CELESTE FRANCES THEUNISSEN Founder/President/Artistic Director/Dancer/Choreographer
Celeste is a professional ballet and jazz dancer and a qualified ballet and jazz dance teacher. In 1984, Celeste graduated with a Diploma in Ballet from the University of Cape Town Ballet School (South Africa). Subsequently, she became a Registered Ballet teacher and a Solo Seal Award recipient from The Royal Academy of Dancing, London. Currently based in Malaysia, she has
a spectacularly inspiring reputation as a dancer, teacher and choreographer.
Born in early October 1963, Celeste wore her first pair of dancing shoes at the tender age of two and was trained by the Johannesburg Ballet Association in the Cechetti ballet technique (primary levels) up to the Advanced level(RAD). She also annually performed in this Association’s performances and dance festivals. Thus, it was not surprising to discover that her professional debut as the duck in a revised version of “Peter and the Wolf” was achieved at age six with the Woolfe Ballet Company (a professional ballet company) under the artistic direction of Wendy Woolfe.
Representing South Africa, she later toured nationally and internationally (London, Scotland, Israel, and Rome) with the Johannesburg Youth Ballet (an amateur ballet company) as a soloist. From there, she was accepted into the University Of Cape Town Ballet School Youth Company (amateur company) and very soon after she was accepted into the CAPAB Ballet Company (a professional ballet company) under the artistic direction of David Poole. Here she remained for one year and performed as a soloist and corps member in ballets such as Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Nell Gwynne, A Christmas Carole, Spartacus, Le Sylphide, Serenade and The Four Temperaments to name a few. Celeste was merely 22 when she started performing in glamorous venues like the Gold Reef City with ST International and later at the Sun City, Thaba’ Nchu Sun, Wild Coast Sun with the Sun International Dance Company where she worked with renowned Las Vegas, MTV and Broadway choreographers like Carlo Spetto, Nick Nivara, Michael Darren, Jeff Kutash and Roger Minami. It is during this time that she started taking jazz dance classes.. Being ambitious and adventurous, Celeste begun accepting contracts to work in Asia three years later. She managed to establish herself as a dancer, choreographer, director and producer in Singapore, Jakarta, Taiwan and Malaysia. In Malaysia she has performed with various Commercial dance companies since 1990 and has danced the role of Eve in Ramli Ibrahim’s “The Seven deadly sins” She has also branched out and has established herself as a mime artist and works under the directorship of Soosan Ho. She has also established herself as an actress and stand-up comedian and has performed various stints with The One Productions (under the directorship Of Benjamin) and was last seen in “Love, Lovers and Loving ”, a Khazana Stage Creations production directed by Guna.
She has
founded the Celestar Studio of Performing Arts Jazz dance syllabus which
is currently being taught in at least five dance studios in Malaysia as
well as in London, Switzerland and Indonesia. She is also the Managing
director of Celestar studio of Performing Arts which specializes in the
teaching of Jazz dance as a performing art and her school has already
produced over 15 qualified jazz dance teachers who are currently
teaching in Malaysia, Indonesia and Switzerland.
She is also the President of the Celestar studio of
Performing Arts Jazz dance Society - a society whose aims are to raise the
standard of jazz dance in Malaysia- and has already produced one
full-length work for the Society “Dengar Tangisan Ku” Hear my cry!,
together with the renowned dancer and choreographer
Guna from Kazana Creations. “Dengar Tangisan Ku” is a
dance-drama which deals with child-abuse. Besides, she is also the Artistic Director of the Celestar Dance Company and has
produced two full length works for this company, "Just Jazz Dance - A
self explanatory title" and "The Artist", a dance drama depicting the
emotional state and mind of a serial killer.
Celeste has been traveling to America since 2001 where
she has established an affiliation with the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop
and its Director Lara Branen whereby Celestar students attend the
workshop annually and are examined by Miss Branen for the Jazz Level 5. Celeste and her students have also performed
in the Boulder Jazz Dance Performances in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Her aspirations for the future is that Jazz dance reach a level of professionalism in Asia as a serious performing art and that it can be accessible to people from all walks of life. "I am also hoping that the syllabus can reach people in other countries so that they too can have the opportunity of contributing to raising the standard of Jazz Dance to a theatrical level." TESTIMONIALS: Lara Branen, Nigel Grant, Yap Meishang, Angeline Ng and Tan Yoke Eng,Vincent Choy, Shahimah Idris,Lee Su Ling
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