Meet the Creative Dance Center Faculty
Content describing the faculty.
- Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music. ~William Stafford
- How can we know the dancer from the dance? ~William Butler Yeats
- There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good. ~Edwin Denby
- Please send me your last pair of shoes, worn out with dancing as you mentioned in your letter, so that I might have something to press against my heart. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
- Never trust spiritual leader who cannot dance. ~Mr. Miyagi, The Next Karate Kid, 1994
- We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. ~Japanese Proverb
- On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet To chase the glowing hours with flying feet. ~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
- Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. ~Dave Barry
- Dancing is like dreaming with your feet! ~Constanze
- The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie. ~Agnes de Mille
- Dancing faces you towards Heaven, whichever direction you turn. ~Terri Guillemets
- Dancers are the messengers of the gods. ~Martha Graham
- Dancing is wonderful training for girls, it's the first way you learn to guess what a man is going to do before he does it. ~Christopher Morley, Kitty Foyle
- You can dance anywhere, even if only in your heart. ~Author Unknown
- Dancing: the vertical expression of a horizontal desire legalized by music. ~George Bernard Shaw
- Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made. ~Ted Shawn, Time, 25 July 1955
- Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays. ~George Balanchine
- There are short-cuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them. ~Vicki Baum
- To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. ~Agnes De Mille
- Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels. ~Faith Whittlesey
- Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another. ~Author Unknown
- Dance till the stars come down from the rafters. Dance, Dance, Dance till you drop. ~W.H. Auden
- It is of course possible to dance a prayer. ~Terri Guillemets
- In a dancer, there is a reverence for such forgotten things as the miracle of the small beautiful bones and their delicate strength. ~Martha Graham
- It takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer. ~Shanna LaFleur
- I don't want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance. ~George Balanchine
- Dancing can reveal all the mystery that music conceals. ~Charles Baudelaire
- Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order. ~Samuel Beckett
- Stifling an urge to dance is bad for your health - it rusts your spirit and your hips. ~Terri Guillemets
- Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair... ~Susan Polis Shutz
- Dancing is the poetry of the foot. ~John Dryden
- Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is not mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself. ~Havelock Ellis
- Dance is the hidden language of the soul. ~Martha Graham
- Dancing is moving to the music without stepping on anyone's toes, pretty much the same as life. ~Robert Brault
- Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery. ~Martha Graham
- Through dancing many maidens have been unmaidened, whereby I may say it is the storehouse and nursery of bastardy. ~John Northbrooke
- Shake it 'til the moon becomes the sun. ~Vada Nobles, Carl Sturken, Evan Rogers, and Alisha Brooks, "Pon de Replay," performed by Rihanna
- Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it. ~Martha Graham
- Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain. ~Martha Graham
- The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word. ~Mata Hari
- We ought to dance with rapture that we might be alive... and part of the living, incarnate cosmos. ~D.H. Lawrence
- Next time you're mad, try dancing out your anger. ~Terri Guillemets
- Dancing is the world's favorite metaphor. ~ Kristy Nilsson
- And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
- I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
- Light quirks of music, broken and uneven, Make the soul dance upon a jig to Heav'n. ~Alexander Pope, Moral Essays
- Do you think dyslexic people have difficulty dancing to "Y.M.C.A."? ~Dave Sokolowski
- Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance. ~Ezra Pound
- I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what it too deep to find for words. ~Ruth St. Denis
- Talk about dance? Dance is not something to talk about. Dance is to dance. ~Peter Saint James
- Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room. ~Kurt Vonnegut
- Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking. ~John Wain
- To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak. ~Hopi Indian Saying
- They who love dancing too much seem to have more brains in their feet than in their head. ~Terence
- Dance is a delicate balance between perfection and beauty. ~Author Unknown
- Socrates learned to dance when he was seventy because he felt that an essential part of himself had been neglected. ~Source Unknown
- Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain. ~Author Unknown
- Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. ~William James
Next studio closing is from 4/6/12 until 4/15/12 for Easter Break
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- Hip-Hop & Street Funk
- Jazz Hip-Hop
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- Technique
- Instructors
- Miss Michelle
- Miss Jill
- Miss Kristen
- Miss Jennifer
- Miss Cherie
- Schedules
- Summer 2012
- Spring 2012
- Fall 2012
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Instructors
Miss Michelle Cavazos
- Teaching experience: 22+ Years
- With Creative Dance since 2003
Miss Michelle studied under Shirley Mordine, Anna Paskevska, Jenny Sohn, Brian Jeffries and Tim O’Slynne at Columbia College Chicago with many guest artist residencies such as Beth Corning of Canada, Tandy Beal, Loretta Livingston and Joe Goode of San Francisco, and local Chicago artists such as Jan Erkert, Paula Frasz and Nana Shineflug. Miss Michelle has performed with contemporary Chicago artists such as Colleen Halloran and Margi Cole of the Dance Colective. Her main influences in Modern are Humphrey-Weidman Technique, Jose Limon Technique, and Horton Technique. No modern dancer would be complete without a strong background in ballet and its continued study. Miss Michelle’s background is also steeped in improvisation and choreography…her style has evolved in the last twenty years to be very athletic and quick. Her “story-line” is always personal…in the inception of the piece… and then it evolves through the development to stand on its own. “There is always a very strong visceral connection between the dancer and his or her audience. As a choreographer it is my responsibility to establish that relationship through movement and to allow the audience to be more ‘aware.’ As a teacher it is my responsibility to give the dancer the tools necessary to relay that message. There is more to dance than a high kick or a flurry of steps…if the audience is transcended in that time and space; then I have done my job.”
