Guest Faculty
Vivian Little (she/her) Director Emerita
Vivian Little, originally from Bellingham, WA became one of the original members to form Pacific NW Dance and performed as a Principal Dancer from 1974-1977. Her professional training in Seattle included teachers and artists such as Janet Reed, Todd Bolender, Melissa Hayden, Nancy Robinson, Ronald Sequoia and Perry Brunson.
Vivian joined the San Francisco Ballet (SFB) in 1977 under the artistic direction of choreographers, Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin. Performing Christensen and Smuin choreography, as well as works by George Balanchine and Frederic Ashton fueled her passion for dance. Vivian’s enthusiasm for teaching came from studying with master teachers Sally Streets, Tatiana Grantzeva, Anatol Vilzak, and Virginia Johnson. Vivian retired from SFB as a Soloist in 1981. After her performing career, she continued to work as a ballet mistress at El Teatro Municipal de Lima, Peru where she had the opportunity to work with Jorge Esquivel (Ballet Nacional de Cuba) and Mario Galizzi (Teatro Municipal de Buenos Aires). She later taught on the faculty of Walnut Hill Performing Art School in Massachusetts and for seven years at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle. In September 1996, “Ms. Vivian” founded Dance Fremont and in 1999 Mary Reardon and “Ms. Vivian” became Co-Directors. Together they shared a vision for the ballet and modern dance integrated program and founded Fremont Danceworks, the school’s contemporary dance company, directing school and company until June 2015. Vivian has taught as a Guest Lecturer in the University of Washington’s Dance Department and from 2007-2016, taught ballet as an adjunct dance instructor at Cornish College of the Arts. “Ms. Vivian” feels an immense gratitude for having been a professional dancer, dance educator, choreographer and dance school director. She strives to bring the richness of this experience into her classroom. She hopes that the discipline and joy that comes from studying dance will support her students in all aspects of their lives.
Mary Reardon (she/her) Director Emerita
Mary Reardon grew up in Erie, PA where she began her life of dance with The Erie Civic Ballet under the direction of Statia Sublette. Her summers were spent at the Chautauqua Institute where she studied under teachers Alexandra Danilova, Melissa Hayden, Jacques D’Amboise, and Patricia McBride.
Mary earned a BFA from the University of Cincinnati where she danced with the Cincinnati Ballet under the direction of David McClain. At the University her love for modern dance began to grow while studying the Horton Technique under teacher James Truitte. Modern dance led her to Atlanta, GA in 1977 where she danced professionally for Atlanta Contemporary Dance Company, Lee Harper Dancers, City Center and the Alliance Theater. In 1981, Mary Wells became Mary Reardon and joined The Carl Ratcliff Dance Theatre. She became a soloist and danced with Atlanta’s first modern dance company for six years.
In 1989, Mary changed focus from performing to teaching. She owned her own school in Georgia for ten years, directed the summer dance program for the Governors Honors program of Georgia and continued to teach in the outreach program for The Carl Ratcliff Dance Theatre. In 1999, Mary joined forces with Vivian Little to co-direct Dance Fremont! In June of 2015 Mary stepped down from Co-Directing Dance Fremont. She continues to teach at the school and is a guest lecturer at the University of Washington.
“My journey across the United States has brought me to understand the amazing gift my parents gave me all those years ago. Dance is like this special club where once you join you are always a part of it. You can meet those other members all your life in any city in the world. I love to teach because I love to introduce children into the world of the dance community. It teaches them to honor their bodies, to work cooperatively, to tap into their creative self. It brings self-awareness to the others around them. The dance world is a special place to be regardless if you choose to make it your life’s work.”
Karel Cruz
Karel Cruz is from Holguin, Cuba, and received his training at Cuba’s Escuela Nacional de Artes. He joined Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1996 and left in 1998 to join Ballet Clasico de Camara in Venezuela. From 1999 to 2000, he danced with Teatro Teresa Carreno, also in Venezuela. After coming to the United States, Mr. Cruz spent a year at the Rock School joining Pacific Northwest Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2002. He was promoted to soloist in 2007 and principal in 2009. Mr. Cruz retired from Pacific Northwest Ballet in July 2018. He joined The University of Oklahoma as a ballet instructor for the dance department in 2019. In 2013, Mr. Cruz performed as a guest artist with Royal New Zealand Ballet. Mr. Cruz has taught master classes, workshops and privates for over 20 years, creating small group summer course and winter workshops with partner Lindsi Dec. He is PBT (Progressing Ballet Technique) certified. Mr. Cruz started Solu, their dancewear line in 2017 with Ms. Dec.
