Christie Lee Manning - Creator/Editor in Chief
Born and raised in Vancouver, BC, Christie Lee Manning has established herself as a a very talented, upcoming artist. Trained in Classical Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Contemporary, Tap, Musical Theatre, and Ballroom, Christie graduated from the Langley Fine Arts School as a Dance Major after performing with the school’s modern based dance company, Esprit De Corps. She then moved on to become a member of The Source Dance Company, and most recently Lamondance Company, a brazilian contemporary company based out of Vancouver, BC. Christie has performed for various events such as the CFL Grey Cup Halftime Show with Nelly Furtado and Lenny Kravitz, as well as the 2010 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremonies with Michael Buble. She has appeared in such feature films as ‘White Chicks’ and MTV’s ’2gether’, and recently choreographed the video ‘Your Hands (Together) for the New Pornographers. Christie just completed a contract performing as a Principal Dancer for a new musical entitled ‘Sweet Mystery’. Her passion for journalism and art has led her to launch INDUSTRY Dance Magazine. Christie hopes to make a great impact on the Canadian Dance Industry and strengthen our dancers’ knowledge, awareness, and professionalism.
Anton Lim – Columnist
Anton Africa Lim (BCom) is a native Vancouverite with a wealth of dance and arts experience. Growing up, Anton studied acting, piano, and voice, trained at a local studio in tap, hip hop, jazz, and ballet, and racked up musical theatre performance credits in productions with Theatre Under the Stars and with Perry Ehrlich’s Showstoppers. While studying at McGill University, he had the opportunity to train further in a wide variety of dance styles with Mosaica, McGill’s Dance Company, a company he had the privilege of directing for two years; he also sang with, arranged music for, and acted as musical director for Tonal Ecstasy A Cappella. Since returning to Vancouver in 2009, he has trained and performed with Joanne Pesusich’s Source Dance Company, JP Tarlit’s Various Artists Crew, and The Faculty, in addition to creating and performing his own independent choreography projects. Anton is currently working towards an Editing Certificate at SFU and is thrilled to contribute to Industry Magazine as a writer.
Abbey Lee Dutton – Columnist
Hailing from Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Abbey moved out West to pursue her passion for performing arts when she was 20. She is an Associate member of the Canadian Dance Teacher’s Association, and an Honours graduate of The Canadian College of Performing Arts. She was recently a member of Harbour Dance Centre’s Intensive Training Program, and is a current member of The Source Dance Company. Abbey equally enjoys and continues to train in singing, dancing and acting. She was the lead in a summer stock show run by The Gold Fever Follies in Rossland, BC, as well as the lead actress/dancer in the short film, “Square Dance Story”. Abbey has had the privilege to dance in various shows including the 99th Grey Cup with Nickelback, the 2011 Vancouver SIGGRAPH convention, and the 2010 International Bar Association Conference. Abbey is very excited to join Christie and the rest of the IDM team!
Tasleem Rajwani - Columnist
Tasleem graduated from U.B.C. with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Art History. Inspired by her English professor’s love of poetry, particularly the works of William Wordsworth, Tasleem decided to follow Wordsworth’s path. She first travelled to England to complete a year abroad at Lancaster University, near the home of the romantic poet, and later, she obtained her teaching degree at the University of Cambridge, where Wordsworth had also studied. Through personal experience, as well as stories of others, Tasleem came to recognize not only the social and physical benefits of dance, but also the spiritual aspect of dance and its power to heal. Impelled to share what she learned with others, she began writing articles related to dance and dance therapy. Since then, Tasleem has also conducted over a dozen in-depth interviews of world renowned Latin dance performers and instructors from around the globe. She has also traveled to countries such as Cuba and Argentina in order to learn more about the roots of her favorite dances, and study with master instructors. As a teacher, Tasleem encouraged her students to follow their dreams and believe in themselves. Finally taking her own advice, she is spending time on her two greatest passions- writing and dancing. She is thrilled to be given the opportunity not only to combine them both, but to also continue to ‘teach’ and inspire, through writing.
Stephen Roberts – Columnist
Stephen Roberts is an established performer, choreographer, adjudicator and dance educator. Stephen’s performance career has taken him across Canada from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (2 consecutive Guthrie Awards) to the Charlottetown Festival. He has worked with such artists as Broadway’s Sergio Trujillo, Canadian Idol winner Eva Avila, the National Ballet’s Roberto Campanella, Helix Dance Company’s Linda Garneau, Law & Order’s Cynthia Dale and So You Think You Can Dance’s Amy Wright. Some credits include the title role in Peter Pan (Neptune Theatre), the Dora Nominated Altar Boyz in the role of Abraham (Angelwalk & Victoria Playhouse), Calvin in Guys & Dolls (Drayton Entertainment), Degrassi Goes Hollywood, MTV’s Save The Last Dance 2, the Canadian Première of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Drayton) and the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz (Neptune Theatre & Drayton Entertainment). Stephen is currently touring the United States and Canada with the Broadway Tour of Mary Poppins as the Assistant Dance Captain/Swing/Bert Cover. Stephen is also the co-owner of Canada’s first agency for Dance Educator’s, QUICK BALL CHANGE (www.quickballchange.com), where he currently represents over 100 of Canada’s top dance educators.
Vanessa Young - Toronto Representative/Columnist
Vanessa has been a performer for her entire life, and currently holds a Diploma in Dance and a Certificate in Performing Arts. In the past 5 years this 24 year old powerhouse has become a “Global Dance Citizen”, training and performing in Mexico, Europe, USA and Australia where she is currently producing her first large-scale show. Her performance credits include shows with Canadian Showgirlz Dance Company, The Dolls, Wildcard Productions, Superfly Entertainment and more. Recently, you may have seen her in the online reality series Jaclife (Canwest) featured on Slice.ca. She has choreographed for such artists as T-Nile, The Midway State and Addictiv and is curently the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of “EVE Dance Company” based out of Toronto.
Christel Laycock - Research Assistant/Columnist
Christel is a resident of Vancouver, and after eight years considers it her new home town. She grew up in Edmonton where as a child she spent six years taking Jazz and Tap. One of her favourite things about Vancouver is the opportunity she has had to try different dance styles, and has trained in Jazz, Modern, Burlesque, Ballroom, Bollywood, Bhangra, Belly Dancing and Capoeira. She is a writer and a photographer, and is excited to be a part of the Industry team.
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Contact us!
Phone: 778-908-0904
Email: info@industrydancemagazine.com
Christie created Industry Online Dance Magazine to help dancers find the right direction for their personal career path. IDM aims to strengthen the knowledge and awareness in the Canadian dance industry. Enjoy! 
