Faculty

Anne Green Gilbert (MAT)

started her teaching career as an elementary school teacher in Chicago where she first used movement to teach the academic curriculum. Currently, Anne is Artistic Director of the Creative Dance Center and Kaleidoscope Dance Company, which she founded in Seattle, Washington in 1981. Anne is recognized as one of the leading dance educators throughout the United States and abroad. When not teaching classes at CDC or choreographing for Kaleidoscope, Anne trains teachers through her Summer Dance Institute for Teachers and for Seattle Pacific University as an adjunct professor. Anne has conducted hundreds of workshops for children and adults across the United States and in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Finland, Russia, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Brazil, Portugal, and The Netherlands.

Anne is the author of Teaching the Three Rs Through Movement, Creative Dance for All Ages, Brain-Compatible Dance Education, Teaching Creative Dance (DVD) and BrainDance (DVD), as well as numerous articles. Anne is also an active member of the National Dance Association, National Dance Education Organization, and Dance and the Child International. Anne is founder and Past President of the Dance Educators Association of Washington, an organization promoting quality dance education in all Washington State schools K-12. As a member of the Arts Education Standards project, she helped write the Washington State Dance Standards and Learning Goals. Anne has received numerous awards including the WAHPERD Honor Award, NDA Outstanding Dance Educator Award (Northwest District), the 1999 AAHPERD Honor Award, and the 2005 NDA Scholar/Artist Award, and is featured in Dance Teacher Magazine May 2006. In October 2011 the National Dance Education Organization presented Anne with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Anne, the mother of three dancing children and several grandchildren, currently lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband.

Ines Andrade

has been teaching at CDC since Fall 2000. She received her BFA from University of Florida/New World School for the Arts with honors in dance & choreography. She has performed, choreographed, and taught young children in Paris, Florida, and the San Juan Islands before moving to Seattle. Ines teaches movement at numerous schools in the Puget Sound region and is a member of Seattle Early Dance company. She performs in various other dance styles and sings French Cabaret.

Tom Bergersen

(dance musician) works with the University of Washington Dance Department and with PNB. He has worked previously with Bochinche's school program, and with Bill Evans. Currently Tom performs with the Seattle based Latin Jazz group, Sonando.

Eric Chappelle

(Music Director) has been creating music with dance for over 20 years. He works with many local theaters and has composed and produced four exceptional compact disc volumes of Music for Creative Dance.

Soleil Chappelle

graduated from Naropa University in Boulder in 2011 with a BFA in Performance (dance, theater & voice training).

She is currently working with Anne Green Gilbert as an assistant teacher at the Creative Dance Center and choreographed for the Kaleidoscope Dance Company’s 2012 Spring Concert.

She has created and performed for the Boulder Fringe Festival and has performed with dance and performance companies in the Boulder-Denver area.  In Seattle, she performed with Kaleidoscope Dance Company (1998-2005), Dance This! Ensemble (2004) and Enertia Dance Company (2005-2006).  She studied dance at the Creative Dance Center since infancy. 

Sara Coiley

is a well-respected educator and choreographer known for her high energy, laughter, and extremely creative and joyful approach to teaching, allowing all children to reach their highest potential and success! She most recently was the Assistant Choreographer/Director for Seussical, Jr. at Village Theatre Kidstage. Past credits with Village Theatre Kidstage include Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, Willy Wonka, Jr. and HONK! Jr.
Sara graduated with a BA from CWU with acting and choreography honors. She has taught art, musical theatre, drama, and dance to students of all ages in university, public schools, and studios since 1994. As a mother of two young girls she has become passionate about the impact of the arts and movement upon young children’s health and learning. She has studied extensively with international movement educator, Anne Green Gilbert, at the Summer Dance Institute for Teachers and been on faculty at the Creative Dance Center since 2000 where she has embraced and followed the philosophy of brain compatible/conceptual education and forged this with her own belief that all children have the right to dance with meaning and joy!
Sara currently teaches dance in Lake Stevens where she is the director of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Stars, a mobile dance/arts program that brings education to pre-K schools/daycares. She is the lead teacher and co-developer of Arts Adventures preschool program at The Village Theatre/Everett and provides numerous arts/dance workshops and classes throughout the greater Seattle area. She is thankful to spend her summers at CDC…a beautiful ‘home’ that has taken her on quite a journey!

Jessica Gleason

is a graduate of UW with a degree in dance. Since graduating she has been performing and teaching throughout the Seattle area. Jessica has twice attended the Creative Dance Center's Summer Dance Institute for Teachers.

