Kate Schneider, Executive Director/President
Born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Kate has always been involved in the arts. She started Irish dancing classes at the age of 5 and continued until she discovered her love for singing and musical theater 10 years later. Though Kate did not pursue the arts post high school, her love and support of the arts has always been present.
Kate became involved in Vandalia Youth Theater serving on the board for several years. Miss Kate has been involved with Dayton Dance Conservatory since 2010 when her daughter Madi came to the studio for ballet class. Over time, as Madi became more involved with the studio, so too did Miss Kate. Over the past decade and a half, Kate has served various behind-the-scenes roles at both Dayton Dance Conservatory as well as Dayton Dance Conservatory Company.
In March of 2022, Audra Kucharski entrusted ownership to Kate. Kate's mission is to continue the tradition of excellence begun by Miss Jeanette and Miss Audra, enriching the lives of our students through quality dance education and training.
Kate graduated from Wright State University with a Bachelor of Arts and currently works at the Kettering Foundation as a Meeting & Logistics Coordinator and Insulated Roofing Systems as Accounting Manager. She resides in Vandalia, Ohio with her husband, Bo, and has two adult children, Madi and Brady. In her spare time, she enjoys karaoke and playing cards.
Connor Barak
Connor Barak is from Kent, Ohio, where he trained at Ballet Theatre of Ohio and Meneer School of Dance under the direction of Christine Meneer. At Ballet Theatre of Ohio, he had the opportunity to perform roles such as Franz in Copellia and The Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. He graduated from Butler University in May 2024 with a B.S. in Dance Arts Administration and Spanish. While at Butler, Connor performed in several classical works set by Marek Cholewa, Rosanna Ruffo, Derek Reid, and David Ingram, performing roles such as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker Prince in The Nutcracker, and Hanz in La Vivandiere. He also has had the opportunity to perform in several contemporary works including Ourfire by Jennifer Archibald, Bronze by Maria Konrad and Gnostos by David Ingram. When not in the studio, he is passionate about increasing accessibility to the arts and has worked with Butler Community Arts School, helping run over 20 arts summer camps.
Tomasin Corrente
Tomasin Corrente is from Denver, Colorado and began dancing at four years old. At age seven, she began to train seriously at Colorado Ballet Academy and later moved to Denver Ballet Theatre at age eleven to focus her training extensively on the Vaganova method of classical ballet, where she performed many featured roles in their full length classical productions. Throughout her years of training, she also attended summer intensives at Colorado Ballet, State Street Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and Denver Ballet Theatre. After high school graduation, Tomasin furthered her academic and artistic pursuits at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. There, she performed soloist and principal roles such as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Summer Fairy in Cinderella, and Queen of the Dryads in their 2023 Midwinter Dances under the guidance of Rosanna Ruffo, Marek Cholewa, Derek Reid, and Susan McGuire, as well as original contemporary works choreographed by David Ingram. Upon graduating from Butler with a BFA in Dance Performance in May 2024, Tomasin joined Dayton Ballet as a company artist for their 2024-2025 season under artistic director Brandon Ragland. Previous professional appearances include performing as a guest artist with Denver Ballet Theatre and dancing with Zikr Dance Ensemble in the summer of 2023 under artistic director David Taylor. Tomasin is looking forward to joining the faculty of Dayton Dance Conservatory while she continues her professional dance journey at Dayton Ballet this upcoming season.
Bryan Cunningham
Bryan Cunningham is originally from West Virginia. He has trained, on full scholarship, with Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, North Carolina School of the Arts, Houston Ballet Academy, and The School of American Ballet. He has danced professionally with Cleveland/San Jose Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Florida Ballet, Madison Ballet, Avant Chamber Ballet, Plano Metropolitan Ballet, and Contemporary Ballet Dallas. While in Dallas, he has also performed in “Show Boat” with The Dallas Opera. He also danced in Donn Arden's "Jubilee!" at Bally's Las Vegas Resort. Bryan has worked on several television shows. He has appeared on HBO, ABC, Bravo, E! TV, PBS, Kansas City IMAX, Ryan Seacrest Live on Fox, as well as the the Travel and Discovery Channels. He has been teaching ballet for the past fifteen years, at several schools across the country. He has taken several students to YAGP and UBC. His students have placed in the top 10, top, 12, and top 24 in classical and contemporary.
Jessica Eggleston
Jessica Eggleston has a BFA in Dance from Wright State University, where she performed with the Dance Program and the Theatre Program. She went on to continue her education in New York City, where she took classes in various styles, from many outstanding teachers. Upon returning home to Ohio, she began teaching for the MAPP program at Wright State University, was featured at the MVDTA Dance Convention, choreographed musicals for Wright State and Sinclair College, and served as adjunct dance faculty at Wright State University. Jessica’s classes focus on musicality, organic movement, and exploring different dynamics in the energy of Dance.
