OUR INSTRUCTORS

Abby has been dancing since she was 2 years old and over the years had developed a great passion for teaching others. Abby has been a student at BSD for almost 10 years, during the last 2 of which she starting teaching. After graduating has been attending Paul Mitchell school of cosmetology and continuing her passion for teaching dance. Abby has taken every class available to her with her favorites being lyrical and hip hop. Abby says that she had some great teachers help her along the way and she hopes to make an impact in your dancers journey as they did for her.

Cori started tap dancing when she was 8 years old. She absolutely loved it and continued dancing through her senior year of high school, learning jazz as well as continuing in tap. Her favorite performance memory was doing the Can Can in her recitals each year. When Cori was working at her first job post-college she pursued an adult tap class and continued to dance until she had kids. When her daughter, Haley, decided to pursue dance in 2018, Cori signed up for adult tap again at BSD and she has been in the advanced class ever since. This will be her second year teaching the advanced adult class and looks forward to sharing her love of tap with other adults! Cori is married and has a daughter and two sons. She also volunteers as Treasurer for the Portage Northern PTSO board and the Portage Northern Baseball Boosters.

Emily is 19 years old and attending WMU majoring in dance. Emily has been dancing for 13 years now. At the studio she attended growing up she spent a lot of time assisting and demonstrating in classes for younger dancers. Emily really enjoyed her time assisting in the studio. Although Emily is trained in a variety of styles, ballet and contemporary have always been her favorites. Emily is excited to to be able to share her passion for dancer with a new group of students.

Emily completed her B.F.A. in Dance at Western Michigan University in Spring 2022. Before entering WMU’s Dance Program, Emily danced at Michigan Ballet Academy and Body Language Dance Company where she trained in Ballet, Pointe, Variations, Pas de Deux, Jazz, Modern, Lyrical, Contemporary, Hip-Hop, and Tap. She also attended multiple summer intensives such as the American Ballet Theater Intensive, Visceral Dance Chicago Intensive, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Pre-Professional Intensive, New York University Tisch Summer Dance Residency, Francisco Gella Dance Works Seattle Dance Advance Intensive, and Peridance Blueprint Intensive. She also completed the Gibney Professional Training Certificate Program. Emily teaches ballet, jazz, contemporary, and hip-hop. Currently, Emily is a part of an up-and-coming contemporary dance company called Currents Dance Theater and a hip-hop collective called DancespireFam.

Emily grew up dancing in the Grand Rapids area and took her first class at the age of 6. She pursued extensive ballet training while also enjoying the competitive dance world. Emily’s ballet training included summer intensives with Grand Rapids Ballet, Joffrey Ballet and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. This training allowed her to take on lead roles, such as the Snow Queen, in her local studio’s production of the Nutcracker. Emily also enjoyed many regional and national awards for her competition pointe solos. Emily taught her first ballet class at the age of 14. She continued teaching until 2008, when she hung up her dancing shoes to join the US Air Force Reserve. Emily is so thankful that she was given the opportunity to come back to teaching dance.

Erin and her children have been a part of BSD for the past 7 years and have enjoyed their dance journey along the way. Erin has been in the Adult Hip-Hop class since it started at BSD and has also taken adult Jazz, Lyrical, and Tap classes. Erin’s motto has been, “Just remember you are never too old to do something you love to do.” Erin has recently transitioned from one of BSD’s adult dancers to a BSD adult class instructor. Erin has 2 children, 12 and 10 years old. Both of her children share her love of dance.

Haley is 17 and a Senior at Portage Northern High School. She has been dancing for 6 years and have developed a great passion for it. Haley also loves performing in theatre and forensics. Teaching has been a long time interest of hers and she has had experience demonstrating and assisting in the studio at BSD for the past several years. Haley is excited to use her dancing and assisting experiences this year while gaining further teaching experiences.

Heather has been dancing since she could walk at 9 months old! She studied classical ballet, character, tap and jazz and performed with the Virginia Youth Ballet in high school. While she took a detour into marathon running after college, Heather returned to dance by studying flamenco, becoming a Zumba instructor, and starting to teach youth dance classes. Heather is married to her college sweetheart and has two teenagers. She is the co-owner of Just Move Fitness and More and an All Star Mentor for POMSQUAD Fitness. All movement, but especially dance, is her passion!