Danielle Doell
Danielle Doell is a Seattle-based dance and performance artist, choreographer, educator, and floral designer. She graduated from Ohio University in 2014 with a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography, with a minor in Arts Administration. Following graduation, Danielle had the pleasure of working for several prominent dance-presenting organizations such as Gibney Dance Center, New York Live Arts, the Dublin International Dance Festival (IR), and The Yard. Doell contributes much of her creative growth and professional development to her time at The Yard, where she began as an intern in 2014 and was later promoted to Artist Educator in 2015. She lived on Martha’s Vineyard for two years working to pilot and build the Making It initiative, a program that promotes kinesthetic alternatives to traditional pedagogical methods in public schools, hospitals, community centers, libraries, prisons, and other outreach centers. During her time at The Yard, Danielle worked with former classmate, Leah Crosby. Together, the two founded LanDforms, their creative partnership. Since 2016, their work has been performed across the country. The two now proudly call themselves a Seattle-based company. Additionally, Danielle dances for the Pat Graney Company.
Alana Isiguen
Alana Isiguen holds an MFA in Dance from the University of California Irvine and a BFA in Dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her research interests include integrating somatic movement education into dance pedagogy, choreography and performance.
She received her formative training as an apprentice with the Charlotte Ballet, formerly the North Carolina Dance Theater, under the direction of Jean Pierre Bonnefoux and Patricia McBride.
Her performance credits include works by George Balanchine, Ohad Naharin, Mark Morris and William Forsythe. Alana furthered her studies at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Chautauqua Ballet, Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Austria, and with Summer Lee Rhatigan at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. She studied privately with Rebecca Massey at the Piedmont School of Music and Dance, who mentored her in dance pedagogy, staging classical works, rehearsal direction and concert production.
Alana teaches integrated movement sessions in the community, utilizing knowledge from rehabilitation studies, somatics and a comprehensive Pilates certification. Her choreography has been presented at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club in New York, and she has served on faculty at the University of California Irvine, Cornish College of the Arts, Santa Ana College and The School of the Sacramento Ballet. Currently, she is an Artist in Residence at the University of Washington in Seattle and is happy to be a part of the Dance Fremont community.
Lodi McClellan
During her 20-year performing career Lodi danced with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Beth Soll and Company, Nina Weiner and Dancers, the Chamber Dance Company, Louise Durkee, Bill Evans, Llory Wilson, Georgia Ragsdale, Wade Madsen, and other freelance artists. She has taught dance technique at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Boston University, Emerson College, the Boston Conservatory, the University of Washington, American Dance Institute, Strictly Seattle, Dance Fremont, and at many private studios on both coasts.
For 25 years, as a professor at Cornish College of the Arts where she twice received the Excellence in Teaching Award, she taught all levels of ballet in addition to Dance History, Teaching Methods, Performing Arts Criticism, Ballet Repertory, Pointe, and Contemporary Issues in Dance.
Lodi's writing about dance has been published by Dance International, SenseAbility, Curve, Seattle Weekly, Eastside Week, the World Dance Alliance, Contact Quarterly, Teaching Artist Journal, Dance Teacher, The International Dictionary of Modern Dance, HistoryLink.org, and DanceNet, where she served as Co-Editor. Lodi has presented pre-performance lectures at Meany Theater, Seattle Theatre Group, and the Orcas Center and served as a panel facilitator for the Dance Critics Association, SeattleDances.com, and the University of Washington Dance Program.
Kathleen Mills
Kathleen Mills earned a Bachelor of Music in Composition and Arranging from Combs College of Music. She studied with composer Romeo Cascarino and concert pianist Susan Starr in Philadelphia, and with Broadway conductor Lehman Engel at BMI’s Musical Theater Workshop in New York City. Her performing experience includes singing and dancing in several musicals, notably 5th Avenue Theater Company′s productions of Cinderella, Jesus Christ Superstar, My Fair Lady and in the national tour of Mame starring Juliet Prowse. She has worked as a private music instructor in Seattle since 1989. She is also the composer, lyricist and librettist of “The Steadfast Tin Soldier, A Story Ballet” produced annually by Dance Fremont since 1997. Her work with Dance Fremont since that time has also included writing and directing the Musical Theater/Costume Design and Production Camp show each summer. Kathleen is passionate about helping students identify and use their talents in pursuit of excellence in mind, body, and spirit.
