Gillian Gardner
Gillian's training began at a young age training locally in Ballet, Modern, Contemporary, Jazz, Tap and Musical Theatre. She went on to win Dancer of the Year in 1997 and was the winner of the Modern division at the 1999 Provincials in Nelson, B.C. Gillian graduated as a dance major from the Langley Fine Arts School after performing abroad with the school’s modern based dance company, Esprit De Corps under the direction of Jill Stacey.
Professionally Gillian has trained with Aaron Johnson at Vancouver Circus School, Ninon Parent and Peter Boulanger at the Underground Circus in Vancouver, Mark Gibson at Aerial Edge in Glasgow, Scotland and Tomoko Otani and Yoshie Abe at Tokyo Disney in Japan. In addition to her aerial training Gillian has has been a student of dance all over the world attending studios such as Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Calgary, Glasgow Dance Studio, Dance Base in Edinburgh, New York Trapeze School, Edge PAC, Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio, Architanz Ballet Studio in Tokyo, Broadway Dance Center Tokyo.
Positivity, hard work and dedication has provided Gillian with jobs that have taken her across the globe to countries such as Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, China, Korea, Japan, Australia, the UK and throughout the US. She has worked as Dance Captain, Production Assistant and Company Manager for Broadway revue shows produced at Stiletto Entertainment in Los Angeles. Gillian has worked as a guest choreographer for The Vancouver Underground Circus, The Walnut Grove and White Rock Schools of Music and Dance and The Dance Academy of Prince Rupert as well as being an instructor at Dance Base in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Gillian has performed at venues such as the Commodore Ballroom, Red Robinson’s show theatre, the Dream Stage at the Pacific National Exhibition, The Vancouver Playhouse, The River Rock theatre, Cascades Theatre, the Roundhouse on Whistler mountain, the Cultch Centre for the Performing Arts, Telus Gardens and numerous other private events throughout Vancouver.
She has been seen on the stages of the Jesse Awards, Royal Caribbean Productions, Holland America Cruise Lines, Mooncoin Productions, The Vancouver Underground Circus and was hand picked to fly 30 feet in the air as lead Aerialist portraying "Ariel" at Tokyo Disney Resort in Japan. During her time with Tokyo Disney Resort she worked as a Character Performer, Dancer and Aerialist. Gillian was the first performer to perform in two shows simultaneously and was instrumental in negotiating the first ever swing contract with Oriental Land Co. for foreign performers. Her television credits include CW’s Smallville, Sci fy’s Caprica, FOX’s Human Target, USA Network’s Psych and YoGO TV.
Most recently Gillian has embarked on the exploration of Jazz Dance history with the help of Joanne Baker and Kim Cooper of Decidedly Jazz Danceworks Calgary. She hopes that by remembering where Jazz came from we can begin to reintroduce those values back into our contemporary jazz movement styles and begin to build a jazz dance community based on art, expression and creation.