2009
Jessica Westerlin
E-Mail: jess.lynn.reed@gmail.com
I live in Omaha with my husband Ryan and son Bryson. I am also been involved with the following Dance communities throughout Omaha: tbd. Dance Collective, Dance Chance Omaha, Omaha Dance Project. I am working full-time at the Jewish Community Center of Omaha as the Assistant Director of Performing Arts and Dance Instructor. Let me know if you are ever in Omaha, I would love to chat with fellow Oles! (Update: April, 2019)
Ananya Matewos
E-Mail: a.mukhop@gmail.com
Ananya is currently pursing her postdoc in Educational Psychology at Temple University. She still dances and performs occasionally. (Update: April, 2019)
2008
Christine Coleman
E-Mail: cercoleman@gmail.com
After graduating I moved back to Chicago and in hopes of continuing and expanding my education of dance, I began taking ballroom and latin lessons with Arthur Murray. After a short time as a student they offered to hire me as an instructor. I taught private and group lessons in all social styles, as well as competed in national events around the country. Recently I decided to join the family business and get my broker’s license in real estate as a fourth generation member of Coleman Land Company in St. Charles, Illinois. (Update: April, 2019)
Sarah Goldberg
E-Mail: sarahrosegoldberg@gmail.com
Currently I am eight weeks post-op after having a bunionectomy on my left foot. The condition stopped me dancing two years ago, but I am thrilled to be pain free and re-entering the world of dance. I am taking classes with my old company, and also just signed a contract with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where I will be choreographer for Shakespeare’s AS YOU LIKE IT.
Once my contract with OSF ends I will be moving to Chicago in the hopes of finding more opportunities to dance and create (Update: March, 2012)
Katie Hagen
E-Mail: katiejhagen@gmail.com
I am living and dancing in LA. I am signed with Trio Talent Agency as a jazz and hip hop dancer. (Update: October, 2009)
Ariel Nereson
E-Mail: ariel.nereson@gmail.com // Website: www.arielnereson.com
I received my PhD in Theatre Arts from the University of Pittsburgh in 2014, where I wrote a dissertation on Bill T. Jones. From 2014-15 I was the Interdisciplinary Arts Coordinator at Vassar College, and beginning in fall 2015 I became Assistant Professor of Dance Studies at the University of Buffalo where I teach in the BA/BFA Dance and MA/PhD Theatre and Performance programs. (Update: October, 2016)
Sarah Steichen Stiles
E-Mail: sarahjsteichen@gmail.com
Sarah Steichen Stiles graduated magna cum laude from St. Olaf College with a B.A. in Dance Performance and Management Studies in 2008. Currently, Sarah is in her fourth year performing with ZenonDance Company in Minneapolis and recently returned from performing in Havana, Cuba. She was a company member with Mathew Janczewski’s ARENA DANCES for five years. In 2013, Sarah had the honor to perform and teach with ARENA in St. Petersburg, Russia. Sarah has also performed locally with the jazz company, Eclectic Edge Ensemble, Luke Olson-Elm, and the MN Opera. Performance credits include work by Danny Buraczeski, Doug Varone, Stephanie Blatten-Bland, Osnel Delgado, Kyle Abraham, Keith Johnson, and Wynn Fricke. Sarah has also studied at the American Dance Festival and Bates Dance Festival. Aside from performing, she shares her love for dance with her students at various dance schools in the Twin Cities. Sarah has used her arts administration skills as the Program Director and Sacred Dance Director at Prairie School of Dance in Eden Prairie. One of her greatest passions is to use dance and the arts to create sacred experiences. (Update: October, 2016)
2007
Jake Fizpatrick
E-Mail: jacobfitzpatrick@gmail.com
I’m currently enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The focus of my research has been on Stravinsky, Balanchine, movement analysis, and embodied cognition. In particular, my PhD dissertation is a narrative about music-related movement and the ballet, Agon (1957). I’ve danced with St. Paul Ballet and Ballet co. Laboratory and became a rehearsal pianist for the latter. In music, I’ve also enjoyed teaching music at the University of Minnesota, and as a private piano instructor. In dance, I’ve performed with Saint Paul Ballet, Metropolitan Ballet, Ethnic Dance Theater, and choreograph works. (Update: April, 2019)
Katie Anway
E-Mail: katieanway@gmail.com
Katie is currently working as the Event Director of the Universal Dance Association in Los Angeles, California. (Update: April, 2019)
Laurel Osman
E-Mail: laurel.osman@gmail.com
I’m currently living in Minneapolis and my job is Group Experiential Director at Fast Horse, a integrated creative agency. I lead our Experiential discipline, designing live brand experiences like concerts, events, PR stunts, sponsorship activations and more. Im proud to say I use my dance degree every single day! (Update: April, 2019)
Liz Sexe
E-Mail: liz.sexe@gmail.com // Website: www.lizsexedance.com
