Mountain Contemporary Dance Arts Staff

Although the most significant of my training is in ballet and modern dance, I have a little bit of everything (contemporary, jazz, flamenco, hip hop, swing, etc…) under my belt. My dance tutelage began under the direction of Valerie Madonia and Shirley Fortenberry at the age of 14 in Telluride. When my family moved to Boulder, I began training with what is now the Boulder Ballet School. In addition to being an apprentice with the Boulder Ballet, I spent my summers studying at different intensives including the State Street Ballet, the Jillana School, and the Joffrey South Workshop. Additionally, I have had the great fortune of learning from and being inspired by a number of different teachers including Peter and Ana Claire Davison, Lizanne McAdams Graham, Katie Elliot, Michelle Ellsworth, Vernon Windsor, Gabe Masson, Erika Randall, Jayne Persch, Wade Madsen, Karin Stevens and Jacob Mora. I am passionate about bridging the gap between dance styles and helping the next generation of dancers cultivate their artistry through well-rounded, healthful and holistic training. In addition to teaching throughout the community, I dance with the Life/Art Dance Ensemble, based in Denver, Colorado.

Kaitlyn is from Denver Colorado and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience from the University of Colorado Boulder. She grew up dancing at both competitive studios at at Denver School of the Arts, training in a variety of styles including tap, jazz, modern, contemporary, and ballet. At CU Boulder, Kaitlyn had the privilege of studying under artists such as Michelle Ellsworth, Helanius J. Wilkins, Erika Randall, and Rennie Harris. Kaitlyn also enjoys working in technical production, which began at CU and continued at The Yard, a summer dance festival on Martha’s Vineyard, and at Walt Disney World in the Disney College Program. She has stage managed for several artists around the country, including for Helanius J. Wilkins at Dance Place in Washington DC, for Olivia Dwyer Dance Projects at Gibney Dance Center in New York City, and was the assistant stage manager for the Denver ballet company Wonderbound for two seasons. Kaitlyn currently teaches and choreographs for dance studios in Denver and is the student company director at Mountain Contemporary Dance Arts in Louisville. In addition to teaching, Kaitlyn is a company dancer and choreographer with Industrial Dance Alliance and is the Executive Director and dancer with Rocky Mountain Rhythm, Colorado’s first tap dance company.

Jillian Olson began dancing at Danstek in Broomfield, Colorado when she was 4 years old and continued her love of dance throughout high school and college. She studied ballet, tap, jazz, and modern at Danstek, Becky Shaw School of Dance, and at Hannah Kahn Dance Company. She continued to study dance at the University of Colorado where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Art History in 2003. Jillian discovered her love off Jazz dance through the Jazz Dance World Congress with the Giordano Dance Chicago and the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop at CU Boulder. She was also fortunate enough to be on the Broomfield High School Pom Squad and the Buff Gold Dance Team at University of Colorado where she experienced the world of competitions. After receiving her degree in dance, Jillian began her teaching career while working at Boulder Body Wear and starting a family. She has taught Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Lyrical, Modern, Pre-pointe, Poms at Dance Arts Studio for the last 6 years and is excited to join the Mountain Contemporary Dance Arts family where she will to share her love of dance with amazing dancers.
Jillian’s most valuable lesson that I have learned from dance is to always be true to who you are! Dance is an amazing art form that allows each of us to express who we are and how we feel…there is no right and no wrong. She loves to see others shine through dance and to see how kids are able to express themselves and truly be themselves every time they step into the studio!

