AMANDA KEATING

Owner & Choreographer

Trained: Ballet West and The Urdang Academy.
Performance Credits: Swan lake, Nutcracker, Coppelia, Canon (TV Advert), Into The Woods. MOVE IT (Main stage opening year). Amanda's passion and focus has always been teaching and over the last 7 years Amanda has built up her reputation with excellent exam results. Her skills lie in tutoring aspiring performers and helping them to gain the credits to achieve vocational college and university places in Dance and Musical Theatre. Her affiliation with the Vocational schools allows her to keep current with industry's ever changing requirements. This is why she has enjoyed such success, with her students gaining College and University placements at the most successful Schools, such as The Urdang Academy, London Studio Centre, Central School of Ballet, The Place and Laine Theatre Arts to name a few. Her past students have then gone onto working in the Industry in Shows such as Matilda, Once the Musical, Billy Elliot and Matthew Bourne's Junior company.

LIAM SWATTRIDGE

Director of Acro

L.I.S.T.D. trained at Performers College in Essex graduating in July 2014 with a Diploma in dance theatre. He holds his Licentiate qualification in Tap, DDE in Modern and DDI in Ballet. He is also a qualified teacher in Acrobatic Arts. Liam was part of the England team that took part in the IDO World Tap Championships in 2011 and 2012 . He was lucky enough to captain the team in 2012 and brought home silver medals both years. He has also appeared on Sky 1’s ‘Got To Dance’ with Tap Attack where he got through to the semi finals. Liam has performed at Wembley in the FA Cup Final and appeared in the film ‘Cuban Fury’. He was also a feature dancer in the film ‘Make Way’ and took part in the 10 year gala show of Tap attack last year too. Other performance credits also include the ‘ISTD Dinner Dance’, ‘Move It’ and the 'BBC Dance Proms'. His years of teaching experience have taken him all around the UK, including Italia Conti Tunbridge Wells and D&B theatre school to name a couple and he has continued to expand his knowledge by studying for Licentiate Modern and also the Back Handspring and Aerial course with Acrobatic Arts.

LISA MCCANN

Operations & Project Manager

Although her working career is unrelated to Dance/Acro, Lisa has a keen interest in this area as her daughter is training to become a professional performer and is currently at Wilkes Academy.

Lisa has a BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Technology and has worked in the fashion sector since graduating in 2001.

Alongside working for a fashion agency, she is now excited to bring her organisation and management skills to AcroPAD.

CHLOE PILMER

Photographer & Videographer

Trained: BOA and Stella Mann

TAYLOR STYLEZ

Workshop Instructor

Taylor has been dancing for 13 years and teaching since the age of 16. He is currently the manager of a world known Tricking Academy - Urbantrix Academy located in the Midlands. Taylor is most known as Taylor Stylez as an up and coming music artist. Credits such as BBC street dance stars, Britain’s Got Talent, Sky Ones Got To Dance and Red Bull Bc One.
Taylor Tours all around the UK with Chance 2 Dance performing on stages like the O2 arena, Birmingham Hippodrome, Blackpool opera house and many more!

JACK GORGONE

Workshop Instructor

Jack has been coaching for over 11 years in different sectors of sports, dance and fitness. He has experience working with children and guiding them to reach their full potential. Jack started his love for dance at the age of 15 in hip hop, breaking and tricks and continues to enjoy and learn regularly. Jack has been teaching AcroPAD workshops for 4 years now and prides himself in offering the best experience for all attending the workshop.

OLIVIA AUSTIN

Workshop Instructor

Olivia started dance at the age of 2 and from that moment on…decided that was her passion! She started training at Rachel Coad School of Dance in Darlington, North East England and continued her love of dance there until she was 18. Olivia then started Artistic Gymnastics at the age of 7 where she loved combining dance and tumbling in a floor routine. Olivia represented the North East of England several times and gained many artistry awards at competitions around the country for her individual style on the floor. From an early age Olivia achieved a coaching qualification with British Gymnastics and had a passion for creating unique floor and beam routines for individual gymnasts. Following this she became a club judge and judged at many competitions.

