Helen Shields - Dance teacher and choreographer

Dancing runs in Helen's blood as her grandmother was a dancer with the famous Sherman Fisher girls at the London Palladium in the 1930s. Helen started dancing at the age of 4 with her local dancing school. At 6 she auditioned and gained her first professional role as 'Michael' in a production of Peter Pan (once she had learnt how to fly!).

Helen worked hard to pass exams and performed in school productions and various competitions and events. At 13 she moved to a London based dance school which was linked to professional companies and the Sylvia Young school. This gave her more performance experience along with working in front of a camera for T.V. advertisements.

At this time Helen was also a teaching assistant for the younger children at the school, having realised from an early age that she enjoyed developing and encouraging other children in dance.

Gaining her first teaching qualification at 17 and the second the following year, she went on to work professionally with a dance group in the London area - working with first class performers like Faith Brown.

She also found time to continue teaching at Dance World Studios in London. She worked Summer Season with her dance group and it was here that she met her future husband, William. They worked together in the West End of London, working with many international artists.

An opportunity arose for them to operate a theatre in the UK, and they took this chance to develop their own theatre based variety company - directing, choreographing and starring in their own professional pantomimes and variety productions. During this time they worked with such artists as Danny LaRue, Max Bygraves, Richard Digence, Victoria Wood, Ted Rogers, Norman Wisdom, Chris Barber, Esther Rantsen, Kenny Baker and Jack Parnell.

In 2005 they decided to move to their home in Spain and here they have continued their work teaching and developing the dance and drama skills of both young and old on the Costa del Sol. Here Helen has taught at the full time Spanish Stage School ‘Escuela Superior de Artes Escenicas’ in Malaga and more recently at the 'Centro del Profesorado de Malaga' where she was teaching supremo dance teachers, who in turn train professional teachers.

From an early age William loved the theatre and his ambition from the age of 4 was to become an actor. His father acted and directed from the early 1950s in local productions, so it was in the blood that he would follow in his father’s footsteps.

At 4 years old he performed for the first time in front of a live audience which led to many performances in his local area, singing at many functions and music festivals throughout Scotland.

At age 12 his music teacher recommended that he should start to study opera with the world renowned Scottish singer, Ian Wallace. But William decided that he would rather pursue a career in acting.

After moving to Edinburgh, he performed in many productions, both amateur and professional, both in theatre and in television. At 17 he auditioned for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where he was successful in achieving selection for one of only 24 places.

His first professional contract was in repertory theatre in St. Andrews where he performed in ‘The Seagull‘, ‘Man of La Mancha‘, Pantomime, Old time music hall and had the lead role of Alan Strang in the premier Scottish production of ‘Equus’. Following this he performed in theatres around the UK throughout his career.

William also has a wide experience of working in other disciplines within the theatre, including; stage management, production management, lighting and sound design and theatre management. Also in television as a stage manager and floor manager. William has also worked in the film industry as pyrotechniques technician and production co-ordinator.

He has also worked in the music industry with many major international stars, including Sammy Davis Jnr (Mr Entertainment himself!), Buddy Rich, Bruce Forsyth, Jasper Carrott and Billy Connolly. Also major pop stars, including Madonna (staging her first UK appearance), George Michael (staged his first ever appearance as Wham) and many international soul artists.

A varied and knowledgeable background such as this gives a wealth of experience and understanding of the performing arts to all the students at InStep.