Paula J. Peters
Paula J. Peters is a professor at SUNY Fredonia. Previously she was on faculty at Cornish Preparatory Dance, Dance Fremont, the University of Washington, and directed the dance minor at Pacific Lutheran University 2013-14. Ms. Peters’ choreographic and performance research includes collaborative works created with Rhonda Cinotto for Contemporary Jazz Dance Project, Seattle. Her choreography has been presented by Men In Dance, Cornish Dance Theater, DanceWorks and Cornish Preparatory Dance Company. Her scholarly research includes the implementation of pedagogy and programs which serve the 21st century dancer and writings on the history of jazz dance, published in Seattle Dance Annual 2013 and presented at DEAW and NDEO national conferences. Prior to completing her B.F.A. in Dance through the Professional Dancers Program at Cornish College of the Arts in 2007, Ms. Peters performed professionally with Spectrum Dance Theater for fourteen years. With Spectrum, she danced and restaged works by choreographers of national prominence such as Ann Reinking, Margo Sappington, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Claire Bataille, Danny Buraczeski, Daniel Ezralow, Trey McIntyre, Donald Byrd, Wade Madsen and Dale A. Merrill, touring throughout the US, Europe and Mexico. She also served as SDT’s rehearsal director from 1998 to 2005. Ms. Peters received her M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Washington in 2011 with a concentration on the history, theory, and practice of American Jazz Dance.
“I fiercely believe that students are people first and dancers second. Therefore, each student deserves the permission to evolve, rather than achieve ‘perfection’ when studying dance. This has led me to create a classroom environment that promotes self-discovery and positively shapes the whole person to become a vibrant, thinking member of society. The gifts of watching students embrace this journey in their own way and become empowered through dance are the reasons why I teach. I am profoundly grateful to be a member of the faculty at Dance Fremont and wish to thank the students and my colleagues for providing me with endless new opportunities for learning.”
Keith Sabado
Keith was born in Seattle and moved to New York City in 1978. From 1980-1984 he performed with several New York modern dance companies, among them the companies of Pearl Lang, Pauline Koner, Hannah Kahn, Jim Self and Rosalind Newman. From 1984 to 1994 he was a member of the Mark Morris Dance Group, and in 1988 he received a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) for his work with that group. From 1994 to 1997 and again in 2001 he was a member of Mikhail Baryshnikov s White Oak Dance Project. In 2000 he danced with the Lucinda Childs Dance Company during its 25th anniversary year. Most recently he has performed with Richard Daniels, Johannes Wieland and with Paradigm. He has also danced leading roles in opera productions directed by Peter Sellars and Martha Clarke. Keith teaches ballet, modern dance and Pilates and is currently on the faculty at Sarah Lawrence College.
Beth Terwilleger (she/her)
Beth Terwilleger grew up in Santa Cruz, California, and always felt free to allow her imagination to thrive. She spent her early childhood years creating worlds, theatrical performances, and dance extravaganzas. At a young age she was introduced to ballet and immediately fell in love. So driven by this new passion, she forgot her roots were truly planted in creation and not personal performance. After spending ten years with Ballet Austin in Texas and freelancing in San Francisco and London, she has re-found her roots in Seattle and spent the past year passionately exploring, generating, and supporting dance works here in this city. She had once thought that this imaginative part of her brain was left in those childhood years but is excited to have found that it does still exist through her choreographic practice.
Since the inception of her new dance company, The Gray, a year ago, Beth’s work has been presented all over Seattle. She started at Velocity Dance Center presenting a new work through Velocity’s co-production program. She then continued to receive support from Velocity Dance Center through her participation in their 2019 Winter Bridge Project program. She has also choreographed works for 12 Minutes Max, March edition, and a mixed bill evening Base Independent Production at Base: Experimental Arts + Space in Georgetown, Seattle. Beth has also had the honor of creating work this year for Converge Dance Festival as well as a split bill performance with Stella Kutz at YAW Theater. She then went on to revisit her first Seattle work, The Midsummer, at Seattle International Dance Festival in June where it was announced she has been awarded acceptance to their prestigious James Ray Residency Program for their 2020 Season. To wrap up her first year creating in Seattle, Beth premiered a full evening of work at On the Boards this August and a new piece at Men in Dance in October. She wants to thank the incredible dance community here in Seattle for their support and inspiration, especially all of the dancers she has worked with over the past year. They are the drivers of artistic innovations and she is forever grateful for them.
Lynn Wyckoff
Lynn is a performer and costume designer with Seattle Early Dance, and has appeared in concert with Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Early Music Guild operas Venus and Adonis, and Il Ballo della Ingrate, and The Seattle Academy of Baroque Opera. She has studied baroque dance since 1998 with Anna Mansbridge and Catherine Turocy, and appeared in the New York Baroque Dance Company’s production, With Sword Drawn, He Dances. As a teacher of ballet, jazz, and character, she has served on the faculties of Pacific Northwest Ballet, Olympic College, Western Washington University, and Everett Community College, where she was also choreographer for the annual musicals. She directed her own school and company, North Seattle Ballet, for eleven years, producing the full-length ballets Coppelia and The Nutcracker. Ms. Wyckoff holds a BFA in Ballet from the University of Utah, and an MA in Dance Theatre from San Francisco State University.