Darcy Franck
Darcy began dancing at Jeanette Popp School of Dance at 3 years old and continued her dance education at DDC for 15 years. She has worked with early childhood programs through the YMCA of Greater Dayton. Darcy has worked with a variety of programs at DDC including Art and Movement for All (AMFA). She went on to earn her BA in Primary Childhood Education (PK-5) and Intervention Specialist (K-12) in December 2022 from Capital University. She currently works as a Preschool Intervention Specialist.
Aryonna Grier
Aryonna began her dancing career at Dayton Dance Conservatory in 2008 at the age of three. In 2011 she became a member of the Tap Pre-Ensemble team. In 2014 she became a member of Ensemble and Mini Dugout Dancer for the Dayton Dragons baseball team. In 2018 Ary became a member of Dayton Dance Conservatory Company. She was also a Tapology Youth Ensemble member 2015-2023, and Ohio Elite Tap Company (OETC) 2021-2024. Ary has attended summer programs at Stiver School for the Arts, Tapology, NCI and RDA, various workshops and tap festivals.
Ms. Ary began showing interest in choreography through student choreography opportunities with DDCC, and attended RDA 2024 Summer Intensive as an emerging choreographer. Ary has had the honor and pleasure to tap with Tre Dumas, Nico Rubio, Jason Janas, Dani Borak, Linda Sohl Ellison, Caleb Teicher, Bril Barrett, Sam Weber, Star Dixon, Alexandria Bradley, Frances Bradley, Jason Samuels, Joseph Wiggan, Shanzell Page, Maurice Chestnut, Dianne Walker, McFadden Brothers, Kandee Thacker-Mann, Sarah Savelli, Chloe & Maud Arnold, Charles Renato, Cartier Williams, Donnetta Jackson, Jumaane Taylor, and of course Ms Jeanette. Also, other styles of dance with Rob Priore, Nicole Sublet, John Lehrer, Keisha Lalama, Oliver Arana, Gregory Robinson, Christina Coover, Kristen Ulrich, Ashley Walton, and Audra Kucharski.
Aryonna has attended numerous dance/tap intensives as a scholarship recipient over the years. She has performed at the Levitt Pavilion, Dayton Dragons as a Mini Dugout Dancer, DC Tap Festival, Rhythm World Navy Pier, TEDx Youth, Chicago Tap Summit, Tapology Dance Festival, Circle City Tap Festival, just to name a few.
Ary currently attends Sinclair Community College and plans to study psychology at Wright State University.
Amber Huggett
Amber Huggett began dancing at the age of two at Rhythm Pointe Dance Academy, a small studio in Shelby Township, Michigan. From the ages of four to eighteen, she danced with the academy and professional training division at Nashville Ballet in Nashville, Tennessee. She was able to train under the direction of Nick Mullikin, Paul Vasterling, Anaïs Chalendard, Kate Crews-Linsley, Christopher Stuart, and Jon Upleger. From there, she went on to dance as a pre-professional trainee with Charlotte Ballet in Charlotte, North Carolina for two seasons. She had the pleasure of working and training with the esteemed Patricia McBride during her time there. She has performed soloist roles in Matthew Hart’s Sleeping Beauty, Balanchine’s Raymonda, and Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht Ballet. Other ballets she has enjoyed performing include Jean Pierre Bonnefoux’s Nutcracker, Balanchine’s Union Jack, Chris Stuart’s Peter Pan, and Nashville’s Nutcracker. She danced this past season as a trainee with Grand Rapids Ballet in Grand Rapids, MI. There she worked directly with artistic director James Sofranko and performed in Val Caniparoli’s Nutcracker, Devon Carney’s Sleeping Beauty, and Balanchine’s Serenade. She is currently dancing in the studio company at Dayton Ballet. She is very excited to be teaching the next generation of dancers at DDC this season.
Lacie Miller
Lacie began dancing at the age of 3 at Jeanette Popp School of Dance and continued dancing for 15 years. Following her love for movement, she completed her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training, focusing on alignment and anatomy, in 2018. While in college, she worked at the YMCA before and after school enrichment program and the YMCA Preschool for 6 years. She received the Diana M. Hunn Award in 2019 for her commitment to science education. She graduated from Wright State University with her BS in Early Childhood Education in May 2020.
