Louise Benson School of Dance

The Principal

Miss Louise Benson (DDE ISTD)

Louise was accepted into the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London when she was just 11 years old. There, she received extensive training from renowned teachers such as Patricia Prime, Bonnie Lythgoe, Pat Dennison, and Gary Lloyd. With her experience as a child performer on television and in theatre, combined with her training, she graduated at 18 with professional teaching qualifications in Ballet, Tap, and Modern dance from ISTD.

Throughout her career, Louise has performed in various famous theatres in London, including The Dominion, The Bloomsbury, and The Palladium. She has also appeared in numerous pop videos for artists such as Fat Boy Slim, Westlife, and Texas. Additionally, Louise has been featured in commercials and TV shows like Nokia for X Factor, National Anti-Smoking Campaign, Supernoodles Campaign, Clearasil, and The Bill. She has also modelled for brands such as Whistles, Marks and Spencer, Topshop, Karen Millen, House of Fraser, and Betty Jackson in London, Hong Kong, and Manila.

Teaching has always been a passion for Louise, and after teaching at various dance schools, she co-founded the successful Lucie Benson School of Dance with Vanessa Lucie in 2005. They produced incredible shows at the Epsom Playhouse and various other productions, resulting in great examination success and helped many pupils gain places at full-time performing arts colleges like Urdang, Performers, Stella Mann, and Masters. Starting with only a few students, the school grew to hundreds of pupils by 2014.

In 2010, Louise was offered a small dance school in West Wickham. She started Lucie Benson School of Dance (Bromley) as an offshoot of the main school in Putney, with just a few students. After having her first baby in 2014, Louise took full control of the West Wickham School, which has helped hundreds of students explore their love of dance. The school is known for being kind and non-competitive, with a friendly nurturing environment, allowing everyone to experience the Arts positively.

Louise is a fully qualified teacher in Ballet, Tap, and Modern dance with ISTD. She is also fully qualified in Acrobatics teaching with Acrobatic Arts, a registered chaperone, DBS checked, and first aid trained, with relevant public liability insurance.

Our Teachers:

Miss Charlie Johnson

Charlie has been Dancing and performing since the age of 3, and performed on her first West end stage at the age of 7.  Charlie spent her childhood being toured around the UK with her Dance school to perform in various shows and Pantomimes until she was 16.

Charlie went to Performing Arts College in Manchester, moved to Paris at 18 for half a year to work as a Parade performer and Character at Disneyland Paris, then moved to London train in Musical Theatre at Arts Educational Schools London.

Since she graduated in 2014, Charlie has appeared in many Musicals from the West End to around the world.

Her credits include: Annie in ‘Chicago’ in Lljubliana, Understudy Georgia Hendrix in West end & UK tour of ‘Curtains’, Bombalurina in International Tour of ‘Cats’, Estrella in ‘West Side Story’ at Kilworth House, Ensemble in ‘The Producers” at the Royal Exchange, Tracy in ‘The Life’ at English Theatre Frankfurt, The Pearl Lady in ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ in London, Dance Captain in ‘Copacanana’ UK Tour, and Ensemble in ‘Spend Spend Spend’ in London.

Charlie had also performed at various Olivier awards, as a featured singer in ‘Peter Polycarpou’s Songs of my Life”, and if you listen carefully, you can hear her vocals behind Kerry Ellis in her 2014 Album ‘Kerry Ellis’.

Charlie has been choreographing and teaching the arts since she was 16.  She took over her local Performing Arts Group as Director, Choreographer and Musical Director at the age of 18 and herself put on Musicals and shows that sparked her love for the other side of the stage.

Charlie has taught many Musical Theatre workshops around the UK and Directed and Choreographed Various Kids productions of Musicals at different Theatre Schools such as ‘Aladdin Jnr’ and ‘The Sound of Music’.  Whilst performing Charlie teaches Musical Theatre, Jazz and Ballet at various Top Drama Schools in London including Performers College and Italia Conti.

Miss Clara Burnie Dip TCL (Professional Dance and Musical Theatre)

Miss Rachel Kelly (MA Musical Theatre LRAM)

Originally from Glasgow, Rachel trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and later gained a Masters Degree in Musical Theatre at the Royal Academy of Music.

As a performer she has worked in various theatre and musicals in London and on tour working with companies such as The National Theatre, The Old Vic and The National Theatre of Scotland. Rachel has over ten years performing arts teaching experience working at various schools in London. As well as this she has a Licence to Teach Music from the Royal Academy and privately coaches singing and drama school preparation. Rachel is extremely excited to be joining the team at Louise Benson School of Dance.

Kate Mellor V.P.A to Louise Benson

Kate has over 20 years’ experience in providing high level administration and business support across many industries and for the last four years has been supporting various companies and individuals as a freelancer through her VA business. Her background is in the financial and luxury sectors, although she now has a varied client base tailoring her support to their needs.

Her good attention to detail and proactive attitude really helps with the planning that goes into our shows and her extensive knowledge makes our day to day admin much easier to manage.

Kate really enjoys working with the team. She holds a DBS and Chaperone Licence so can always be found backstage at our performances with the children, helping to ensure things run smoothly.