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Peak Athletics Plus Dance Staff
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Christina Leone
Dance Director
Youth Elite Leopards Coach
Senior Elite Pumas Coach
Christina@PeakAthleticsPlus.com
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Christina Leone specializes in pom and jazz at the high school and all-star levels. She is the Competitive Dance Director at Peak Athletics Plus. Outside of coaching at Peak, Christina coaches for a five-time state champion and nationally ranked high school program, Ponderosa High School in Parker. Christina danced at Miami University (OH) where she served as captain and was honored as MVP. She has choreographed for theater companies, high school and all-star dance teams, and for singles figure skaters. She has worked with the Junior Denver Bronco Cheerleaders and recreational programs and dance teams both in Colorado and Ohio. She feels privileged to work with some of the country's best dancers and also to serve on the board of the Colorado Spirit Coaches Association with some of the best coaches in the nation. Her personal motto is, "you get out what you put in." She is thrilled to be at Peak Athletics and is thankful to the directors, staff, parents and dancers for welcoming her into the Peak family.
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Ingrid Faraj-Brown
Pre-school Dance Director
Ballet Instructor
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Ingrid is a classically trained dancer/choreographer and singer/songwriter. Since childhood she has known nothing other than the performing arts. She has performed, trained and danced with some of the greats: Bella Lewitski, Twyla Tharp, Mia Slavinska, Alex Goodinoff, Fred Astaire, Michael Jackson, Debbie Reynolds, Cher, Tina Turner, Al Gilbert and many more. After years on the road performing, Ingrid began choreographing music videos and soon found herself with a recording career of her own. As young as age 13, Ingrid was involved in teaching some of the most successful international dance conventions ever held and to this day her vocal recordings of the original "teacher training aids" are still being sold 32 years later. Ingrid will be working with our performance and competitive teams on improving their ballet skills. |
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Vanessa Graziano
Youth Elite Leopards Coach
Senior Elite Pumas Coach
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Vanessa has been a dancer all her life. She began with The Children's Place at age 4, then studied with Kim Robards, the Imperial Academy of Ballet, was a member of the Arapahoe High School Tom Toms, and danced with the Kit Andree Dance Company while attending the University of Colorado; she graduated in 2004 with a double B. A. in Sociology and Spanish. Throughout her career as a dancer, Vanessa has studied under some of the best professional choreographers in the business and has experience with many styles of dance and the performing arts including tap, ballet, jazz, pom, hip hop, lyrical, modern, Broadway, Fosse, vocal performance, and acting. With this experience and having won numerous awards, Vanessa has been a dance instructor, coach, and choreographer for the past 5 years, working with many different styles of dance and levels of dancers. |
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Kristen Campana
Dance Instructor
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Kristen took her first dance class at 7 years old in her native Chicago and fell in love with performing. She continued to dabble in jazz and some gymnastics classes, but really became serious when she moved to California. She began training in ballet, jazz, tap and some ballroom at various studios and then made Moorpark college her home. She majored in Dance and studied under the award winning Sayhber and Dennon Rawles for 7 years. Her specialties and favorites are the Rawles technique, Fosse and Musical Theatre. She also has trained in voice and acting/theatre. She and her husband moved to Colorado earlier this year and Kristen is so happy and excited to be a part of the Peak Dance staff! |
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Antoinette DeGeorge
Senior Elite Lions Hip Hop Coach
Hip Hop Instructor
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Antoinette has extensive training in Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Lyrical and Break Dance and has been a student at Centerstage Starz Theatre and Dance Studio for eight years. Antoinette was a member of the 2006 MLS Colorado Rapids Cheerleaders and is currently a dance instructor for the Universal Dance Association (UDA) where she teaches high school and college level dance camps in Colorado and nation-wide. Antoinette is pursuing a Journalism major at the Community College of Denver. |
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Sky-Marie McDonald
Dance Instructor
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Mary MacNeilly
Spotlight Dance Team Coach
Dance Instructor
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Mary began dancing at age three at The Conservatory for the Performing Arts in Valparaiso, IN. Mary trained in ballet, pointe, tap, and jazz, as well as performed in a singing and dancing group. She also trained in piano, voice, and acting. Mary studied at the Conservatory for 11 years and began student teaching at age 14. Upon moving to Colorado in 1998, Mary joined the Boulder Ballet Company as well as performed with the Demi-Divas and Counter Culture dance groups at Dance West, in Boulder, CO. From there, Mary took an active role on Fairview High School's Pom Squad for three years, where she performed and choreographed. While attending CU Boulder, she studied dance and was selected to perform in the Choreographer's Showcase in 2002. She spent the last 4 years teaching at various dance studios and recreation centers throughout the Denver Metro area, and also coordinated and led a dance team for the International Basketball League through their inaugural season in 2006.