Liz Sexe is a dance educator, performer and director of Sexe Dance established in 2014. Sexe Dance’s mission is to curate performance opportunities that support the local dance community. She has performed both regionally and nationally with Marlene Skog and Dancers and Li Chiao-Ping Dance Company. Sexe is described in Madison’s Isthmus as a “clean and efficient mover,” and having “toughness under her grace.” Her choreographic work has been featured at the World Dance Alliance Festival in Hawaii, UW-Madison, Danceworks in Milwaukee, WI, and UW-Eau Claire. Currently, Sexe is a lecturer in UW-Madison’s Dance Department and a Pilates instructor at Pilates Central in Madison, WI. Check out more at lizsexedance.com (Update: April, 2019)
2006
Julia Langenberg
E-Mail: julia@julialangenberg.com
2013 has been a busy year for me! I graduated from the New England Center for Circus Arts in May with a major in aerial fabric and a minor in an invented ground apparatus I’m calling a “halo.” I got married in a castle in Slovenia in June and returned to San Antonio, where I’ve been steadily building the aerial arts community here, while performing as the full time principal aerialist at SeaWorld from 2009-2012. I am the founder and artistic director of the only professional aerial performance company and school in South Texas, called Aerial Horizon (LLC), where I’ve hired several talented full and part time independent contractors to teach and perform with me all over the city and country. Aerial Horizon offers professional level aerial training to anyone with the desire to fly and provides aerial entertainment for corporate and private events. This fall l we will be opening for ZZ Top!
Before launching my aerial company, I danced for many modern companies, including Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks, Ariel Dance Theater, Ballet East, and I danced on the sides of buildings with Blue Lapis Light. Cirque du Soleil has been calling me to fill various rolls in their shows since 2011. More information can be found on my (outdated) website: www.JuliaLangenberg.com and you can follow the San Antonio aerial community through our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/AerialSanAntonio. (Update: October, 2013)
Melissa Rolfes
E-Mail: melissa.rolfes@gmail.com
Melissa is currently living in Decatur, Georgia and working as an Epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Update: April, 2019)
Marit Sletten Green
After graduating from St. Olaf with my B.A. in Dance and Economics, I went on to pursue my M.A. in Leadership at Augsburg College. I am currently the Business Director and a teacher at Prairie School of Dance in Eden Prairie. I am also the Head Coach of the Hopkins High School Dance Team.
I always knew that dance would be a part of my life, but never knew that I would be able to find a career in the field that I love. I do all things dance and enjoy every minute of it! (Update: April, 2019)
2005
Berit Ahlgren
E-Mail: bcahlgren@gmail.com
Berit is currently living in Minneapolis and doing freelance work between teaching, choreographing and performing in dance around the Twin Cities as well as New York City. (Update: April, 2019)
Erinn Groeltz
E-Mail: groeltz@gmail.com
Erinn is currently living in Chicago and is a stay at home mother. She still has connections to Deeply Rooted Dance Theater and other dance/arts organization around the city if anyone needs a resource. Additionally, she danced (performance and Yosakoi festival dance) in Japan while on the JET programme. (Update: April, 2019)
Kristin Demanett
E-Mail: demanett@gmail.com
I am now working as a Registered Nurse at a Madison hospital in a mother/baby unit. And I daily use my dance training for aerodynamic work with my patients and for getting them up to walk. I use range of motion daily as well for patients (mothers and babies) and movement changes for comfort and pain relief, so strangely I use a lot of my dance training every shift I work to keep myself and my patients safe. I am always happy to talk with students about their experiences and how to navigate from college into a career in the arts (I did work professionally in theatre for 10 years after college) and also how one transitions into another profession and navigating going back to school (I went back for my masters 7 years after I graduated). (Update: April, 2019)
Eliza Larson
E-Mail: eliza.larson@gmail.com // Website: www.elizalarson.com
I moved back to the West Coast in 2015 and am currently based in Portland, Oregon where I am a resident artist at FLOCK. I just finished performing with Tahni Holt in a newwork commissioned for Portland’s White Bird Series, and am about to premiere my new evening-length work In Circadia in March, 2017 with my company, Fault Line Dance. I also continue to collaborate with the Mountain Empire Performance Collective, which I co-founded in 2013 after finishing my MFA from Smith College. I also recently returnedfrom a to study piso movil (mobile floor technique) under Omar Carrum at EPDM in Mazatlan, Mexico.
