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Cathy
Makison Cathy
Makison is the owner,
director of DayStar Dance Academy. Cathy has 30
years teaching experience. Cathy owned her own
successful dance studio in South Carolina for
7 years, she then moved to Florida and was on
the teaching faculty for Southern Ballet theatre.
From there she went on to teach at the Royal school
of dance for 4 years. Many of her teaching experiences
were in a studio setting as well as public school
settings. Cathy is also a certified member of
Florida Dance Masters, and a licensed early childhood
music educator through the nationally known MusikGarten
program. Cathy brings to the school a great love
for teaching children in a loving, caring, disciplined
environment. With these 3 key ingredients children
are certain to carry this positive learning experience
in all walks of their lives. |
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Melanie
Whitbeck
This is Melanie Whitbeck's 8th year teaching at Daystar. She has been taking dance since the age of 2 1/2. She started competing at the age of 8 years old. She has had the privilege to have trained under the Ballet Master Ramazon Bapov who performed with the Bolshoi Theater for 2 years. Mia Michaels, (So You Think You Can Dance), Joe Tremaine just to name a few.She also studied at the Royal School of dance in Orlando Florida as well as Southern Ballet theater and Dance Explosion here in Kennesaw Ga. Melanie brings her wonderful choreogrpahy skills to the Daystar Company Dancer's and Competition team. Many of her dancers have walked away with Gold medals as well as Platinum awards for Solo performances at Regional dance competitions. She has also choreographed Duet, Trio dances and group competition numbers and have also walked away with high golds and Dance scholarships to go to conventions. Melanie is now working with Junior Company teaching Lyrical and Jazz. She is also a licensed cosmotologist, married to Josh Whitbeck and has a 1 year old daughter Blakely.
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Barbara Fortier
Barbara Fortier is a transplant from California, and has been teaching ballet in the Atlanta Metro since 1990. She has had fourteen years of private study of the Vaganova ballet training system with former principal dancers: Stanislav Issaev of Moscow Classical Ballet, Ramazan Bapov of Bolshoi Theatre, Natalia Shevchenko of Moldova Theatre, and Leonid Flegmatov of Russian Ballet Theatre. She has performed locally in Atlanta, and with the Kingsport Ballet in Kingsport, Tennessee, under the directorship of former principal dancer of Novosibirsk Theatre, Valeria Sinyavskaya. |
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Anneka Maquay
Anneka Maquay is a great asset to Daystar. This is Anneka's first year at Daystar Dance Academy. Anneka will be teaching Hip Hop, Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical and Cheerleading. She was formerly a NFL Kansas City Chiefs Choreographer. She has also perfromed with "Stomp The Yard TV performance, as well as appearing in other TV commercials for Coca Cola. "Coke And A Smile". Her Choreography numbers include "Lyrik London Video Reel, POL Choreographer's Show Case, MTV's Made "I Wanna Be A Hip Hop Dancer", Nat'l Groove Alliance Performance Company. She studied with Gotta Dance, National Groove Alliance, and Dance 411 here in Atalnta. She has also been a judge for Dance and Cheerleading competitions. We are very excited to have Anneka with us this year. Her energy and her love for dance is a great example to the kids, she is excited to bring to Daystar the Joy and discipline of dance and performance. |
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Jenna Kier
Jenna Kier has been dancing and performing since she was nine years old. She has trained with Impact dance of Atlanta for twelve years and has also been an instructor for three years there. She has taken several Master Classes with the Geogia Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Rotaru, and Hubbard Street. Jenna has also trained with Ballet Magnificant for the Summer intensive Workshops (5 yrs) and their Trainee program. When Jenna was out in Los Angeles she took the Word in Motion's Urban Intensive Workshop. As a dancer she has danced in numerous productions.These include: Lead roles in multiple shows- "Don Quixote" Pad de deux and variation solo, "Paquita" Variation solo, "Carmen" variation solo "Swan Lake" variation solo, "Nutcracker", Waltz of the Flowers, MarZipan, and Snow. Jenna teaches Ballet, Tap, Hip-Hop Jazz, and Lyrical. Jenna is excited to be on the faculty this year and looks forward to teaching and training the student's at Daystar. |
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Candace Goldstein
Candace Goldstein will be working with the Daystar Junior company this year teaching Tap and Jazz. She has studied with Ginny Santangelo Dance Center in Ny for 15 years where she had training in Browadway style Tap, Hip -Hop and basic Jazz. She has also trained at CK Dance Works in Dallas Ga. where she studied advanced tap(encompassing majority Hoofing) She is currently a Health and Physical Education Major at Kennesaw state and will be graduating in 2011.She was also a Student leader in a program at KSU called (LINK). IT is designed to develop ethical leadership skills, Knowledge, and efficacy while enhancing Holistic development. Candace will be teaching the younger students Cheer/Tumble/Tap/Jazz as well as adult and Teen Advance tap and jazz at Daystar. Candace's energy and her Love for dance is very contagious and hopes to share her passion and enthusiasim for the art of dance to the younger students as well as the adults. |
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Brian N. Dixon
Brian Dixon attended Jacksonville State University majoring in Drama and minoring in English. He is a former graduate and faculty member of Sprayberry High School, where he was the head varsity Dance Team coach. He led the Dance Team to 3 National titles, 2nd place in the State for 2 years in a row.
Brian was awarded Best Hip Hop/Funk Choreography at the 2005 National Championships in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. At the 2004 Nationals, six members of his team were awarded All American, leading Brian to take them to Honolulu Hawaii to perform in the 2004 Pro Bowl. Brian has performed in the Amphitheatre in Indiana holding lead dancer roles in "Oklahoma" and "Young Abe Lincoln". Brian has also performed in Taste of the Town Dinner and Children's Theatre holding lead roles in Star Spangled Girl, Story Ville, and Sunshine Boys. Some other areas for which he has choreographed and performed are regional and national beauty pageants, Hip Hop, and PomPom dance competitions for Studio South in Dallas, Georgia.
Brian is now teaching at Daystar Dance Academy and the Kennesaw Rec. Center where he teaches, Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Lyrical and Diva Dance and Cheer.
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