Ariane Dolan has been on the faculty of Lou Conte Dance Studio since  1996. She is a favorite teacher of APA dancers who visit LCDS! She began  her training at the Academy of Movement & Music in Oak Park and began  classes at LCDS in 1981. In 1983 she joined Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance  Theatre, with whom she performed until 1994, afterward joining the  faculty, teaching ballet & Graham technique. Currently, she is a music  theatre performer and has appeared in several musicals throughout the  country and has worked in the Chicago area at the Mariott Lincolnshire  Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Drury Lane Evergreen Park, and the  Candlelight Dinner Playhouse. She has a BA in theatre from Roosevelt  University. Ariane has choreographed for multiple shows at Drury Lane Theatre  and Don’t Dress for Dinner at the Royal George Theatre. Ariane received  the Ari Zoni Award for best performance in a musical in 1997. Her film/TV  credits include Save the Last Dance (Julia Stile’s ballet double) and PBS’s  Love in Four Acts.

Ericka Goss began dancing at Bohaty’s School of Dance in Michigan and was also a member of the Children’s Ballet Theatre of Michigan. She later became a member of the senior trainee division of the Grand Rapids Ballet, the only professional ballet company in Michigan, working under Laura Schwenk-Berman and Gordon Pierce-Schmidt. Accepted into Pacific Northwest, Boston Ballet, and Joffrey Midwest summer intensives, she attended Joffrey on scholarship. After four years in Grand Rapids, Ericka was accepted into Atlanta Ballet’s Pre-Professional Division on full scholarship.  Promoted to the  company as a Fellowship dancer, she danced as a Fellowship for two  years under Sharon Story and John McFall. In the summer of 2011 she  attended the LINES Ballet Summer Intensive in San Francisco under  full scholarship.   She  is in her second season with the St. Louis Ballet and has danced soloist   roles in Gen Horiuchi’s Vivaldi Concerto and Cinderella. She also teaches   in the Saint Louis Ballet School.

Ericka taught for the Atlanta Ballet for 3  years from babies to the pre-professional division and adult classes.  Prior to that, she ran her own studio for 5 years with 40 students.  She has taught in five previous workshops for the Academy of  Performing Arts.

Michigan-born dancer, musician, and dance researcher Nic Gareiss has been described by the Irish Times as “the human epitome of the unbearable lightness of being,” and “the most inventive and expressive step dancer on the scene” by the Boston Herald. His choreographic work re-imagines movement as a musical activity, recasting dance as medium that appeals to both eyes and ears. Gareiss draws from many percussive dance traditions to weave together a dance technique facilitating his love of improvisation, traditional footwork vocabulary, and musical collaboration. He has performed with many of the luminaries of contemporary traditional music and dance, including The Chieftains, The Gloaming, Darol Anger, Dervish, Buille, Liz Carroll, Genticorum, Bill Frisell, Step Afrika!, Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, Rhythm in Shoes, Bruce Molsky, Alasdair Fraser, and Martin Hayes.

In 2011 Gareiss was commissioned by the Cork Opera House to create and perform two new solo percussive dance pieces to celebrate the 75th birthday of composer Steve Reich. In 2013, he served as community liaison for the Wheatland Music Organization's 40th Anniversary production  Carry it on..., supervising a cast of 70 non-professional dancers from the state of Michigan. He received a Traditional Arts Commission from the Irish Arts Council to create a new duo fiddle and dance work with Caoimhín Ó Raghalliah. The resulting piece,  MICE WILL PLAY  had a sell-out run at the Project Arts Centre during the 2013 Dublin Fringe Festival.

Gareiss has concertized in Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Scotland, England, Canada, and New Zealand and continues to tour and teach internationally, working with dance communities and presenting solo percussive dance choreography.

Nic holds degrees in anthropology and music from Central Michigan University and recently completed his MA in ethnochoreology at the University of Limerick.

Mariel Vandersteel   grew up in the redwoods of California, attending weekly Irish sessions and Alasdair Fraser’s Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle School. It was there that she first heard the hardanger fiddle, the folk instrument of Norway. After graduating from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Violin Performance, Mariel moved to a tiny town in Norway where she studied folk music at Høgskolen i Telemark. Combining her love of Norwegian and old-time fiddle music, Mariel recorded an album, Hickory, in 2012 that received rave reviews. In January-March 2014, Mariel traveled with Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh and India through the US State Department's cultural program, American Music Abroad. Acting as musical ambassadors, the Dance Cards performed at schools, women's colleges, American Embassies and Ambassadors residencies and exchanged music with local musicians. Mariel currently lives in Boston and performs with Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards, teaches fiddle and studies graphic design.