Thanks in part to double majors in Dance and English at St. Olaf, I have been working across disciplines. As a writer/scholar, my dance writing has recently been published in DanceUSA, Contact Quarterly, Kinebago, the Journal of Dance Education, and the 2017 book Dance and Gender: An Evidence-Based Approach (University Press of Florida). Concurrently, I am also the Marketing Director for Klarity Medical Products and am getting married in August, 2017. (Update: March 2017)
Maija Saulitis
E-Mail: maijasaulitis@yahoo.com
I’m currently in my second year with AmeriCorps, working with first and second-graders at a fine arts school in St. Paul. I’m applying to get my MFA in Creative Writing, and hope to be back in school next fall. I try and make it to as many dance performances as possible, here, in the Twin Cities, and hope to take some classes at Zenon over the winter. (Update: January, 2007)
2004
Kate Errickson
E-Mail: erricksonkate@gmail.com
Since graduation, I have worked in nonprofits across the metro. I am currently the Talent Resources Manager at Minnesota Children’s Museum. I live in St. Paul with my husband and two daughters. (Update: April, 2019)
Tamara Erickson
E-Mail: tkangas@chanhassendt.com
Tamara is the Co-Owner and Vice President of Chanhassen Dinner Theaters, where she has been the resident choreographer since 2004, and has choreographed over 30 musicals. She also have a show that is running Off-Broadway titled “This One’s For the Girls” that she directed and choreographed. (Update: April, 2019)
Elise Ericksen
E-Mail: elisemarie9@hotmail.com
I am currently working with three dance schools in Portland, OR. I have just completed choreographing and directing a children’s ballet of The Little Mermaid. I am currently working on the Nutcracker as well as my own ballet version of Louis May Alcott’s Little Women. This Spring I will be choreographing and directing a new version of Beauty and the Beast. And in my spare time I work for a yoga studio! I have St. Olaf to thank for a great preparation for my career in dance! (Update: October, 2007)
Denise Gagner
E-Mail: deniseirenegagner@yahoo.com // Websites: www.takingrootmassage.com and www.youngdance.org
I’m currently living and working in Minneapolis. I teach for Young Dance, run my massage therapy practice Taking Root, and am raising my two little dancers at home. I have also taught for Zenon and several Montessori preschools and was the School Coordinator at Zenon for several years as well. (Update: April, 2019)
Michelle Kinney Reinink
E-Mail:
I am a physical therapist with a clinical specialization in orthopedic physical therapy and special interest in treating performing artists. I recently moved to Minneapolis and am excited to have access to so many wonderful dance classes and performances in the Twin Cities! (Update: April, 2016)
Ingrid Pharris
E-Mail: ingpharris@yahoo.com
I am currently living in Olympia with my family, paying off student loans, working as a “correspondence secretary” of sorts, avoiding PartyLite parties, teaching ballet and creative dance to little ones, and taking lots and lots of dance!!! I plan to cocoon here for a bit before emerging somewhere exotic (like Minneapolis or Seattle or Kyoto!), so come and visit. I miss Susan, Jennifer, Heather, Sherry, Janice, and Anthony very much, and I am so thankful for the amazing training you all have provided. I had no idea what gems you were giving to us until I started teaching. Keep up the lovely work!
