Our Team
Dale Clark
Dale Clark, principal operator and owner of Alberta Performing Arts Academy, has a Master’s Fine Arts Diploma from the University of Calgary and a four-year FRSA in Theatre Arts from Rosebud School of the Arts. She has directed children’s choirs with many Music Festival Awards and Provincial recommendations. Her acting credits include A Montgomery Christmas, Christmas in Rosebud, For Home and Country, and Love Child. Her directing credits include the following musicals: Oliver, Honk, Seussical, 101 Dalmatians, Aladdin, Annie, Godspell, Beauty and the Beast, and Cinderella. A trained Suzuki teacher, she holds Honours Grace IX Royal Conservatory and History and Harmony III. Her piano and choir students have found their place in the professional world as professional singers on stage in a theatre, in choirs and opera, as university graduates with music majors and teachers, and dozens more who became accomplished musicians with a love of music. Whatever path her students have pursued, Clark believes every child should have access to music education because she believes studying music in childhood results in better human beings.
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Miss Irene
Drama Camp Instructor
Miss Irene Widdup is the owner and artistic director of Footworks Dance Academy. With 35+ years of teaching and choreography experience, a Teaching Certificate from the Royal Academy of Dance, Bachelor of Education Degree with Honors, a Member of the International Academy of Dance Adjudicators and the President Alberta Dance Educators Association and 48 years of dance training, Miss Irene comes highly qualified. She is also fully certified in Acrobatic Arts, the Progressive Ballet Training method, Spectacle Blue Aerial Arts in Hoop, Trapeze and Silks, as well as Al Gilbert and ADAPT and teaches all forms of dance, including Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Hip Hop and Musical Theatre. She makes sure to keep updated with the latest in dance by attending various dance conventions and master classes in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Phoenix, and even here in Alberta. She has published her Student Teaching Education Program (S.T.E.P.) specifically for dance teaching preparation and has presented the program to various schools abroad. She specializes in preschool training and classroom lesson development. She has trained many young teachers in the art of teaching and has presented her unique and progressive teaching methods at various teacher conventions across Canada.
Miss Irene has been a teaching mentor for the R.A.D. with the Certified Ballet Teaching Studies Program. She has owned her own business for 30+ years and has shared her business skills at various conventions, including marketing techniques and customer service relations. She is very enthusiastic and passionate about the dance industry, and she looks forward to passing on her knowledge and vast experience to teachers of all ages. Sharing is the key to becoming an exceptional teacher and business owner!
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Miss Cassie
Drama Camp Instructor
Cassie Garbutt is thrilled to be working for Alberta Performing Arts Academy! Cassie is an Edmonton-based artist who has helped develop and direct Lionheart Arts Camp in Fort McMurray.
Cassie is an actress, singer, dancer, and creator working all over Alberta, spanning from Fort McMurray to Calgary. She graduated a four year acting mentorship at Rosebud School of the Arts in 2018. Previous productions include: The Last Supper (Fire Exit Theatre), A Timeless Journey (Seed and the Soil Productions), Punch Up (Light in the Dark Productions), Junie B. Jones: The Musical (Storybook Theatre), May and Jo (Spikenard Productions), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat (Rosebud Theatre), The Christians (Rosebud Theatre), An Inspector Calls (Rosebud Theatre).