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Anna Peters
Mini Elite Calicos Coach
Dance Instructor
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Anna Peters has been involved in Performing Arts since early childhood. Growing up she was an avid gymnast and dancer, focusing on tap, ballet, musical theater and jazz. In high school, she joined the cheer team before spending three years as a Liberty Belle, winning the State Championships in Pom (1995) and Jazz (1996). In college, Anna continued to pursue Modern, Ballet, Hip Hop, Lyrical, and Jazz, performing in many CU Boulder performances before attaining her minor in Dance. She began teaching at the age of 19, as well as working with dance teams and coaching the Pomona Poms for the 2001-2002 season. In 2002, she gained ownership of the Dancer Studio near Boulder, which she ran for the next three years. Moving back to GandyLittleton, she soon started teaching everything from Preschool Dance to Advanced Leaps & Turns at Peak Athletics Plus, as well as collaborating choreography for many projects. She coached the Calicos and the Lions Dance Teams for the 2005-2006 season, and then the Calicos, the Bobcats, and the Pumas for the 2006-2007 season, and is currently coaching the Calicos and assisting with the Leopards and Pumas this season. She continues to teach technique classes and loves the opportunity to continue working with such a wonderful group of teachers and kids.
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Elizabeth Petrick
Dance Instructor
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Elizabeth Petrick is thrilled to be teaching dance at
Peak. Elizabeth minored in dance at the University of
Colorado at Boulder, was a pom/dance instructor for
several years for United Spirit Association, where she
taught high school teams at summer camps, and is
currently a member of the Cherry Hills Church dance
team. Elizabeth has been a stay at home mom for 12
years! She has four beautiful children......Matthew
who's 12, Emma who's 10, Noah who's 5 and Isabella who
is 3! She is thankful to be back on the dance scene
and is honored to pass on her passion for dance to all
of your amazing kids! She is excited for what the
future holds for the Peak dance department, and for
the opportunity to nurture, direct and watch your
children as they learn and grow!
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Kendra Scott
Dance Instructor
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Kendra has been dancing since age 5 but found her niche with Metropolitan Academy of Dance by age 7. Kendra was a Company dancer starting at the Junior level and ended at the top Senior 1 group. She trained in ballet, tap and jazz at M.A.D. and at Michelle Latimer dance studio for lyrical and hip-hop. She graduated from Arapahoe High School in 1999. While at AHS, she intended to tryout for the Toms, dancers had to have one year of cheerleading. So she became a cheerleader, and loved it, and cheered all four years! Kendra was the "dance captain" for the Varsity team and choreographed all of their routines. AHS Cheers won State in 1996 and went to Nationals three years in a row. After high school, Kendra attended CSU where she continued to take classes at a local Ft. Collins studio. After taking some time off she is back at it, and teaches dance and coaches the Bengals elite cheer team at Peak. Kendra says, "Dance and cheerleading was such an important and amazing experience for me, and I am so thrilled to be a part of someone else's experience." |
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Hillary Bishop
Assistant Teacher
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Hillary began dancing at the age of three and has attended many different studios both locally and overseas, but she feels she has truly found her home at Peak Athletics Plus. She danced on Peak's Elite Competitive Dance team for three years and was honored with the MVP award for the last two. This year, Hillary is taking a break from training and competing to focus on her senior year at Mountain Vista High School and another passion of hers, voice and music. Hillary assists pom, jazz, leaps/turns and preschool classes and finds such joy in her ability to share her love of dance with kids. She hopes to continue teaching and sharing her passion for many more years to come. Outside of the dance department, Hillary works with Peak birthday parties and the Parent's Night Out program. |
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