Changes to our Schedule, Teaching Staff, and Calendar
Good evening Studio D families,
We hope that you are enjoying your summer vacation so far! The Studio has been busy with registrations and summer camps, and a lot of exciting additions to classes and staffing for next year.
It is with sadness that we tell you Jeri Kansas will not be teaching at Studio D this coming dance year. We were thrilled to have Jeri with us for over five years, and will miss her talent and professionalism. However, we wanted to let you know that we have a plan in place that we are very excited about, for the two classes she was planning on teaching this year. The classes that Miss Jeri was scheduled to teach, Tap 4, will be taught by Miss Karen Laham who has taught tap and ballet at Studio D for the last two years and for over a decade at the Ridgefield Conservatory in Ridgefield, CT. The Tap 4 class will be offered on Wednesdays from 4-4:45pm. The Theater Dance class will be taught by Miss Shannon McLean and will be offered on Wednesdays from 7-8pm.
We have new teachers this dance season!
We are thrilled to welcome Miss Shannon back after a short break to devote more time to her young children. Miss Shannon began working at Studio D in 2009/ Throughout her life, she has studied dance at a variety of dance studios and trained at Enloe Magnet High School in Raleigh, NC studying Vagonava Ballet and Graham-Modern technique as part of her high school curriculum. She was a member of the Meredith Dance Ensemble in 1994. She began teaching dance in 2003 at Taps n Toes in Brewster NY where she taught and staged pieces in Ballet, Contemporary Jazz, Theater Jazz and Modern. She was a Choreographer and Production Manager for the Prelude Ballet Ensemble from 2005-2009 where she choreographed and staged “Peter and the Wolf”, “The Toy Box” an original story ballet, and several contemporary ballet pieces such as “TUTU”, “Simple Gifts” and “Kaleidoscope.”
Ben Coalter is from Hurricane, West Virginia. He received a BFA from UNC School of the Arts. He danced for internationally-acclaimed Pilobolus Dance Theater for five years, performing and teaching throughout the U.S. and abroad. He continues to dance, choreograph, and teach for Pilobolus. This is Ben’s first year teaching at Studio D.
Jessica Melendez danced at Studio D for 5 years and had additional dance training prior to that in all styles of dance. Jessie was a teaching assistant at Studio D and was a substitute dance teacher for Miss Gina’s Hip Hop classes. While at Studio D, Jessie danced the part of The Mad Hatter in “Alice In Wonderland,” and Tiger Lily in “Neverland in Motion” as well as being a Principal Dancer in Studio D’s D-Tour Dance Company from 2013-2015. Jess was offered a scholarship to dance for Sacred Heart University’s dance company and continued her dance career there. At Sacred Heart, she worked with numerous choreographers and learned various new styles and techniques that she is eager to share with her new students.
Revised Schedule and Calendar Highlights
Attached you will find a revised schedule, dated July 10th. The changes you will find are the date and time of Theater Dance (moved to Wednesday) and Tap 4 (moved to Wednesday). Additionally, the time for our Tap 1 class is now 6:15-7 on Wednesdays. We are no longer offering Stretch, Leap, Turn class or Jazz/Funk on Wednesday nights.
The calendar also has some adjustments, particularly the date of character auditions, the Carnegie Hall performance, as well as the format of the calendar.
Next Registrations
Our next registration is scheduled for Thursday, July 20th from 4-6pm, so if you haven’t had a chance to register yet, or you would like to make changes to your registration, please join us on that day. We changed the date of our August 7th registration and rescheduled this for Wednesday, August 16th, 5-7pm.
As always, please let us know if you have any questions. We are at the Studio throughout the summer and will get back to you as soon as possible.
Best regards, Miss Rebecca and the entire Studio D staff.
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