2003
Mary Davies
E-Mail: daviesm03@hotmail.com
I received an MFA in Dance from the University of Iowa in 2006. I now reside in Shakopee, MN with my wonderful husband (also a dancer), Daniel Stark. I am currently working full time at Target headquarters in downtown Minneapolis. I am continuing to dance, and model professionally as well. I love having three different careers! St. Olaf prepared me well for that! (Update: December, 2010)
Nicole Wiczek
E-Mail: nikkeek@hotmail.com
Nicole lives in La Crescent, MN. She is the owner of Nicole’s School of Dance, and the Co-Owner of Trilogy Dance Competition and Convention. (Update: April, 2019)
Miranda Jirik
E-Mail: mirandajirik@yahoo.com
I’ve been living and working in New York City since graduation. This fall I am looking forward to starting an MFA program in dance performance and choreography at Sarah Lawrence College. (Update: August, 2005)
Emily Judd
E-Mail:emilyruthboyd@yahoo.com
I am fortunate to own an operate my own dance studio here in Northfield! I teach dance to all ages from toddler to adult, and could not be happier to be near St. Olaf and continue to fill my life with dance. (Update: March 2013)
Madelyn Pearson
E-Mail: pear0373@umn.edu
Madelyn currently lives in Vadnais Heights, MN and is a dentist/owner at Natural Smiles Dental Care in Shoreview, MN. She is the mother of two daughters, Bianca and Elaina. (Update: April 2019)
2002
Marte Kristin Hovig
E-Mail: marte_kristin@hotmail.com
I am currently working as a dance teacher at Sunnm¯re Folkeh¯gskule in Ulsteinvik. I also tour with DKS at different schools, offering a performance and workshops. This year I have been offered a position with YMCA/YWCA’s national education center and will be giving dance courses for them in Bergen and Oslo. (Update: August, 2006)
Katherine Blackwell
E-Mail: blackwel@eresmas.com
I am now a 3rd year MD/PhD student, having just begun working on my thesis in bone biology. I have had some time for social dancing… country line dancing in CT could be a study in dance ethnography! (Update: November, 2005)
Stephanie Laager
E-Mail: laag0006@umn.edu
While in my third year of the Doctor of Pharmacy program, I have become extensively involved in the dance program at the University of Minnesota. I take the advanced modern class, which is Horton-based and taught by Toni Pierce-Sands. I have also been involved in several performance opportunities including student and faculty works. I am a founding member of Carl Flink’s Black Label Movement, a new Twin Cities-based modern dance company. I look forward to balancing company rehearsals and performances with my clinical pharmacy rotations. I will be interning at various hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies in the Twin Cities area beginning May 2005. (Update: April, 2005)
Nellie Rainwater
E-Mail: nellierainwater@gmail.com
After spending several years in Washington D.C. dancing with Jane Franklin Dance, BosmaDance, and other independent choreographers, I decided to move to New York City for grad school in 2008. I am now in my 2nd year of the MFA program in Dance Choreography and Performance at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, where I am also the Graduate Assistant in Dance History. (Update: November, 2009)
2001
Laura Fillingame
E-mail: lkfillingame@wisc.edu
am currently in my second year of a Ph.D. program in Counseling Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Although extremely busy, I find time to take advantage of occasional East African dance classes and continue to have interest in researching dance-movement therapy. (Update: January, 2005)
Erica Riedesel
E-mail: erica-riedesel@uiowa.edu
After 4 long years, I am getting ready to graduate in May from the U of Iowa College of Medicine with my MD! I will start in the Pediatrics residency program at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in July!! My schedule has kept me pretty busy lately, but I’m still taking pilates, yoga, and occasional dance classes when I can manage. I also got to see CompanyDance at ACDFA at U. Iowa last month, and they were strong and beautiful as always! (Update: April, 2006)
Erin Scheiwe
E-mail: escheiwe@yahoo.com
Erin Scheiwe Rockwell is originally from Steamboat Springs, Colorado where she grew up dancing with Ballet Northwest. In 2001, Erin graduated with a B.A. in dance and computer science after four wonderful years at St. Olaf and headed towards the skyscrapers of New York City. In New York, Erin’s choreography was presented on several great stages including Dance Theatre Workshop, The Culture Project, University Settlement, One Arm Red, Saint Marks Church and Evolving Arts Theater. She also enjoyed working with a dance theatre company called Notes In Motion and performing with a variety of independent choreographers. In August 2005, Erin moved cross-country to the sunny west coast to pursue an M.F.A. in dance at California State University, Long Beach! During her time in Long Beach, she received a certification in Pilates through Body Arts and Science International and taught Pilates and modern dance as a Graduate Assistant at CSULB. In January 2008, Erin moved to join her husband, Owen Rockwell, in Jackson, MS where she is now on faculty with Belhaven College Dance Department. (Update: April, 2008)
