meet the team

rachel kenning

DTLLS, DDE(ISTD), LTA MTC Dip

Meet Rachel: a dynamic, accomplished & experienced dance teacher, choreographer and founder of Tot Bop; a fun, funky and imaginative dance programme for children aged 1-9. Mum of two, she lives with her husband & kiddies in Bedfordshire. Rachel has over 20 years teaching experience to children and adults of all ages and is passionate about inspiring children and making dance accessible to all.

Dance has always played a huge part in Rachel’s life. Rachel was lucky enough to be inspired at an early age by an incredible teacher, setting the stage for a lifetime of dance.

She went on to train for 3 years at the prestigious Laine Theatre Arts, gaining both performing and teaching qualifications, before embarking on a wonderful and fulfilling professional performing career in dance, performing in a variety of musical theatre and jazz dance productions in the UK and worldwide. Rachel then transitioned into professional choreography and eventually teaching.

Rachel’s teaching career began initially with workshops in between performing and choreographic contracts. In 2006, she took a full-time position as a jazz dance teacher on the dance faculty at Tring Park School For The Performing Arts, where she remained for 12 years, teaching jazz and tap to 8-19 year olds. While there, she furthered her teaching qualifications, honed her teaching and choreographic skills and worked among a team of hugely skilled and inspiring, like minded dance professionals, developing additional skills such as management and course writing/development.

When babies made an appearance in Rachel’s life, she decided to use her skills in a different way and developed a programme for younger children that could deliver the fundamentals of dance in a way that inspires a lifelong love of movement, while also giving children the educational building blocks needed to start their dance journey. Tot Bop was born!

Since it’s humble beginnings, Tot Bop has grown to deliver in-person classes to thousands of families, provide classes for educational settings such as nurseries, preschools & schools and is an online resource to parents/carers nationwide.

tia marney

Tia trained at Jackie Palmers Academy and went on to develop her training into the professional performing world, performing on stage, music video and tv/film.

Tia has many years of experience teaching children aged 1-12 years, teaching confidence in social skills through the means of performing arts and dance and finds nothing more rewarding than making a child’s day by filling it with fun and helping them express themselves creatively.

Tia is also a Mummy herself and loves having a boogie at home as well as with the children she entertains!

amy russell

Amy started dancing at the age of 6 learning ballet, tap and jazz. At the age of 11 she moved over to street dance and completely fell in love with it. In her late teens she performed all around the country in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall.

Amy then toured UK Arenas for four years performing at the O2, Manchester arena, Birmingham arena and Sheffield arena in front of 10s of thousands of people each night.  During this time, she was dance captain.

Amy’s passion then became about giving young people the fire for dance and the opportunities she had in her life. She has been a dance teacher now for 7 years focusing on street dance: hip hop, popping, locking, house and breaking.

maddie west

Maddie trained at Arts One School of Performance in Milton Keynes and then went onto MPAA, graduating with a BA Hons degree in Musical Theatre Performance and her ISTD teaching qualifications in modern and tap.

Despite being a young teacher, Maddie is already very experienced in teaching dance and musical theatre to all ages; little ones right up to young adults. She has a real passion for dance and teaching dance to the next generation. She loves seeing her students progress and helping them build confidence and a love for dancing. She is excited to share her passion with you all!

sophie eastop-scopes

Sophie is our ‘go to’ social media guru. With over 15 years experience working across multiple industries in admin, social media and marketing, Sophie supports the Tot Bop team with all things social media and general marketing. She was also hugely integral in the early stages of setting up Tot Bop Online at the beginning of lockdown. We have so much to thank her for and feel hugely fortunate that she is part of our team.