meet our teachers
 
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Carol Zee, Artistic Director and Dance Instructor: Carol has been everybody dance!’s artistic director since its inception in 2000. She is a dancer, teacher and choreographer and has been a featured member of Especially Tap Chicago and the Jazz Tap Ensemble of Los Angeles. She danced with Gregory Hines at the Ford Theater in Los Angeles, Harold Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers in New York and was Halle Berry's tap teacher for the HBO film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Her teaching experience includes master classes, conventions, college residencies, workshops and dance festivals. Carol oversees everybody dance!’s weekly classes, determines curriculum, hires faculty and teaches six of the program’s tap classes.
 
 
 
Chippy Zuniga, Assistant Artistic Director/Dance Education Coordinator and Dance Instructor: Chippy was hired in 2006 to strengthen the schoolday dance programs by more fully integrating dance instruction throughout the academic curriculum. Chippy has a strong background in dance education, including a BA in World Arts and Culture with a dance emphasis from UCLA and an MA from New York University with concentration in Dance Education K12.

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She previously served as the Childhood Dance Director and dance instructor at the Harvey Cavalier Camp, Park Pre School and the River School in New York and taught dance at the Westwood Charter School and the Faith Intercommunity Church in Whittier, California. She has danced with the Kaleidoscope Dance Company, the Pasadena Civic Ballet Company and the UCLA Undergraduate Dance Company. Chippy cowrote the dance curriculum for the ABC School District and currently teaches at Hollywood School House. In addition to her role as Dance Education Coordinator, Chippy also teaches integrative movement and choreography for everybody dance!
  
dance instructors
 
 
 
Leslie Geldbach has been dancing for 25 years and has done musicals, videos, movies, concerts, industrials, television and choreography. Leslie’s dance credits include working with Reba McEntire, LL. Cool J., Jim Carrey, Kirsten Dunst and The Rock. She was assistant choreographer for Reba McEntire’s “Girls Night Out” Tour, Latin Singer Chayanne’s 19971998 Tours and Leanne Rhymes tours and live performances. She has done videos for Smash Mouth, Elton John and Garth Brooks. Her musicals credits include Sisterella and The Fab Four; her movie credits include The Majestic and Scorpion King; and her television credits include The Hughley’s, Hit me Baby One More Time, and Time of Your Life with Jennifer Love Hewitt. Leslie has recently choreographed for Alex Borstein from the Family Guy, Andy Dick as Daphnie Agulara and Will Wheaton. Leslie continues to train in the art of dance and give back to her community by teaching for the scholarship program at the Performing Arts Center, Encore Dance Studio and master classes in the United States and Canada. Leslie teaches jazz for everybody dance!
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Samantha Giron is the artistic director of Samantha Giron Dance Project. She earned an MFA in Choreography from California Institute of the Arts in 2006 and a BA in Dance from Mills College in 2001. She has performed the choreography of Mark Morris, Tere O'Connor and Scott Wells. Her choreography has been staged at The Key Club, The Electric Lodge, San Francisco's ODC, The Vic Lopes Auditorium, The Santa Cruz Dance Gallery, Oakland's Elihu Harris State Building, Venue Nine, Oakland Box, Burning Man Festival, L.A. Decompression Festival, the Emerging Choreographer's Showcase Festival, Stella Adler Theater, San Francisco's Project Artaud Theater for the WestWave Dance Festival, Bootleg Theater, The Elephant Theater, BOXeight Studio, The Boulder Fringe Festival, Casa del Prado Theater, The Santa Fe Complex and Highways Performance Space. She co-choreographed the dance film Hotel Scopeli which won a Kodak Grant award. Music video credits include "The Kids" by People. Samantha is on the dance faculty at L.A. Community College and teaches modern and ballet for everybody dance!
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Katie Grubiak has performed and collaborated with the Liam Harney Irish Dance Company, the AfroCuban and AfroBrazilian company Soul Beat, the Irish rock band Young Dubliners, Irish percussionist David Page and Irish musician Mick Moloney. She has toured across the U.S. and Europe. Her dance background encompasses classical as well as cultural dance forms and her mission has been in rediscovering their connection. Katie is most known for her fusion style of Irish dance, both dancing and choreographing for stage and TV. She has also worked with the Los Angeles Opera in its sold out performances of Manon. Most recently, Katie danced for Sue Wong’s Spring 2008 MercedesBenz fashion show alongside fellow colleagues Shannon Harris and Chippy Zuniga. In addition to her career as a dance teacher, Katie works as a public health Registered Dietitian. Katie teaches ballet for everybody dance!
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Shannon Harris holds a Political and Social Thought degree from the University of Virginia, where she was the school's Dance Team Captain and a principle performer with the Virginia Dance Company. She has also choreographed for the Hobart Shakespeareans, an internationally renowned public elementary school class that performs musical versions of Shakespeare’s plays. Shannon teaches modern dance and ReadingInMotion for everybody dance!
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Meredith Huddleston holds a BA in Ballet Pedagogy from Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia and a MFA from New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts where she was a scholarship student. She began her ballet training at the age of ten with Emily Caruso and has received additional training from Tom Pazik, Diane Callahan, Jackie Villamil, Jolinda Menendez, Douglas Becker and Cassandra Pfifer. In New York, she studied extensively with and danced in original works by Milton Myers, Sean Curran, David Dorfman and Doug Varonne. Meredith performed in New York at the Downtown Arts Festival and DANCENOW, at the Joyce SoHo, the 92nd Street YMCA, St. Mark's Church and P.S.122. Meredith taught ballet, jazz and modern dance for 15 years throughout the Southeast and New York City and currently teaches ballet for everybody dance!