Allyia Nelloms
Allyia Nelloms is a Dayton native whose training includes the University of the Arts (where she obtained a BFA in Dance Performance), Eleone Dance Theatre, and Stivers School for the Arts. She has danced original casted and/or restaged works by Sidra Bell, Tommie-Waheed Evans, Gary Jeter, Bill T. Jones, and Bobbi Jene Smith. Aside from her role as a performer, Allyia has felt most passionate about serving her community through teaching and choreography, which both allow her to cultivate spaces not only for learning - but healing and community. She's enjoyed exploring these same passions through dialogue-based platforms as well as facilitating her own programs and workshops. Allyia's mission as a dance educator is to, first and foremost, facilitate safe spaces that allow and encourage artists to not only explore their own bodies, but new avenues of thinking, making, and doing. Her class is designed to help develop character, while nurturing artistic agency as well as physical, emotional, and intellectual growth.
Robert Pulido
Robert Pulido is a dancer with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and has taught at DDC before while out here in Dayton, Ohio. You may recognize him as the Nutcracker Prince from our holiday production of the Jazz Nutcracker. He dances various styles throughout his repertoire and he teachs: jazz, tap, hip-hop/funk, and modern. He hopes his students learn a lot from his classes, they can walk away with something new (bit by bit) and collectively grow in their learning of dance while having some fun.
Gregory Robinson
Mr. Robinson began his primary dance training in 1970 at the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) with Lou Wall in Graham technique and Phoebe Barr in Denishawn style. Resident guest artists in dance for that academic year included Betty Jones and Fritz Ludin, from the Jose Limon Company and Nicholas Gunn of the Paul Taylor Dance Company. In 1971, Mr. Robinson transferred to the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) where he began his classical ballet studies in the Vaganova system with Stevan Grebel and Melanie Mihalic. As a member of Ballet UAB, he had the opportunity of performing a repertory of mixed programs and many full length ballets, most notably The Nutcracker, Giselle, Coppellia, Ben Stevenson's Cinderella, Raymonda Pas de Dix, George Balanchine's Serenade, La Sonambula, and Michel Fokine's Petrushka.
Mr. Robinson continued to perform with Ballet UAB and pursue his BFA through 1980. He joined Dayton Ballet in 1980 under artistic director Stuart Sebastian and performed with the Company as a principal dancer in a repertory that spanned from the classical canon to neoclassical and contemporary works. His further studies continued in New York City with Maggie Black and Marjorie Mussman. By the late '80's, he was named Ballet Master; then in 1993 he was appointed Artistic Associate for the company by Dermot Burke and his duties expanded to include co-directorship of Dayton Ballet II. As a resident choreographer for Dayton Ballet, Mr. Robinson has created many original works for the Company as well as other performing arts organizations including; Dayton Ballet II, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, The Human Race Theatre Company, The Muse Machine, Dayton Opera, Miami University, Marygrove College, Victoria Theatre, Ohio Ballet and The Fraze Pavillion. His premiere works for Dayton Ballet through the years including Prokofiev Piano Concerto #2, Light, Paganini Variations, Mozartiana, Carmina Burana, Hot Riffs & Blue Notes, Luna, New Night, Corazon and new choreography for the full length productions of Christmas Carol, the Ballet, An American Cinderella, and America's Robin Hood have all received critical and artistic acclaim.
Mr Robinson was the first to be awarded the Virginia Sebastian Award for Choreography, in 1986. In 1996, he received the Montgomery County Arts & Cultural District Bicentennial Impact Grant for his premiere work …A Time to Dance to join in the celebration of Dayton's 200 years. He was also a recipient for the Culture Works Artist Fellowship for the year 2000. He was honored with the 2002 Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography from the Choo-San Goh & H. Robert Magee Foundation for his work on America's Robin Hood. In 2008 his ballet Corazon earned a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Mr. Robinson has taught at BalletMet, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Ohio Ballet, Wright State University, Miami University, Marygrove College and the University of Idaho. His participation in the Miami Valley Muse Machine's "in school" lecture demonstration series and his host/narration for the Dayton Ballet's annual Young Audience Programs have enlightened and entertained Miami Valley high school and elementary students for many years. He received a citation from State Senator Rhine D. McLin and was named a "Dayton Gem" by the Dayton Daily News for his work in the community as a performer and dance educator.
Madeline Seibert
Madeline began dancing at the age of 5 with Dayton Dance Conservatory. During the 13 years of dancing with DDC she trained in Jazz, Ballet, Modern, Contemporary, Hip Hop, Tap, and much more! While training at DDC she began as a Mini Dugout Dancer for the Dayton Dragons baseball and a member of DDC’s ensemble team. In 2019 she became a member of DDCC and has attended summer programs with Colorado Dance Conservatory, Pontecorvo Ballet, Ohio State Dance Team, and many different festivals and workshops. Madeline has gotten the pleasure of working with many talented artists and choreographers such as: Rob Priore, Nicole Sublet, John Lehrer, Oliver Arana, Gregory Robinson, Christina Coover, Kristen Ulrich, Ashley Walton, and Audra Kucharski! Madeline will be attending the University of Dayton as a freshmen in the fall. She will be studying Health Sciences with a hope to be a physical therapist. She will be continuing her passion for dance through the dance team at UD and various clubs.
