About Us
Purchase offline
We are a collaboration of award winning choreographers and talented performers. Our artistic backgrounds include dance, music, drama, and television. We have chosen to create fun and teachable routines for you and your students. The collection of choreography will be refreshed each season. Enjoy our originality of the art of dance.
School teachers, we have written many dances for use in your curriculum, having taught dance in a school setting as well. Preschool teachers also have special sections created for very young children. We wish all of you the best in your dancing endeavors.
Purchase Offline:
Canada 1-519-381-9094
Fax 1-519-464-5182
DancesToGo.com Contributors
FRANCES HELLENS MCDONALD
Choreographer
Co-Founder of DancesToGo.com
Frances began her Fine Arts career as a classical pianist at a young age of 11 years. She performed at festivals and events throughout Southwestern Ontario, Canada. She continued her intensive musical training with the Royal Conservatory of Music faculty at Alma College. While studying, Frances fell in love with the art of dance. Her dance training with the co-founders and the principal dancer of the London Civic Ballet lead her to be able to study with great master teachers including Boris Volkoff, Brian Scott, Celia Franca, Gus Giordano, Luigi and Le Ballet Jazz. Frances began her dance teaching career when she was fifteen years old apprenticing in three major cities in Ontario. At nineteen, Frances became a triple threat professional dancer, singer and actress. Her first professional play was with the Toronto Workshop Productions and from there she went on tour as a freelance artist working with many famous choreographers and celebrities. Frances left her touring life to teach dance, enter the competition dance world, marry and raise a wonderful son (who as an IT director, designed her dancestogo.com website!). After forty years of teaching for many dance studios, Frances retired from her own studio, Foot Notes Dance Studio to specialize in choreography and musical activities for Pre- Primary, Primary, Mini and Junior classical dance.
Suzanne Gerety
Suzanne Blake Gerety, owner of On Pointe Media LLC
On Pointe Media is the parent company of DanceStudioOwner.com. Suzanne is the daughter of Kathy Blake and Vice President of Kathy Blake Dance Studios. She is a regularly featured contributor in various pieces for Dance Teacher Magazine including, "Ask the Experts", business articles, and has presented live workshops at Dance Media's Dance Teacher Summit in New York City and the Turn It Up Dance Challenge Conventions. Suzanne is a featured contributor in the The FabJob Guide to Become a Dance Studio Owner, FabJob Guides have been featured in stories at The Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur Magazine sites. In addition to a degree in Psychology and Child Development, Suzanne has training and experience in communication and leadership from one of the world's foremost personal development companies. She is the mother of two young children and is an advocate for dance education throughout the world. Suzanne brings the resources and support to current and future dance studio owners to help them achieve success.
You can follow Suzanne on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/SuzanneGerety or connect on Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/DanceStudioOwner
ASHANI MFUKO
CEO/President Kiner Enterprises Inc.
Ashani is a media personality, and the host of The Kiner Hour – Let’s Talk Dance with Ashani Mfuko radio show on Mission 101 Broadcasting. A professional dancer/dance instructor,She has made appearances on The Nate Berkus Show, The Tyra Show, Good Morning America, NY1 News, in films, music videos, and live performances at venues including; Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, The Ailey Citigroup Theater, and The Joyce — Soho. Her dance articles and tips have been featured on dancebloggers.com, danceadvantage.net, the dance.com blog, the 4dancers.org blog, as well as the Grosh Backdrops and Backdrops Beautiful blogs. She is a leader in the field of dance teacher staffing & social media for the dance biz, and offers all types of tips, tools, and advice for dancers and dance businesses, on the Kiner Enterprises Inc. Dancer’s blog.Learn more about Ashani on her website, Ashani Mfuko Dance.
NICHELLE STRZEPEK
Choreographer
danceadvantage.net
Hi there! I ‘m Nichelle Strzepek.
Dance has been near or at the core of my life for as long as I can remember. As much a constant as those relatives I didn’t choose! And as a career path, dance has been like a diamond into which I just keep cutting new facets.
If you are looking for stats, I’ve been pursuing dance for over 25 years. I have performed during those years with modern/contemporary companies in Pennsylvania and Texas, and I’ve been a dance teacher for more than 16 years. I’ve poured out my experience and passion for dance in private studios, community programs, at a public university, and continue to do so as the creator, writer, and editor of DanceAdvantage.net. Writer has been my latest cut in the gem, and in addition to Dance Advantage, I cover dance in Houston, TX (where I live with my husband and young son) and pen.
