Faculty | ESPA

Meet the team

meet the team

At ESPA, we pride ourselves on the highly skilled and experienced staff delivering across all programmes. Staff are industry professionals - ranging from the West End, Tours, Music Videos, TV & Film and Cruises - enabling students to learn from specialist tutors in all of their sessions.

Kelly-Ann Gordon
Principal

Kelly-Ann has been delivering and running full time performing arts programmes for the past decade.

After a varied performing career, ranging from TV & Film, Theatre, Music videos and Cabarets, Kelly-Ann found a passion for teaching. Teaching part time classes, to writing and developing the courses at ESPA. Kelly-Ann has previously worked as a peripatetic singing teacher in schools across the region along with delivering on creative partnership projects all over the country.

Kelly-Ann is determined to offer high quality training led by industry professionals in funded education provisions. Focusing on well balanced courses, where students are prepared for drama school auditions, university or the world of work.

Credits include:

Sunday Night Live - Her Majesty’s Theatre, Dancer - Lemar & Sway London Gig Circuit, Dancer - Latitude Music Festival, Lead Vocalist - Limelight Entertainment.

TV:/Film: Catﬁsh & The Bottlemen - Fallout Music Video, The Fashion Show, Murder in Suberbia, Family Business, Kerching, The Mysti Show

Along with performances at venues such as: The Royal Albert Hall, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Sadlers Wells.

Megan Kelly
Musical Theatre Coordinator

Megan trained at the Arts Educational School at Tring Park from the age of 12 and then continued on to the Arts Ed London Musical Theatre course. She then started on a very successful career in theatre performing across the country and in the West End including the original cast of 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat' with Jason Donovan, 'She Loves me' and 'Metropolis' to name a few.

Megan has played West End leading roles including Cosette in 'Les Miserables' and Christine in 'Phantom of the Opera' and has worked alongside many prestigious directors and composers including Hal Prince, Declan Donnelan, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. She was part of the original London cast of 'Into the Woods' , 'Sunday in the Park with George' and 'Sweeney Todd' at The Royal National Theatre. Megan has also performed in concert venues such as the Albert Hall and Festival Hall and can be heard on many cast albums and recordings.

Credits include:

The Turn of the Screw, Three Lost Souls, Dearly Beloved, La Belle Vivette, The

Cunning little Vixen, Falstaff, Sweeney Todd, The King and I, The Rivals, The Crucible, The Winters Tale, A Midsummers Night Dream.

Eddie Burton
Acting Coordinator

Eddie has spent his life in the Performing Arts. After graduating from Arts Educational Eddie worked in the West End for ten years.

After a career as a performer, Eddie became a lecturer/tutor/freelance Performing Arts leader. Positions include: Head of Acting, Stella Mann, Head of Musical Theatre – London Theatre School, Singing tutor – The London Studio Centre, Singing/Acting tutor at Tring Park, Singing tutor at Bodywork, singing tutor at The Schools of the Science of Acting. Eddie is also an academic – having gained a Masters Degree in Shakespeare, and currently doing a PhD in Shakespeare/Hamlet/Philosophy with Professor Gabriel Egan. Eddie has successfuly coached students to gain places at: Arts Educational, East 15, LIPA, Urdang, Laine, Bird, Tring Park, GSA, RCS, Mountview and Trinity Laban, as well as universities across the country.

Credits include:

Javert in Les Miserables, Greaseball in Starlight Express, Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire, Martin Guerre and Arnaud in Martin Guerre, Miss Saigon, The Gondoliers and Elvis the Musical. Eddie has worked as an actor-musician, touring the UK with Bill Kenwright Productions, playing Cliff Richard in The Sound of Fury. In The Royal Variety Performance Eddie sang with Andre Bocelli, Westlife, Barry Manilow and Cliff Richard.

Louise Durrant
Dance Coordinator

Credits include:

Performance- Team England Pom 2016-2018, Team England Jazz 2017 and 2019, Cheerforce Ladies of Ten 2018-2019, The Olivier Awards- Breakin Convention, World of Dance- Myself Uk

Film/ TV- Woman in Gold, Testament of Youth, Frankenstein, MO-Hot music video

Coaching- Team England Paracheer Hip Hop 2017-2019

Louise spent a year studying a foundation course in dance at The Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts before continuing her training at Masters Performing Arts College. Since graduating she has trained and performed with all female hip hop company Myself Uk founded by industry professional Kloe Dean and currently performs with JMEDC founded by industry professional Jasmine Eccles.

For the past 4 years, Louise has trained as a professional athlete competing as part of Team England at The World Cheerleading Championships in Orlando, Florida and The European Cheerleading Championships. She currently coaches various competitive pom, hip hop and jazz teams and has previously coached teams to an international level.

Jess Glendinning
Level 4 & Dance Coordinator

Jess grew up training in a pre professional dance program in Michigan, USA. She went on to work as a dancer for Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line & Holland America Line where she was Dance Captain and also worked as a rehearsal director installing the Dancing With the Stars at Sea program. Jess lived in New York City for 6 years and filmed numerous workout DVDs, commercials, print work and videos for companies such as MTV, Dr Pepper and Mattel. She also toured around the US and Canada with the company Cirque Le Masque as a dancer. Since living in the UK Jess has worked as a rehearsal director for Bourne Leisure, teaching the production shows to the casts of Haven Holiday Parks and has danced and choreographed for British Airways’ Strictly Come Dancing events.

GEMMA TROUGHTON
Level 2 Coordinator

Gemma trained at Liverpool Theatre School gaining a distinction in Professional Musical Theatre. Since graduating she has been fortunate to have a varied career across Theatre, Film & TV both as talent and within the creative/production teams. With credits for Musicals, revue shows, immersive theatre, pantomimes, and touring shows. She also has credits on screen for commercials, reality TV, short films and also as a lead actor for a feature length Film which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2019.
For the past 10 years alongside performing Gemma has taught in a wide variety of settings some of which include secondary schools, dance/theatre Schools and Theatres. She has been able to collaborate on Arts Council funded projects, alongside the Royal Opera House Bridge, to help vulnerable young adults through creative lead projects, as well as projects building confidence in young women through dance.
She is trained and teaches all styles of dance but her passion lies in Tap, Acrobatics and Musical Theatre. She has a drive for exciting and nurturing the next generation of creatives and performers.