Meet Our Team

Irela Strachan trained initially at the National Ballet School of Canada and subsequently at Arts Educational and Bush Davies in the UK before completing an undergraduate degree in Music and Dance at Goldsmiths, University of London. She danced commercially for a number of years and taught at Pineapple Dance Studios and Stella Mann College before starting her own dance school which she ran successfully for over 10 years.

Irela holds Fellowship status with the ISTD in Imperial Ballet, Modern Theatre and Tap and is a senior examiner in all three genres.  She has recently been elected on to the Imperial Ballet Faculty committee and been selected as an examiner for the new ISTD Contemporary syllabus.

Having joined the Chichester College Dance Department team in 1999, Irela introduced the ISTD’s professional dance teacher training qualifications to the college and has been delivering high quality teacher training very successfully for over 15 years. She is delighted to have had the opportunity to work with the dance team at the University of Chichester to develop and implement the innovative Foundation Degree Dance Teaching in the Private Sector.

She is committed to developing dance education programmes that offer students a breadth of study that will afford them every opportunity to work in the dance sector as performers and/or teachers.

Birthday: 3rd June

How did you discover your love for dance? As a young child having the opportunity to train at the National Ballet School in Canada and to watch both the National Ballet Company and visiting companies perform a variety of beautiful ballets.

Best dance memory: Being on the same stage as Rudolph Nureyev in Don Quixote when I was 11.

When not dancing: Any type of exercise particularly Pilates and going on long walks, looking after my little garden and cooking.

Fun fact: I am super quick typing on a keyboard however my stubby fingers are useless for sending text messages or generally operating a touch screen, a problem in this day and age!