Kaylee began dancing at age 4 and hasn’t stopped since! Kaylee is from the Grand Rapids area and moved to Kalamazoo for college. She is trained in ballet, jazz, hip-hop, pom, heels, and musical theater. She was a competitive dancer from age 10 to 18 and competed in several regional and national competitions, earning Dancer of the Year runner-up two years in a row at Rainbow Dance Competition. She is a psychology major at Western Michigan University with minors in Dance and Family Science. She danced two seasons for the WMU Dance Team, performing at all WMU football, basketball, and volleyball games along with competing at NDA College nationals in Daytona Beach and numerous community events around the Kalamazoo area. In her rookie season, she was given the “Rising Star” award. She now looks forward to spending more time with her students and sharing her passion for dance!

Kaylee Hewitt

Coming soon..

My name is Kersten Gray. I am 20 years old in November. I am currently majoring in dance at WMU. I have been dancing for 17 years and I also did gymnastics for about 12 years. At my old studio, I did 6 years of competition dance and was an assistant teacher for 2 years. I trained Cecchetti ballet up to grade 6. I have trained in almost every style of dance, but my favorite is contemporary. I am super excited to share all the knowledge and tips I have learned.

Kelly began dancing at age 4 and continued through high school. She studied all styles - ballet, lyrical, contemporary, musical theatre, tap, jazz and hip hop and danced competitively both locally and nationally. Kelly taught dance classes for two years through a Vicksburg community education program and has taken adult tap and hip hop classes at BSD. Kelly has been teaching hip hop for the past several years at BSD along with several tap classes. Kelly graduated from WMU and has a Bachelors degree in Education with a minor in Math and Science. She lives in Portage with her husband, two boys age 11 and 9 and our sweet rescue dog, Piper. During the day she works full-time as a Marketing and Publications Specialist. Kelly’s and her husband also own and operate Uncle Ernie's Pancake House in Kalamazoo and love being involved in our community.

Amanda was born and raised in Paw Paw Michigan. She began dancing at her mother’s dance studio (Meeth Dance Studio) as soon as she could walk and started competing at a very young age too. After her mom closed her studio Amanda spent a couple of years focusing on ballet at the Kalamazoo Ballet Company where she was in some amazing ballets including getting the role of Clara in the Nutcracker. She finally ended up at MKSOD in Decatur where she joined the competition team and eventually started her dance teaching career. Her competition dances won many awards including a Teacher’s Choice nomination for a Musical Theatre dance and two Best Choreography Awards. She has studied many styles of dance, but specializes in teaching Acro, Jazz, Lyrical, and Musical Theatre choreography. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her husband Bob and their 5 kids. She also loves to paint and make crafts.

I started dancing when I was 3 and then progressed to the competitive dance team from the time I was in the 5th grade and ended as a freshman in high school. Competitive styles were jazz, lyrical, and tap. After ending my studio life, I joined the high school dance team for four years and loved it! Later on, I started coaching a high school dance team and loved that for another four years. Styles included hip-hop, jazz, pom, and lyrical. I am beyond excited to get back into tap again and cannot wait to teach at BSD!

Melissa started dancing in her early teens in California when her parents decided competitive roller skating was too much and it became obvious that softball was not her forte. She danced throughout high school and into college, where she received her BA from Hope with a major in Dance. She then continued her studies at The Ohio State University earning a master’s degree in dance history and labanotation (a symbol form of codifying dance movement and choreography). She taught briefly at Clark State University through the theater department until she returned to Michigan and her hometown of Portage. She continued to teach dance in local studios until the birth of her children when she stepped away until a few years ago when the desire to return to dance and especially tap was too much to resist. She enjoys bringing her love for tap to the adults at BSD dance studio and looks forward to another exciting year.

Nora is 17 years old and a Senior at Portage Northern High School. She is highly involved in the theater program there, along with Forensics and the Portage Northern Student Government. She has been dancing for 14 years, 12 of them at BSD, and her favorite style is tap. Nora had demonstrated for 6 years at the studio before starting her teaching career a year ago. She is excited to continue her experiences by co-teaching classes and spreading her love for dance to the future generations of BSD.

Raquel has been dancing, teaching, and choreographing various styles for over two decades. Balancing her love for tap, jazz, hip-hop, and modern dance styles she was a decorated competitive dancer for 10+ years, her biggest accomplishment as a national tap dance soloist and Dancer of the Year finalist for Dance American in 2005. As an adult she has been featured in various publications and podcasts regarding her experience with dance and living with rheumatoid arthritis. Her teaching style focuses on developing young people's confidence through challenging them do their best work and having fun every step of the way.