Debbie Halusiak, Principal

Owner/Director WDS
R.A.D., A.I.D.T.

Debbie received her Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) ballet training with Vivian Wensley of Victoria, the Wynne Shaw Dance Studio and the Banff School of Fine Arts. She also received ten years of tap training with Velda Scobie. She became a student member of the RAD in 1973 and full member in 1975. Debbie began assisting and teaching in 1973 and has been entering students in children’s and major RAD exams since 1979. During this time, she taught at Janice Tooby MacDonald Dance School, Pat Cummings School of Dance, Jacqueline's School of Dance and Carlson’s School of Dance.

Debbie became a member of the Association of International Dance Teachers in 1990, entering pupils for exams since 1991. She was the first dance teacher in Canada to have students examined in the A.I.D.T syllabus (modern) and subsequently became an Advanced II associate member of the A.I.D.T. in 1998.

After initially teaching in Victoria, Debbie spent fifteen years teaching at Carlson's School of Dance in Duncan. While at Carlson's, she became the principal teacher/director of the RAD ballet programs (children and majors) as well as teaching classes in tap, modern, jazz and musical theatre. During this time, she also did choreography for the Duncan Pageant and was rehearsal assistant for the Alberta Ballet Company's Nutcracker (children’s section). She opened Carlson’s School of Dance in Victoria in 1994, which eventually became Westshore Dance Studios in 1997.

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