Chantal Pinguet
Owner/Director

Born and raised on the Kapiti Coast, Chantal trained in many dance styles. She was a New Zealand School of Dance Classical Associate, part of the Royal New Zealand Ballet Mentorship Program and completed her final RAD ballet exams under Bronwyn Bennett at Chilton Dance Centre.

At 16, Chantal moved to the Gold Coast to begin her full-time ballet training at Atelier Australia before moving to Switzerland to accept a scholarship at Ecole-Atelier Rudra Bejart. Here she trained for 60 hours a week in classical ballet, Martha Graham modern technique, classical voice, percussion, kendo, theatre, acrobatics and classical Indian dance.

​With Rudra Bejart and the Bejart Ballet Lausanne company, Chantal performed a number of neo-classical and contemporary works on stages across Europe.

Chantal accepted a contract with the Poznan Opera Ballet in Poland at 19, performing in traditional classical ballets and more modern ballets such as Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Serenade and Anna Karenina.

Wanting a new challenge and the chance to perform more styles, she began working with an agency in Greece in 2017. Since then, she has performed in 5 star resorts during the summer season on a number of Greek islands. She gained experience as a choreographer, fitness instructor and MC and was soon working as an Entertainment Manager organising the evening shows, sports and fitness programs, events and kids entertainment. As well as producing a number of shows over the seasons, Chantal loved the chance to upskill and perform street dance styles, latin dance and musicals.

When in New Zealand, Chantal coached students and taught at numerous schools and events nation-wide. Chantal has also enjoyed adjudicating at many competitions.

In 2020, whilst back in Aotearoa due to Covid-19, Chantal created ‘Stage to Studio’ and has been running dance workshops and competitions for dancers in the lower North Island ever since.

​She started to teach at Kate Martin School of Dance in 2020, and took on a bigger role in 2021. Chantal is thrilled to be a part of the evolution of this school and become the owner and director in 2023.

Ashley West
Teacher

Ashley started dancing at the age of 4, and fell in love with it right away! She attended Judith Fuge Dance School where she trained in a number of styles including jazz, hip hop, tap, contemporary and ballet.

In 2018 Ashley graduated from Paraparaumu College as Cultural Captain and was awarded Te Ako Patuia Award for Learning and Leadership.

Following that, Ashley spent 6 months working in 5 star resorts in the Greek islands. She performed in a number of shows and was also responsible for leading fitness classes and children’s’ activity programs.

Currently Ashley is working at Kenekena primary school where she works hard to create an exciting and motivating environment for all the students she supports.

Mekaela Anderson
Teacher

Mekaela immersed herself in the world of dance from the young age of 3 and trained in various dance genres, including Ballet, Jazz, and Contemporary. In 2017, Mekaela was the recipient of the Gwen Gibbs Memorial Scholarship and was also the recipient of that scholarship again in 2020. Unfortunately, due to injury cutting short her own dancing pursuits, this setback became a quick opportunity for her to redirect her passion into teaching, through the guidance of her own teacher Michelle Robinson.

 

In 2019, Mekaela completed her Pre-Associate One Ballet (I.D.T.A) and Pre-Associate Two Ballet (I.D.T.A) in 2020. Both of which were completed at Distinction level. In 2022, Mekaela completed her Associate Ballet (I.D.T.A), at Distinction level, qualifying her as AIDTA. She has endeavors to continue her qualifications to fellowship level and broaden into other syllabi.  

 

Mekaela has spent the last 3 years at Red Star Dance in Palmerston North teaching Ballet, Jazz and Contemporary and relieving at local studios. Her students have had a 100% succession rate for all exams. Her teaching approach is anchored in precision and technique, blending seamlessly with the joy and enjoyment that dance brings, therefore creating an environment where students not only develop their technical skills but also find pleasure in the art form.

Grace Nemeth
Teacher

Grace has been dancing since the age of 4 at Kapiti Dance Centre where she completed her ballet grades up to Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) advanced 2. In the early years Grace trained in RAD ballet before discovering New Zealand Association of Modern Dance (NZAMD) contemporary and jazz. Grace was accepted into the New Zealand School of Dance as a Contemporary Associate. Grace has also received nominations to attend the NZAMD Scholarship weekends where she participated in both Contemporary and Jazz sections in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In 2018 Grace was fortunate to be selected as a Contemporary finalist at the scholarship weekend. 

After years of competitions and discovering the love for choreography Grace received a modern PACANZ nomination before moving to Auckland after being accepted into Unitecs Bachelor in Performing and Screen Arts programme Majoring in contemporary dance.    

Since then Grace has moved back to the Kapiti coast teaching RAD, NZAMD and Asia Pacific Dance Association (APDA) syllabi. She has now completed her RAD Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies and looks forward to sharing her love of dance with the next generation.

Ashley Snow
Guest Teacher

Ashley was a competitive gymnast for three years before starting dance with Kate Martin School of Dance at age eleven. She also competed as a regional representative for taekwon-do, swimming and netball throughout her childhood.

She has years of experience as an assistant teacher, and later as a teacher, working with children aged 3+ in both dance and taekwon-do.

In 2020 Ashley gained her ‘Acrobating Arts Module One Teacher Certificate’ through Acrobatic Arts.

The following year she was the Head of Arts prefect at Waiopehu College and graduated with Excellence Endorsement.

Ashley is currently studying at Massey University.

Corinne Pinguet
Administrator

Born in Wellington to French parents, a very young Corinne once turned down an offer to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet as it was not her thing.

After 10 years living in London as a young adult, working in IT and travelling around Europe, Corinne returned to NZ with her husband Steve to bring up their imminent family.

Dance soon did become her thing, as both daughters fell in love with dance, and over time Corinne developed a huge appreciation for all things dance. She enjoyed many fun filled years volunteering on the committee of the Kapiti Ballet Society / Kapiti Dance Comps.

When her girls were very young, Corinne retrained, gaining an Early Childhood Teaching degree from VUW. She then spent the next 18 years working full time as a kindergarten teacher on the Kāpiti Coast. The last seven years were spent as Head Teacher at a local kindergarten, culminating in receiving a National Excellence in Teaching Award in 2022.

In late 2022 Corinne and family moved to Horowhenua, and in 2023 she moved to a part time teaching role so that she could support Chantal and join the Levin The Movement team. She is really excited to see Levin The Movement flourish, and to see young dancers develop a love of dance much earlier than she did!