Helen Pender

Helen was trained at Performers College in Essex under the direction of the late TV choreographer and director Brian Rogers, and the late ISTD Fellow and examiner Susan Stephens. She completed a three-year professional dance and theatre course and gained her ISTD Associate teaching qualifications with distinction in Tap and Modern Theatre.

Following success in the college’s annual choreographic awards, Helen choreographed pieces for the end-of-year college show and worked as a part-time Jazz teacher at a local dance school. In 1995 she was the overall senior winner of the ISTD Star Tap Awards with her own choreographed solo.

Her professional performance work spans television, summer seasons, pantomimes and cabarets, appearing alongside names such as Jimmy Cricket, Derek Griffiths and Danny La Rue. Helen also worked as assistant choreographer to Brian Rogers on a number of productions, and more recently appeared on Channel 4’s “Secret Genius”, showing a completely different side to her creative one!

Helen is Founder and Director of The Stage Factory, and teaches the majority of our tap classes in addition to solo and team choreography. Alongside her work at the school, Helen also offers dance system consulting services (HPC Website) and freelance lecturing and adjudicating at the UK Dance Class Championships.