I had a dream over 46 years ago, that one day I would have a dance studio built on strong family values. I would provide a warm and welcoming studio where each student is taught with respect and care, and all students would receive the same quality of instruction regardless whether they are competitive or dance recreationally.
I started my studio teaching out of my house and it continued to grow to what you see today! With such basics as teaching perseverance, self-discipline, and promotion of team work, we have produced many top-notch performers and have developed the many talents you will see at our recitals. I take pride in the fact that our studio is unique because we believe in promoting mutual respect between our teachers and students, fostering friendships while providing a loving and nurturing atmosphere. Every child that walks through our studio doors is considered part of the Pure Energy family!
I have been so blessed with 47 years behind me to be still doing what I love best-teaching, mentoring, and meeting many amazing dancers and parents. I am eternally grateful for the relationships I have made over the years as I have made many life-long friends!
Through this journey, I have faced many trials and tribulations throughout the years but my love of dance and the love I have for each and every student has always pushed me forward.“Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.” – Vincent Van Gogh
– Donna Fehr, Owner/Director
Our Faculty
Donna Fehr
Miss Donna started dancing at the age of 5 and began teaching dance classes at the age of 16 at a local dance studio. She danced professionally for 8 years and realized dance was something she would want to do as a career.
Miss Donna established her own dance studio in 1976 under the name of Donna Charney School of Dance and her dance school has always been very active and involved in community events. This provided her students with great exposure and broad experiences.
Miss Donna was involved in the Jeux Canada Summer Games in 1989. She was part of a great team of dance teachers who taught hundreds of students the choreography pieces for the opening and closing ceremonies.
Miss Donna has adjudicated dance festivals, was area coordinator for Dance Saskatchewan Inc., and worked in the grants department for the Arts Board. She has conducted dance workshops in the public and separate school board system as well.
Miss Donna is a certified A.D.A.P.T. (Associated Dance Arts for Professional Teachers) instructor and her studio follows the A.D.A.P.T. syllabus in both tap and jazz and the R.A.D. (Royal Academy of Dancing) syllabus in Ballet.
Miss Donna renamed her dance studio Pure Energy Dance Co. in 1995 and during the following years, Miss Donna has had the pleasure of working alongside her two daughters, Karrie-Ann and Coralee. It was at this time, Pure Energy became a family operated business.
Miss Donna is extremely proud to have both her daughters working alongside of her. They continue to inspire and amaze her with their talents as dancers, choreographers and their ability to teach students of all ages and abilities, whether they are competitive or recreational. Together, Donna and her daughters, have created a safe and happy family orientated dance environment where each student is trained and cared for equally. All of the instructors are extremely proud of the student’s accomplishments through the years.
Pure Energy Co. students are very successful at dance competitions, dance exams and auditions and many students have gone on to study at professional dance schools.
Karrie-Ann Puderak
Karrie-Ann started dancing at the tender age of two under the direction of her mother, Donna Fehr (Charney). It was only natural since her mother owned and operated a dance school. Since then, Miss Karrie-Ann has never retired her dancing shoes.
Karrie-Ann has been dancing for over 40 years and has been teaching dance for over 25 years alongside her sister, Coralee McNarland and mother, Donna Fehr. She is thrilled to be a part of her successful dance family and even more excited to celebrate the 44th Anniversary of Pure Energy Dance Co.!
Karrie-Ann is currently Assistant Director and Instructor at Pure Energy Dance Co. in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Karrie-Ann is also a guest Choreographer for many Elementary Schools and High Schools in Saskatoon as well as guest teacher/faculty member at various Dance workshops. Karrie-Ann has also been an Adjudicator for Dance Competitions.
Karrie-Ann is a graduate from the University of Saskatchewan, having obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Psychology. Along with teaching dance, she worked as a Corrections Officer at the Regional Psychiatric Centre. However, Miss Karrie-Ann realized that her passion for dance would inevitably lead her to a long and happy career in dance. Today Miss Karrie-Ann is thoroughly enjoying her full time teaching and Assistant Director position at Pure Energy Dance Co.
Karrie-Ann is a certified A.D.A.P.T (Associated Dance Arts for Professional Teachers) Dance Teacher. She has extensive knowledge of Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Hip Hop, Tap, Musical Theatre, Flexibility training, Acrobatic Arts and Aerial Arts. Karrie-Ann teaches students of all ages and all levels from beginner to pre-professional.
Karrie-Ann received her Acrobatic Arts Certification (AAC) in Module 1 and Module 2 and is excited to offer this curriculum at Pure Energy Dance Co.! Acro students at Pure Energy have been very successful at Dance Competitions and Miss Karrie-Ann has earned a positive reputation for her Acro program.
