Academy of Performing Arts
989.463.2983
  • home
  • about
    • philosophy
    • history
    • faculty >
      • kathy francis
      • tom glover
      • emily doebler
      • jordan mccarthy
      • carlee zigray gifford
      • kate troxell
      • jennifer shearer
      • telli luneack
    • reviews >
      • from parents...
      • from students...
      • from professionals...
      • from the community...
    • links
  • curriculum
    • class offerings
    • schedule
    • policy
    • visiting week
    • forms
  • company
    • francis performing arts company
    • performances
  • outreach
  • contact

Ariane Dolan

4/20/2018

0 Comments

 
Ariane Dolan
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.
0 Comments

Richard Strimer

4/19/2018

0 Comments

 
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.
0 Comments

Nic Gareiss

4/18/2018

0 Comments

 
Nic Gareiss
Dance the Tune
Michigan-born dancer 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 work re-imagines movement as a musical practice, recasting  dance  as medium that appeals to both eyes and ears. Gareiss draws from many percussive  dance  traditions, weaving together a  dance  technique facilitating his love of improvisation, traditional  dance  footwork vocabulary, and musical collaboration. He has concertized internationally for over ten years with many of  the  luminaries of traditional music, including Frankie Gavin, Dervish, Bill Frisell, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, Phil Wiggins, Buille, Solas, Liz Carroll, Martin Hayes, The  Gloaming and  The  Chieftains. Nic holds a degree in Anthropology from Central Michigan University and an MA in Ethnochoreology from  the University of Limerick. Gareiss' essay, "An Buachaillín Bán   : Reflections on One Queer's Performance within Traditional Irish Music & Dance" appears in  the  book   Meanings and Makings of Queer  Dance    edited by Clare Croft on Oxford University Press.   www.nicgareiss.com

Dance the Tune
Utilizing improvisation, organic movement, and drawing from a myriad of traditional percussive dance styles including Irish step dance, Appalachian flat-footing, and Quebecois gigue, this class explores the sheer musical potential of your feet. Using imitation, idiomatic ornaments as well as extended techniques for shoe sounds and textures, we will learn to construct lines of rhythm imitating melody as well as create rhythmic counterpoint by setting up
shoe-grooves employing contemporary musical sensibility.

 
Video excerpt of Dance the Tune workshop 
0 Comments

Ellie Grace

4/17/2018

0 Comments

 
Ellie Grace
Clogging
Ellie Grace was born into a deep musical tradition and began her life-long love affair with dance at the ripe old age of five when she slipped on her first pair of tiny clogging shoes. She is a powerhouse on the dance floor and a compelling instrumentalist, choreographer, writer, and singer who specializes in percussive dance and roots-based Americana. Ellie has spent her life performing professionally across North America and Europe, first as a young member of her family band and now as a solo artist and a member of multiple collaborative dance companies and bands. Ellie has devoted herself to the art of teaching, continually refining her practices in order to make the art forms that she loves truly accessible to others. In addition to her time on dance faculty at Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of North Carolina, Ellie has directed schools of music and dance in Missouri and North Carolina and had the honor of being a master teacher at camps and festivals across the continent for over twenty years. In the culmination a lifetime of performing and teaching, Ellie received an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from Smith College in May of 2015. Ellie approaches music and dance with a joyful spirit, a driving rhythm in her step, and an undying commitment to using the performing arts as a conduit for human connection and building community.
0 Comments

Ericka Goss

4/16/2018

0 Comments

 
Ericka Goss
Ballet
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.
0 Comments

Leah Seals

4/15/2018

0 Comments

 
Leah Seals
Modern
Tap
Salsa

Leah Seals is currently living in Seattle, Washington training in Modern/Contemporary dance with TONY nominated (The Color Purple) and Bessie Award winning (The Minstrel Show) choreographer Donald Byrd. This is her second year training with Mr. Byrd’s company, Spectrum Dance Theater. She’s excited to visit her home studio for the second time since graduating in 2016!
0 Comments

    ​Summer
    DanceFest
    ​2018

    instructor bios

    Ariane Dolan
    ​
    Richard Strimer
    ​Nic Gareiss
    Ellie Grace
    Ericka Goss
    Leah Seals
© 2021 Francis Academy of Performing Arts