Teaching Faculty and Mala Staff

ISTD DDE Imperial Classical Ballet & Modern Theatre Dance, AISTD, Royal Ballet Affiliate teacher.

SNATD(Dist) , PBT Level 3 Instructor, Gold Medallist LAMDA OUB Pre School Educator.

Clare has had an extremely successful career in dance and began at the age of two under the tuition of Margaret Upton at the original Mala School of Dancing. Dancing has always been more than a hobby for Clare and she set about her dream of becoming a professional dancer by training up to five times a week from a young age. Over many years Miss Clare built up considerable expertise in a variety of dance styles including Classical Ballet, Tap, Modern Theatre, Street Dance, Freestyle Disco, Latin American, Ballroom, Rock and Roll and Contemporary Dance. She also studied Drama and Musical Theatre extensively throughout her training.
Clare has won countless gold medals and awards in competitions and boasts an outstanding examination record. She has also appeared in various productions, galas and festivals with considerable success.
At sixteen Clare was awarded a place at the world renowned Laine Theatre Arts and won scholarships from both Laine itself and Essex County Council, based on her ability. Here she would train alongside many future West End, Music and TV stars including Lee Latchford-Evans from Steps and Victoria Beckham to name just a couple. During her four years of professional tuition at Laine, Clare appeared in a number of professional productions including the Royal Variety Performance, Cabarets for the Variety Club of Great Britain and ‘Bottle Imp’ for the BBC amongst many others. Clare also appeared alongside Sean Bean in the film ‘Essex Boys’. Clare’s professional training included all forms of dance, musical theatre and vocal coaching; she also studied anatomy and physiology as well as teacher training.

In 2024 Clare qualified as  a Royal Ballet School Affiliate teacher, and is now able to offer elite Ballet coaching at Mala.

 
After graduating Clare taught as Ballet Principal of two large local dance schools gaining valuable experience before taking over as the Principal of Mala in the year 2000. Under her direction the school has grown from 30 students to almost 300 today. As a teacher Clare strives to inspire her students to achieve the highest standards and be the best performer that they can be regardless of age or ability – this is reflected in the school's 100% exam pass rate and outstanding competition successes.

Clare is extremely proud of the students of Mala and is looking forward to an exciting year as we celebrate our Silver Jubilee!!