Jolene Morrell is a originally from Mesa, AZ and began dancing at the age of two at Tempe Dance Academy. She specializes in jazz, funky hip hop, tumbling and pom and cheer. She received training by instructors such as Wanda Manville, Wendy Manville-Baker, Jeanne Wright, Julie Renn, and Kimberly Lewis.

Jolene attended Corona del Sol High School where she was on the Cheerleading squad and danced with the CDS Dance Company for four years. After high school, she danced in Vegas in an on going country show and also traveled to Toronto, Canada to perform for the World Games-NBA exhibition with the Phoenix Suns dance team.

Jolene danced with the Arizona Rattlers for nine years as captain and choreographer. She also participated and danced in the Arena Bowl. Jolene also danced for a group called Showstoppers that traveled and performed for functions all over the valley, as well as teaching at several dance studios in the valley

Hunter began his dance training at the Ballet West Conservatory in Salt Lake City, UT where he was a Willam F. Christensen merit scholarship student. He continued his ballet training at both the University of Utah Ballet Department and Brigham Young University where he was a member of the Theater Ballet. While in Utah he also studied with Jacqueline Colledge and performed with the Utah Regional Ballet. Hunter was a summer intensive scholarship student at Ballet West, The Rock School and The Inland Pacific Ballet where he was offered a company position. He most recently performed with Novaballet, Arizona’s newest professional contemporary ballet company.

Hunter’s love of ballroom dancing began at age 17 at the Center Stage Performing Arts studio under coach Rick Robinson.

Hunter’s training spans the United States with notable coaches such as Louis Van Amstel, Andrea Hale, Ashley Delgrosso (of Dancing with the Stars), Rick Robinson, Tony Meredith, Melanie LaPatin, Corky Ballas, Maria Shibalova and Inne Berllizyeva. He holds numerous Dancesport titles in Latin which have included an appearance at the prestigious Blackpool, England Dance Festival where he placed 7th for the United States. He has been a couple and team Dancesport competitor and is currently competing and studying with Internationally renowned coaches.

Taryn’s dance expertise is advanced, professional rhythm tap dance. She also performs self-choreographed dance styles of clog, Appalachian flatfooting, Irish step-dance, jazz and hip-hop.

At the young age of 12, Taryn was the youngest member of the Montana State University Dance Company in Bozeman, Montana. She performed and contributed as a choreographer for five years with the tap performing group, “Tap Cats,” founded by her sister Laurel.

While attending college, Taryn taught tap and jazz part time at a local dance studio, while also coaching a high school dance team. She also founded the event Dance Sports, one of Montana’s largest dance competitions held each year in the Big Sky State Games hosted in Billings. She was also invited to be the youngest board member for The Miss Montana State Pageant.

Taryn has worked as a private dance instructor, competition dance choreographer and presented many dance workshops.

Tara is a new addition to Arizona Dance Artistry this season and we are thrilled to have her ballet expertise and professionalism! She has become an asset to our Ballet program in training and choreography over the past year as a guest artist. Tara is also a certified instructor in Zumba and a trained Ballroom dancer!

Tara is an aficionado of Balanchine ballets, and she has performed with Ballet Arizona under the direction of Ib Anderson for seven seasons, including Serenade, Theme and Variations, Rubies and Apollo just to name a few.

Kirk Douglas is extremely thrilled to be working amongst the talented staff of Arizona Dance Artistry. He is passionate about music and loves to see how it creates a positive outlet in the youth today. Outside of the studio, Mr. Douglas is a teacher at Boulder Creek High School in Anthem, where the music program was just recognized by Phoenix Magazine for being a “standout music program”. He has performed a plethora of roles in opera and musical theatre, working as a professional actor in Arizona, California, and Arkansas. Companies worked with include: Lyric Opera of Los Angeles, Opera in the Ozarks, Arizona Broadway Theatre, and Black Theatre Troupe. His degree work comes from California State University, Northridge where he studied vocal performance. Although his love of performing has enriched his career, his love in the production process has taken the lead. Mr. Douglas has been a director or musical director for many productions. His favorites include: Seussical, Into the Woods, and The Music Man.

Nikkia Robinson-Wahl is a native of Phoenix and has danced and choreographed Hip Hop since the age of 11.She enjoys all that Hip Hop has to offer–style, rhythm and culture–and she is known for high energy, unique and creative choreography .She has danced alongside David Moore, Misha Gabriel and Chris J and has had several kid, teen and adult dance teams open at live concerts for Emenim, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Destiny's Child, Usher, E40, Lil Kim , Keisha Cole, and Chris Brown to name of few.Her crown jewel was performing at the Billboard Awards in 2007 . Nikkia's ultimate goal is to share her love of dance with the world and to set a spark in every dancer she works with!

Stacy Shane earned her bachelor's degree in English and Sociology with a minor in Dance from Franklin and Marshall College and her master's degree in Dance Education from SUNY Brockport College of New York. She has had the privlege of studying at the Laban Center for Dance in London, Eastwest Somatic in San Francisco, and American Dance Festival in North Carolina. Stacy teaches dance at Boulder Creek High School where she implemented the dance program seven years ago. She also performs with Movement Source Dance Company and performs and choreographs for AZDance Group.

Killian has an extensive training background as well as performance repertoire under her belt. She has trained with Ballet West Academy, Ballet British Columbia, Julliard, Harrid Conservatory and American Ballet Theater, just to name a few. From 2007, until this current season, she was a member of Ballet Arizona. A finalist in the 2005 Youth America Grand Prix, she was also awared the first Young Arts Silver level award by the National Foundation of Advancement of the Arts. Her performance quality and command for the audience’s attention is unrivaled.

Killan joined Arizona Dance Artistry last season as a guest artist adjudicating our Nutcracker auditions as well as performing lead Arabian our production of " The Nutcracker Suite". Killan has joined AZDA for the Summer Ballet Intensive and Fall season on our teaching roster, she will also be assisting with Nutcracker rehearsals this year.

Katie Goodwin was born in Gardner, Massachusetts. She started dancing while cross-training for figure skating and joined her first dance studio at the age of six. When she moved to Arizona in 1996, she focused solely to dance and began dancing at Victoria’s Dance Depot and continued to practice there throughout high school. While at the Dance Depot she studied ballet, jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, tap, and musical theater.

At age 12, Katie started dancing competitively all over the country, including national competitions in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Anaheim. Her senior year of high school Katie took 1st Place Senior Soloist, 1st Place Senior Duet/Trio, 1st Place Senior Group, and 1st Place Showcase Champions at Starbound National Talent Competition. She continued to dance throughout college at Northern Arizona University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. Katie began teaching at thirteen, as a student teacher in a 3-5 year old combo class. Katie loves to teach all ages of dancers and loves to see the spirit of dance enrich lives.

Desi McCall
Tap, Jazz and Contemporary

Britini Steadman
Jazz, Tumbling,Tap and Lyrical