Olivia has recently graduated from Wilkes Academy where she was able to continue her love for both tumbling and dance with the help of AcroPAD! Olivia is very excited about what her future holds within the industry and looks forward to teaching the next generation.

NATHAN MCKENNA

Workshop Instructor

Nathan started gymnastics at the age of 5 in Ireland, after being inspired by his first Cirque du Soleil show ‘Quidam’ in Dublin, he knew instantly that was what he wanted to do when he grew up.

Nathan explored his acrobatic abilities in various forms of gymnastics; men’s artistic gymnastics, team gym and trampolining.Nathan went on to win numerous national titles and captain the Irish gymnastics team. Nathan then completed his Women’s Artistic Gymnastics coaching qualification and judging qualification under British Gymnastics.

At the age of 17, Nathan made the switch to musical theatre learning to perform at a local stage school. He would then go to the Wilkes Academy of Performing Arts where he would train for 3 years obtaining a BA Hons Degree in Musical Theatre and become a triple threat performer. Whilst in training Nathan was able to continue his passion for gymnastics alongside musical theatre thanks to AcroPAD teaching at the college.

Nathan’s acrobatic abilities opened many doors for him in his performing career such as being a model and dancer at London and Paris Fashion Week in 2022 for an eco-friendly recyclable fashion brand. Nathan’s other professional credits whilst in trading include being professional ensemble along with covering and playing Prince in Motherwell’s Christmas Pantomime ‘Cinderella’ in Scotland.

Having now graduated Nathan is excited to embark on a new exciting journey onboard the Celebrity Summit being a production dancer for Celebrity Cruise line, where he will entertain guests sailing round the Caribbean, Miami, Canada, New England and many more exciting destinations. 

Nathan cannot wait to work with AcroPAD and inspire the next generation of performers once he is back on land.

CHLOE ASTLEY

Workshop Instructor

Chloe found her passion for gymnastics at the age of 4 where she competed for the north-west in artistic gymnastics for 11 years. At 15 she transitioned from gymnastics to taking classes at her local dance school, continuing her acro training alongside lyrical and commercial.

She went on to gain a BA Hons Degree in Musical theatre from Wilkes Academy and has been able to combine her love for gymnastics with her dance training at college.

Chloe began teaching gymnastics at 15 and found a passion for inspiring the next generations to achieve their potential.

Throughout her training she has kickstarted her performing career as a backing dancer at the 02 arena on Craig David’s tour, as well as Festivals and corporate events. She hopes to gain a career that see’s her travelling the world with a dream goal of combining all her acro skills as a stunt woman in film and TV.

COLE DILLEY

Workshop Instructor

Cole initially trained in street dance and commercial styles from the age of 8. He later joined an all-male contemporary dance company ‘RAGE’. He has performed for Richard Alston both in 2017 and 2019, ‘Move it’ main stage with RAGE and Wilkes Academy, The Capezio Championships, and BBC’s ‘The Greatest Dancer’. He successfully auditioned for the renowned Wilkes Academy for the BA Hons in Musical Theatre and is the recipient of the Dancers Inc. Scholarship. During his training, Cole also successfully secured a place in choreographer, Lukas Mcfarlane SEEDS.
More recently Cole has appeared alongside HRVY in ‘The Masked Dancer’ segment of the 2021 NTA awards, the 2022 U.K. National Tour of ‘The Masked Singer’ as the character ‘BADGER’ and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth games closing ceremony (ft. Mahalia, jaykae, Dexy’s midnight runners).
Cole’s latest achievements include ‘The Adventures of Peter Pan’ 2022-2023 Aberdeen pantomime and featuring as the character ‘Wesley’ in a new up and coming film ‘Look to Light’.

Cole began learning his acrobatic skills and tricks shortly after becoming a dancer using a back garden trampoline. This quickly progressed with the integration of gymnastic coaches throughout his time at ‘Dexterity’ dance school based in Northamptonshire.
Cole took it upon himself to learn the ways of tricking to enhance his performance capabilities and over the last 6 years he has become known for his aesthetic tricks and how he incorporates them into Dance.
Cole is a huge believer that tricking and dance go hand in hand and that these skills have played a massive part in his success.