Terry Goetz

is Director of Education and Outreach for the Creative Dance Center in Seattle, Washington. Terry has been on the faculty of the Creative Dance Center since 2000 and began training intensively with Anne Green Gilbert in 1997. She teaches Nurturing Baby, Parent/Toddler, and Parent/Child Creative Dance classes and Ballet and Modern Dance for older children and adults. Terry has taught in preschools, elementary classrooms, and studios throughout the Seattle area since retiring from Pacific Northwest Ballet where she danced from 1988-1995. Prior to performing with PNB, she was a member of Pittsburgh Ballet Theater from 1986-1988. During her professional career Terry performed works by George Balanchine, Paul Taylor, Jose LImon, Lar Lubovitch, Mark Dendy, Merce Cunningham, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Petipa, and Bournonville, as well as performing in full-length works; Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppelia, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, and A Midsummers Night's Dream. She began her dance training at Beulah's School of Dance in the San Fernando Valley, studying everything from tap, ballet, jazz, character dance, tumbling, to baton twirling! After catching the ballet bug she trained with Natalia Clare of Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at her studio, Ballet La Jeunesse, in Toluca Lake, CA. As a teen Terry studied at San Francisco Ballet School, the School of American Ballet in NY, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. Terry has continued her dance training as an adult by attending numerous Summer Dance Institutes for Teachers with Anne Green Gilbert and through studying with Bill Evans at his Teacher Intensives. The combined body of knowledge that Bill Evans and Anne Green Gilbert have shared with her has transformed and deepened her understanding of dance, personally and professionally. She presents to PEPS groups and Early Childhood specialists focusing on the importance of movement in the early years of life. Terry’s workshops at Early Childhood conferences are always enthusiastically received and she was the Keynote Speaker at the 2006 FACES North Conference and the 2007 Childhood Matters Conference. Terry presents workshops locally, nationally, and internationally, training dance teachers, educators, and teaching artists in BrainDance and Brain-Compatible Dance Education and she has presented at the National Dance Association  and National Dance Education Organization conferences. Terry has taught for the International Dance and the Child Finnish Chapter, at the Kuopio International Dance Festival, the Edmonton Orff Schulwerk Association, and the Indiana Orff Schulwerk Association and more. She worked with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in WA state as a Dance Specialist developing updated K-12 Learning Standards for Dance. Terry is an active member of the National Dance Education Organization and is the Past-President of the Dance Educators Association of Washington.

Gail Heilbron

has a MFA in Dance/Theater from Case Western Reserve University. She has been a dancer, teacher, and choreographer for 40 years including Artistic Director of Co-Motion Dance. She has taught at the Creative Dance Center since its beginning. Gail is also a certified Gryotonic® and Gryokinesis® Trainer.

Ingrid Hurlen

Ingrid Hurlen has been dancing, singing and performing since the age of 5 and made her professional debut at the age of 12 in the UW School of Music production of “Hansel & Gretel”.  She has been teaching creative dance for all ages since 1987. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater Arts from Lone Mountain College in San Francisco. She has trained with Anne Green Gilbert in numerous Summer Dance Institutes for Teachers at the Creative Dance Center. She is on staff in the Early Childhood Education program at Edmonds Community College teaching “Movement, Music and Singing With Children” to preschool educators. In addition to the Creative Dance Center, she currently teaches at Dance Fremont, Sand Point Child Development Center and in Fall 2011, at Crown Hill Preschool.
Ingrid is a certified InterPlay facilitator since 1997, helping build community through movement, story and song, mentoring others and their creative growth. She currently co-leads the InterPlay Life Practice Program for adults and teaches monthly classes at Sound Health Solutions and a monthly Intergenerational InterPlay class at the Creative Dance Center. She produced the “Unbelievable Beauty of Being Human” concert in May 2000, bringing over 40 InterPlayers from around the country to the Broadway Performance Hall.

An accomplished performer, her dance/theatre works have been produced in San Francisco and Seattle at the Independent Choreographers and Allegro! Dance Festivals and Bumbershoot. She performed for eight years with Christopher Beck & Company: Dance/Theatre in San Francisco at the Palace of Fine Arts and at the Theatre of the Open Eye in NYC. Among the other choreographers/directors she has worked with are Phoebe Neville, Deborah Hay, Pat Graney, Karen Gee, Ping Chong, Gina Gibney, Louise Salisbury and Kris Wheeler. She has a long-standing collaborative partnership with dance musician and composer Eric Chappelle. She has been a dancing hug bug for 23 years with local family performance ensemble Tickle Tune Typhoon.

