Telli Luneack
Adult Ballet, sub for many classes

Telli is a full time school Social Worker for the Gratiot County school district (RESD). She grew up in Breckenridge and has danced most of her life! She began with the Linda Lee Dance Studio in Alma, and while attending Oakland University in Pontiac she danced with Oakland Dance Theater. She received her Masters in Social Work at MSU, and while there performed with the Lansing Lyric Opera. Telli has been a Jazzercize instructor since 1990, studied and taught at APA since 1999, and is a very involved actress, singer, dancer, choreographer with the Gratiot County Players community theater in Alma.

Tara Roberts
Ballet, Lyrical Jazz, Jazz, Creative Movement
Tara's website

Tara is another Breckenridge native, and has been dancing since the age of three! She studied at the Academy of Performing Arts for seven years. While under the direction of Kathy Francis, Tara studied ballet, tap, jazz, and pointe, and was involved with the Francis Performing Arts Company. She was also an assistant teacher to Kathy and Michelle Lucchesi for five years. A 2005 graduate of Breckenridge High School, and a 2009 graduate of Alma College with a major in dance.Tara has been an APA instructor since the fall of 2005. She is also a certified Zumba instructor.

Judi Swartz
Tap, Adult Tap, Ballroom

Judi Swartz holds BS and MA degrees in education.  She has been a dance instructor for tap and ballroom at Vision Studio of Performing Arts in Mt. Pleasant since 1997 and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Alma since 2002.  She has been the choreographer for six shows with Gratiot County Players.  She enjoys attending dance workshops and classes to learn new combinations and technique.

Judi retired in 2007 from Mt Pleasant Public Schools after 34 years in education.  She is currently a graduate student in Health Fitness at CMU.  Judi has been an aerobics instructor at Wellness Central Fitness since 2002, and also an aerobics instructor at Nimkee Fitness Center, and a group exercise instructor at Morey Courts.

She is certified in a variety of fitness forms:  Personal Trainer through Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA); Primary Group Exercise and Kickboxing from AFAA; Examiner for AFAA, adjudicating practical exams for new aerobics instructors; Turbo Kick and PiYo from Powder Blue Productions; Muscular Strength and Range of Motion, and Cardio Circuit and Yoga Stretch for the Silver Sneakers Program; Zumba and Zumba Toning.

Judi is also a national presenter for Zoo-phonics Inc., doing trainings for teachers of pre-school and early elementary students. As you can see, she is a ‘life long learner‘as well!

Kristen Bennett
Jazz V & VI, Creative Movement, Contemp., Kindergym, Hip Hop

Kristen Bennett graduated from Grand Valley State University with a B.A. in English Language and Literature with a minor in dance. During her years at Grand Valley she choreographed and danced with Grand Valley's Dance Troupe. In 2006, two of her pieces were featured in Ann Arbor Civic Ballet's Emerging Choreographers Showcase. She taught at Superior Dance Academy in Marquette, and has returned to her hometown of Mt. Pleasant and is excited to be teaching again. She was a student at the Academy of Performing Arts all through high school, and is happy to find herself part of such a dance family. She teaches at Alma College as well as Vision in Mt. Pleasant. She is also certified in Zumba. She looks forward to another year sharing her love of dance with the students.

Nic Gareiss
Tap V, Tap VI, Clogging

Nic Gareiss' dancing incorporates footwork vocabulary from many step dance styles to rhythmically accompany traditional music. Nic has studied a broad variety of percussive movement forms, focusing primarily on the dance traditions associated with North American fiddle tunes. In his teens, Gareiss received dual scholarships from the Wheatland Music Organization and the Augusta Heritage Center to apprentice with the internationally recognized company, Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble. Through high school, Gareiss performed with Footworks, including an ensemble role in "The Crossing," their production with Grammy-winning songwriter Tim O'Brien. During that period, at the tender age of sixteen, he took second place at the 2003 Clifftop Flat-footing contest in the 15-49 age group. From his wide berth of traditional dance experience, Nic has gleaned figurations, motives and shoe sounds from percussive dance traditions worldwide. This becomes most evident when he is performing with a live musician, engaging in a musical dialogue between feet and instrument. Using imitation, ornaments and contrasting rhythmic patterns, Gareiss really is creating music on the floor. With the David Munnelly Band, Nic integrates Irish dance traditions with American tap dance, exploring the reaction of Irish immigrants to the infectious spirit of jazz they encountered in the 1920s as they settled in the United States. Nic has danced at the Milwaukee Irish Festival, Virginia's Wolf Trap Farm Park, the Ann Arbor Ark, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and most recently at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Scotland. He has performed as a featured soloist with Solas, Dervish, Le Vent Du Nord and the Chieftains and has also taught at Alasdair Fraser's Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle Camp in northern California. In 2007, Nic spent a year studying traditional Irish music and dance performance at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in Limerick, Ireland. During that period he studied sean-nós and Cape Breton step dance with Mats Melin as well as Irish dancing and choreography with Orflaif Ni Bhriain, T.C.R.G, A.D.C.R.G. He also had the opportunity to take master classes and workshops from contemporary Irish dancer Colin Dunne, tap dancer Tarik Winston and sean-nós dancer Joe Néachtain.

Central Michigan University; Bachelor of Sciences in Anthropology, Minor in Music; Recipient of CMU Undergraduate Research Presentation Grant to present on American clogging at North Atlantic Fiddle Convention in Aberdeen, Scotland, 2010; Collective for Music Research & Cultural Studies Executive Board Member 2009-10; CMU vocal music award 2005-06; CMU Student Research & Creative Endeavors Exhibition, 2010; Recipient of 4 Elyce Fishman Scholarships from Wheatland Music Organization 2001, ‘04, ‘05, ‘07; Performance engagements in France, Belgium, Ireland, Australia, 2005-10; Employee of CMU Public Broadcasting, 4 yrs. 

He plans to pursue a graduate degree in Ethnochoreology, the study
of dance in its cultural context, commencing fall 2010 at University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland. 

Nic on YouTube...

Michelle Lucchesi
Folk Dance, Modern

Michelle has been involved at APA since 1997, teaching Creative Movement, Contemporary, Musical Theater, Multicultural Folk Dance and Modern Improvisation. Her training and experience is a wide variety of dance, music, voice, choreography, theater, writing, including Inside Out Music and Dance of Midland, Michigan from 1992 to 1997, New Kids on the Rock from 1987 to 2002, Northeast Michigan Art Council's summer performing art camp since 1996, Spirit Wings Liturgical Dance 1998-2000. She also has been involved in musical productions through the church and community theater, including, writing, directing, choreography and performing since 1981. Michelle holds a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology and is active as a Limited Licensed Psychologist in our community. Her belief in the idea of peace through balance in life can be seen at her website www.whollyhuman.com.

Michael C. Sheldon
Stage Combat

Michael C. Sheldon has been involved in theater since the age of 13, starting out at the Avondale Players in his hometown of Auburn Hills, MI. He received his BS in Technical Theater from Northern Michigan University and then on to get his MFA in Stage Management/ Shakespearean Production from the University of Alabama. He has worked in theater his entire life with such companies as Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Seaside Music Theater, and Ensemble Theater
of Chattanooga. A member of Actor's Equity and the Society of American Fight Directors, he has been involved in Stage Combat since high school, studying with many teachers and forms. He has taught classes at Avondale High School, Alma College, Chattanooga Stage Community College, and Seabreeze High School. Currently, Michael is the Heritage Center Building Coordinator and Technical Director for Alma College.