Katherine Burrowes
Dance Instructor
Katherine is multidisciplinary dance artist residing in the Calgary (Moh-kins-tsis) community, and has been a well-known performer, instructor and choreographer in the Alberta arts community for the past two decades. She has trained across the world in locations like Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, London UK, Florence Italy and Tokyo, Japan. She has trained in many genres of dance such as Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Ballet, Tap, Musical Theatre, West African, wing, and Latin but has focused the past decade on training in Street Dance styles such as Hip-Hop, Funk Styles, Animation, R&B, House, Dancehall, Afro-styles, Vogue, and Waacking.
Katherine began her performance training studying Musical Theatre with the Youth Singers of Calgary in 1995, and soon after began studio dance training with Absolute Dance Inc. simultaneously. She followed her passion for dance to the University of Calgary Dance Program, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Contemporary Dance, graduating with Distinction. While at U of C Katherine began training in Vogue and Waacking styles with the collective House of Dangerkat, and later also began studying with the Decidedly Jazz Danceworks Professional Training Program focusing on Classic Jazz, Tap, Lindy Hop, Afro Cuban and West African dance vocabulary.
Meanwhile Katherine began performing professionally for corporate events and commercial projects such as Groove Academy, The Calgary Spurs, House of Dangerkat, Shine Ensemble, Elektra Dance Company, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks and various entertainment agencies. She has also had the privilege of performing on numerous international tours including touring China with the production Dragonfly Cafe in 2014.
While at DJD, Katherine reconnected with colleagues Edgar Reyes, Cody Jaxon and Joey
Braunwarth over a shared love of Hip-Hop and Street dance, which lead them to co-found the successful Street Dance company illFX Entertainment Inc. Years later the trio of Katherine, Edgar and Cody expanded to create a sister company called illFX Education, which is a Street Dance training program for youth and young adults. This company also founded the MOVE Bursary Program which stands for Movement Opportunities Vital for Expression - and raises money to provide dancers in need with the necessary funding to pursue their passion for dance. In 2024 they debuted a completely free dance program in collaboration with the East Side Dance Festival.
Katherine is currently Co-Artistic Director of illFX Education and Entertainment Inc. as well as Co-Director and Producer for Spectra Entertainment Inc. She continues to teach and
choreograph for numerous dance studios, schools and performing groups across Alberta.
Katherine strives for knowledge and excellence in dance, and firmly believes in the arts as a crucial avenue for self-expression and the personal development of young people and our society as a whole.