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Ariane Dolan

5/4/2017

 
Picture
Jazz
Swing

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.

Richard Strimer

5/3/2017

 
Richard Strimer
Tap
Swing
​Musical  Theatre
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  theaters 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.

Nic Gareiss

5/2/2017

 
Nic Gareiss
Dance the Tune
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 an MA in ethnochoreology at the University of Limerick.

Abby Ladin

5/1/2017

 
Abby Ladin
Clogging
Abby Ladin grew up in the East Coast traditional folk music revival of the 1970s. As a dancer Abby was clogging by the age of 6, performing with her sister Evie by age 10, and touring nationally at 18 with the dance and music company Rhythm In Shoes (RIS). Abby has collaborated with musician and composer Malcolm Dalglish in The Welcome Table, a midwinter spectacle including original dance, music and choral arrangements of poems by Wendell Berry. In 2013 Abby joined a cast of percussive dance all-stars for Carry It On, a film and performance project celebrating the Wheatland Music Organization’s 40th anniversary festival in Remus, Michigan. Abby plays stand-up bass and sings harmony vocals in White Mule, founded by the late Garry Harrison, with whom she recorded the legendary  Red Prairie Dawn album in 2000.  She and husband Sam Bartlett reinforce the rhythm section of The Hogwire Stringband with master fiddler, Brad Leftwich.  Abby lives in Bloomington, Indiana with Sam and their three hilarious kids.

Ericka Goss

4/30/2017

 
Ericka Goss
Ballet
Pre Pointe

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 several previous workshops for the Academy of  Performing Arts.

Kristen Bennett

4/29/2017

 
Kristin Bennett
Hip Hop
Modern

Kristen Bennett has been teaching dance in Michigan for over 11 years. She grew up in central Michigan and started dancing when she was in the fifth grade and hasn’t stopped. Her early training was in jazz and rhythm-based dance forms. Kristen continues to practice and teach many different styles of dance including jazz, tap, ballet, modern, hip-hop, musical theatre and social dance. Kristen earned her B.A. in Dance and English from Grand Valley State University, after which she spent time teaching at various dance studios in Grand Rapids, Marquette, Mt. Pleasant, and Alma.

​Currently entering her ninth year of teaching dance at Alma College, she is also the recruitment coordinator for the Theatre and Dance Department. Kristen frequently collaborates with percussive dancers and live musicians, researching what happens when different styles of dance find common ground in the rhythms they create together. Most recently, she taught a master class and presented her work at the American College Dance Association Festival. Kristen is also the co-Artistic Director of Third Coast Dance Company, a modern dance company founded in March 2016. She has had the opportunity to teach across the U.S. and internationally and looks forward to continuing her work in mid-Michigan.

Emily Doebler

4/28/2017

 
Emily Doebler
Tap
Emily Doebler,   from Bellaire,  attends CMU. She started studying dance at Concord Academy Antrim (now North Central Academy) in Bellaire with Jeannine Sladick, and was a part of a dance ensemble called  Dance Attack!  who performed all over Northern Michigan as well as at Wheatland Festival. Emily has been mentored and taught by dancers including Nic Gareiss, Sheila Graziano, Daniel Gorno, Caleb Teicher, Joe Duffey, and many more. Most recently she was involved in the  Carry it On...  Project presented at the 40th annual Wheatland Festival. She was involved with five Sharon Leahy pieces during the summer of 2013! In addition to clogging, Emily also does other types of percussive dance including Irish Step, tap, and flatfooting. She is also very committed to acting, music, photography, and her academic education.

    ​Summer
    DanceFest
    2017

    instructor bios

    Ariane Dolan
    ​
    Richard Strimer
    ​Nic Gareiss
    Abby  Ladin
    Ericka Goss
    ​Kristen Bennett
    Emily Doebler
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