CHRISTINA YATES
Principal of YT93 Performing Arts and Licentiate graduate of Trinity London Guildhall of Music and Drama. Christina has over 30 years experience in Trinity London examinations and LAMDA. She has the pleasure of working with her team both in person and online. Having kept all her students active through the recent pandemic she is confident that her tutors will continue to offer engaging and stimulating lessons on screen as well as in person.
Christina graduated from London Guildhall of Music and Drama in 1997 with a licentiate in speech and drama (now Trinity College London). With over 24 years of experience in professional theatre, military and aviation events, and teaching, Christina has worked with many interesting people. including The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, Red Arrows, Chris Evans – CarFest, David Soul too many musicians to count the egos, and Sir Brian Blessed. Christina fondly recalls Brian playing ‘The Wizard’ in one of the academy’s productions of ‘The Wiz’. Her event management has meant that Christina is not only H2 Fire qualified (if you ever have a helicopter catch fire) but more challenging than that has put hundreds of children through Trinity/Guildhall and Lamda examinations and never tires of seeing a student grow in confidence, gaining an extreme sense of self-worth. ‘It’s not just about who makes it onto TV or the West End it's the journey they make as individuals in life’.
Christina has seen many go on to achieve places on tour, appear on TV and stage and tries to keep up with where they are all now…… most recently OYT93 Amber Pursey in ‘Amelie The Musical’ and Oli Dobson as Marty Mc Fly in ‘Back To The Future’. Her most recent project (in a supporting role) is reminiscent of taking the academy’s cast of Godspell up to the Edinburgh Fringe in 1998 as her son’s own play heads to the Camden Fringe this summer with Los Tres Cerditos at the Theatro Technis 10-12 August before potentially moving to Edinburgh Fringe.
Marc Henderson
Marc is a singer/songwriter and studied at Italia Conti Academy of Performing Arts and Hull University gaining a first in BA Performing Arts. A triple threat meaning Marc can assist your study in each of the three disciplines. He is currently on the artistic team for Jamie Cullum.
Marc is a singer/songwriter with a wealth of experience (we think he’s lived multiple lives) which started from a very tender age as he learnt to dance at his ‘granny’s’ dance school up in Scotland. A very determined and hugely talented ‘triple threat’ Marc was soon performing professionally as Gavroche in Les Misérables, spotted dancing in a department store whilst waiting to go to class. Later musicals included the London production of Mamma Mia.
Marc studied at Italia Conti Academy of Performing Arts and Hull University gaining a first in BA Performing Arts. Marc was a member of The Urban Voices working with Demi Lovato, Sigma & Rita Ora and Diversity. Other credits include Paloma Faith, The BAFTAS and singing the Official Anthem at the opening of the Invictus Games. Marc’s main passion is his song writing both personally and for other artists. He is ready at the drop of a hat to dress and help create music videos both visually and vocally collaborating most recently with singer/songwriter, Sri Lankan, Dani Silva. Marc is a well-respected vocalist all round working with Ivor Novello award winning songwriter and creator of ‘Everyone’s talking about Jamie’ Dan Gillespie Sells
as well as Lee Hall’s ‘Rocketman’. How he manages to support our students is mind blowing but the wealth they learn from his expertise from west end to pop vocal technique and the study of recording vocals is evident from their individual and group performances.
Kate Sparkhall
Dance tutor and early grades LAMDA
Kate is The academy’s dance teacher and an incredibly talented online dance coach.
Her lively and engaging classes during lockdown
saw the same high impact and engaging
that we were used to in class shared beautifully on screen.
Kate Sparkhall graduated from Millennium Performing Arts and went on to perform in multiple UK tour’s with ’80’s Mania’ and ‘The Magic of Startown’. She has also worked around the world in places such as Oman, Cairo, Marrakesh, and Dubai playing Alice in ‘Alice and Wonderland’, and a featured dancer in ‘La Strass’
In 2019, Kate was the face of Pineapple Dance Studios, modelling their clothing range on billboards in Covent Garden.
Kate is a superb choreographer working on music videos for hit artists such as The Arcaves and Zac Pajak.
You may also have caught Kate most recently in ‘Call the Midwife’ as a featured Showgirl for their Christmas special and TV commercial’s Funky Pigeon’s Valentine’s Day advert.
