Ruth Kestenbaum

Ruth has been dancing since she was 3 years old and trained in ballet, tap and modern jazz at the Rollo Academy in Nottingham until she was 16 when she turned her love to street dance and began her training at Hoofers Studio.

She studied dance in London alongside her drama degree and started teaching children in schools and youth projects as part time jobs to fund her university education.

Ruth started dancing professionally in 2000 and in her twenties worked in and around the UK as a backing dancer as well as spending a year working for Latinas dance company in Australia and two stints working as a performer in Ibiza.

Amongst other artists, she has worked with Craig David; Faithless; Brian Adams; Chaka Khan; Shola Ama and Dane Bowers

Ruth’s passion has always been in teaching dance and working with young people and after performing for 12 years, she focused her energies towards building a teaching career in dance.

As well as a BA in Drama and Dance and two post grad dance diplomas, she also won the John Dilworth Scholarship Award in 2010 and achieved recognition by the IDTA as having exceptional standards of teaching.

After spending 10 years running dance programs, teaching in schools, and leading various dance projects such as Urban Academy in Hampton, Ruth founded Ealing Street Dance Academy in 2011.

She is also Head of Dance at St Benedict’s school, Ealing.