Dance Adjudicators 2024
We are excited to share the bios of the extraordinary people who will be adjudicating at the 2024 Toronto Kiwanis Festival Dance!
Kerry Gage
Kerry currently resides in Toronto and is a professional Director and Choreographer. She is a 2019 Dora Award recipient for outstanding original choreography.
Kerry has spent nine seasons at the Stratford Festival. Productions she has worked on include: HMS Pinafore, Crazy For You, Fiddler On The Roof, 42nd Street, Camelot and Two Gentlemen of Verona.
She was also the Children’s Casting and Resident Director for the North American premier of The Sound of Music with Mirvish.
She has spent 13 seasons at the Charlottetown Festival as part of the creative team and the Director/ Choreographer of the Confederation Centre Young Company.
Her choreographic credits include: Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, Mamma Mia, Shrek-the Musical, Elf-the Musical, Rocky Horror, Cinderella, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Wizard of Oz, Anne of Green Gables, Forever Plaid, Annie, the Canadian premier of Batboy – The Musical, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, Hello Dolly and Songs for a New World.
She has taught for many institutions such as Sheridan College, Randolph Academy, St. Clair College, St. Lawrence College and Etobicoke School of The Arts.
Kerry has been an adjudicator across Canada for over twenty years.
“Remember all things are possible for those who believe”.
Rhonda Roberts is an accomplished performer, educator and adjudicator of dance who has appeared in productions across North America and Europe.
She was awarded a full scholarship and later the triple threat award from the acclaimed Randolph College for the Performing Arts in Toronto.
Rhonda has performed in numerous stage productions. Most notably she danced in the Broadway show Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, toured with the U.S. National company of the Tony® Award-winning musical Ragtime, played the role of Shenzi in the Tony Award-winning show Disney’s The Lion King at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre and performed in Guys and Dolls and Anything Goes at the Stratford Festival.
On screen Ms. Roberts has appeared in the #1 Amazon Prime hit, The Boys, the Academy Award®-winning film Chicago, the New Line Cinema release Hairspray The Movie, along with a list of other film and recurring TV roles.
She has been teaching for more than 35 years and adjudicating for 20 years. Her résumé includes seven years of instructing at University of Toronto, and recurring posts at McMaster University, O.I.P, Steps Performing Arts Centre in Hamilton, National Dance Theatre and Randolph College for the Performing Arts in Toronto. She has been an adjudicator for Terpsichore Dance Celebration, American Dance Awards, Onstage and The World Dance Championships in Orlando, Florida, to name only a few.
She currently has recurring choreography engagements at Etobicoke School of the Arts and has been guest instructing at Canada’s National Ballet School.
In 2012, Rhonda opened her own studio called The Art of Balance (TAB). Here she is combining the worlds of dance, fitness and other mind–body practices to promote a sense of homeostasis in the body.
In 2016 Rhonda was named one of CanFitPro’s Top 3 Fitness Professionals.
Ms. Roberts is also a member of the Professional Adjudicators Alliance, and is a board member at Healthy Dancer Canada as well as chairing its BIPOC Advocacy Working Group committee.
She holds a degree in Sociology from McMaster University and a music theatre diploma from Randolph College for the Performing Arts.
An accomplished dancer, teacher, choreographer, and adjudicator, Vanessa Zullo has over 20 years of training in ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical, modern, hip hop, acrobatics, and ballroom styles. She has also trained in several World dance styles, including African, Philippine, Middle Eastern, and Indian dance genres. She is the former artistic director of her own studio, Vanessa Zullo’s School of Dance, Inc., which operated successfully in Bolton, ON for 13 years. A graduate of the Mayfield Regional Arts program, she majored in Dance and Concurrent Education at York University on a scholarship. Vanessa has also directed numerous lunchtime and after school dance programs for the Dufferin, Peel, York, Simcoe, and Toronto Boards of Education.
Over the course of her 32-year teaching career, Vanessa, her students, and her choreography have won numerous awards and scholarships at both the regional and national levels. Several students have won major titles including DMA Junior Miss Dance and CanDance Junior Miss Dance, just to name a few. Past students have also danced with the Toronto Raptors Junior Dance Pak, Toronto Blue Jays Dancers, and have been featured in several commercials, movies, and TV shows, including SYTYCD Canada and Family Channels’ The Next Step. Miss Zullo has numerous talented students fortunate enough to be accepted to the Quinte and National Ballet Schools. In addition, Vanessa is tremendously proud that several of her former students are presently embarking on successful careers as educators and choreographers themselves.
Vanessa believes strongly in continuous learning and makes attending teachers’ workshops and classes a priority to keep up with the latest teaching techniques and choreographic styles. Miss Zullos’ educational goal is to provide her students with a solid foundation in dance in a safe, equitable, positive, and culturally responsive learning environment. Both her recreational and competitive classes are fun and challenging for students of any age. She teachers all of her classes with boundless energy, enthusiasm, mixed with a wacky sense of humour.
Vanessa has been providing dancers with helpful and encouraging feedback motivating them to develop their passion and success as dancers as a professional, bilingual adjudicator for over 15 years across Canada. She is sought out consistently by many esteemed competitions to be on their judging panels, where she takes great pride in celebrating and creating special moments with the wonderful dancers she is privileged to watch and communicate with. Vanessa is a member of the Professional Adjudicators Alliance in addition to being a Certified Acrobatics Dance Adjudicator. Vanessa’s philosophy, and expertise on all aspects of dance adjudication can also be heard on the Podcast, Dance Comp Chat with Rob Jensen available on Spotify.
Currently, Miss Zullo feels lucky to be inspiring and sharing her love and knowledge of dance in her high school classroom in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board where she has been fortunate to direct her own dance program since September 2018. Vanessa remains forever dedicated and passionate about offering her students the opportunity to explore, perfect, and share their talents both at school and various events in the local community. Vanessa nurtures and supports every dancer to share her core values, “Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.”