Ken Kaiser
Director of WCBS

Mr. Kaiser began his dance training at age 4 and has studied ballet, tap, and jazz. He was "bitten by the bug" when he and his brother performed at the New York World's Fair in 1964. He and his four brothers performed with the Cleveland-based Singing Angels before President Nixon, Pope John Paul II, and appeared with Bob Hope. After moving to Seattle, they toured the Northwest with several variety groups, opened for Wayne Newton and appeared on the Kraft Music Halt Christmas Special on NBC in 1969. He also performed in off-Broadway productions of Showboat, Carousel, Music Man, Sound of Music, and Finnegan's Rainbow.

Tara Bruizeman
Ballet Mistress and Ballet Instructor

Miss Tara Bruizeman has been a dancer for the past 12 years. Her dance history includes 1 year with Tacoma City Ballet, 1 year with Metropolitan Ballet of Tacoma, and 10 years studying under Miss Kay Englert at WCB. She became a teacher Assistant for the Level 1 ballet class and eventually took over instruction for 1 year. Miss Bruizeman has taken on major roles in several performances, such as The Nutcracker, Midsummer's Dream, Firebird, Alexander Nevsky, and Lakme. She is now the full-time Creative Movement and Pre-Ballet instructor and also teaches ballet levels 2B and 3A.

Sharonda Young
Modern/Ballet Instructor

Sharonda Young holds a BFA in Dance and Choreography from Marymount Manhattan College, but lets not forget about that Mathematics minor too. She has received training in various forms of dance; ballet, pointe, tap and jazz but her true passion lies with modern techniques; Horton, Cunningham, Limon, and most important to her heart is the Martha Graham technique. During her 8 years living in NYC Sharonda performed in works choreographed by Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow, Chet Walker, Louis Falco, and Martha Graham to name a few. She worked with various companies including the Martha Graham Dance Ensemble, the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Errol Grimes Dance Troupe, and Tysan Dance. She even spent a couple months cruising the Caribbean aboard a NCL vessel showing the world that a classically trained dancer can shimmy with the best of 'em. She has currently put performing on hold to focus on choreographing and teaching. You can find her classes at Washington Contemporary Ballet, Metropolitan Ballet of Tacoma, Jo Emery Dance Studio, and Auburn Dance Academy.  In addition to dancing Sharonda spends her time making coffee, shelving books, and volunteering at Foss High School where she is learning that krumping is a valid and difficult dance form.

Marisela Fleites
Flamenco Instructor

Ms. Fleites has been dancing Flamenco for 25 years in Cuba and Spain, as well as in the United States. She believes in the importance of teaching not just how to dance, but also to impart an understanding of the history and soul of this vigorous style of dance. In addition to her dancing, she is a college professor and recently earned her Ph.D.

Stephanie Wood
Advisor

Miss Stephanie Wood trained at the Washington Academy of Performing Arts from 1993 to 1997, where she was under the direction of Deborah Hadley. She danced in the title role of Giselle, with partner William DeGregory and also performed in the production of George Balanchine's Tarantella. She then studied at the San Francisco Ballet School from 1997 to 1998, where she performed in the companies production of The Nutcracker as Chinese, Snow Corpse, and Waltz of the Flowers. She also performed in the Lew Christensen's Vivaldo Concerto Grosso, Balanchine's Divertimento #15, and Stars and Stripes, in the annual school performance. She he worked for Ballet Memphis for 6 years before becoming an instructor for Washington Contemporary Ballet in 2004.

Angela Audorff

Ms. Audorff’s dance training began at age 9 at Washington Contemporary Ballet studying with Miss Kay Englert. She has served in the roles of ballet principal, rehearsal assistant, ballet mistress, and ballet instructor at WCB. She was accepted to Boston Ballet, Pennsylvania-the Rock Ballet, and School of American Ballet in New York (SAB) where she attended their summer program. She has performed as Clara in the Nutcracker Ballet, Swan Lake - Pas de trios, Rose Faerie from Sleeping Beauty, Titania’s First Faerie in Midsummer’s Eve, Russian Ballerina Doll in La Boutique, featured in the Tango in Collage, Lead in the Pie-eyed Piper of Hamlin and was honored to dance the lead in Lakme at Miss Englert’s memorial. She performed in dancing roles with the Tacoma Opera for six seasons and was a featured soloist as the lead gypsy in La Traviata.

Dominique Gabella
Guest Instructor in Modern Dance
and Artistic Advisor

Ms Gabella began her training with the Paris Opera and has studied with the finest instructors in Europe. She has performed with the Zurich Opera Ballet under the direction of Rudolf Nureyev, the Swiss Contemporary Dance Theater, as principal dancer and assistant choreographer, and the Tanz Forum Koln of Germany. Her company; Dance Music Light, performed her works in New York , and represented Switzerland in the Festival International de Teatro. She has taught Modern Dance (Graham technique) and ballet in Colombia . She was the assistant Graham technique instructor at Maurice Bejart's MUDRA in Belgium . Ms. Gabella continues to teach and performs regularly with her company, Next Stage Dance Theatre.

Noel Mason
Artistic Advisor, Former Instructor
in Ballet and Pointe

At 16, Ms. Mason was the youngest member of the Joffrey Ballet. She has danced roles choreographed by Joffrey, Arpino, Ailey, Balanchine, and others. Ms. Mason served as Ballet Mistress for Pacific Northwest Ballet from 1979 to 1982, and was a faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle . She has been guest teacher for the Cleveland School of Ballet, American Festival Ballet, and Summer Dance Lab in Walla Walla, and has taught master classes throughout the United States.

Dale Merrill

Mr. Merrill is the chair of the Department of Dance at Chapman University in California. Prior to this, he founded Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle in 1987 where he served as Artistic Director for 15 years. He studied dance at the University of Utah and was one of the first to graduate from the University of Washington's MFA Dance Program. Mr. Merrill has over 16 years of choreographic credits including numerous original works, musical theater productions, and a recent Public Television Special, Voices Across America. Under his direction, Spectrum Dance Theatre has performed in Chicago , Washington D.C., and Europe. Mr. Merrill has a dynamic and charismatic teaching style with a wide range of experience in ballet and contemporary dance. Mr. Merrill has choreographed two works for WCB, including a tribute to the American Swing Movement, The Club.

Brittany Link
Ballet Instructor

Sirena Rivera
Ballet Instructor

Adrienne White
Ballet Mistress
Ballet Instructor

Jill Adomaitis
Ballet Instructor

Born in NYC, Ms. Adomaitis began her training in Germany at the age of four. Upon returning to the U.S., she continued her studies at the Cambridge School of Ballet, Harkness House, Joffrey and American Ballet Theatre Schools. She spent a season at the University of Cincinnati Dance Conservatory and holds an undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina.

Ms. Adomaitis danced professionally with Boston Ballet II, Connecticut Ballet, South Carolina Ballet Theatre and Dinosaur Dance Company. Upon retiring from the stage, she began dedicating her time to studying the art of teaching ballet. She was the ballet mistress for two companies and she has taught at several schools and colleges in the U.S. since 1981.