Faculty & Staff

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Primary, Ballet, Cecchetti, Modern

Allison Kurtz Volkers is a Northwestern grad, mom, and Director of Programming and Outreach of Dance Center Evanston, where she has been training young dancers since 2003. Ms. Volkers has collaborated with a number of organizations as a performer and choreographer, most notably as a founding member of Striding Lion where she also served as Education Director. The Cecchetti Council of America has certified Ms. Volkers as a Grade IV Teacher of Classical Ballet Dancing, she serves on the board of the CCA’s Midwest committee, and has led workshops for the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters. Ms. Volkers is a frequent choreographer for the Evanston Dance Ensemble and is the founding artistic director of ede2.

MANAGING DIRECTOR 
Ballet, Jazz, Cecchetti

Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Calyn settled in the Midwest after graduating from Northwestern University with a major in dance. She was a company member with Striding Lion Performance Group (dir. Annie Arnoult), with which she performed in critically acclaimed immersive dance-theater productions and lead arts education outreach programs throughout the Chicago area. Calyn holds her Elementary Professional Cecchetti teaching certification from the Cecchetti Council of America and serves on the Midwest Committee of C.C.A’s board as Workshop Coordinator.  In addition to her role as Managing Director at DCE, Calyn directs the popular Dance Performance Workshop annually and teaches classes in ballet, jazz, and Cecchetti techniques.

Boys/Men’s Technique, Partnering, Ballet, Pointe

Mike is the founder and Artistic Director of Elements Contemporary Ballet. Prior to founding Elements, he studied both classical and contemporary ballet with local master teachers. As a dancer, Mike performed with companies such as Instruments of Movement, Tyego Dance Project, and The Chicago Ballet. As a choreographer, his work has appeared in Dance Chicago, Around the Coyote Arts Festival, Looptopia, Joel Hall’s Dances from the Halls, Evanston Arts Week, productions with the Evanston Dance Ensemble and Evanston Symphony, as well as other Chicago area festivals and dance performances. In addition to his work with Elements, Mike has taught ballet at colleges and quality dance studios throughout the North Shore and Greater Chicago area. He orchestrated events for Evanston Arts Week and DanceArt Outreach Program, and has served as Artistic Director of Koslynn Dance Academy and SASS Productions. Mr. Gosney’s choreography was selected to compete in the Joyce Theatre’s The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2010, presented at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago.

Ballet, Pointe

Laura Brand has performed extensively with classical and modern concert dance companies and in musical theater, commercial, and industrial shows. Her work includes performances with the Chicago Ballet Theater, Momenta, The Beverly Dance Ensemble, the Polish Opera Company, the Lyric Opera Company of Chicago, the David Puszh Company, the Ukrainian Folk Dancers, and in the Ruth Page production of The Nutcracker. She performed at the International Ballet Competition in Lima, Peru and in the PBS television production of Ruth Page’s Die Fledermaus. Laura has appeared in Annie, Sweet Charity, My Fair Lady, Funny Girl, West Side Story, and Carousel at The Theatre at the Center and West Side Story at the Timberlake Playhouse. She conducted a ballet workshop for dance teachers in Omaha, NE, and has been a judge at the National Dance Olympus competitions in Atlanta, Nashville, and Minneapolis. Laura received dance training from Loretto Rozak, Larry Long, Richard Arve and Lou Conte. 

Jazz, Tap

As artistic director of Especially Tap Chicago Dance Company, Julie has performed and choreographed on both the jazz and tap concert stages for over fifteen years with some of Chicago’s finest dance companies including River North Dance Co., The Lynda Martha Dance Co., and Chi-Town Jazz Dance, for which she served as associate director. Her credits also include Especially Tap Chicago’s performances in the Kuopio Dance Festival in Finland, the St. Louis Tap Festival, and Chicago’s own Human Rhythm Project. In addition to Dance Center Evanston, Julie has taught for Barat College, DEA, NADA, CNADM, Gus Giordano Dance Center, the Cecchetti Council and numerous studios in the Chicagoland area.

