Amanda Rogers School of Dance and Performing Arts

Staff

Amanda Rogers - Principal

Trained in Liverpool from 1982-1985.

Amanda opened the School in 1985; she free-lanced around the North West teaching dance in various Colleges and Schools to a professional level. Amanda has been involved in choreographing, producing and directing numerous productions over the years.

In recent years Amanda has concentrated on developing the School as well as teaching at Hutton Grammar School where she held the post of Head of Dance. She has been an external marker for the AQA written AS Dance papers and until recent months was an external AQA Moderator and Examiner for the practical Dance exam at A-Level.

Catherine commenced her teaching career in London following three years training at the Northern Ballet School in Manchester.

Having gained experience in teaching for a number of private schools, dance schools and nurseries, Catherine returned to the North West in 2002 and joined the team at the Amanda Rogers School of Dance and Performing Arts to teach Ballet, Modern and Tap dance. She now focuses on Ballet within the school, teaching to an Advanced Professional level as well as the GCSE Dance.
Catherine has gained her QTLS status and taught A Level Dance alongside Amanda at Hutton Grammar School. Catherine gained a First-Class BA (Hons) in Dance Performance and Teaching at UCLAN, which has widened her subject knowledge and led to the role of Dance Co-ordinator within a group of Primary and Secondary schools.

Catherine McLean - Deputy Principal

Andrew Hindley

Andrew started his dance training aged three at the Jean Geddes School of Dancing in Manchester. In 1998 he went on to continue his training at Preston College, where he studied on the Professional Dancers and Teachers of Dance course.

Upon graduation in 2000 Andrew had a short but successful performing career. He danced on cruises around the Mediterranean, Africa and South America, and also performed in a number of pantomimes for Pele productions, at the Charter Theatre in Preston and the Lowry Theatre Manchester.

Andrew is now Project Dance Leader and teaches full time at Preston College, where he is Head of Dance. He specializes in teaching Tap, Jazz and Boys work, as well as continuing to deliver dance workshops in schools around Manchester, Bolton and Preston.

Leah Wainwright

Leah fell in love with dance at a young age and began her dance training at the Amanda Rogers School of Dance and Performing Arts. After taking graded exams from ages 3-18 and choreographing at a local youth theatre, she went on to achieve a university scholarship and subsequently a First-Class BA (Hons) in Dance. Following which she spent an additional year studying for an MA in Dance Anthropology at the University of Roehampton.
Following University, Leah moved into the professional theatre world, focusing on marketing, PR, and production. This exciting time allowed Leah to work across the genres of dance, theatre, art, and film. She spent a number of years with a varied portfolio ranging from large commercial shows to small-scale fringe shows, based firstly at The Lowry, then moving to London where she spent time with the Barbican and finally in the West End. In 2017, Leah took a breath from the theatre world to focus on her 200-hour yoga teacher training and returning to the North West where she now teaches Ballet, Contemporary and Yoga

Sally Whitaker

Sally commenced her dance training with Amanda Rogers from the age of six where she stayed until the age of 18 when she then went on to study at SLP Dance College in Leeds.

After graduating Sally went to live and dance professionally in London's West End; starring in various Musicals, and extra work on Coronation Street and Eastenders as well as various TV Commercials.

Sally joined us in 2013 and brought her professionalism back home. She teaches all four Dance Genres and is responsible for the Performance Class, Street and Commercial Dance, which are aimed at Actors, Singers and Dancers alike.
Sally has recently produced some amazing Musical Theatre pieces for our shows including extracts from Annie, Matilda, Chicago and more recently Hairspray to name but a few.

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Holly first began her dance training at the age of 3 years old at the Amanda Rogers School of Dance and Performing Arts. She first began learning the basics of ballet and modern and then progressed onto learning a variety of styles, as she grew older. Holly has now trained in Ballet, Tap, Modern, Contemporary, Jazz, Commercial, Musical Theatre and National. She is now a fully qualified Acro and Acro Dance teacher.

Holly also earned a Teaching Diploma in Musical Theatre Singing with LCM and has worked from Grades 1-8 in Musical Theatre Singing and is also classically trained. Holly now goes into her second year at Preston Dance College to finalise her teaching qualifications

Holly Weston

Paul Flanagan

Paul Flannigan joined the Amanda Rogers School of Dance and Performing Arts team in 2019; leading our Musical Theatre & Singing Department. Paul trained at the Dance School of Scotland on a Musical Theatre course and also attended Bird College of Dance to study Music and Theatre Performance.

Paul has starred in many productions including Grease, Addams Family, Legally Blonde and most recently Mary Poppins as a swing/understudy Valentine.

Catherine Beesley

Catherine joined the team in 2010. She is our accounts manager and is responsible for fees, exam entries and accounts. Catherine works solely in the office and is rarely seen at the studios.

Louise Ross

Louise was the very first pupil to attend Amanda Rogers School at the age of 9 where she studied until she was 19 years old. Louise went on to train at Merseyside Dance and Drama centre in Liverpool, graduating with a professional dance diploma along with Associate teaching qualifications with the I.S.T.D in Ballet, Modern, National and Disco.

Louise went on to dance professionally for over 10 years all over the world on cruise ships, hotels, casinos, summer seasons, commercials as well as extra work on the Channel 4 TV series Hollyoaks.

Louise now runs her own business teaching in schools, nurseries and independent fitness classes around Lancashire.
Louise is very passionate about spreading the love of dance to children and seeing their confidence, talent and love for the art grow.

Paula joined the team in 2014. She is the Office Manager and is responsible for the collection of fees, deals with enquiries, promotes the School via social media, and deals with almost everything. She took the lead role in organising our successful trip to Disneyland Paris amongst other major events; above all she manages Miss Rogers!

She is a huge asset in raising funds for all our Shows.

Paula Weston

Grace Hall

Grace began her dance training at Amanda Rogers School of Dance and Performing Arts, right after the 2012 Show, "Let's Get This Party Started". Grace studied the basics of Ballet, Modern and Tap and then began other classes such as Contemporary, Jazz, Commercial and Musical Theatre.

Grace went on to receive many confirmed applications to study at different dance colleges; but ultimately went to study at Bird College for a year. However, Grace decided her heart was at home and has now come back to Preston and is going into her official second year at Preston College on the degree course; gaining all her teaching qualifications.

Tim Dodd

Tim Dodd trained at the Dance School from the age of 5 and left in 2019 for University, where he is currently studying Fashion Atelier in Rochester, Kent.
Tim has now taken on the role of filming, editing and uploading the remote dance exams along with keeping the social media up to date.