Karrie-Ann received her Spectacle Blue Aerial Dance Certificate (SBAD) in Trapeze and Silks in 2017. She is happy to be able to offer her students this incredible program.
Karrie-Ann received her Module 1 and Module 2 Alixa Flexibility Certification in 2017. She offers flexibility training in all her classes and teaches flexibility workshops.
Karrie-Ann received her certificate in PBT (Progressing Ballet Technique) in July 2019. This is an innovative conditioning program that enhances classical ballet technique.
Karrie-Ann has a love for fitness as well. She competed in 2007 at the Novice and Provincial Fitness Competitions and placed 1st at both shows. She also received her Agatsu Level 1 Kettlebell Certification.
Over the years, Miss Karrie-Ann has watched her students grow into mature, successful dancers. Many of her students have won numerous gold medals, awards and scholarships at various dance competitions throughout Canada and the U.S. All of her students have excelled in their dance examinations with many of them achieving top marks and medals. Her students have also been very successful in auditions and dance conventions. Many of her students have gone on to dance professionally in Dance Companies.
Throughout the years, Miss Karrie-Ann has won many awards and scholarships at numerous dance competitions throughout Canada, including choreography awards and outstanding performance awards. Many of the routines she has choreographed have made it into various dance-offs’ and award shows.
Karrie-Ann has also choreographed for music videos. Her credits include Jessica Kelly’s “Here I Am” debut music video and Ginelle James’s “When the music stops” music video.
Miss Karrie-Ann is proud to be a part of a studio that offers professional dance instruction in a friendly, family-oriented atmosphere. She prides herself in knowing that she provides a positive role model for all her students.
Karrie-Ann believes that continuing dance education is very important and therefore attends numerous Dance Conventions in Canada and/or the United States every year. Karrie-Ann has had the opportunity to work with some of dance industry’s leading professionals such as Wade Robson, Mia Michaels, Sheryl Murikami, Chucky Klapow and many others.
Karrie-Ann has trained at Harbour Dance Centre in Vancouver as well as The Edge Performing Arts Centre in Los Angeles, taking classes with the dance industry’s finest choreographers. She has also taken classes in Maui, Hawaii and Kona, Hawaii.
Since Pure Energy Dance Co. has partnered with CLI studios, Karrie-Ann regularly takes online classes with several of the dance industry’s fresh new choreographers and takes numerous classes on anatomy, kinesiology and conditioning.
Karrie-Ann welcomes all opportunities to share her love of dance with students and is always eager to share new and fresh choreography as learned from the industry leaders at various conventions.
Karrie-Ann teaches with passion, energy and humor. Her love of dance is infectious! Her choreography is fun, fresh and challenging.
Karrie-Ann, along with other Pure Energy teachers and students have travelled to Las Vegas for a Dance Convention; Orlando, Florida for a Dance Convention and Dance Competition and danced alongside 76 other Pure Energy Dancers in the Dance the World Parade in Walt Disney World, Florida in 2012. Karrie-Ann, along with 4 Pure Energy teachers travelled to New York with 55 dancers in July 2019. Dancers danced in Times Square, performed a routine on Broadway and participated in Dance Workshops with Corbin Bleu, Ella Glasgow and Gabriella Sorrentino – Dance Captain from the Broadway Musical, Hamilton.
Karrie-Ann feels very lucky to be a part of the Pure Energy Dance Family and is so proud of her Mom’s success! She wishes all her co-teachers and students continued success!
Karrie-Ann is happily married and is a proud mom of 2 boys who love to dance!
Coralee McNarland
Miss Coralee starting dancing at the same time she started to walk. For the past 35 years she has been dancing many different styles of dance. Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Lyrical, Hip-hop, Musical Theatre, Contemporary, Bollywood and African. Coralee has trained in Saskatoon all her life under the direction of her mother Donna and various other teachers at Pure Energy Dance Co. (formerly known as: Donna Charney School of Dance). She has competed and attended workshops all over Canada and has taken R.A.D. ballet exams as well as A.D.A.P.T. tap and jazz exams and is a Certified A.D.A.P.T. teacher. Over the years Miss Coralee has had the opportunity to take classes from Mia Michaels, Wade Robson, Carrie-Ann Inaba and many other famous dancers and choreographers. Most recently Miss Coralee attended dance conventions in Las Vegas, New York and Los Angeles.
