School of Dance and the Arts
Elyssa Currey
Dance Instructor
Elyssa Currey started dancing at the age of 2 and never stopped. Training most of her life in the RAD syllabus, she completed her graduating exams with the RAD and ABT in 2015. In 2016 she guested with the Oakville School of Classical Ballet in the production of Paquita.
Elyssa participated in Arise School of Dance’s teacher training program in 2014, and in 2018 taught ballet and body conditioning at Arise. She has worked extensively as a private ballet coach, as well as serving as a teacher for 1:11 Ministries summer Arts Camp where she taught ballet, choreography, jazz, contemporary, and stretching. This year, she is excited to continue working at Soli Deo Gloria School of Dance and the Arts to share the art of dance with ballet students. Currently, Elyssa also dances part-time as a freelance artist.
​
Elyssa is a dance teacher who is committed to train dancers of all ages in the art of classical ballet. She strives to develop excellence and artistry in students using visual, verbal, and physical cues. Most of all, Elyssa wants to see students grow in their love for the Lord and equip them to worship Him through the medium of dance.
Louise Van Niekerk
Louise is a passionate teacher and singer. Her affinity for singing developed at an early age when she recalls standing on a wall at age four, happily performing for friends and family. In her formative years, she studied with wonderful teachers and participated in music competitions, festivals and musicals, as well as being a church worship leader in her teens.
Louise completed Level 10 Voice and Level 8 Piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and holds a Bachelor of Mathematics with Minors in Vocal Performance and English Literature from the University of Waterloo. While at university, Louise simultaneously belonged to three choirs and was often a soloist.
Louise completed a Bachelor of Education at the University of Toronto and has taught intermediate and high school grades, including teaching grade 8 Voice and directing the intermediate choir at Branksome Hall School in Toronto. She has directed several children’s church choirs and ensembles and has sung with many church/community choirs, including the Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir as a guest soloist, Masterworks of Oakville, and Knox Presbyterian Church in Oakville.
Louise feels immensely blessed by the opportunity to live out God’s calling to sing and to train and encourage young voices to be lifted up for His glory.
Choir Director
Aniko Murphy
Dance Instructor
Aniko grew up in a Hungarian Roman Catholic home, and from the beginning of her life God instilled in her a desire to dance. At a young age she started taking ballet classes and was a part of a Hungarian folk dance group. She continued her love of dance through classes, ballet performances, school plays and musicals, and eventually wound up at the State University of New York at Potsdam to complete her Bachelors in Dance. After graduation she moved to Toronto to be closer to her husband, and continued to pursue performing and teaching dance, but had a worldly vision of dance and performance.
​​
After her husband's uncle preached the gospel on his deathbed to her mother-in-law and her sister, her husband's family came to faith in Christ, and he shared the gospel with her. To her, it seemed like her husband (at the time boyfriend) was just going through a phase. But she convinced herself that if she truly loved him she would give some sympathy to his Bible beliefs and at least go to church. Over the first few months of 2020, God worked in her heart to make her see her sin, her contorted view of the world, but most of all her need for a Saviour. God showed her her wicked heart and the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on the cross for her sins. Four months later, she and her husband Patrick were married and then were both baptized at Hope Church Toronto West before another lockdown. In the past year God has shown her that she can use her love of dance to glorify and praise our Lord who gave her the feet to move in the first place. She is so excited to bring her story and experience to SDG and prays that she can help others to recognize that dance can be a form of worship to our God.
​
Aniko will be teaching musical theatre, tap, and kinderdance at SDG starting in Winter 2023.