Miss Michelle teach many dance disciplines with an extra passion and background in Modern, She have trained extensively in Ballet, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Swing, and Tap; all ages and populations, from two years to adult…beginner to advanced.
Miss Michelle's signature piece, “Drop The Hate” has been performed for the last decade and has won many awards including nationals in San Antonio, Texas.
Miss Michelle resides in Orland Park with her husband, Phillip Cavazos, and her two sons; Phillip and Vincenzo. Their daughter Avalon is currently attending the University of Iowa, majoring in Speech Pathology and minoring in Dance.
Miss Jill Rector
- Teaching experience: 27+ Years
- With Creative Dance since 2003
Miss Jill Rector began dancing at age three and has studied all forms of dance. At age fourteen she became a teaching assistant and began teaching her own classes at age sixteen. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance from Columbia College with an emphasis in both teaching and performance/choreography. She is also a certified personal trainer and the Choreographer for All About Music’s Children Theater in Mokena.
Miss Jill began her professional studies at the Chicago Fine Arts Academy with Rosemary Doolas and Ellen Werksman. While she was there she concentrated on Classical Russian Ballet using the Vagonova Technique. She also began to study Martha Graham technique and fell in love with modern dance. Later at Columbia College Miss Jill studied under Shirley Mordine, Anna Paskevska, Jan Erkert, Paula Frasz, Mary Wohl Hann, Deb Siegal as well as many other choreographers who came through during their guest artist residencies. She performed with many contemporary artists such as Linda Marshall, Shapiro and Smith, Jan Bartoszek, and Nana Shineflug. Jill has always excelled in tap dancing and studied extensively with Chicago Human Rhythm Project choreographers Lane Alexander, Jay Fagan, Sam Weber, and Bril Barret.
Jill’s expertise of teaching is quite evident in her classes. She keeps her choreography current by attending dance conventions and studying with professionals. She feels that as a dancer and teacher you never stop learning or trying to improve yourself. She likes to make sure the students learn something new during each class and have fun doing it. Ms. Jill feels finds it very rewarding to watch what dance and performing can do for a child. Dance not only improves their fitness and coordination, but also improves their self-esteem, creativity and imagination. Miss Jill not only teaches her students to do the steps but also to feel the emotions of the dance and to appreciate the arts for the rest of their lives. Miss Jill was very proud to have her theater students chosen to perform one of her dance routines on the NBC morning news, and be interviewed by Jonathon Brandmeier.
Miss Jill is married and has two children, Nathan and Jade.
Miss Kristen Bruns
- Teaching experience: 16+ Years
- With Creative Dance since 2010
Miss Kristen Bruns has performed in London, England with the American Performance Team. She has also performed with the All Star Dancers in California.
Miss Kristen has a BA in education with a minor in dance from Western Illinois University. While at W.I.U she spend 4 years as a member of the University dance company (modern) as well as the dance line (Hip Hop). She has had the privilege to train with wonderful teachers including Gary Flannery (orginial Fosse dancer), Michelle Plescia (Royal Ballet), & Tanya Praird.
Miss Kristen is married and a very proud mother to 4 boys: Cameron , Payton , Devin , and Logan.
Miss Jennifer Veglio
- Teaching experience: 3+ Years
- With Creative Dance since 2010
Miss Cherie Jones
- Teaching experience: 3+ Years
- With Creative Dance since 2011
Certified Zumba Instructor
View Miss Cherie's Class Schedule