Miss Coralee has been teaching for 21 years and enjoys teaching tap, jazz, lyrical and musical theatre. Miss Coralee has taught dancing for Pure Energy Dance Company for 21 years, opened Leader School of Dance in 1998, taught for the City of Saskatoon, and taught dancing at various schools and community events. Miss Coralee has been awarded many Choreography awards at competitions and her dancers have been very successful at the competitions they have competed in. Miss Coralee has watched many of her young dancers grow into beautifully trained dancers. Pure Energy Dance Co. has had many dancers travel to Professional dance schools abroad to further their dance training.
Growing up Miss Coralee always enjoyed spending time at the dance studio and spent many evenings growing up watching and learning from the older dancers and helping with the younger dancers. At a very early age Miss Coralee knew that she loved teaching children and that led her to attend the University of Saskatchewan and complete her Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) degree and recently her Master’s in Education. Miss Coralee has been a teacher for the past sixteen years and currently teaches for the Saskatoon Public School Board. She was the founding teacher of the Dance Academy for six years at Centennial Collegiate. Her dance teams were very successful winning competitions throughout Saskatchewan and Alberta as well as winning City and Provincials Championship titles over the years. Her dance background afforded her the opportunity to be the first person in Saskatoon to teach dance classes as a credit at a high school.
Miss Coralee is happily married with two young wonderful children and has been blessed with a life full of dance. She loves to interact with children and always tries to pass on her passion of dance to other inspiring dancers. Coralee is full of energy and her classes are fun, positive and encouraging for all of her students.
Sherry Ottey
There is not much to say about Sherry Ottey, other than she is an original – a studio original that is. Sherry’s dance career began in 1976 when her mother physically dragged her down the stairs into Miss Donna’s basement kicking, screaming and crying. It is now almost 40 years later and as they say, the rest is history.
Sherry danced under the direction of Miss Donna and started assisting with tap and jazz classes at a young age. Eventually Sherry went on to choreograph and teach the younger children and teens, some of which are now parents of students, still students, and even teachers at Pure Energy.
You name it and Sherry, along with Donna has probably done it – the stories are too numerous to tell, but there has never been a dull moment. Although Sherry has moved on to mainly teach advanced adult classes, she still does some competition choreography for the studio’s children and teens.
Sherry loves the use of dance as a creative outlet and appreciates the second family that Pure Energy has become. Sherry is so proud to be part of the studio’s growth, successes, history and bright future!
Laeticia Schoenfeld
Dance adjudicator and highly knowledgeable Ballet Director, Miss Laeticia is sought out to educate dancers throughout Canada. Over the years, she has taught and educated dancers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and most recently in Toronto. She is an award – winning choreographer with over 25 years’ experience in the dance industry. She has her Registered Teaching Status and Certificates from both the RAD (Royal Academy of Dance) for Ballet and ADAPT (Associated Dance Arts for Professional Teachers) for Jazz and Tap. She is also an active member of the Professional Adjudicator’s Alliance.
She has trained thousands of students to take part in their yearly R.A.D Graded and Vocational exams, and many through their “ADAPT” Jazz and Tap exams. Every few months, she continues her training by attending classes/courses/seminars throughout North America in all disciplines of dance. She prides herself having learnt and taken classes from some of the leading professionals in the dance world. She has taken professional Development Classes for higher education whether it be in Art History, Music in the classroom, Conditioning classes or Pedagogy. Her credits include The Musical ”Scrooge”, “The Nutcracker”, as a guest student dancer, “Yevshan Folk Ballet Dance Ensemble” as a semi-professional dancer, and “Dance for the Camera”, cast to work in collaboration with film makers in BC to make several promotional DVD’s, (many have been played at various film festivals and have won several awards).
Along with her expertise in the studio setting, Miss Laeticia also guest choreographs for local high schools, elementary schools, at various Summer Intensives and local dance events. Due to her interdisciplinary skills, she has choreographed, and taught countless classes and dance pieces in the genres of Contemporary, Lyrical, Jazz and Jazz Funk at various guest competitive studios.
Her students have performed in industrial events, music videos and in half time shows for both the “Raptors” and “Harlem Globetrotters”. Many have gone on to train at the “Source Dance Company”, on various cruise ships, “GOH BALLET” Summer School Programs, “RWB Ballet and “National School of Ballet “full year, and Summer Intensive Programs and many more!!! 😉
Laeticia believes in training students to love and appreciate the art of dancing whether they are recreational dancers or aspire to be professional ones. She believes in discipline, respect and hard work. She thoroughly enjoys helping her students reach their maximum potential. She is thrilled to teach another dance season at Pure Energy Dance Co.
Jenna Cote
Miss Jenna is excited to be teaching Tap and Jazz with PEDC this year!
Madison Neu
Miss Madison is excited to be teaching Jazz and Tap with PEDC this year!
