Class Director
Samantha Vale
Samantha Vale has a twenty five year career in dance including performing, choreographing, directing, teaching, training and coaching across stage, screen and studio.
An award winning international teacher trainer, she is responsible for creating street dance syllabi and training programmes for some of the world’s leading dance organisations and examining bodies and continues to lecture across the globe, inspiring and developing the next generation of teacher’s of dance.
Sam has also worked with a broad range of organisations to share her expertise and encourage body confidence through movement.
She has worked with celebrity teams on ‘Let’s Dance for Comic Relief’ and hosted and instructed at fitness and dance events in the UK and worldwide. She has also appeared as a guest expert and body confidence coach on the TV series ‘The Full Monty on Ice’.
Scholarship Adjudicators
Lindsay Swift
Dance has been Lindsay’s passion since she was three years old; fortunate enough to grow up within a dance family she then progressed to the BRIT School to further her dance training. Lindsay has been a successful choreographer for over 20 years. She also teaches for the family dance school, gives lectures and masterclasses in all styles of dance, and successfully runs her own Euphoric Dance Company.
Lindsay enjoys Musical Theatre both performing and choreographing and has herself performed and/or choreographed; Cabaret, Hair, A Chorus Line, Rent, We Will Rock You, Oliver, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Wiz, Billy Elliot, Hairspray, Back to the 80’s, My Fair Lady, Legally Blonde, Fiddler on the roof, 9to5, Sister Act, Me and My Girl, Footloose, 42ND Street, Bonnie & Clyde, Wind in the Willows, Grease and The Addams Family.
Ian McLeod
Ian started his career with the Scottish Ballet before moving into commercial theatre where he worked continuously in film and TV also becoming one of the principal dancers in the west end of London. Upon returning home to Scotland, he has become a well-known teacher and choreographer in the UK and North America. Ian has his own theatre school in Helensburgh.
Ian is delighted to be joining the adjudicating panel at the B.A.T.D. 2024 Freestyle Scholarships and can’t wait to see all the talent our great association has and wishes all candidates and teachers the best of luck.
Sharron Maxwell
Sharron has run her own successful dance school for over 31 years, she trained in her younger years in stage tap freestyle majorette and jazz with Miss Christine Hinshelwood.
Sharron trained with the Scottish opera and travelled the country with La Boheme and featured in panto in Glasgow.
Over the years Sharron’s freestyle school has gone from strength to strength and she travels the country adjudicating lots of competitions…also lecturing in various other schools, her pupils have appeared on various tv shows such as BGT, So you think you can dance and Strictly freestyle.
Sharron is absolutely thrilled to be invited to the BATD scholarships and feels it’s such an honour to attend such a prestigious event, and wishes every pupil a huge success for the event.
Solo Adjudicators
Sarah Levine
Sarah began her dance journey aged 3 with Margaret Smith, MM School of Dance, and gained her first professional qualifications with the BATD in 1999. In 2005, Sarah became Principal Teacher of Dance Rite Academy in Lanark and will be celebrating her 20th anniversary at the school next year.
Passionate about encouraging the love of dance in the next generation, Sarah has mentored numerous students through their BATD associate qualifications, many of whom have gone on to study dance in further education, teach dance and beyond. On the competitive dance circuit, Sarah has led numerous teams at the highest levels representing Scotland at European level and competing at the World Dance Championships.
Sarah is delighted to be on the adjudicating panel of the 2024 BATD Freestyle scholarships. Over the years, many of Sarah’s pupils have been selected to take part in the freestyle Scholarships with 5 of her students previously winning the solo scholarship. Sarah is hugely excited to see the emerging talent of this years nominees and wishes them all the very best of luck.
Bernadette Sloan
Starting dance classes at 5years of age with the Valda Hunter School of Dance, learning Ballet, Tap, Highland, Acro and Modern Stage, other genres have been introduced over the years. Working through the grades and assisting in classes, while performing in various shows and events, gradually becoming aware that teaching was my choice of career.
Opening my own dance school in 1973 in Cumbernauld, teaching all of the various styles, leading to becoming an examiner with the BATD in the 1980s. Various former pupils in the school, excelled and are now performing around the world. Many past pupils are teachers in their own right and carry on the tradition of teaching to further the love of dance.
Now retired from my school, I enjoy examining and mentoring the teachers of the future.
Lynne Crombie
I started my dancing career in the 70’s with Miss Audrey Montgomery at Ayr School of Dancing and went onto dance with Jean Burrell who put me through my first few Associate exams. I set up my own school in Ayr in 1987 and have been teaching ever since. I offer classes in competitive freestyle and exam classes in freestyle, Acrobatics, Tap, Modern, Ballet, Majorettes and Commercial.
I have a school of around 100 pupils and I have 3 teachers who assist me with classes. The school have their annual exams around December each year and their annual show in the Gaiety Theatre, Ayr in June. We travel round the country all year competing in Freestyle events and festivals and I also run my own freestyle competition twice a year in Ayr.