Richard Strimer grew up in Trenton, Michigan and graduated high  school with a desire to pursue a career in acting. He attended  Michigan State University on an acting scholarship and graduated  four years later with a BA in Theatre with an emphasis in dance.  Following graduation, Richard moved to Chicago and began his  performing career and also began his path of teaching tap at  Columbia College. Richard has had the opportunity to work in  theatres throughout the Chicagoland area including: Candlelight  Dinner Theatre, Drury Lane Evergreen Park, Theatre at the Center,  Drury Lane Oakbrook and Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire.  Regionally Richard has worked at Carousel Dinner Theatre in Ohio  and Fulton Theatre in Pennsylvania. Richard’s career has spanned  over fifty mainstage productions ranging from ensemble to  lead. Standout roles include: Bobby Child in Crazy for You (Joseph  Jefferson Award Nomination), Cosmo Brown in Singin’ in the Rain  (Joseph Jefferson Award Best Supporting Actor in a Musical),  Action in West Side Story and Bill Calhoun in Kiss Me Kate.

Caleb Teicher   is a performer, choreographer, and teacher based in NYC. A 2011 Bessie Award winner for Outstanding Individual Performance, favorite credits include Dorrance Dance, The Chase Brock Experience, West Side Story (Int'l Tour), and Irma La Douce (City Center Encores). Caleb's choreography has been presented at many venues in/around New York City, and his work was commissioned in 2013 by Chicago Tap Theater. He is also currently an Artist in Residence at the American Tap Dance Foundation.

Caleb has taught tap and theater dance at Broadway Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, and Cap 21's Musical Theater Conservatory as well as numerous festivals. He made his first appearance at APA Summer Dance Fest in 2013, and he is thrilled  to be returning!

A native of Indianapolis, Simone is an alum of Alma College where she  earned her B.A. in English and Dance.  She currently lives in Orlando, where she dances professionally with Surfscape Contemporary Dance Theatre and also teaches and choreographs throughout central Florida. As a member of the Alma College Dance Company, she was  featured in such pieces as Vespri Siciliana, Waiting for the Sun, Les Sylphides, and Paquita.  Prior to  attending Alma College, Simone trained with Evansville Dance Theater, Ballet Internationale, Nutmeg Ballet,  North Carolina Dance Theatre, Virginia School of the Arts, Burklyn Ballet Theatre, Jordan College Academy  of Dance, and Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre. She was a participant in the Youth America Grand Prix  Nationals and Gala performance in 2005, and has toured nationally and internationally including to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, as part of the cultural exchange performance  Rendezvous with Tainan University of Technology in Taiwan, and to London for performances at Sadler’s Wells with SCDT. Simone has appeared in such professional  productions as The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Superhero, The Scarlet Letter, Romeo and Juliet at the Disco, American Classics, A Midautumn Night’s Dream, London Calling, and Decade  and has had the opportunity to work with a number of professional  companies including Ballet Internationale and Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre. In addition to teaching  dance, Simone runs an independent portrait/wedding photography business and is a certified Barre3 instructor.  

A native of Grand Rapids, J.P. Krick spends some of his time in Los Angeles, where he teaches at Retter’s Academy of Dance under the direction of  Darryl and Linda Retter. J.P. has traveled the United States with Dance Makers Inc., a national dance convention serving all ages and levels of  dance. Specializing in tap, jazz~funk and hip-hop, his classes are always a  crowd favorite leaving everyone energized and ready for more. He has also  been commissioned to teach for the respected Dance Masters of America.

J.P.’s choreography has won countless awards, thus making him a hot  commodity and sought-after teacher/choreographer. Samuel E. Wright selected him personally to perform selections from The Little Mermaid  during a summer Broadway touring event. He was also part of a tap  production called Caution Men At Work: Tap that toured in China.

Kristen Bennett is a 2007 graduate of Grand Valley State with a BA in English  language and literature with a minor in dance. She has been fortunate since  returning to her hometown to have numerous avenues to choreograph and  teach. These include teaching jazz, tap, modern and beginning ballet at  Alma College; jazz, modern lyrical, creative movement, and hip hop here at  APA; and choreographing Mt Pleasant High School productions of Oklahoma!   (2009), Cats (2010), Bye Bye Birdie (2011), Singin’ in the Rain (2012), Music Man (2013), and Footloose (2014). She was a featured performer with Nic Gareiss & Friends at the 2010 Wheatland Music Festival, and taught with  Surfscape Contemporary Dance Theater 2011 summer intensive in Florida. She accompanied  Alma College Dance Company to Tainan University of Technology,  Taiwan as part of their cultural exchange with their dance department where  she taught, choreographed, and performed. Kristen continues  to travel throughout the U.S. and internationally to teach and share  her choreography.