Bentley Potter School of Dance
Caroline Potter-Vilain
Ballet instructor for the Lower and Upper school and Major students; Company founder and dancer
Caroline began dancing with the Bentley Potter School of Dance at the age of 5 and continued on through the school until she achieved her Advanced Examination. Her professional training was done in London, England at the Ballet Rambert School. She then continued working with the Vienna Festival Ballet, a classical touring company based in London, England for a further 5 years and performed in many well-known ballets such as Giselle, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Cinderella and Swan Lake. In 1996 she returned to Trinidad and began her teaching career with the Bentley Potter School of Dance as a registered teacher of the Royal Academy of Dancing and at that time she also founded the Cascade Festival Ballet, the ballet company belonging to the school.
Cindy-Ann de Souza
Ballet instructor for the Lower and Upper school and Major students; Company dancer
Cindy-Ann began dancing at the age of 4 and became a student of the Bentley Potter School of Dance at 6 years old. She continued her training there and attained her Advance 2 examination. Through the years Cindy has participated in various summer intensive dance programmes including Ballet Hispanico of New York and the Whitman College Summer Dance Lab in Washington State. She has performed with Premier Productions in the Nutcracker and as a principal dancer in Coppelia, The Sleeping Beauty and excerpts from Don Quixote, and is a member of the Cascade Festival Ballet.
Cindy began teaching as a student teacher at the age of 17 under the guidance of Averil Potter ARAD. Upon returning to Trinidad after studies abroad she became a member of the staff at the Bently Potter School of Dance where she continues to participate in teacher training courses from the Royal Academy of Dance.
Gemma Facinelli
Ballet instructor for the Lower school
Gemma began dancing at the age of 3. Going on to train full time at the London Studio Centre UK at the age of 16 on a full scholarship where she received a Diploma in Performing Arts, reaching a high level in RAD Ballet, BTDA Modern, BTDA tap and acrobatics.
Gemma has recently returned from Las Vegas where she was resident director for Dancing Queen at the New York New York Casino.
Gemma has also performed alongside Ricky Martin and Hilary Swank at the prestigious LA Kodak theatre in Los Angeles. She also supported Lionel Ritchie at the Dublin Convention Centre.
Gemma was involved in the choreography for the vocal group The Overtones. She worked on their debut single Gambling Man and on their smash hit UK tour.
Over the last 16 years of performing around the world Gemma has worked for various Dance schools and Dance companies teaching and choreographing students from the age of 3 upwards. Also working alongside 'Spirit Worldwide Productions' being part of their creative team and travelling to Paris, London and the US to audition dancers for their theatre shows.
Gemma is also a qualified mat Pilates instructor and has a diploma in Fitness and Body Conditioning.
Chantal Simon-Thompson
Ballet instructor for the Lower and Upper school; Company Dancer
Chantal began her dance education at Dance Academy of Trinidad & Tobago where she attained Advanced Level 1 examinations in Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD). She then furthered her studies with Bentley Potter School of Dance and under the tutelage of Averil Potter ARAD, successfully attained her Advanced Level 1 examinations in Royal Academy of Dance (RAD).
Chantal's performance career spans almost 20 years with principal roles in the critically acclaimed Carnival Messiah, La Chapelle Dance Company, Ronald Taylor Dance Company and Eugene Joseph Dance Company. She was invited to join Cascade Festival Ballet in 1996 and has performed in several productions with the company. Performing with the company has fulfilled a life-long dream to experience the rigors of a professional ballet company and to perform excerpts from some of her favourite classical ballets such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote and Giselle.
Chantal began teaching at the age of 19 under the direction of Jessica Joseph and was recently given the opportunity to join the staff of Bentley Potter School of Dance. Teaching has allowed her to share her passion for the beauty and rigors classical ballet with her students in the hope that they too would experience to the exhilaration of performance.