Born and raised in Colorado, Samantha Scovel has been dancing for over seventeen years. She is a dancer, artist, and musician. Her training began at Mountain Kids, located Fort Collins, where her teachers, including her mother, helped cultivate her love of dance. In 2015 and again in 2016 she attended the annual Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop where she trained with artists including Christy McNeil and Sumi Clements. She performed in the Mountain Moving Company from 2014 to 2016 until she left Fort Collins to begin pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her dance training includes styles such as jazz, modern, ballet, lyrical, contemporary, and improvisation. Samantha has enjoyed working with children and families as a teacher, camp counselor, and mentor. She finds joy in creating a safe environment for children to explore and grow.

is a Colorado dance artist that has been performing, teaching and choreographing for over a decade. Mimi graduated with her BFA in Dance from the University of Colorado in Boulder, in 2007. She has performed with several local dance companies including Impact Dance, Louder Than Words Dance Theatre, BOOM, New Breed and Wild Heart. Mimi has presented her choreography with New Visions Dance Festival, Denver Independent Choreographers Project, and most recently for Fort Collins Children’s Theatre and Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop. Mimi currently serves as the Executive Director of Wild Heart Dance, as well as “mama” to her two children.

Mimi has been a student or teacher at Mountain Kids for over 30 years! Her dance training includes styles such as jazz, ballet, tap, modern, creative movement, lyrical, as well as African, hip hop, contact improvisation, and Afro Cuban. Mimi enjoys working at MCDA/Mountain Kids because not only skill but self confidence, creativity, and community are priorities. She enjoys helping students learn about body awareness, enriching their creative expression, and building a lifelong love for physical activity and the arts.

As a young girl in Germany, she took immediately to weekly creative, ballet, and tap dance classes. At ten, she was chosen to attend Ballet Boarding School. She stayed through high school, perfecting her technique with the rigorous study of French and Russian classical ballet, in addition to classes in Jazz, Modern, Musical Theater and Flamenco styles.
As a young adult, Gerhards took a break from dance to study Fashion Engineering and obtain a Business degree, but was irresistibly drawn back to teaching and choreography. In Boulder since 2002, she has taught at various dance schools. She has choreographed for concerts, musicals, summer camps, and five productions of the CU opera, in which she also performed.
“I love whoever wants to dance”, explains Vanessa about her passion for teaching non-competitive dance for all ages and levels. She teaches her classes with energy and joy, delighting in students’ discovery of the mind – body connection. She believes that every one is a creative being with the ability to express emotions without words. In dance, “we are the canvas and the brush!”. In presenting children in costume, on stage, she realizes that she is creating lifelong memories, as well as completing a project which began with an idea, and ended with a production. Her adult students tell her that dance class is the highlight of their week! They describe being exhilarated, rejuvenated, energized for whatever life brings. Try one of Vanessa’s classes, and feel the joy!

Chrysta Brown is a dance writer, dance instructor, and choreographer.
She earned her BFA in dance performance with a minor in Human Rights Education from Southern Methodist University. During her time at SMU, in addition to creating and producing her own choreographic projects, she was able to study and perform the works of Donald McKayle, Jose Limon, Martha Graham, Robert Battle, Paul Taylor, and Arthur Mitchell.
After graduating she moved to Denver, Colorado, where she performed and choreographed for Ascential Dance Colorado, Peek-a-Boo Sole Productions, and the Apex Contemporary Dance Youth Outreach Program. She then moved to Philadelphia where, in addition to teaching dance and fitness classes throughout the Philadelphia metro, she performed with Dancefusion Repertoire Company and worked the company manager for West Chester Dance Works.
In addition to her passion for dance education and performance, Chrysta enjoys writing. She holds her MFA in creative writing with a concentration in creative nonfiction. Chrysta regularly writes for The Philadelphia Dance Journal, The Broad Street Review, and Relief Journal. Her work has been featured in the Meadows School of the Arts Newsletter, CultureMob Denver, and The Colorado Dance Alliance Newsletter. She is also a proud member of the International Dance Council.

Roxann Guthman is a Northern Californian native whose earliest memories are of dance. She has trained in Modern, Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop, Ballroom, and Aerial dance. At the age of 14 and 15 respectively, she was accepted into a Ballroom dance troupe and a competitive Modern dance company. Upon moving to San Francisco to pursue her BA in Performing Arts and Social Justice with an emphasis in Dance, at the University of San Francisco, she widened her horizons and studied Contact/Improvisation, Laban Movement Analysis, and Contemporary dance. She has spent the past 4 years studying under renowned local artists and performing both their work as well as her own in theaters throughout San Francisco. Roxann began teaching dance as a component of her Ballroom Dance troupe when she was 14, and has since had the opportunity to instruct dance that is based around academic curriculum, as well as offer the joys of creative movement to peoples of all ages. She has brought these teaching techniques to San Francisco as well as Tacna, Peru where she performed for, and alongside, a group of K-12 students. Roxann is very excited to join the Boulder dance community and looks forward to continuing this everlasting passion for discovering, both for her self and others, the wonders that dance has to offer.

