Julie has throughout her life had an immense and absolute passion for dance. She started ballet classes at the young age of 2 years old, before becoming a pupil at JHM when she was 15 – this transpired to be only a stepping stone to becoming an indispensable member of the JHM teaching staff. 

Teaching came naturally to Julie after becoming a class assistant in JHM dance classes, whilst she was still studying in high school. When forging on to study dance full-time at Performing Arts Studio Scotland (PASS), Julie became a Student Teacher at JHM Dance Academy, and finally decided that the teaching pathway was the direction she wanted her dance journey to take.

Julie graduated with an HNC and HND Dance Artistry SCQF Level 8 from PASS, before going on to achieve her BA Honours degree at Northumbria University. She studied multiple dance disciplines and techniques during her studies – ‘Ballet’, ‘Jazz’, ‘Contemporary’ and ‘Commercial’ to name a few; as well as ‘Theories of dance’, ‘Dance History’, ‘Anatomy of the body’, ‘Performance’ and ‘Production’. This led her to have a holistic and comprehensive understanding (at a very high level) of training in the performing arts.

Julie’s biggest achievement to date has been gaining her ‘RAD Certificated Ballet Teachers Studies’, which was presented at Julie’s graduation ceremony in London by none other than Dame Darcey Bussell, DBE. Julie has also gained an IDTA Associate in Freestyle, an IDTA associate in Ballet, her IDTA Theatre Craft Level 4, and has been an active member of the Scottish joint committee since it began in 2014 – even holding the role of Treasurer in 2017.

Julie however continually works to develop and hone her skills in teaching dance – striving every single day to educate herself, and gaining many teaching qualifications, including:

– International Dance Technique (IDT)

– iD-Dance Contemporary Teacher Training

– Sports Leaders UK

– Progressive Ballet Techniques

– Life Coaching Diploma

– Anxiety Awareness Diploma

– Level 3 Child Psychology Diploma

– Mental Wellbeing in Children and Young People 

– Psychological Wellbeing for Dancers

– ZUMBA Instructor Qualification

– BOKWA Instructor Qualification

As well as teaching at JHM Dance Academy, Julie delivers the RAD Ballet curriculum for Bannerman Dance Academy in Glasgow. For the last 3 years, Julie has choreographed, filmed, submitted and successfully qualified with her dances and dancers from JHM at the Dance World Cup, participating in the competition as part of Team Scotland.

Most recently, Julie has been announced as the new Contemporary examiner at iD-Company Ltd, for  Scotland and the North of England.

Julie teaches the iD-Company Ltd Contemporary syllabus at JHM Dance Academy, and has received full distinctions for all her exam entries since 2019.