Nichelle Strzepek holds a B.A. in Dance from Slippery Rock University, has taught and performed professionally for over 16 years and has danced nearly all of her life. In 2008 Nichelle launched DanceAdvantage.net, single-handedly operating, editing, and producing content for the popular dance education website. In addition, she covers Houston dance with news and reviews for Dance Source Houston and regularly pens dance articles for other blogs and arts resources online.
MARINA SURGAN
Composer
Marina Surgan has been principal pianist for Canada's National Ballet School since 1986. Born in the former Soviet Union where she was classically trained in Moscow. Marina immigrated to Toronto in 1975 and joined the National Ballet of Canda in 1978.
Highlights of Marina Surgan's creative career include : composing music for the Cecchetti Grade Examinations; accompanist for the third International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi; and First International Congress of Classical and Contemporary Ballet in Mexico; in 2001 she was chosen to record a CD of 10 variations, which was produced and used for the Prix de Lausanne.
Marina Surgan also tours with NBS across Canada and internationally, playing master classes and conducting workshops for ballet teachers and accompanists all over the world, including Mexico, Germany, France, Finland, Sweden and Japan.
Marina Surgan currently has three CDs & two Piano Score books available!
RICHARD MADDOCK
Composer
A native of Ontario, Canada, Richard Maddock has worked as a dance class and exam accompanist for over twenty-eight years at numerous dance schools across southern Ontario. Mr. Maddock’s compositions are well known throughout the international dance community and his ballet CDs/MP3 albums are being used in over 3000 dance studios, in over 50 countries around the world.
In 2009 Richard composed the complete music syllabus for Levels Two, Three and Four for Living Dance, a new syllabus created by Australian dance teacher and choreographer Beth Baudistel.Mr. Maddock’s ballet class CDs have received warm reviews on websites such as DanceAdvantage.net, 4Dancers.org, and InsideBallet.com, as well as in publications such as NDTA’s Dancematters (Issue No.56 - 2009, and Issue No.58 – 2010). “The Garden Within” was also reviewed by Massage New Zealand (Magazine Issue – June 2010).Richard’s CDs have been used by organizations such as Cecchetti USA for their summer school (2010), and at several ballet festivals for master classes, workshops, and as prizes in dance competitions including CDTA’s Diamond Jubilee 60th Anniversary.Richard is currently working on three new ballet class CDs/MP3 albums due for release in 2012.To purchase Richard’s CDs, visit his website at www.richardmaddock.com.
RACHEL HARRISON
Choreographer
Rachel began training in tap, ballet, jazz and lyrical in British Columbia and then Southwestern Ontario. As a young student she underwent a teacher apprenticeship program. Rachel traveled throughout Ontario and the United States for competitive dance receiving many outstanding awards and scholarships. Rachel continued her training in the performing arts at Ryerson University, Toronto. After a successful audition, she trained in modern dance, jazz, and ballet along with music, acting, art and improvisation to receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance. During those four years she had incredible opportunities to work with great artists and choreographers and perform in numerous productions both at Ryerson and outside performance companies.
In 2007 she landed a lead role on the children’s television program, 4 Square, Season II and III as “Captain Huppette.” Rachel can still be seen on televisions in millions of homes across Canada on Treehouse TV. The following year Rachel launched her own dance studio in Sarnia, Ontario called Steppin’ Up Dance Company. She is so happy to be teaching dance to students of all ages and levels as they learn ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, modern and hip hop.
TIA COLBORNE
Choreographer
Tia is a graduate of the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts, in Toronto, ON and had trained in Canada and New York, NY. Tia has worked professionally as a dancer and as a performer in musical productions around the world. She has taught for the professional training program Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts and choreographed for the niversity of Toronto.
Tia has adjudicated dance competitions and taught master classes across Canada and is a member of the Cecchetti Council of America. She is dedicated to continuing her own dance education while passing on her passion for dance to students everywhere.
LIZ CALABRIA
Choreographer
Liz Calabria brings the experience of being a talented choreographer, studio director and contributor to DanceStudioOwner.com. She specializes in children's programs and has been teaching Tap, Jazz, Ballet and Theatre Dance for over 20 years.
Liz is proud to have developed a Multicultural Dance Education Program for area Montessori Schools, Waldorf Schools and Home School groups for their physical education programs. She is on the design team at www.DanceStudioOwner.com for the development of educational coloring pages offered on their site.
Liz represented the State of New Hampshire competing in the Young Americans National Dance Invitational (now Dance Excellence) in 1988 and 2001. She has choreographed for many local community theatre groups and has been a member of the Dance Teachers’ Club of Boston. Liz has attended the Dance Teacher Summit in New York City each year since August 2007. Over her 20 years of teaching dance she has created many programs and lesson plans for preschool dance programs and is very excited to share some of those with DancesToGo.com.
