Dance Break 231 welcomes dancers age 7-18 to participate in a four-day dance experience, this year hosted in beautiful Petoskey, Michigan! Read on to learn what we have in store and check out the amazing teachers/choreographers lined up to be there!
Classes
Registered dancers will get four days of dance instruction and choreography in the styles of jazz, contemporary, hip hop and production. Classes are 9am-4pm, Tuesday-Friday. See the detailed schedule HERE.
Finale Performance
Dancers will learn choreography in each of their classes to perform at the end of the week on the beautiful Ramsdell Theatre stage! The performance is free and open to the public!
Scholarships
At the Finale Performance, we will be offering partial/full scholarships for DanceBreak 231 in the summer of 2023! These scholarships will be awarded to dancers who exhibited good work ethic and positive attitudes throughout the week.
Extra Performance Pieces
We are offering studios a chance to bring competition/recital pieces that they would like to perform in our Finale Performance! Each studio may audition six total dances and our faculty will choose up to three to be added to the performance line up. Studio Owners must register the pieces by sending an email to hello@dancebreak231.com. Auditions date and time TBA.
Beach Bonfire Wrap Party
Join us at 1st Street beach following the Finale Performance for the wrap party! Let's celebrate the new friends and memories we made together!
Meet the Faculty
Debora Knight
Co-Director
Debora Knight is the former owner/director of The Conservatory of Dance in Manistee and the Great Lakes Dance Academy in Petoskey, as well as current Dance Director at Concord Academy Boyne. Ms. Deb has enjoyed sharing her passion for dance for 40 years! Coming home to Manistee and reuniting with former students to bring a fantastic summer dance program is fulfilling a long time dream!
Tarah Fancher
Co-Director
Tarah is co-owner, teacher and alumni of the Conservatory Dance in Manistee. She has worked for the Walt Disney World Company as a character performer and character dancer. Now, she focuses her time as a competition choreographer where she has earned many choreography awards for her routines. Tarah is certified in ballet and jazz through Dance Masters of America.
Shelli Golembiewski
Co-Director
Shelli was born and raised in Manistee and loves this area! She is an alumni of the Conservatory of Dance in Manistee and is now Co-Owner and Instructor there. She is a past member of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp International Ballet Ensemble and a graduate of Dance Masters of America with certifications in Ballet, Jazz and Tap.
Brandy Hogan
Jazz Instructor
Brandy is the current owner and director of Great Lakes Dance Academy in Petoskey. Ms. Brandy is also a Conservatory of Dance alumni and received her BA from Ferris State University in Marketing. She's excited to bring her sizzling style to Dance Break 231!
Corey "Mission" Whitfield
Hip Hop Instructor
Corey "Mission" Whitfield is from Detroit, MI and has been dancing since age 5. He has appeared on So You Think You Can Dance Season 10 and 12 making it all the way to the end of Vegas week before being cut. Corey is a former Detroit Pistons Acro Dunker/Dancer/Choreographer, former director for the Detroit Pistons all-male dance team, D-Town, has toured with the world famous Harlem Globetrotters and has traveled with the USA Dunk Acro Dunking Team where he took third place in the world for acro dunking in Budapest, Hungary in 2019. He is well rounded in Hip Hop culture with such styles as Breaking, Popping, Waving, Locking, Animation, Krumping, House Dancing, Hip Hop Party Dancing (Social Dance Moves) and Tutting.
Kayla French
Contemporary Instructor
Kayla is a native of Michigan, where she began her training with Taylor Ballet Americana, The Conservatory of Dance in Manistee and Great Lakes Youth Company. Kayla holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Business from Alma College and has been performing professionally with Greater Lansing Ballet Company, Fort Wayne Ballet and Tampa Ballet Theatre. Over the last ten years, Kayla has been on faculty at many schools all over the U.S. She looks forward to teaching contemporary for the first summer of Dance Break 231!
Bethany Socher
Mini Instructor
Beth is a Conservatory of Dance alumni and current teacher there. She also teaches at the Landing Dance Academy in Cadillac and is director of the Dream Team competition team. Bethany has completed three years of training at the Dance Masters of America Teachers Training School and is certified through Alixa Flexibility’s modules one and two. She loves being able to expand her love of dance to her students!
Hyla Perillo-Wright
Musical Theatre Instructor
Hyla is a northern Michigan native and grew up dancing at Dance Arts Academy in Traverse City. She has been dancing since she was 2 as well as well being trained in gymnastics since she was 4. She has won regional Outstanding Dancer Scholarships as well as placing in the top 20 at Nationals. Her summer studies were ABT New York, BalletMet, Alonzo King Lines, and NYCDA Nationals. She studied at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City and graduated in 2021. During her time at Marymount she performed pieces by Peter Chu, May O’Donell, Twyla Tharp, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Joey Dowling, Adam Burrach, and more. She made her broadway debut as Victoria the White Cat in the CATS on Broadway North American Tour for their 2021-2022 season. She Is very excited to share the world of theater and dance at db231 this summer!
