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Amy Bodnar
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Irene Beausoleil |
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Amy has been dancing for over 20 years. She started her dance training in Las Vegas, Nevada with the Silver Doll Dancers at age 5, and continued her training throughout high school, college, and beyond at Culture Shock Dance Center, Academy of Performing Arts, and Westlake Dance Center. Amy has studied hip hop, jazz, contemporary, ballet, cheer, and tap, and started competing at the age of 6. During her time in San Diego she was a member of hip hop dance companies Funkanometry San Diego and PGN Dance Company.
Amy graduated from the University of San Diego (USD) with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accountancy. At USD, she was a 4-year member of the Dance Team, began choreographing her second year on the team, and served as Captain during her junior and senior year. She came on as the Assistant Coach after graduation and was later named Head Coach. She has taught dance since she was 16 years old, and has spent the last decade pursuing her dream and teaching/coaching dance full time to students of all ages and styles. Amy took over as Director of Dance Elite in May 2015, and came on as the new owner in May 2017. Amy is excited to continue to build a sense of family and community at the studio and bring dance/music education to all our students. |
The Greater Chicagoland Area may be where she started, but Irene Beausoleil now calls the Pacific Northwest home. Classical Vaganova ballet technique, Irish Step Dancing and Musical theater came as part of her early dance training, alongside orchestral and folk music traditions. She traveled to Seattle to attend Cornish College of the Arts and graduated with a BFA in Dance in 2012. Immediately after, Irene co-published a dance photography essay, Moments of Truth, and performed in several local festivals.
Irene most recently completed her certification as a Yoga instructor through the 8 Limbs program in Seattle. Irene began her journey in yoga as a student in 2011 under the guidance of Ellen Boyle as part of her undergraduate training in Dance at Cornish College of the Arts. Despite injuries and challenges with recurring pain management, the practice of moving with an open heart and mindful spirit quickly became a refuge as she worked toward graduation and transitioned into full time employment. An opportunity to deepen her practice came around in 2017 when she started training to become a teacher through the 8 Limbs 200 RYT program. |
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Kristin Beima-Sofie |
Chessa Chalmers |
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Bio - coming soon
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Chessa began her dance training at Pacific Northwest Ballet, before leaving to study with a private instructor. After several years, she moved to study with Mara Vinson and Oleg Gorbulev at Olympic Ballet Theatre, where she placed in Classical and Contemporary sections at the semifinals of Youth America Grand Prix. She has been awarded scholarships to and attended programs at Ballet Chicago, Oklahoma City Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and VIVO Ballet (Rome, Italy) among others.
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Tyler Duncan |
Leah FadenrechtLeah, originally from the Snohomish area, received most of her training right here at Dance Elite. She was involved with assisting children’s classes and competing around the Pacific Northwest with the Amplify Competition Dance Team. Leah graduated from Central Washington University with degrees in Dance, Film Production Management and History. While attending school she was also a member of the CWU Dance Team and Orchesis Dance Company, where she had opportunities to work with the Khambatta Dance Company, Tacoma Dance Collective, Portland Ballet, and Freddie-Lee Heath, National Dance Educator 2010.
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Valerie JuguilonVal specializes in hip-hop, jazz and musical theatre. In her hometown of San Diego, Val didn’t pursue formal dance training until age 16. Soon after, she became a scholarship student at Dance & Company, where she met Miss Amy! Val became a hip-hop and musical theatre instructor during her 10 years there. She attended UC San Diego, where she competed on the Ascension Dance Team and internationally recognized hip-hop team, 220 Second to None. Val also trained at Culture Shock San Diego, Studio 429, StudioFX and Millennium Dance Complex, where she continues to train when in the area.
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Nikki MoshinskyNikki began her dance journey here in the Pacific Northwest, training extensively in classical ballet from primary ballerina to professional with Olympic Ballet Theatre. She performed corps de ballet and soloist roles throughout the years in productions of The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Copellia, The Sleeping Beauty and Giselle.
She spent numerous summers at Intensive Programs around the U.S. such as Cornish College of the Arts, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and Oklahoma City Ballet. Nikki also received training with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s Pre Professional Division where she performed alongside the company in theatre productions and continued to expand her classical background with renowned faculty in ballet, modern, and choreography. Nikki strives to share her passion with the next generations of inspired artists. She dances, teaches, and choreographs classical and contemporary styles around the greater Seattle area and looks forward to coaching, creating, and being a part of the Dance Elite Family. |
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Lauren Reins |
Casey Younger |
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Lauren Reins is a dance educator, choreographer and the founder of Motivation in Movement, a mindset training program, and wellness coaching practice for dancers. She has been a dancer for over 30 years. She grew up in Portland, OR where she trained at various studios in jazz, ballet, lyrical, contemporary and hip hop. When she was 18 she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in dance. She graduated from The Edge Performing Arts scholarship program, and went on to dance professionally for a decade doing various television, film, stage, and commercial dance jobs. She then went on to get her Bachelor's degree in Psychology, as she started her teaching and choreography career. She has been teaching and choreographing now for over a decade. She also became a certified wellness and enneagram coach, and opened Motivation in Movement.
Her mission is to connect with as many dancers as possible through the art of dance, mindset training and self exploration practices. To co-create a space where vulnerability is celebrated, and therefore unlocks authentic performance onstage and in life. To help each dancer embrace their own story, and ultimately find confidence in who they are as humans. “My hope is that through training the whole dancer, body, heart, and mind, they are able to experience the love, light, and unique artistic self expression that dance has to offer. |
Casey grew up dancing from ages 4 to 18 in the Seattle area, training in tap, jazz, ballet, modern, and hip-hop. She competed in several dance convention competitions during that time, taking home multiple trophies in tap. At Edmonds-Woodway High School she was on the dance/drill team and served as captain her senior year. While earning her Bachelors in Fine Arts at Washington State University, Casey continued to take tap and jazz classes as she could, while also serving as a varsity athlete for three years on the women’s rowing team (her team took 4th in the nation, Division I, her senior year!). During graduate school in Oxford, England Casey was a member of her university’s dancesport (ballroom dance) team, competing around the country in waltz and quickstep. During this time she also studied jive, Viennese waltz, tango, Argentine tango, and cha-cha. Today Casey continues to hone her skills by taking advanced tap classes whenever possible. Since 2014, she has been an active board member, choreographer, and performer for Charity Dance Project, a volunteer organization that puts on one show each year to raise money for a different cause. Outside of dance, Casey is a full-time graphic designer and software developer. One her favorite activities is traveling – 47 countries and counting so far! Casey’s favorite dance genre has always been tap, and she is so excited to pass on her rhythmic passion at Dance Elite!
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Kate BrewerKate Brewer started her training at five years old with Dance Elite. Since then, she has trained in multiple styles of dance, such as ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, modern, and musical theatre. Kate is currently training at Dance Elite and is excited to teach dance to the next generation of DE dancers.
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