Private Lessons
I am available for in-person or online lessons
I strongly believe everyone can dance, and should. All bodies can learn to dance and enjoy themselves. Dance should be joyful, about self-expression, and a way of learning about your body and your spirit. I believe it’s never too late to start learning something new, and your bucket list should not wait until you retire.
I’m available to teach private lessons for teens and adults interested in learning to do tap or ballet for the first time, or who want to improve their skills. My strengths are patience, enthusiasm, and an unusual way of approaching dance. I’m not famous or particularly interested in becoming famous, so if that’s your goal, I’m not the right teacher for you.
Group Classes
Join other adult dancers in one of my group classes!
MONDAYS
Tap (all levels) — 5-6 pm — Secret Garden Studio (207 W. Emma St, Lafayette, CO 80026)
Ballet (all levels) — 6-7 pm — Secret Garden Studio (207 W. Emma St, Lafayette, CO 80026)
Women’s stretch and strengthening — 7-8 pm — Secret Garden Studio (207 W. Emma St, Lafayette, CO 80026)
TUESDAYS
Tap (beginner, senior citizens only) — 1:15-2:15 pm — Louisville Recreation and Senior Center (900 Via Appia Way, Louisville, CO 80027)
THURSDAYS
Tap (all levels) — 6:30-7:30 pm — Cherry Creek Dance (2625 E 3rd Ave, Denver, CO 80206)
FRIDAYS
Ballet (all levels) — 9-10 am — Secret Garden Studio (207 W. Emma St., Lafayette, CO 80026)
SATURDAYS
Tap (all levels) — 10-11 am — Secret Garden Studio (207 W. Emma St., Lafayette, CO 80026)
RSVP to a class!
Workshops
I am excited to announce a full year of dance workshops! These are stand-alone workshops, but you’ll find many of them connect to and reinforce each other. Some are designed specifically for tap dancers, others for ballet, and still others will benefit you no matter what dance style you do. Deep dive, past what you can learn in a traditional group class – how to choreograph on your own, how do you train to prepare the body for dance, how to do trick steps in tap, Appalachian flatfooting and Irish hardshoe, and we’ll even make a dance film together!
These will (for the most part) occur on the first Sunday of the month from 10-11:30 am at (for the most part) my home studio, the Secret Garden Stage in Lafayette. Each workshop is $30. Pre-registration is required.
RSVP to a workshop!
Tap
I decided at 10, I wanted to be a drummer. But I quickly discovered that gaining access to the drum set in middle school band required getting past the boys who told me I was a girl, so I should play the glockenspiel. So much for a drumming career. I hit 6'2" before graduating high school and couldn’t touch my toes—so much for any kind of dancing career.
But when I was in college, I went to see Stomp in the theater district of Boston. I was so excited by the high-energy percussive dancing, I decided to learn how to tap dance—and I wasn’t going to let boys, my height, or my lack of coordination and flexibility stop me. For the next ten years, I tapped on-and-off while starting a “real” career as a high school history teacher. As teaching became too time-consuming, and life-sucking, tap class was the one hour a week I devoted to myself. Tap dancing required so much focus and was so fun, I forgot about my tough job and found pure joy.
Then a chain of events completely changed my life. My teacher, Jacob Stonebraker, was cast in Tap Dogs. Watching him embark on the adventure he’d been training for his whole life inspired me, and made me believe I might reach for more than a once-a-week class. So, I screwed up the courage to attend the Big Apple Tap festival. Sitting in that studio in New York, I realized, more than anything in the world, I just wanted to tap dance. So, I resolved that day to quit my soul-sucking day job, and “become a tap dancer” (whatever that meant).
Ballet
Like many girls, I tried a ballet class when I was 5. I noticed that some girls had little tutus and cute leotards, while I didn’t. I asked my mom for a tutu. She said “no.” I said “I quit.” When I was in grade school, already much too tall for a girl my age, I had to get some warts on my hand removed. The doctor put some juice from a beetle on my warts, said it would probably hurt, and then told me to think of an image of what my hands would look like after my warts had disappeared to help me get through the removal process. My image was me as a ballerina with incredibly beautiful hands. But it was only a picture in my head. I grew to be a whopping 6’2”, which ruled out (according to my mom) acting, ballet, and being a flight attendant.
But when I was all grown up (in my early 30s), I fell into ballet class because I wanted to learn how to coordinate my arms with my legs for my tap dancing. It was instant love, thanks to instructor Andrew Thompson. A few years later I found Broche Ballet and learned that 6’2” was an asset, not a liability, and I have never felt more beautiful or capable.
I got my first pair of pointe shoes in my mid 30s which felt like a dream come true! I never thought I would put a pair of those on. I have even had the chance to learn the basics of partnering, another dream come true. It has been a difficult journey, and I still have a tremendously long way to go, but it’s been absolutely worth the struggle. I firmly believe anyone can get en pointe if they have the will to do so.
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