Millie Jamieson
Millie started dancing at the age of 4 when living in Brunei Darussalam and has loved it ever since. There, she was introduced to the performative and technical challenges of ballet while training under the RAD syllabus. After her family moved back to Canada, Millie continued her ballet studies and she completed her RAD Advanced II exam, earning her ARAD designation.
She has also competed at various competitions with ballet groups and solos and has won awards and scholarships. Along with that, she has performed in The Nutcracker with several companies, in Saskatoon’s FolkFest, and has taken part in a number of workshops put on by Dance Saskatchewan and Goh Ballet among others. Once she started assisting ballet classes at age 15, she realized that she wanted to incorporate teaching into her life. Millie was given the opportunity to teach her own classes and thoroughly enjoyed both teaching and choreographing.
Millie has always been involved in many different sports and activities, earning MVP awards in volleyball, curling, badminton, and track and field throughout high school, and competed at Legion Nationals in high jump. Physical fitness and development is very important in her life, which is another reason why she wants to help others reach their personal goals in dancing.
In addition to teaching Ballet at Pure Energy Dance Co., Millie is also studying at the University of Saskatchewan at the College of Engineering.
She is looking forward to making connections with her students and their parents and passing on her love of dance. She is grateful that Pure Energy has welcomed her with such open arms.
Jill Klassen
Miss Jill started dancing at the age of 3 in Prince Albert, SK at the Performing Arts Warehouse. With over 17 years of dance experience and 5 years of teaching, Jill is very excited to be joining the Pure Energy team. Miss Jill has completed all of the RAD ballet exams, as well as her CDTA jazz exams, earning honours on her advanced jazz. She also has a love for acro, and is an Acrobatic Arts certified teacher. Miss Jill loves to explore new opportunities in the dance world, and has taken classes in New York and Los Angeles. She has performed in Disneyland and Disney World, on top of competing in local competitions and workshops for the majority of her time as a dancer. As an instructor, Miss Jill has attended several competitions with her students, earning some choreography awards along the way. Miss Jill is currently in her 4th year of a commerce degree at the University of Saskatchewan, with plans to attend law school in the future. She is very passionate about teaching and is thrilled to continue exploring her love of dance at Pure Energy Dance Co.
Senyo Akakpo
Senyo Akakpo is a professional dancer, teacher and choreographer born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. He has worked and studied in multiple styles of dance like contemporary and modern movement, but specializes in the knowledge, history and techniques of hip-hop and other urban dance styles. Working with all ages and levels, Senyo has choreographed and taught to children and adults over the last 5 years, but has been apart of the professional dance industry for over 10 years and is a member and contributor to the Professional Adjudicators Alliance. To bring knowledge and expertise to studios, he has studied hip hop culture and dance all over North America, as well as obtained a degree from Ryerson University in psychology, human biology and biophysics. His choreography has been featured in festivals like the Juno’s and Culture Shock in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Senyo has taught for many companies like Dark Dance, Army of Sass, City Dance Corp, The Travelling Artist, Culture Shock Toronto, as well as being enlisted as the chosen representative of Canada by the Cuban government to teach hip hop at the Teade dance Festival in 2019. His knowledge and skill has allowed him the opportunity to work as a dancer for Feist, Jakhoy, the Arkells and organizations like the CFL’s Argonauts and Tigercats, and the Pan Am Games. His work as a dancer choreographer and teacher has allowed him to travel to places all across North America and South America and his work in Saskatchewan has been to build up the Hip-Hop dance community, by working with others to host events, battles and provide paid professional opportunities for local emerging and established artists in the province. Senyo Akakpo is so grateful for every opportunity to work with aspiring dancers and to share his knowledge!
Leah Thieman
Miss Leah began dancing at the age of 8 at Pure Energy Dance Co. She successfully completed several R.A.D and A.D.A.P.T exams over the course of her dancing career. She has attended numerous dance conventions, workshops and competitions, while studying many disciplines of dance. Miss Leah has won several awards at dance competitions, mostly for her lyrical solos.
Although she has taken many classes, Miss Leah is most passionate about ballet and lyrical. In 2011, she danced with the White Birch Ballet Company as an apprentice. Having completed her Advanced I ballet exam, Miss Leah is highly experienced in ballet and her extensive training has opened up many doors for her. In 2013, she choreographed and performed her own lyrical solo as tribute to her family member.
Her teaching career began by assisting classes alongside her teachers in 2005, at the age of 13. By 2009, she began teaching classes on her own. Having grown up at Pure Energy, she can’t see a day where she wouldn’t teach or dance with her dance family. Miss Leah thrives in the studio and is a dancer by nature. Just like the words tattooed on her skin, “Live Love Dance” is the motto she follows!