Jen Westmoreland
E-mail: jtwestmore@yahoo.com
Jen Westmoreland Bouchard is putting her M.A. in French and Francophone Studies (UCLA) to work as the chair of the French program at Holy Family in Victoria and an adjunct faculty member in French at Normandale Community College. She is the owner of Lucidité Writing (www.luciditewriting.com), a writing, editing and translation company. Jen also enjoys working as a travel writer for Global Woman Magazine and Europe Up Close (www.europeupclose.com)- a convenient excuse for traveling during the summer months with the love of her life, Michael Bouchard. (Update: May, 2009)
2000
Christina Ley Andersen
Email: christina_ley_andersen@yahoo.com
Shortly after graduating in the spring of 2000, Christina moved to New York City with her husband where she received her teaching certificates in both STOTT Pilates and Yoga. After teaching in New York for a short while, Christina moved back to her home town of Grand Rapids, MN to take a position at a local dance studio teaching Modern, Ballet, Pilates and Yoga. (Update: October, 2003)
Anna Bachman Itman
Email: annaitman@hotmail.com
Anna currently lives in Minneapolis and works as a choreographer at The Dance Warehouse in Chanhassen, Minnesota. (Update: April, 2019)
Tia Fink
Email: tiafink@comcast.net
After graduation, I moved to Seattle to pursue my Pilates Certification. Upon completion (certified through Authentic Pilates/Romana’s Pilates/PMA Certified), I moved back to Minneapolis and freelanced as a pilates instructor. Currently, I am one of the owners of a pilates studio in St. Louis Park called Alotapilates. I teach pilates full time and am hoping to start dancing again very soon! (Update: January, 2007)
Dustin Haug
E-mail:dustin.haug@gmail.com
I moved back home to Minne-snow-ta in August of 2007 and have been loving every minute of it. What have I been up to? Well, I work with 2nd and 3rd graders as an Associate Educator for Anishinabe K – 8 Academy, an Minneapolis Public School with an Indian Education focus and an Ojibwe Language Immersion program. A couple mornings a week, I teach a Modern II technique class for St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists. A couple of evenings a week, I tutor for a drop-in homework help and technology center at one of the Hennepin County Libraries. Just cause I’m not active enough, I teach an Open Level Contact Improvisation class at Zenon Dance School and help organize the weekly contact jam that happens every Sunday in Minneapolis.
I also started a dance company, Vessel Performance, that I co-direct with my partner, Tamin Totzke. We’ve performed in a number of shows around town as well as teaching and performing at some colleges in the region.
At the end of the day, I look forward to playing with my dog, Kain, and taking him for a long, bed-time walk. I’m also addicted to commuting by bike and am planning for my first season of winter riding! Can someone say, ‘handwamers’? (Update: October, 2008)
Elizabeth Hein
Email: elizabethhein@hotmail.com
I am currently living in Arlington, VA and practice international trade law in Washington, DC. Even though I’m no longer dancing, shortly after moving here in 2003, I started practicing Tang Soo Do, a Korean form of martial arts. I am now a second degree black belt and a part-time martial arts instructor. (Update: January, 2010)
Toni Melaas
E-mail: tonimelaas@yahoo.com
Toni Melaas is currently working on projects with Alexandra Beller/Dances, Melissa Briggs Dance and Faye Driscoll and is in production for the new movie by director Julie Taymor. This summer she had the pleasure of performing at the State Theater for the Lincoln Center Festival with Shen Wei Dance Arts and in the past has been honored to work with the Aquila Theater Company with Olympia Dukakis, Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig and Gerald Casel, among others. She has taught workshops in Poland, Russia, South Korea and Thailand, and participated in residencies at various colleges in the U.S twining dance with her experience in Anusara yoga, pilates, BMC, and developmental movement. (Update: November, 2005)
Emily Stein
E-mail: emily_stein@hotmail.com
After a phenomenal senior year in Companydance, I spent the summer at the American Dance Festival. Dancing, learning, and living down in North Carolina was a great experience — which was shared with two other Companydance alums and two current St. Olaf dancers. I now live and work in New York City — and I love it! I do PR and Promotions, and in my free time I take yoga like its going out of style.