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Erica Thornton | | | Erica has been a dancer and gymnast since the age of seven. She started a serious dance pursuit when she started dancing with Starr Gaither Kendrick at the age of nine. Erica studied ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, and tumbling under Starr for four years until she was accepted to the Alabama School of Fine Arts at age thirteen. Erica attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts for five years where she was rigorously trained in Classical Ballet, Jazz, Modern (Duncan and Graham techniques), Contemporary Ballet, West African, and Flamenco styles. Erica also acquired the skills to be proficient in Hip-Hop and Urban Stepping while attending high school. She was in the first season of the ballet company Arova, and also trained (summer ’05) with the Orlando Ballet under acclaimed dancer Fernando Bujones. Erica has performed all over the country and taken classes from big names such as, Thaddeus Davis, Fabrice Lemire (Cirque Du Soleil Artistic Director), Elio Palmeras, Dallas Black Dance Company, Debbie Allen, Ron Brown, Thor Sutowski, and many more. Erica started choreographing her junior year in high school and choreographed a successful senior show called “Bottom Dwellers: continue to dig”. Erica is an award-winning choreographer and has been teaching for three years. She choreographed “Brass Monkey” and “ Panthera Leo” for Starrz Performing Arts Center ’08-’09 dance season. Erica graduated with honors from the Alabama School of Fine Arts with a GPA of 4.0. She now attends Samford University with a major in business / minor in dance and is a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. She aspires to own a dance studio, travel, and judge dance competitions. She also hopes to become a highly respected and desired choreographer. |
Courtney Hall - Assistant Teacher | | | Courtney Hall started dancing when she was three and has been dancing now for 13 years. She has dance experience in Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Pointe, Lyrical, Hip-hop, Musical Theater, Modern, and Voice. She has a very strong passion for dance and loves it very much! Courtney has competed in many dance competitions including: Nexstar, Star power, Dance USA, Applause, Platinum Dance, and Bravo etc. She recently won Miss Teen Dance USA and was on the national dance team and was also asked to be on the international dance team and perform in Barcelona, Spain. She has won many High Platinum, High Gold, and Judge choice Dance awards. She has traveled to many competitions winning several team, duet and solo awards. Courtney also has a lot of experience in pageants and holds many National, State, and Local titles. She is currently a junior at Oxford High School and was on the golden girl dance line for two years. Courtney is in junior beta club and is a National Scholars. She is very dedicated to all that she does and never gives up on anything. Her lifelong goal is to someday be on Broadway and to inspire others to never give up. She has a great personality and loves to meet new people. |
Brittany Kemp- Mommy & Me Teacher | | | Brittany Kemp has studied many areas of the performing arts. She started at age 2 with Beverly’s Dance Unlimited, She continued to Barlow Academy of the Arts where she trained strictly in classical ballet. Brittany then became a student at Starrz Performing Arts Centre where she was a part of Starrz award winning competition team. She also taught for Starr until 2006 when she went to school at Shelton State in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where she was a member of their Theatre and Musical Theatre club for 3 years. Brittany has been in numerous performances from small town events to the Mardi Gras Parade in New Orleans. Brittany’s goal in dance is to ouch as many lives as she can through the arts. She especially loves to work with children. Brittany’s favorite quote is “You can dance anywhere, even if only in your heart”. | Jordan Smith - Assistant Teacher | | Picture coming soon | Jordan began dancing at the age of 8 with STARRZ Performing Arts Centre and has been dancing ever since. During this time she has studied many dance genres such as jazz, tap, ballet, hip hop, contemporary, lyrical, musical theatre, cheerleading and tumbling. She has competed in many competitions around the country including Dance USA, Nexstar, Bravo, Applause, Platinum Dance and more. Among these competitions she has been awarded numerous achievements on an elite level of dance including platinum awards and ranking in the top ten overalls. This past year she was invited to be a member of the American Dance Team. She travelled with this team to Barcelona, Spain where they competed for and won the Grand Prix World Cup in an international competition with 31 countries represented. Jordan has been involved in many school activities as well. During her Freshman year she danced for the Pell City High School Dazzling Dolls Basketball Dance Team. She was a member of the Varsity Cheerleading Squad her Sophomore year. For the upcoming year, Jordan will serve as SGA Vice President of her Senior Class. She will graduate in 2011 with an Honors Diploma having maintained a 3.75 GPA. She is actively involved in her youth group at First Baptist Church and has been a youth leader on many of their youth trips. She will be taking her faith to the Honduran Mission Field on a Senior Mission Trip after graduation. Jordan loves learning, teaching and sharing her love of dance with all the people that come into STARRZ. She hopes to be an inspiration through her dance to everyone trying to achieve their dreams; because after all, she believes there is an inner dancer in all of us just waiting to leap out onto the world’s stage! |
Candice McDaniel - ZUMBA Instructor |  | Candice McDaniel enjoys sharing her love for dance with others. As a former Troy University Co-ed Cheerleader and member of the All-Star Squad and Dance Team, Candice has coached, judged and instructed dance lines, cheerleading teams and show choirs for more than 14 years. She holds a BS degree in Public Relations and Broadcast Journalism and owned a successful fitness gym for ladies near Dothan, Ala., before moving back to her hometown of Pell City and pursuing a degree in Registered Nursing. Candice was also Ms. Alabama 2009 and placed in Top 6 at the Ms. United States 2009 pageant in Las Vegas. Recently returning from San Diego, California, Candice studied ZUMBA under the instruction of top Master Trainers from around the world. She is also Healthcare Level certified in CPR and is excited about joining the Starrz Performing Arts team as a ZUMBA Instructor! |
Diana Johnson- Adult Tap Instructor |  | Mrs. Diana Johnson was born and grew up in Birmingham, AL. She began dancing at the age of four and teaching in her teen years. Around twenty years ago , in association with U.A.B., she began teaching a group of adult dancers and aspiring dancers. They performed as the "Medwise Entertainers". After relocating to Pell City fifteen years ago, with her husband Joe, she retired (she thought). However, she found that her love for dance was so strong she soon returned to dancing with the "Alabama Showstoppers", which is a group that performs at various functions all over Alabama. They have also performed as guest dancers at the "Senior Mrs. America Pageant" in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada. They also performed at STARRZ Performing Arts Centre in 2007-08 dance production "A Blast From The Past". She is still rehearsing every Wednesday with the "Alabama Showstoppers" in Birmingham. Mrs. Diana is very excited to begin her Adult Tap Class at STARRZ! She is looking forward to a very successful & fun eventful year with her students! She, like the rest of STARRZ faculty, enjoys spreading the love for performing arts to people of ALL ages (that includes Adults!) She thinks its never to late to start dancing! |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 04 September 2010 )
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