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Keeley “LocknKey” Kaukimoce is a world-renowned female locker and street dancer and is one of the only original-style locking teachers of this generation. She discovered street dance while watching music videos at the age of ten in her small Garland, Texas home. She grew up with an affection for all forms of street dance including locking, popping, b-boying, party dancing and freestyle. She received training from original locker Greg Campbellock Jr. and Flomaster of Footwork Fanatics. She is currently a member of the female crew, the BeatFreaks, and a core member of the Groovaloos. She has worked in numerous music videos with The Black Eyed Peas, Missy Elliott, Christina Aguilera and Run DMC vs. Jason Nevins. She also appeared in “You Got Served,” “Legally Blonde” and recently appeared on the Teen Choice Awards in the M&M cru. Keeley is now teaching original- style locking techniques and her own choreographed hip-hop, with a funky old school flare. She is very passionate about keeping first generation locking alive and trying her best to educate the youth on the history and origins of various street dances. Keeley teaches hip-hop for everybody dance!

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Astrid Voss Lew grew up in Switzerland and received her professional training at the Geneva Dance Center in Switzerland. She also studied on scholarship at School of American Ballet in New York. During her training, she competed in numerous International Ballet Competitions with several gold medal performances in Houlgate, France (1996); Geneva, Switzerland (1997); Grasse, France (1997); and Nîmes, France (1998). She has danced professionally with Pennsylvania Ballet in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and was hired by the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1999. At the Royal Danish Ballet she performed in works by Bournonville, Balanchine, Peter Martins and others. Since her retirement from performing, Astrid has graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business. She was a Founding Board Member of the Los Angeles Ballet and has taught ballet at The Los Angeles Ballet School, The Marat Daukayev School of Ballet, and The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Astrid teaches ballet for everybody dance!
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Sarah Lozoff was trained at the Miami Conservatory, South Florida's oldest ballet school, under the direction of Thomas Armour. She graduated from Miami's nationally renowned performing arts high school, New World School of the Arts, where she studied ballet, modern and Caribbean dance techniques Gerri Houlihan, Peter London, Bambi Anderson and Judith Newman.  Sarah was a founding member of Ballet Rosario Suarez, where she performed both soloist & principal roles in a full classical ballet repertoire and performed in works choreographed and staged by both Fernando Bujones & Rosario "Charin" Suarez. She has taught creative movement, pre-ballet and ballet for over a decade and helped to create the current pre-ballet syllabus for the Miami Conservatory. Sarah teaches ballet for everybody dance!
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Kathleen Mangan was born in New York and raised in Los Angeles. She has danced professionally from coast to coast and internationally, performing in industrials and musical theatre such as Cabaret, Oliver! and A Chorus Line. After graduating from UCLA in 2002, she danced in Japan for a year and then moved to the east coast to work as a dancer for the NBA’s New Jersey Nets. Kathleen teaches ballet for everybody dance!
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Vera Ninkovic was born in Perth, Australia. She studied classical ballet at some of the most prestigious ballet schools in the world on scholarship including: The National Ballet School in Sofia, Bulgaria and the State Ballet School in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Vera also studied with the London Studio Center in London where she was voted Dancer of the Year in 1991 and performed in the presence of HRH Prince Edward. She completed her training at the Royal Ballet School in London where she received the R.A.D. Solo Seal Award. Vera was a semifinalist in the 1991 Prix de Lausanne international ballet competition in Switzerland. She went on to dance professionally with the Basel Ballet in Switzerland, touring internationally. She also performed as a soloist with the Perth City Ballet in Australia as well as the Los Angeles Classical Ballet at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Vera has taught ballet for The Performing Arts Center in Northridge, The Ana Cheselka Dance Center and The Marat Daukayev School of Ballet. In addition, Vera has produced and choreographed a number of fashion shows and dance productions, including the 2007 spring production of Alice in Wonderland by the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA). Vera is the lead ballet teacher for everybody dance!
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Aaron Porter has worked with Academy Award winner Ron Howard in The Grinch, Academy nominated director Christian Taylor in Showboy (Best Film Milan Film Festival 2002) and Hinton Battle (The Wiz, Dreamgirls). Aaron has done numerous commercials including spots for  McDonald’s, CBS, and Pepsi. His television credits include Disney’s Phil of the Future, Disney’s in Concert Series with B*Witched and Fame LA. Aaron has choreographed for Jason Alexander (Seinfield, The Producers) and has professionally trained dancers who have gone on to work with Britney Spears, Debbie Allen, Cirque du Soleil, winners on the television series Fame and Star Search. He has been teaching at the EDGE and Millennium Dance Complex for the past seven years. His students have included Jenna Elfman (EdTV), Katie Holmes (Batman Begins) and Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under). Aaron choreographed industrials for software giant Cisco Systems, the historic “It’s Magic” 50th Anniversary Show at the Kodak Theatre. His choreography can also be seen in the MGM feature film Sleepover. Aaron has taught master classes and workshops throughout the US and currently teaches hiphop and jazz for everybody dance!

