|
Megan
Maltos
Owner, Artistic Director
Tap, Jazz, Preschool
Megan began dancing at the age of four in California and at the age of 9, joined Danswest Dance
Productions. She was a member of the Performance Group and Danswest Company until the age of 19, where she studied under Frank
Trent. She became a teacher at Danswest in 2001. She received her education at the University of Arizona in Tucson,
and graduated in June 2005 with a Bachelors in Business Administration from the Eller College of Business and a minor in dance
from the School of Fine Arts.
As a student at Danswest, she received numerous group and individual dance competition
performance awards, including Junior National Dance Champion in 1995 at the Showstoppers Dance Competition, and Top Senior
Tap Soloist at the West Coast Dance Explosion Dance Competition in 2001. She also had the opportunity to tour Europe and her
company was invited to dance at the Roman Jazz Festival as the youngest group to ever perform. While at the University of
Arizona, Megan had the privilege to study with such greats as Amy Ernst, Michael Williams, Sam Watson, David Berkey, Nina
Janik, and Susan Quinn. She was also selected to perform at Gus Giordano's Jazz Dance World Congress in Buffalo, NY. Megan
has also worked in music videos and film. More recently, her choreography has been performed at regional and national competitions,
with awards for performance and choreographic creativity.
Jessica Holland Ballet Instructor
Jessica began her study
of ballet at the age of four at Academy of Ballet where she also studied jazz and tap.
She has been accepted to the Long Beach Ballet Arts Center and the State Street Ballet summer program in Santa Barbara, California. She studied
at several intensive summer workshops at Academy of Ballet, and studied at the Regional Dance
America Craft of Choreography Conference as a dancer in Orem, Utah during the summers
of ’05 and ‘06.She has set numerous pieces on Tucson Regional Ballet and Academy of Ballet. Her Piece Mujer was her acceptance piece to be a choreographer at the
Regional Dance America Craft of Choreography Conference in the summer of 07’ ;she received
the title Guest Choreographer,Pacific Region. She was the youngest to ever receive the title in the State of Arizona and the youngest to attend the Conference that year. Ms. Holland served as a Tucson
Regional Ballet children performer’s rehearsal assistant for A Southwest Nutcracker, and a ballet teacher for
numerous ages teaching students classical ballet to modern day ballet. She dedicated two and
one-half seasons to Tucson Regional Ballet Junior Apprentice, Junior and Senior Apprentice Companies, and four seasons with
Tucson Regional Ballet Senior Company. Jessica Holland is a student at the University of Arizona. She graduated from the Traditional Honors Magnet program
at Catalina Magnet High School in May of 2008 and performed
as a Pomline Dancer. She received numerous Captions in Auxiliary from Competitions such as Flowing Wells Competition,
SunCon Festival Competition, Cienega Competition and University of Arizona
Band Day Competition . This is her 2nd year with Danswest.
| |
Anton Smith
Hip-Hop Teacher
Anton
is a native of Philadelphia, PA. He received his dance training in the Philadelphia/New York area and has choreographed and
performed actively throughout the U.S. since 1992. In 1996, Anton was awarded Most Dynamic Group, for his VIBE Hip-Hop Troupe,
in a Philadelphia citywide talent search. Anton continued his dance studies in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the University
of Arizona in 1999 and received the Honors College and Medici Scholars award for choreography. In 2002, at the finals of the
National Dance Alliance in Orlando, Florida, Anton's choreography won overall in the Best Funk category. More recently, Anton
and other members of his performance group, The Human Project, were commissioned in 2003 to share the stage with R&B recording
artist Ashanti and R. Kelly, in addition to studying with internationally renowned Brazilian dance company, Bale Folklorico
da Bahia, in their home country. Anton has also worked with many arts and community service organization to include
the YWCA, Tucson Unified School District, Tucson Pima Arts Council, and UA Presents.
