Summer Guest Faculty
Oliver Arana
Mr. Arana was born in Lima, Peru. He began his career as a principal dancer with the Ballet Municipal De Lima. He went on to work with the Nacional Ballet De Caracas of Venezuela. He was invited to join Ballet Classico De Camara and was given the honor of alternating principal roles with Fernando Bujones and Carlos Acosta. He was invited to perform at the Festival in Tel Aviv, Israel; the Gala De La Juventud De America in Caracas, Venezuela, and has toured all of South America and parts of Europe. After coming to the United States in 1993, he joined The Bay Ballet Theatre as a principal and continued his career with the Cleveland San Jose Ballet. Mr. Arana has had a twenty-two year professional dancing career, where he not only danced, but also coached professional dancers to the world's top International Ballet Competitions. Students of Mr. Arana have been awarded scholarships at the Cincinnati Overture Awards and to ABT, Houston Ballet, Boston Ballet, Arizona State University, The Bolshoi Academy, Chautaugua, and have been accepted to La Scalla de Milan Ballet School, Complexions, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. His students have been awarded medals at YAGP in Chicago and New York City; the World Ballet Competition, Orlando Florida; and IDO Showdance Reisa, Germany.
Kaelyn Gray
Kaelyn comes to us from Northern Kentucky, where she is a full-time instructor and choreographer for Expressions Dance Theatre. With a focus on all styles of dance, her work has been nationally acclaimed and has led her students to countless national titles, championships, and choreography awards.
Her professional career began in her early 20′s when she became the Director and Choreographer of two separate shows for Paramount's King's Island and King's Dominion in which she wrote the score and designed the set. Soon after, she was a Top 24 Finalist for Fox's hit television show, "So You Think You Can Dance" during its third season. Kaelyn's particular passion for tapping/hoofing has provided her with many performance opportunities. She became a member of Dayton's "Tap Factor", a tap company led by Chris Erk, one of the original members of "Tap Dogs". She was also an assistant to her tap mentor, Gregg Russell, at the Dance Teacher's Summit held in NYC in the summer of 2011. Gregg has also provided Kaelyn with a full scholarship to his annual "Tap Into the Network" intensive held every summer as an extension of his company "3ddn". These intensives allow her to train with the best in the business each year!
Most recently, Kaelyn has started her own tap company, "ProtoTap", along with fellow tapper/hoofer Parker Hall of NYC. With this company they hope to reach their long-time goal of providing tap education to the under-privaleged through community outreach.
LaMoi Hedrington
LaMoi is originally from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. He began training at the Conservatory of Dance and Fine Arts in Decatur, GA. He has danced for the Ballethnic Dance Company, Zion Dance Theater, Brown Project in Michigan, and taught master classes at Gift of Dance, Zion Dance Theater in Atlanta, and The French School of Ballet in St. Thomas. He also has worked with Mia Micheals, Joe Lanteri, Travis Wall, international pop artists, Koresh Dance Company and Philadanco. He just finished his 2nd season with the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company.
Stephanie Roig
Ms. Roig was asked to join the Hartford Ballet at the age of seventeen where she received the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts Award. She toured Los Angeles and performed at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil with the Hartford Ballet. Other repertoire includes Balanchine's Valse Fantaisie, Western Symphony, Rubies, and Serenade and Nijinska's Les Biches. She joined the Cincinnati Ballet in 2000 under the direction of Victoria Morgan. She has trained under Alla Osipenko, former Prima Ballerina of the Kirov Ballet; Maria Youskevitch, former Ballerina of American Ballet Theatre, Franco De Vita, Principal of the American Ballet School, and Raymond Lukens, Fellow of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. She was a semi-finalist at the 2003 New York International Ballet Competition under the direction of Ilona Copen.
Click here to review the complete bios of DDC's regular faculty members.