Meet the team
Kamara Gray
Founder and CEO
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Kamara is an award winning dance teacher and performer of Jamaican heritage who has taught extensively in the UK, Australia and Kuwait. She was born in Papua New Guinea and grew up in Sydney, Australia where she began studying dance at age 4. Kamara continued her dance training at the Ailey School in New York and Dance World 301 in Melbourne, Australia before moving to London where she completed her teacher training with the British Ballet Organization (BBO).
Kamara has taught and lectured at numerous schools, colleges, and universities including: Urdang Academy, Buckinghamshire New University, City and Islington College, Irie Dance Theatre, and the Royal Academy of Dance school. She previously worked in Kuwait, where she was the Head of Theatre at the British Academy of International Arts, and introduced the BBO tap dance syllabus and examinations to the country. As a performer, her credits include film, television and live events including the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony as a Lead Tap dancer, the MTV Europe Awards and L’Heure Espagnole with the Royal Opera.
Kamara is the 2021 recipient of the One Dance UK Award for 'Dance in the Community'. She is also on the Board of Trustees for the English National Ballet.
Esme Benjamin
Project Manager
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Esme Benjamin began her training at Dixon Woods School of Dance, and then went on to train professionally at London Studio Centre gaining a BA (hons) degree in Dance Theatre, specialising in Contemporary Dance. Esme later completed a MA in Dance & Somatic Wellbeing: Connections to the Living Body.
For the past decade Esme has performed and taught all over the world, working in a variety of companies and is currently associate artist for Movement Angol and Babel Theatre as well as Project Manager for Artistry Youth Dance.
Esme also conducts her own artistic projects and is part of KWAM Collective, a group of independent artists from the fields of dance theatre, live performance, digital art and therapeutic bodily practices.
Destiny Bennett-Ellis
Project Assistant
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Destiny started studying dance performance at City and Islington college. She continued her training at Middlesex University where she completed her degree in Dance Studies (Choreography) in 2019.
While studying at university, Destiny was a Dance Ambassador for One Dance UK. She was also the Choreography Assistant for the Artistic Director of Artistry Youth Dance (AYD), Kamara Gray, for the Art Night festival in Walthamstow.
Destiny was recently a Trainee Deputy Artist for The Place for their Partner School Programme and will continue working on the programme next year as a Deputy Artist. Destiny is currently the Project Assistant at Artistry Youth Dance.
Stephen Quildan
Dance Instructor: Ballet
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Stephen Quildan trained at The BRIT School of Performing Arts and Technology, and later Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance were he achieved a First Class (BA Hons) degree. His background spans Ballet, Contemporary and Street dance.
As a dancer he has worked for Rambert, English National Ballet, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Opera de Lyon, Noism Company Niigata(Japan), Peter Schaufuss Ballet and others. He has also danced many works, both in collaborations and re-staging's including, Christopher Bruce, Merce Cunningham, Didy Veldman, Fukiko Takase, Mark Baldwin, Itzik Galili, Julie Cunningham, Nanine Linning, Studio Wayne McGregor, Alexander Whitely, Yuki Mori, Dane Hurst, Ben Duke and others.
He has taught at Rambert School, Rambert, Ateno Danza, Urdang, Luz Poland, Nephrite Japan, London Studio Centre, Alexander Whitely Dance Company and The Brit School.
Shea Best
Dance Instructor: Contemporary Dance
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Shea Best is a dancer, choreographer, actor, and director, hailing from Barbados. At 31 years of age, Shea holds an MA in Choreography from Leeds Beckett University and a diverse wealth of experience in dance performance, choreography and teaching.
Having trained, performed, and toured throughout the Caribbean, Canada and the UK, some of Shea’s most notable work to date includes collaboration on a project led by Rihanna, appearing in Davido’s ‘Assurance’ music video, and being Barbados’ most recent recipient of the revered Prime Minister’s Award for his choreographic work.