In October 2010, she participated in the Dance for PD (Parkinson’s disease) teacher training workshop with the Mark Morris Dance Group in Brooklyn, NY.  She is pleased to introduce this work and offer a class at CDC with Anne Green Gilbert – BrainDance for Balance and Mobility.

Martha W Johnson

has been Administrative Director of Creative Dance Center since 1991 during which time she has traveled the world with Kaleidoscope Dance Company and held down the fort at CDC. Feel free to drop by the Office anytime!

Anna Mansbridge

is from the United Kingdom, where she studied dance for many years. She holds a First Class Honors Degree in Dance and Education from Bedford College, U.K. and an M.F.A. in Choreography and Performance from Mills College, California. She has been on faculty at the Creative Dance Center since 1999, where she teaches dance to people of all ages. Anna has created many pieces on Kaleidoscope, and is Rehearsal Director for the company. Anna is also the founder (in 2000) and Artistic Director of Seattle Early Dance, which specializes in recreating dances of the European courts from the 16th through 18th centuries. In addition, Anna choreographs and directs early opera. Her recent direction of Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo by Cavalieri (1600) received rave reviews, and she just choreographed her first combat scene for an mini-opera at On The Boards.

Sharon Riedy

Sharon Riedy loves to share her gift of dance with all ages and communities, as well as promote the importance of movement to live a happier and healthier life. She attended the Summer Dance Institute for Teachers with Anne Green Gilbert in July 2010. Since her certification in brain-compatible dance education, Sharon has shared her new knowledge with dancers between the ages of 18 months to 70+ years in various settings including co-op preschools, elementary schools, community centers, hospice, and church communities. Sharon has a Master of Arts in Dance from York University in Toronto, Canada. Her dance background includes ballet, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, modern, tap, and folk dance. Her teaching experience started in 1989, with Ms. Revel Paul at The Asian American Ballet Company in Los Angeles. She has also taught in Toronto, Omaha, and Manila and is a faculty member for the Washington School of Dance in Bothell, WA since 2009. Sharon is delighted to be joining the Creative Dance Center faculty this summer and looks forward to the opportunity to dance, create, and play with her students.

Rebecca Schroeder

has been dancing and performing since the age of four.  She was traditionally trained in Ballet and Graham Technique, and studied at the Graham School in New York City.  Rebecca received her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance at California State University Long Beach.  While at University she continued to study Ballet and Graham Technique but also was exposed to other modern dance styles: Limon, Paul Taylor, and release technique, which further broadened her dance repertoire. While at CSULB she worked with choreographers Sharon Kinney, Francine Landes, Andrea E. Woods, David Dorfman and many graduate and undergraduate choreographers. She also performed at the American College Dance Festivals throughout the United States. After University Rebecca performed and taught in New York City, California and Washington State. She taught in Northern California and performed for Danny Furlong for Redwood Concert Ballet. In New York City she taught for a government funded dance education program, bringing dance and music education for Pre K-Grade 12 to schools in all five boroughs. Rebecca has danced with choreographers Keith Johnson, Three-Way Dance Project, Erin Mitchell, Sue Hogan, R-dance, Jerboa, and Deborah Birrane while in the Seattle area. Rebecca holds a certificate from the Creative Dance Center’s Summer Dance Institute for Teachers. Besides dancing Rebecca also has a passion for costume design and for movement function / retraining.  She is a certified STOTT PILATES™ instructor and was certified in Zena Rommett Floor-Barre Technique™ in 2004.  Rebecca has traveled the world costuming dancers and singers on cruise ships from the Arctic to the Cape in South America.

Meghan Sissom

graduated from the University of Colorado with a double major in psychology and sociology and from Antioch University with a Master of Education. She has thirteen years experience working with children, teenagers, and adults, specializing in the areas of at risk youth and working with people with varying abilities. She brings her experience in developmental movement and dance into her work with her students. She is able to facilitate the flow of a class while also giving attention to student's individual needs and pace. She has danced all her life engaging in many different forms including jazz, tap, ballet, African, modern, swing, and improvisational dance and continues her journey with dance here in Seattle. She attended the 2010 Integrated Dance summer intensive at the University of Washington with other Integrated Dance teachers from the US and Canada.