|
|
Corey Campbell
Jazz, Lyrical, Modern/Contemporary
Corey is a dance major at the University of Arizona
and he enjoys jazz, lyrical, and contemporary dance. Corey has been teaching at Danswest for 3 years, and has choreographed
winning competition routines for Danswest Company dancers. He was recently recognized in the Daily Star as a standout student
and one of the most gifted dancers at the U of A Fine Arts Dance program! ____________________________________________________________________
Heather
Griffin
Jazz/Lyrical/Modern
Heather began her early training in Yuma, Arizona at Dancemakers studio where
she became a teacher in 2002. While in Yuma, she was a member of Dancemakers Performing Arts Company for nine years and a
guest artist at Ballet Yuma. She choreographed works that have been performed in the annual Arizona Jazz Dance Showcase and
the Yuma Dance Festival. She has performed in various competitions through out as well as the Jazz Dance World Congress and
with the Arizona Repertory Theatre. Heather attended summer programs on scholarship hosted by The Joffrey Ballet, Ballet and
San Francisco Ballet. She has been graced with the opportunity to perform in Las Vegas, San Antonio, New York and Italy.
In 2003 Heather was awarded a scholarship to attend the Giordano Dance Center but decided to pursue her education
at the University of Arizona. Heather has been a performing member of the UofA dance ensemble for the last four years and
in 2007 she received her BFA as a dance major. Heather has been teaching jazz, modern and contemporary at Danswest since 2006
and choreographed award winning routines for the Dance Company.
|
Mika Deslongchamps Jazz/Lyrical/Ballet Mika's goal as a teacher is to inspire the love of dance and
movement in dancers. She is from Tucson and has danced and/or taught at various studios in the local area. She won awards
both as a dancer and choreographer at regional competitions. Mika started the On The Mark Dance Company and has participated
in competitions and the Danswest recital and performances. She also teaches the College Jazz classes at the studio.
Shelly Steigerwald
Shelly, who majored in dance at the University of Arizona, began dancing
at the age of three. She has danced at the Houston Ballet Academy and the Colorado Jazz Dance Company. She started dance training in ballet, moved to jazz and through
her training at the U of A, fell in love with modern dance. She
has been teaching modern, contemporary, and jazz, at Danswest for 5 years, and has received choreography awards for her
innovative style. She most recently was a dancer for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. We are glad to have
her back on our faculty again.
Hailey Apligian BIO COMING SOON!!
Nicole Meador Nicole Meador
was born and raised in the San Franciso Bay Area and started
dancing at the age of four. She was trained in both
Russian and Cecchetti
styles of ballet, as well as tap, jazz, lyrical, and modern. She competed nationally in
groups and also as a soloist. She was one of thirty dancers picked to dance at
the World Expo in Spain.
She was a junior member of Dance Masters of America
which afforded her the opportunity to attend conventions all over
the U.S.and
perform on a cruise to Mexico. She was Miss Teen San Jose in 1995, her senior
year of high school,
which provided her scholarship money to attend college.
In addition to being a member of the San Jose Ballet School started by Wana
Williams Kalimos of the San Franciso Ballet
Company and later co-directed by
Francesca and Dimitri Romanoff of American Ballet Theatre and Janet Vertin, she
also
had the opportunity to train and perform with a number of professionals
including Anthony LoCascio from Tap Dogs, Marie
Stinnett, Audrey King, Glenna
Bell and Cory Finn. After high school graduation, she headed off to Tempe to
earn
degrees in political science and business at Arizona State University.
During college she took dance classes at the university as well as taught
ballet, tap, jazz, and lyrical at a nearby
studio. In 1999, she returned to
the Bay Area where she continued teaching dance while beginning a career in
education. She earned her teaching certificate and M.A. in reading at Santa
Clara University. She taught
pre-school, kindergarten, and 7th grade before
deciding to start a Ph.D. program in educational psychology at the University
of Arizona.
This is her first year of teaching as Danswest- she was a substitute teacher for us last year.
Erin McBride BIO COMING SOON
|
