Shavar “Caution” Blackwood has had the opportunity to work with choreographers and performers such as Allen Kaeja, Luther Brown, Sean Cheeseman, Siona Jackson, Mandy Moore and Bill T. Jones.

His passion for dance lets him take his ideas of the Hip Hop culture to the next level by fusing it with different forms of dance such as Contemporary, House, Vogue, Popping and Krump. These principles led Mr. Blackwood to achieve a Top 14 spot on Season 3 of So You Think You Can Dance Canada and to perform in the Lifetime movie Aaliyah The Princess of R&B, Family Channel’s Naturally Sadie and with artists such as Cascada, Mcfly, George Nozuka, Divine Brown and Jacksoul.

Mr. Blackwood has taught for many institutions such as Canada’s National Ballet School, City Dance Corps, OIP Dance Centre, among others. He has choreographed for events with SickKids Canada, Toronto’s Choreographers’ Ball, Bazaar, Fever, TDSB Martin Luther King Remembrance Day celebration at Roy Thompson Hall and was the winner of Manifesto Dance Competition.

Irina Lerman, Former Mariinskiy Theatre

Irina Lerman graduated from Vaganova Ballet Academy in Russia and joined Mariinskiy Theatre at the same year. She performed a classical, neoclassical, and contemporary repertoire of Mariinskiy Ballet and turing at Europe, Japan, Chine, USA, UEA and had a chance to perform at the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics Games 2014. At age of 22 Irina made her choreograpy at the Mariinskiy stage and won a Silver medal as a Choreographer at the International Ballet Competition in Europe. She was fortunate enough to obtained her Master's Degree from Vaganova Ballet Academy and work with different companies and artists for ballet creation. Irina got invited to become a Lead Soloist of the Atlantic Ballet of Canada a

Born and raised in Moscow, Russia, Misha Tchoupakov performed with the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow as well as with the Colorado Ballet, Sarasota Ballet of Florida, Los Angeles Classical Ballet, and San Francisco Opera Ballet in USA and Vienna State Opera Ballet in Austria. He also holds an M.F.A. in Dance Pedagogy and Choreography from the Moscow State Academy of Choreography and he had taught for Colorado Ballet, Houston Ballet, Oregon Dance Theatre, David Taylor Dance Theatre, State Street Ballet, Ballet Arlington in US, Guangzhou Ballet of China, Galili Dance in Netherlands, Cluj Opera Ballet and Sibiu Ballet Theatre in Romania, and Cia Brasileira de Ballet and Teatro Municipal do Rio De Janeiro in Brazil. He was also on the faculty of the Royal Ballet School, the Elmhurst School for Dance in Association with Birmingham Royal Ballet, and the English National Ballet School in the UK and served as Assistant Professor at University of Utah Department of Ballet. Mr. Tchoupakov currently with YAGP Ballet and Contemporary Dance Competition in New York as Rehearsal Director, Judge and Master Teacher and is an internationally renowned guest teacher. He joined the faculty of University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2013.