Primary Division, Ballet, Pointe

Wendy Park began her training in ballet, tap, jazz and modern in Indianapolis at Curtain Call Academy of the Arts and the Jordan College Academy of Dance at Butler University. As an undergraduate at Barat College’s Conservatory of Dance, Wendy performed works by Rory Foster and Eileen Cropley. Completing her degree at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, she had the opportunity to perform works set by David Gordon, Jan Eckert and Eduardo Vilaro. Ms. Park has been teaching ballet, tap, and jazz professionally for over a decade in Indianapolis, Chicago and the North Shore. Currently, she is continuing her dance education through the Cecchetti Teacher Certification program.

Shelby Moran Amarantos

Ballet, Modern, Jazz

Shelby Moran Amarantos, an alum of Dance Center Evanston and Evanston Dance Ensemble, studied dance at The Juilliard School (BFA ’15). While at Juilliard, she performed repertory of José Limón, William Forsythe, Twyla Tharp, and Merce Cunningham. She also performed original works by Monica Bill Barnes, Emery LeCrone, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Larry Keigwin, and Danielle Agami. Shelby began her professional career performing with Thodos Dance Chicago for two seasons. In her time there, she had the opportunity to dance starring roles in director Melissa Thodos’ original story ballets, perform world premieres by Robyn Mineko Williams, Brian Enos, and Kevin Iega Jeff. She has been an apprentice of Visceral Dance Chicago, and is now a company member with Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre.

Ballet, Pointe, Cecchetti

Rosina DeVries was born and raised in England where she received her early training with Elizabeth Swan at the Weston Schools of Dancing. She later studied with Viccy Chappell at the London College of Dance, where she was awarded the Maestro Enrico Cecchetti Final Diploma. Rosina danced with the Chelmsford Ballet Company and Newpalm productions, before moving to Greece and then New York to teach at the Coupe Theatre Studio. Former students have moved on to study at the School of American Ballet, The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre, The Juilliard School and North Carolina School of the Arts, as well as performing with Richmond Ballet, Carolina Ballet, Ballet Theatre of Maryland, and New Jersey Ballet. Rosina is a Diploma Fellow and Examiner with the Cecchetti Council of America.

Ballet, Pointe

Laura Gates grew up in a northwest suburb of Chicago. She holds degrees in Dance and Psychology from the University of Iowa where she was privileged to train with many gifted artists. Professionally, she danced with Swallow Cliff Dance Company, Concert Dance, Inc., and several independent choreographers before joining Thodos Dance Chicago in 1999.  During her six-year tenure as a TDC dancer, she performed locally, nationally, and internationally and worked with many renowned artists including Broadway icon Ann Reinking. Laura went on to serve TDC for twelve more years as Rehearsal Director, Ballet Mistress, Artistic Associate, and New Dances Project Manager. Laura teaches throughout the Chicago area and has served on the faculty of many intensive programs including TDC, CNADM, Dance Masters of Wisconsin, Inaside Chicago Dance, Gus Giordano Dance School, the Illinois State Dance Festival, and the Midwest Cecchetti Council Ballet Workshop. She has been a guest artist at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, Riverside Brookfield High School, Evanston Township High School, Kansas State University, and the University of Kansas. A proud member of the Chicago dance community for over 20 years, Laura is passionately committed to the art of dance and furthering dance education.

Hip-Hop

Born in India, raised in New York, and dancing in Chicago, Irfan found his passion for dance at 13 years old, discovering Popping & Breaking and training himself in those styles through his younger years. Irfan has a passion for hip-hop culture, street & social dances, and commercial dance while also training in classical styles of ballet and contemporary fusion. After high school, Irfan trained under many veteran Chicago dancers, such as Ian Eastwood, Daz Harris, and Andrew Tamez Hull. He starred in Chance The Rapper’s music video for his Grammy award winning song “Angels”, choreographed by Ian Eastwood, and also starred as a principal dancer in the Netflix musical series, “Soundtrack” with choreography by James Alsop. Irfan has taught in the Chicago Community at various workshops, company classes & studios such as Hubbard Street Dance, Millennium Dance Complex Chicago, and Visceral Dance Studio.