The Full Story
Our Team
Dancing with Izzy was founded by Isabel Haley in September 2020. Since then the school has grown and expanding into a small team of teachers and helpers who have become a vital part of the team.
Miss Izzy - Director & Founder/Teacher
Miss Izzy has been dancing since the young age of 3. She trained in a small dance school in Newcastle before moving up to train with the junior associates of the Royal Ballet School. She then auditioned for a place at Elmhurst Ballet School, a vocational boarding ballet school and was offered a place on scholarship to train at their lower school. Isabel trained there from the age of 11 all the way through to 16. Here Isabel learnt Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Contemporary, Singing, Acting Flamenco and more! She danced for the Birmingham Royal Ballet as a young girl for The Nutcracker. Isabel left Elmhurst at 16 to broaden her horizons in other forms of dance and performing arts where she went back to Newcastle to study her diploma in dance. Here, Isabel progressed onto street dance, house dance, and expanded her knowledge of contemporary. Whilst studying Isabel worked in a children's holiday club and then went on to become an oftsed registered nanny in Hither Green, London for 3 years. She has her Level 6 Teaching Diploma with British Ballet Organisation which enable her to enter her students into exams and also equates to a degree. Isabel has such a love for working with children and wanted to combine her love for dance and children and created her own dance school. Miss Izzy holds an Enhanced DBS check, Common Core Skills and Knowledge in Childcare, has been an Ofsted registered nanny and holds her Paediatric First Aid Certificate. Isabel is also a mother to a little 16 month old Stella and being a mother herself, Isabel understands the importance of providing a safe and supportive environment for all of her students.
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"It is my goal in life to provide a safe, inclusive, supportive, encouraging, empowering, confidence boosting space for young people and adults to learn to dance. I believe anyone should be able to walk into a dance class and be accepted and supported, so that is what I will provide" - Miss Izzy
Miss Charlie - Teacher
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Miss Charlie started dancing at four years old following the ISTD courses in: ballet, tap and modern, all to intermediate, as well as continuing with other styles including Jazz, Musical Theatre and Commercial in her teenage years. At thirteen Charlie performed with the London Children’s ballet in their production of the Counterville Ghost and continued to train primarily in ballet, before deciding at sixteen to enter a career in Musical Theatre. After spending two years at the Brit School studying musical Theatre, Charlie decided to complete her training attending the Guildford School of Acting on the BA Musical Theatre course, graduating in 2025.
Throughout her training Charlie has taught a wide scope of children and is super excited to get to know all everyone at Dancing with Izzy and lead classes full of creativity!
Miss Alice - Teacher
Miss Alice started dancing at the age of 3 years until she was 18 at an ISTD dance school in Cheltenham where she trained in ballet, modern and tap to an advanced level. At the school she participated and competed in numerous showcases, competitions, festivals and the ISTD ballet awards. Miss Alice was selected to perform the new Grade 6 ISTD ballet syllabus at multiple ISTD faculty conferences in front of many dance school owners in the UK. She performed for the local pantomimes at the Everyman theatre and also entered at a choreographic competition for under 18s called Creation, where she choreographed dances that won 2 years on the trot and gained scholarships to two Bird college summer schools consecutively.
She furthered her training at the age of 18 by auditioning for top London universities, in which she was fortunate to be offered places at all of them. Out of all the schools she was offered a scholarship at London studio centre where she trained and graduated with a degree in dance and musical theatre.
At the university she toured with the London Jazz Company across the UK. Specialising in jazz, contemporary, tap, ballet & commercial. This company also performed at the notorious dance event Move It. She was selected to perform with AniCo, a contemporary company. This company also collaborated with Central Saint Martins for a showcase called Design for Dance.
After graduating Miss Alice found her love for teaching, and wanted to direct her career down this route! She has been teaching from 2015 & consistently since January 2019, she looks forward to many more years of popping smiles on children’s faces!
Teaching experience includes: Stagecoach, established dance schools (IDTA), various after school clubs, kids parties & wedding couples! Miss Alice currently works for a preschool franchise called Babyballet in which she was thrilled to teach Miss Izzy’s little girl’s first good toes naughty toes!
Miss Alice can’t wait to see your children in class and inspire the next generation of dancers!!
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Miss Emily - Teacher
Miss Emily started dancing at the age of 3 in her home town of Hull where she trained in ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, commercial and musical theatre. Here, she took part in annual dance festivals and completed her dance exams in RAD and IDTA syllabus up to Advanced 1. Miss Emily gained lots of performance experience, at the 2015 BBC Dance Proms at The Royal Albert Hall, Robin Hood at The Barbican Theatre York, Take Flight for The Royal Ballet School and Move It! and CYD? Dance conventions.
At the age of 16, Miss Emily auditioned and successfully gained a place at Bird College of Dance and Musical Theatre, graduating in 2021 with a Level 6 Diploma. Since graduating, Miss Emily dove straight into teaching ballet, tap, jazz and musical theatre both in the UK and Internationally. She has successfully entered numerous students into RAD Ballet exams and has had many opportunities to choreograph full scale musicals for various Performing Arts schools such as: Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Blood Brothers, Matilda and Mary Poppins. Alongside teaching Miss Emily performs in the UK, Paris and Norway with The Gatsby Girls.
Miss Emily is super excited to be joining the team at Dancing With Izzy and pass on her experience and knowledge to the younger generations
Miss Zuri - Cover Teacher
Miss Zuri started dancing at age 4 in a dance school in her hometown of Bromley. It was there that her love for dance was encouraged and her skills were honed. She trained in ISTD Ballet, Tap and Jazz until she was 17. She also attended an after-school street dance club from age 7 until age 10.
Zuri obtained a BSc in Psychology at the University of Surrey. Over her four years of study, she was an active member of the Surrey Dance Squad. Here, Zuri spent two years on the committee as the Wildcard Executive and the Commercial Executive, choreographing heels and commercial routines for competitions.
Miss Zuri is really looking forward to joining the Dancing With Izzy team. Her teaching style is fun, with a focus on solid foundations, technique and freestyle. Miss Zuri’s classes are a safe space for children to become more confident and express themselves.
Miss Alice - Cover Teacher
Alice O’Brien started dance at the age of 4 at a local school in Cambridge. From 16 Alice trained at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts where she graduated with a Trinity Level 6 Diploma in Professional Dance. In Alice’s time at Tring Park she won the Tring Park Choreography Cup in 2018 and 2019 and in her 3rd year was given the opportunity to showcase two pieces of work for Encore Dance Company’s UK tour. She also had the opportunity to work with various creative artist some including Anthony Van Laast CBE, Ruth Brill, Etta Murfitt from Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and Simeon Qsyea. While training Alice also danced with the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain. Since graduating Alice has been freelancing as a professional dancer, choreographer and teacher. Most recent credits include playing Marilyn-Ann Evercreech in Matthew Bourne’s Edward Scissorshands UK and European tour as well as dancing as a soloist in the Premier League’s end of season promotional video ‘The Stage Remains’. Alice has also worked as a choreographer for National Youth Ballet where her work premiered at Sadlers Wells Theatre in 2022. Alice is really looking forward to teaching all the dancers at Dancing with Izzy, she aims to bring a positive, fun and supportive environment to all her classes!
