Our Instructors

Leighanne was born and raised in Victoria, BC and moved to Sooke when she was 10 years old. She has always had a love of song and dance and creativity. When she was eight years old, she performed in her first show The Wizard of Oz, in which she played “The Scarecrow”.

Leighanne worked in childcare for 15 years, then went to Camosun College to study Horticulture. She has also studied acting and attended local workshops and classes. She became involved in community theatre as an adult, and has played lead roles, as well as chorus roles. She thoroughly enjoys both. She has appeared in numerous productions including Godspell, Afterlife, Fawlty Towers (x3), and some locally written short plays, as well as Improv in the Park and performed in talent shows.

Leighanne’s offstage roles have included Assistant Director, Assistant Musical Director, Musical Director, Costumes Manager, Front of House Manager, and child minding behind the scenes for Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Drew Kemp is well known throughout Victoria and Vancouver Island for his theatrical and artistic endeavours. A graduate from the Banff School of Arts and Langara College of Performing Arts, Drew graduated from the University of British Columbia with an Education Degree majoring in Theatre Arts. Drew started his acting career in his late teens as an assistant to renowned hypnotist 'Reveen'. After traveling throughout Canada in the theatre world, he settled in Vancouver where he was involved as an actor in the Beachcombers series.

Prior to teaching high school, Drew also worked extensively with troubled youth at the Maples Adolescent Centre in Burnaby teaching theatre arts as well as painting and fabric arts. He also worked for the BC Ministry of Family and Children running a group home for youth in crisis.

Drew began teaching high school dance, drama, history and English in Victoria at Spectrum Community School in 1986. He then went on to teach at Oak Bay Senior Secondary where he helped develop a community theatre program, all the while continuing to work at his craft of performing and directing. Drew directed and acted in productions for Victoria Operatic Society, Langham Court Theatre, Duncan Musical Theatre, Shawnigan Lake Players and was head of the musical theatre component of Comox Valley Youth Music Centre in Comox/Courtenay for 17 years.

Amber Academy is thrilled to welcome Drew to our team of instructors.

Marian’s father had a dinner theatre when she was growing up, which is where her passion for music began. She studied piano, dance and voice lessons privately from 1992-1997. In 2013 Marian was honored to receive a special invitation to attend an intense Master Vocal Class at the Victoria Conservatory of Music. There she learned many other important aspects of voice, song writing, and more. She also trained at Long & McQuade in 2014 in a Choir Music Instruction class.

Marian has been performing as a professional vocalist throughout the Greater Victoria area since 2012 and has been teaching music privately since 2013. Her previous credits include directing the school choir at Saseenos Elementary in Sooke and the children’s choir for a production of “Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat”. Marian was also the Musical Director for Sooke Cabaret.

Marian is thrilled to be a part of Amber Academy and to share her knowledge and gifts with the students, and to create a fun, inspiring place to come together to sing.

Nicole was born and raised on the west coast of British Columbia. Over the past 30 years she has mastered many artistic mediums such as stained and fused glass, bead work, collage, encaustic and silk screen printing. More recently she has designed and created her own line of women’s fashions.  

Nicole has been creating costumes for the Sooke Dance Studio for the last 10 years and was costume designer for Sooke Harbour Players’ last two productions.

Since 2009, Nicole has been involved in many youth art projects such as teaching art workshops, volunteering in the schools, co-facilitating youth art camps, and co-facilitating three whole school mural projects in Sooke, B.C. Nicole was a Girl Guide and Pathfinder Leader from 2013 - 2018 and has been teaching at Amber Academy since September, 2017.

Deborah van Hattem-Koff is an illustrator and artist from Sooke, born in the Netherlands. She is also a member of the Sooke Arts Council. Deborah has been drawing, painting and illustrating from a very young age and has been taking art history, drawing and painting classes since the age of 12.

Deborah is also a workshop teacher. She organizes "Sip and Paint” art classes at the Artisan's Garden in Sooke, and also hosts painting classes for children. Additionally, Deborah is a henna artist, creating temporary body art using henna leaf paste.

Deborah's artwork has been displayed and sold in several shows in Victoria, Sooke, the Netherlands and Fort Langley. She recently worked on designing 100 hand illustrated cards for the cast and film crew of the popular Hallmark Channel TV series, "When Calls the Heart". 

Deborah looks forward to passing on her artistic skills and sharing her creativity to the younger generation at Amber Academy. She loves to inspire and enable others to have fun creating and discovering the artist within. 

Rowan has been involved in theatre for as long as he can remember, and has performed with a variety of companies including Pacific Opera Victoria and Sooke Harbour Players. He has been doing theatre tech since 2013. Growing up in a family of musicians (both parents are guitar teachers), Rowan has sought out a deep and thorough understanding of audio gear, which he puts to use as a keyboard player in various bands.

Rowan also volunteers as an instructor for the Robotics Club at EMCS, which regularly takes silver or bronze medal at the provincial Skills Canada competition.

Rowan loves working with youth, and hopes he makes a positive difference in the lives of those he works with. He plans to make teaching his career.