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 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 with BSD since 2018.

Erin and her children have been a part of BSD for the past 8 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, both of which share her love of dance.

Haley graduated from BSD as a student in spring of 2024. She danced for 6 1/2 years and developed a great passion for it. Her favorite styles are tap and lyrical, but she truly loves all of them. Haley is now studying Elementary Education at Western Michigan University. Her love for teaching combined with her love for dance have made teaching at BSD the best of both worlds. Haley has been teaching for 2 years and is beyond excited to continue working with students to hopefully foster the same passion in them that she has for dance.

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!

Kayla has been dancing since age 2 and instantly developed a passion for the art form! Growing up she trained competitively in dance, competing at regional and national competitions both in studio and dance team styles of dance. Complementing this training, she trained at various ballet schools during her summers, including Cincinnati Ballet, Orlando ballet, and Carolina Ballet. This love for dance continued as she grew, leading her to WMU, where she is currently pursuing a BFA in Dance. This is Kayla’s first year teaching at BSD! Kayla has a passion for dance and teaching, and cannot wait to continue to share this passion here at BSD!

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!

Born and raised in Paw Paw Michigan, Kaylee has been dancing since she could walk. Starting at age two with ballet, tap, and jazz, to end up exploring many different styles and variations throughout her career. Kaylee was competitive for many years, dancing with her team Positively Dance under MKSOD. She assisted and co-taught under her mother, Amanda Bilton, at the very same studio. She went on to win many awards for her solos and duos, including first place for the first dance she’d ever choreographed. Kaylee’s favorite styles are contemporary, modern, and hiphop. One thing she hopes to continue to do is inspire other young dancers to push forward with their dreams, even if it feels hopeless at times. In her spare time, she enjoys making art. Such as: portraits, t-shirt designs, jewelry, etc. She also has a cat she loves named Stella!

Kersten is currently majoring in dance at WMU. She has been dancing for 18 years along with gymnastics for about 12 years. She was a competitive dancers for 6 years and an assistant teacher for 2 years. Kersten trained in Cecchetti ballet up to grade 6 and almost every style of dance, but her favorite is contemporary. Kersten I super excited to share all the knowledge and tips she has learned along the way.

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.

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 a freshman at Kalamazoo College where she plans to study the social sciences, specifically psychology. She also plans to be involved in the theater program there, among other activities. She teaching 2 years ago, and danced for 15 years, 13 of them at BSD. She is excited to teach her own tap and musical theater classes after co-teaching for the past couple years and to spread 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.