Alcina Chiu, Creative Director
Alcina completed her Bachelor of Music degree, majoring in Voice. Her passion for music started from an early age, leading her to join any programme that allowed her to express her artistic side. Her studies with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto allowed her to gain an appreciation for piano and theory.
She has directed and accompanied several school choirs in the Toronto area, which have performed at festivals and concerts including MusicFest Canada, NE1 Can Do The Arts (Toronto District School Board), the Conference of Independent Schools Music Festival, and the Ontario Vocal Festival. She is the co-founder and director of the Toronto Treble Makers, a community choir for music enthusiasts aged twelve to thirty.
An avid swing dancer, she has performed at numerous events in southern Ontario. Though she is based in Toronto and is quite involved in her home scene, she also travels whenever possible to explore what various other swing scenes have to offer.
Alcina took her first triple steps with the Queen’s Swing Club and quickly progressed to leading that club as President. She has also organized and taught weekly lessons and day-long workshops with the University of Toronto Swing Dancing Club and was an instructor for Hart House Athletics.
She has taken workshops and private lessons in Swing from world-renowned instructors, such as Steven Mitchell and Virginie Jensen, Kevin St. Laurent, Joel and Alison Plys, Sylvia Sykes, and even Frankie Manning himself, often credited as the creator of the Lindy Hop. Known for her creativity, musicality, and joy on the dance floor, Alcina enjoys dancing with beginners and advanced dancers alike and wants to help the Toronto scene grow.
Having embraced Nia for its physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health value, Alcina would love to share this passion as a certified and licensed Nia instructor. She enjoys the interconnection of music and movement in this fitness form, and is constantly amazed by what she discovers in her body and how it relates to all movement.
Alcina has also worked with Shakespearience Performing Arts, coaching students from middle to high school in the lyrical language of Shakespeare. Over the course of five years in their Summer Experience and After Hours programme for at-risk youth, she filled the roles of Assistant Director, Stage Manager, Music Director, Fight Captain, and Text Coach.
Recent performances include the Georgian Sound Jazz Festival, Homegrown Cabaret, Broadway Melody, Brigadoon, Les Dialogues des Carmélites, Verdi’s Requiem, A Night in Vienna, Orfeo ed Euridice, and the Vagina Monologues. Alcina is thrilled at this chance to share with and learn from other musical minds and creative bodies. She looks forward to working with you!