Madeline is excited to educate and share her passion with the younger generation of dancers at DDC. Her goal is to create a safe and exciting environment for students that will make them excited to come to class every week. Her classes will focus on establishing a foundation of technique and the fundamentals of ballet or jazz. Most importantly focusing on the growth of each individual student through dance and personal character!
Julie Swank, Office Manager
Julie lives in Troy and recently retired from the music department of Northmont City Schools. She lives with her husband Bruce and her daughters, who danced at DDC for 17 years each, are out of the nest. Katie is an Sonographer at U of M hospital in Ann Arbor, MI and Lauren is a wedding and event planner in Phoenix, AZ. Julie always wanted to dance, but took piano instead. Finally, in high school, she proved she could dance appearing in productions of My Fair Lady and Anything Goes. She was allowed to take lessons, make it en pointe and was featured in the Chinese dance from the Nutcracker. Currently, Julie enjoys sewing, travel, coffee and chocolate, family, painting, reading and especially playing her horn in various musical groups around Dayton, Troy, Piqua, Greenville and Springfield.
Kirsten Ulrich
Kirsten hails from Dayton, Ohio. After serving as interim Artistic Director in 2022, this is Kirsten’s first year as the Artistic Director for Dayton Dance Conservatory Company. Kirsten has been faculty for Dayton Dance Conservatory (DDC) for over ten years and has been involved with DDCC since its inception. In addition to teaching at DDC, Kirsten is adjunct faculty at Wright State University and Stivers Performing Arts High School. She has also taught for a multitude of studios in the Dayton and Cincinnati area as well as for the University of Dayton. She has held master classes at the American College Dance Association.
Alongside her teaching career, Kirsten has staged works for Dayton Contemporary Dance Company II, Dayton Dance Conservatory Company and Gem City Ballet to name a few. Her works have been showcased at International Association of Blacks in Dance, Ohio Dance Festival, Regional Dance America Northeast Region Festival and Delaware Dance Festival.
After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from Point Park University in 2006, Kirsten went on to dance for Mutual Dance Theater, formerly known as Mamluft and Company and for Dayton Contemporary Dance Company II.
Kirsten lives at home with her husband and two dogs and has truly enjoyed many years she has spent with Dayton Dance Conservatory and Dayton Dance Conservatory Company.
Catherine Voorhees
Originally from Cincinnati, Catherine Voorhees discovered her passion for dance at a young age and is committed to sharing this art form with others! With training in ballet, modern, contemporary, and jazz, she honed her skills locally and furthered her education through summer intensive programs with renowned companies and schools such as Ellison Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, BalletMet, and Carolina Ballet.
She joined the Trainee program at BalletMet in Columbus in 2020, where she had the opportunity to perform in exciting repertoire by great choreographers such as George Balanchine and Edwaard Liang. After two years of refining her technique, she went on to dance professionally with Cleveland Ballet for the 2022-2023 season. She then returned home to Cincinnati to dance as a Trainee with Cincinnati Ballet, where she had the opportunity to perform repertoire such as George Balanchine’s “Emeralds”, Balanchine’s “Walpurgisnacht”, and Victoria Morgan’s “The Nutcracker”. Now in her first season with Dayton Ballet, Catherine is thrilled to be sharing her love of dance with the community and dancers at Dayton Dance Conservatory.
Rebecca Walker
Rebecca Walker is primarily a modern dancer and visionary. She is a versatile dancer with experience in styles that range from ballet to hip hop. She is an out of the box thinker and an intuitive innovator. She moves from her emotions with passion in an organic and free manner. She draws her movement quality from things around her which gives her style a balance of well rounded fluidity mixed with strong athletic energy. She is a thoughtful improviser and creator when generating movement. She takes a unique approach by exploring bizarre body pathways and separate limb connections as well as their relationships to each other to create an organic whole picture. She is a dedicated hard working artist with much experience working under pressure, which she approaches with positivity and strong drive.
Shari Williams
Shari has a degree in Performing Arts Management and Dance from Point Park College in Pittsburgh, PA and grew up in Schrader Youth Ballet Co. in Parkersburg, WV. She has many years of teaching and choreographing experience with a strong concentration in jazz. She most recently has spent six years with Mandalay Sports Entertainment as the VP of Entertainment and previously as the Director of Entertainment for Dayton Dragons Professional Baseball since 2001. Her performance credits include Royal Caribbean Cruises, Kings Island, Europa Park in Germany, movies Bob Roberts and Kingpin as well as shows in the Reno/Lake Tahoe area.