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Instructors
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Jennifer O'Brien
Jennifer is the owner/operator of Jennifer's Academy of Dance. She was born in Sarasota Florida, and has been dancing since the age of two. Jennifer received a B.S. in Modern and an Associate's Degree in Ballet at Florida School of the Arts. Through out her dance career she has preformed in The King & I, Cabaret, West Side Story, Hello Dollie, The Grapes of Wrath, Act of Light, Will Rogers Follies, Oklahoma and many more. Jennifer had the opportunity to dance with many prestigious dance company's in New York City, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, The Martha Graham Dance Company, and continued with a full scholarship with the Mary Anthony Dance Company. In 1995 she moved to Louisville Kentucky where she taught at many studios through out the area.
Now she opened her own studio in Louisville, Kentucky in June 2003, in addition to a second studio in 2005 and continues to be a strong asset to the dance community. |
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Mary Lou Whitfield
Mary Lou has been dancing since she was 4 years old. She studied tap, jazz, and ballet under the direction of Ada Lee Grawmeyer at Ada Lee's School of Dance for over 20 years. However, her main love, and major area of concentration is tap. Competing in numerous competitions throughout the years, Mary Lou also danced and traveled with the Union Barricades Troop for over 5 years. Additionally, during her dance career, she has taught tap for younger students several times.
Now, after taking time off to pursue a career outside the studio, and start a family, Mary Lou returns as an instructor at Jennifer's Academy of Dance since its opening in June 2003. |
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Kristin Coleman
Kristin started dancing in 1984 at the age of three. When she was fifteen she begun demonstrating classes for younger students. Three years later, in 1998, she began teaching at a local studio. Her teaching continued and brought her to Jennifer's Academy of Dance in June 2003. She has been under Jennifer's instruction since 1996 and has taught with Jennifer since her teaching career began in 1998. Kristin also attended the University of Louisville. She is currently working towards a B.S. in Health and Human Performance, with concentration in Skills Acquisition with Teaching Preparation and a Minor in Health Education. She looks forward to graduation in December 2004. |
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Amy Shadburne
Amy has been dancing for over nineteen years. She has been a student of Jennifer's for twelve years. Amy’s dance background consists of Ballet/Pointe, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Modern, and Hip-Hop. Amy began teaching at a local studio 7 years ago and has been teaching at Jennifer's Academy of Dance for the past five years. In the summer of 2003, Amy attended the Kentucky Governor's School for the Arts where she was a dance major with a concentration in Ballet. In 2004-2005 Amy spent a year as a dance major at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri studying Ballet/Pointe, Modern, Tap and Irish and East Indian dancing. She decided to return to the University of Louisville and received her Bachelor's in Business Management and Marketing in April 2008.Amy received scholarships from Dance Masters of the Bluegrass and the Dance Factory Convention. She has been selected as a Hoctor Dance Caravan Kid for the past six years. Throughout her years of dance, Amy has studied under Elizabeth Hartwell, Clark Reid, Christina DiGiovanni, Mary Rotella, Deborah Carr and Jimmy Hao. Amy has also choreographed for the IUS Red Edition dance team and is an assistant coach for the North Oldham High School dance team. She now spends her daytime as an assistant at FSAB and the Law Office of Eric L. Crump, and looks forward to teaching her students at night. |
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Alexis O'Brien
Alexis O'Brien has enjoyed dancing with Jennifer and her talented staff for more than 11 years and is so grateful for her opportunity of teaching younger students the art form that she is so enthusiastic about. Soon to be a senior at the Youth Performing Arts School, she dances everyday and is still continuing to learn and grow as an aspiring performer herself. Alexis has been involved in a multitude of productions throughout the community including The Nutcracker, James and the Giant Peach, Beauty and the Beast, Fiddler on the Roof, Aladdin, High School Musical, as well as various dance concerts. She plans to pursue her passion throughout the rest of her high school career, college, and beyond as her love for dance continues to grow. |
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Christy Forehand
Christy Forehand was raised in Champaign, Illinois and graduated from the Virginia School of the Arts. She started her professional dance career with the Charleston Ballet Theatre followed by Augusta Ballet, where she performed principal roles in many ballet and contemporary works, such as: Balachine’s Serenade and Tarantella; Jill Bahr’s Rite of Spring; and, Colin Conner’s Second Hand Sofa. Christy went on to dance five seasons with Dayton Ballet, where she performed as “Snow Queen” and “Sugar Plum Fairy” in, The Nutcracker, “Black Swan” in Swan Lake, “Lucy” in Dracula, and “Wendy” in Peter Pan. She was also featured in Dermot Burke’s Fetes des Courtiers and Alan Hinelines Thresholds II. Christy has enjoyed teaching at several studio's in South Carolina, Georgia, Ohio and Illinois throughout her career. Teaching students of all ages and levels, coaching for performance and competitions. She is happy to be joining the team at Jennifer's Academy of Dance, after recently moving to Louisville with her husband. |
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Katie Windmill
Katie Windmill was raised in Louisville, KY where she has been dancing since she was three years old. She began at a small studio called Jo Ann Fyrear, where she enjoyed taking classes in jazz, ballet and tap and later moved up to pointe. In addition to the classes she was already committed to, she began taking technique at Dance Unlimited to further improve her dance skill. It wasn’t until she made her middle school dance team that she realized she had a passion for competing, and discontinued her classes with Jo Ann. Three years later, Katie found herself trying out for the Louisville Male High School Dance Team and Planet Dance Senior All Stars. Being on two incredibly busy, competitive teams, she dropped one team after doing both for a little under a year, and chose to stick with the All Stars. University of Louisville Lady Bird’s coach, Cheryl Knight and Floyd Central High School coach (& owner of PD), Todd Sharpe coached Katie for the three years she competed with Planet Dance, who, in that time, won three National Championships. Besides dancing, Katie is in the childcare field of work as she loves children and enjoys helping them to grow and develop into bright, young adults. |
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