FELIX BUSUTTIL
Director and Founder of The Company
Main Choreographer
Co-Director, YADA Dance Academies and The College of Jazz Dance
Company Dancer
Felix Busuttil born and bred on a Mediterranean island that barely covers 25 kilometres called Gozo and forming part of the Maltese archipelago started pirouetting in his mother’s womb. This undying passion for dance resulted in a consequence of events that formed The YADA Dance Company, three dance institutions, a brand and huge theatrical representations. Felix started dancing in Malta at The Alison White Dance Studios and The Tanya Bajona Poutiatine Academy of Ballet. He furthered his studies at The London Studio Centre Performing Arts School. During the last 30 years, Felix has achieved many local merits and choreographed for opera, dance shows and festivals in Malta and overseas namely in Denmark, Switzerland, France, Turkey, India, Italy and Spain. He has danced and choreographed in the presence of H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth II and Mr. Tony Blair – has danced in Hollywood movies such as Cutthroat Island and Gladiators – and has worked with renowned names such as national icon and world-famous opera voices the likes of Miriam Gauci and Joseph Calleja. He has graced dance spaces such as Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen and Plaza Mayor in Madrid. YADA has become a household name in Malta having produced in the last 17 years an extensive repertoire of successful dance spectacles. Felix is appreciated by Malta’s Head of Government in Office as a true portent of professionalism in dance in Malta. He is presently a member on the Mediterranean Conference Centre Board of Directors, Malta’s national theatre. Felix has worked extensively with other top international dance tutors worldwide.
He believes strongly in the power of positive thinking, endless determination and perseverance and the beauty of dance in all our lives. America is one of his favourite ideal “state of mind”. He advocates the importance of culture within our children’s education and the power of music, theatre and dance that bring nations together.
LISA BRINCAT
Lisa was born in London. She was deemed a fighter at birth. She could not wait to enter the world and popped out at only six months. Her love for dance started at the age of three where she started training in Ballet. At The College of Jazz Dance, she furthered her dance genres since 1998 where she now also teaches. Lisa joined YADA in 2003 and became of the top dancers in 2007. She graduated in Jazz Dance in 2008 and obtained her Diploma in Dance Instruction in 2011. Brincat won various local scholarships including The Classical Ballet Award in 2002 and The Matt Mattox Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2006. Lisa has danced in YADA's major productions locally and overseas, and has attended various courses both locally and at Tring Park School for The Performing Arts and BodyWork Company Dance Studios in the UK. Her personal highlights include being awarded a scholarship to attend the Kledi Kadiu Academia Di Danza in Rome, Italy. Her strong sense of perfectionism is immediately noticed.DARON GALEA
Resident YADA Dance Company Choreographer
Co-Director, The YADA Dance Academies, Malta
Company Dancer
Daron started dance at a very early age when he was just six years old. He studied in top Classical Maltese Dance Schools and was also trained by Felix Busuttil and Justin Roy Barker at The College of Jazz Dance. He received a major scholarship in Rome at the Kledi Kadiu Academy of Dance. His foreign credits relate mainly being part of The YADA Dance Company where he danced at The Peacock Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, at The Lucerne Concert Auditorium, Switzerland, in Plaza Major, Madrid, Spain and also at the Mumbai Royal Westin Hotel in India just to name a few. He has been recently asked to become resident choreographer with the company and was winner of many choreographic prestigious awards. He performed as a soloist in YADA’s Tango at Malta’s Baroque theatre, The Manoel in 1999 and played the part of Christian in YADA’s rendition of Moulin Rouge at The Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta, Malta in 2003. He is very excited to be dancing in America as this country represents one of his favourite and most blessed countries in the world.
JUSTIN ROY BARKER
Main Resident YADA Dance Company Choreographer
Co-Director, The College of Jazz Dance
Company Dancer
Justin, born and bred in Redditch, Birmingham, UK, started dancing at the age of 12 and moved to London at 18 to study at the London Studio Center Performing Arts School. He later received a scholarship at the Vaganova Academy in St Petersburg, Russia. His foreign credits include performing at the Barbican Theater and the Wimbledon Theater in London and in Plaza Mayor in Madrid, Spain and The Peacock Theater in Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, with the YADA Dance Company. His other major foreign credit was performing for the London City Ballet. He has choreographed for major theatre companies such as the musicals The King and I and Fiddler on the Roof. Together with Felix, he now co-directs Malta’s largest dance academy, The College of Jazz Dance. He now forms an integral part of YADA and has been a choreographic creative force during its existence.
TANYA BAYONA
Guest Choreographer
Tanya Bayona, a Fellow of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, London and holder of the Enrico Cecchetti Diploma directed the Tanya Bayona Princess Poutiatine Academy of Ballet for 23 years. She started her training in Malta with Princess Nathalie Poutiatine and continued her professional training in London, Rome and Paris. In 1965 Tanya introduced the Cecchetti Method in Classical Ballet to the Maltese Islands. She established her own ballet school which she successfully directed until 2004. Tanya has worked extensively as a dancer and choreographer with her own company in both local and international festivals, as well as in theatre and television productions.
On July 26th 2009 Tanya Bayona was honoured with the Enrico Cecchetti Gold Medal at the Royal Ballet School, London. Her most recent activities include special guest appearance as the Queen in Swan Lake and Clara’s mother in Nutcracker, both local productions with international participation held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta. In December 2008 Tanya Bayona was decorated by the President of the Republic of Malta, Hon. Dr. Edward Fenech Adami, with the Medal for Service to the Republic (MQR) of the National Order of Merit for her life-long commitment to dance and promoting Classical Ballet in Malta.
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