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Sarah Reich dances with Chloe Arnold’s Syncopated Ladies, Jason Samuels Smith’s tap group Anybody Can Get It and Steve Zee’s LA Ironworks. She is a former member of the Jazz Tap Ensemble’s Caravan Project for gifted teenage tap dancers. Sarah has worked with Harold “Stumpy” Cromer since 2004, assisting him at the St. Louis, Chicago and LA tap festivals, teaching his famous “Opus One,” and taught in New York City at the Tap City and at a Traditions In Tap workshop honoring Cromer. Sarah was chosen by Warner Brothers to dance at the previews and world premiere of Happy Feet at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, where she came in first at the Happy Feet Tap Dancing Contest, winning a trip for four to the Baltimore Zoo. Sarah received an award for Performing Artist of the Year at the 2005 OMNI Awards, was featured in Dance Spirit magazine’s article “20 Hot Tappers Under 20” and Dancer magazine describes how: "A small package of dynamite talent, explodes where ever she dances." Sarah can be seen performing in two new tap DVDs: The World Is My Drum, volumes 1 and 2. Sarah teaches tap for everybody dance!
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Joe Schenck graduated from Northwestern University's Theatre program and trained at the Actors Gymnasium, Midnight Circus and Acting Studio Chicago. He began his career in Chicago as an actor, performing in such theaters as Chicago Shakespeare, Lookingglass Theatre, Marriott Theatre, Apple Tree Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre and Light Opera Works and sketch comedy group GayCo. He also choreographed an original adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with MidTangent Productions. Since moving to LA, he has performed at LA Opera, Pasadena Playhouse and Civic Light Opera South Bay Cities and appeared on Eli Stone on ABC. Joe now teaches Theatre Movement at LA County High School for the Arts and is a performer and the Director of Education for Diavolo Dance Theatre. Joe teaches tap, ballet, theater dance, boys dance and ballroom dance for everybody dance!
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Kristen Schifferli received her Masters Degree in Dance Education from New York University and currently holds a Simonson Technique teaching Certification from Dance New Amsterdam, NYC. She has instructed dance for the past eight years in over 30 educational institutions including elementary, professional and studio, university, and community programs. Kristen has written numerous articles for Dance Teacher magazine and she recently cowrote the ABC Unified VAPA Dance 0708 curriculum. Her performance credits include television appearances and professional work on stages in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City. Kristen teaches preballet for everybody dance!
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