Leslie Merrill received a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Colorado in Boulder, in 2007. She has been teaching dancers of all ages and skill levels for over 16 years in a range of dance forms, including ballet, pointe, modern, tap, jazz, and creative movement. In addition to teaching at Mountain Dance and directing the school’s youth performance company, the Mountain Arts Dance Ensemble (MADE), she is also Affiliate Faculty at Metro State University of Denver where she teaches dance technique, composition, improvisation, and dance pedagogy.

Leslie has presented her choreography and video art extensively across Colorado, and has also shared her work nationally as part of the American Dance Festival’s Dancing for the Camera Series, the TARLA Dance for Camera Festival, the Holland Project, and the Intangible Bodies Conference. Internationally, her work has been presented in British Columbia as part of the Collision Symposium on Interarts Practices and on tour with the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema in Mexico and Germany.

Leslie has enjoyed performing professionally with Haan Dances, Move On Dance Company, Louder than Words Dance theatre, Bound Life and Chaos Creations, Poor Richard Dance, the Cindy Brandle Dance Company, and dancing and choreographing for Interweave Dance Theatre. She is currently a choreographer, performer, and video artist for Ascential Dance Theatre Colorado. Leslie co-founded the Boulder-based, Peekaboo Sole Productions (PSP) with Mimi Ferrie and Jessica England in 2009. PSP produces the work of emerging and established choreographers and facilitates collaborative exchange amongst dance artists and their communities. In her spare time, Leslie also enjoys working for the Colorado Dance Alliance as a writer, editor, and website manager.

Jordan is a passionate creative movement and Vinyasa Yoga instructor from the Northern Colorado area– helping bodies from all walks of life find their true movement potential. Her up-beat dance and yoga classes welcome all ages and levels to test their physical and creative limits in an uplifting, judgement-free environment. Her focus on alignment and safe, effective transitions in her classes, open a window of opportunity to explore creativity and self-expression through movement.
Her journey began as a dancer at the age of three, and she hasn’t stopped moving since. Her primary focus of dance study has always been Ballet, Jazz, and Contemporary but enjoys testing the limits of her artistic abilities and has experience in Tap, Musical Theater, Hip Hop, and several other styles of expressive movement. She was involved in Children’s Dance Theater for several years; which brought kid-friendly dance performances to local schools in the area. Her passion and drive for dance eventually turned into a desire to dance competitively; which was a tremendous growth and learning period in her personal dance career.

Her heart for teaching developed at age 14 when she was asked to be a teacher’s assistant at Axis of Movement in Northern Colorado. It wasn’t long before she had classes of her own and really found a passion for sharing her love of movement with others. Jordan has since then coached several regional and national award-winning dancers; and taught dance classes and workshops in the US and Canada.
In her time as a dancer and a teacher, Jordan was introduced to yoga. It was one of the best and hardest things she had ever done. After experiencing some of the amazing benefits yoga can offer; Jordan was determined to know more, in hopes of sharing with others– with that said, she became a certified Vinyasa Yoga instructor in 2015. She trained vigorously and extensively under the expertise of Stacie Finucan of Odyssey Yoga and Sara Hilgendorf of Jiva Essential Wellness. Jordan is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with Yoga Alliance, which acknowledges the completion of a yoga teacher training with an approved and active Registered Yoga School (RYS).
Jordan is a firm believer that movement is for everyone. We only get one shot with our beautiful bodies– and life is far too short to be sedentary. Her hope is to reach the masses with her dance and yoga offerings; and help open the mind and body to its fullest potential.