Head of Dance
Rachel Young
Rachel has teaching qualifications from International Dance Teacher’s Association, British Association of Teachers of Dancing and has Fellowship status (the highest category of teacher certification) and American Ballet Theatre.
She is qualified in Stage dance (Tap / Modern /Jazz), Ballet, Highland. She is a certified Pre-Primary to Level 3 teacher with American Ballet Theatre after studying in New York in 2013. In 2009 Rachel qualified as a Level 2 (and part Level 3 qualified) Acrobatic Gymnastics coach and a Level 2 Pre-School gymnastics coach with British Gymnastics and is a member of Scottish Gymnastics.
Rachel has an ATCL diploma with Trinity College in Musical Theatre performance and an LTCL Diploma in teaching Musical Theatre.
Rachel is Sports Leader/Dance Leaders UK Tutor and has a Diploma in Anatomy and Physiology.
She also has a BA Hons LLB, Bachelors of Law.
Although Rachel teaches nowadays, Rachel’s first professional performing job was at the age of 10 years old when she travelled the West Coast of Australia singing and performing in shortened musical productions and seasonal shows. Since moving back to Scotland in 1995 Rachel continued her dance training at the Edith Duncan MBE school of Dance taking part in Scholarship auditions, Competitions and Shows at HMT Aberdeen.
In 2005 at the same time as graduating from Aberdeen University with an Honours degree in Law, Rachel set up Aberdeen Academy of Performing Arts and is the Principal and Owner/Director of Mac the Monkey Ltd.
In 2016 Rachel devised and produced the now annual, Dance Compete Achieve Competition in Aberdeen. Students from across the UK are welcome to take part in the competition. They can perform for specialist judges in all genres of dance, vocal and musical theatre. The calibre of judge is very high and student’s love performing and taking part so that they can receive invaluable feedback on their performances.
Not only has Rachel set up Dance Compete Achieve, has also been involved in helping companies set up Performing Arts and Gymnastics competitions in Scotland and Internationally and has judged internationally. Most recently Rachel gained her Sports Acrobatic Judging qualification with British Gymnastics. She heads up the part time performing arts school at AAPA which has approximately 350 students. Rachel over sees and coordinates all AAPA exam entries, competition routines and trips, shows and is hands on in classes teaching over 70 classes a week. Rachel teaches on the full time HND course in Musical Theatre, Professional Dance and Acting and Performance. Rachel’s specialism on the full time courses is in the dance Units.