National Ballet in 2016 under the direction of Tamara Rojo CBE to perform Derek Dean’s Swan Lake in the Round, Royal Albert Hall in London, and George Williamson's My First Sleeping Beauty. Erin joined Ballet Theatre UK as a Principal dancer the following season and performed; Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, The Sugarplum Fairy , Titania in A Midsummer Nights Dream, and the Little Mermaid in Christopher Moore’s The Little Mermaid. Erin returned to Cork City Ballet in the fall of 2018 and 2019 to perform in The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. In September of 2018, Erin accepted the opportunity to return home to be the Artistic Director of Pacific DanceArts, and in 2021 extended her artistic position to Coastal City Ballet. She has successfully staged full works including Les Sylphide, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and Coppelia while also setting excerpts including Kingdom of the Shades, and Paquita, as well as bringing international works to Vancouver audiences. Erin highly values and appreciates the ability and opportunity to continue creating and inspiring the next generations of artists.
Yana Dragieva - Principal teacher - Ballet - Character
Born in Shumen, Bulgaria, Yana Dragieva has studied classical ballet in the Vagganova system since the age of six. She graduated from Sofia National Music and Dance University Choreographic department in 1996 in the class of prima ballerina Kalina Bogoeva. She continued her professional development with famous Masters such as Tadeusz Matacz and Alexander Ursuljiak from John Cranko School, Loippa Aroijo from Cuba National Ballet School, Seriozna Petrosjan in Erevan and Master Daniel Sallier in Montreal. Her mentor in her teaching career was Alexander Ursuljak, former director of Stuttgart Ballet School.Yana's professional dancing career started in Varna's State Opera house and continued later at State Music Theatre, Sofia. During this period she toured and later lived and performed in Wiesbaden, Germany, Finland, Norway and France. Yana has a Bachelor Degree from Bulgarian National Music University in Dance. She specialized in Classical Ballet Pedagogy Vaganova system, Choreographing and Rehearsing.
Katherine Robidoux - Ballet
Born in England, Katherine moved to Canada as a young child, where her dance journey began at the age of three. Katherine grew up moving often, which gave her the opportunity to train in a variety of ballet and contemporary styles across Turkey, Japan, Canada and Norway. In 2015, Katherine moved to Vancouver to pursue her Bachelor of Arts at the University of British Columbia. It is then that she also joined Pacific DanceArts as a student, enrolling in the Half Day Program from 2017-21. Katherine attended Canada's Ballet Jörgen's summer intensive and Junior Company in 2019, and was invited to CBJ's Junior Company in both 2020 and 2021. Since moving to Vancouver, PDA has become Katherine's second home, and she is excited to share her love of dance here and to inspire the next generation of dancers to dream big.
Brenna Metzmeier - Contemporary
Brenna Metzmeier, is originally from Terrace BC, but completed her formal training at the Victoria Academy of Ballet, receiving a diploma in 2016. She has had the opportunity to work with Ballet Etoile, Arts Umbrella’s Performance Research Project, Sawdust Collective, Pi Theatre, The Banff Dance Company, Inverso Productions, Vision Impure, Opera Box, State of Underdress, Little Chamber Music, Corporeal Imago and Wen Wei Dance. Brenna is also a founding member of CAMP which has been selected for multiple festivals including the Vancouver International Dance Festival and Dancing on the Edge, as well as smaller scale shows and a recent choreographic commission from Lamon Dance. She has recently finished working with the Edmonton Opera as a dancer and choreographic assistant for their reimagination of Orphee+, and is in ongoing collaboration with Corporeal Imago and CAMP
Pacific DanceArts
Est. 1999