Toni McClanahan
Toni McClanahan was raised in Cortez, Colorado. Her love of music and rhythm was instilled in her by her father who played guitar and sang. She and her siblings spent many evenings singing and dancing in the family living room. Toni began her dance training at age10. She spent her summers going to large metropolitan cities to study dance. She took every opportunity that came her way to study. At age 17 Toni began to choreograph for shows and local pageants and decided her dream would be to have a studio and become a dance teacher. She coached the Fort Lewis College dance team for two years and is presently the choreography coach for the Durango High School Dance Team. She opened Dance in the Rockies in 1989.
Toni’s is a two-time recipient of the Outstanding Choreography Award at the western regional level. Two of her production numbers have also won Top Production awards.
Frances Rosser Taylor
Frances Rosser Taylor joined the staff of Dance in the Rockies in 1999 after having been director of two dance studios in New Hampshir for 20 years. She received the BFA in Dance from the Boston Conservatory and the Master of Education from Keene State College. She performed with numerous dance companies, including Boston Dance Theater, Ballet Artes Dance Ensemble, and Tucson Civic Ballet. “Miss Frances” was the founder and director of The Dance Workshop of Southern New Hampshire, a youth performing group, and is now the Director of The Durango Ballet Ensemble, the youth ballet troupe based at Dance in the Rockies. Her ballet pieces have earned numerous accolades at competitions throughout the Southwest.
Lani Dill
Lani Dill grew up in Northern Virginia and has been dancing and performing since she was five years old. She majored in dance at Sullins College in Bristol, Virginia. She has trained in Virginia, New York, Orlando, and Atlanta, and at Northwestern University. Lani was the Director and an instructor at a dance studio in Alabama for 15 years. She has a true love for all forms of dance and a passion for musical theatre. She was the choreographer and assistant director of a community theatre for over 20 years. Lani has choreographed, directed, and performed all over the United States.
Shirley Melton
Shirley Melton recently moved to Durango from Boulder, CO, but she has moved all over the country and trained with different nationally acclaimed dance studios in Michigan, Oklahoma, and Colorado. She has danced since the age of two and is competent in Jazz, Lyrical, Hip-Hop, Ballet and Tap. She has been a competitive dancer since the age of seven and has been offered jobs as an instructor for both the Universal Dance Association and the National Dance Association. She started off her college career at the University of Colorado, but is now attending Fort Lewis College.
Leana Lujan
My name is Leana Lujan. I’m from Salt Lake City, Utah. My styles of dance are Hip-Hop, Breakdance, Freestyle, Popping Locking, and Salsa. I started dancing at the age of 10. My sisters and I would put on dance performances for the neighborhood! Since then I have choreographed numerous dances both in schools and for the public. In 2003 I won Dancer of the Year and Outstanding Choreographer through my dance team of four years. I have worked with a number of choreographers such as Mark Mesmer, Justin Giles, and Joey Dowling, who have worked with the likes of Janet Jackson, Brittany Spears, and N-Sync. From 2003 to 2005, I was an assistant dance teacher for my high school dance team and worked under Darcy Nauganuma who now owns her own dance studio in New York City. I have organized and taught independent dance classes for youth under the direction of the Boys and Girls Club and performed for the community. I have also taught for two years at a private dance studio in Farmington, New Mexico. My goal is to inspire the next generation to define their soul through dance as it has done for me.
Kristi Newbold
Kristi Newbold began her training with Toni McClanahan at Dance in the Rockies and continued studying there until she graduated from high school in 2006. She trained in ballet, tap, jazz, modern, hip hop, lyrical, and musical theater. During this time period she was a member of the Rocky Mountain Rockette competitive team for 9 years. Kristi traveled all throughout the United States to benefit her dancing career. She has traveled to Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Denver, Honolulu, Phoenix, California, and New York, where she trained with numerous dancers and choreographers. Such choreographers include Barry Youngblood, Jerry Rose, Loree Russeau, Al Bee, Chis Smith, and others that performed with Tap Dogs, and the New York Rockettes. During her dancing career at Dance in the Rockies, Kristi began teaching ballet to younger students during her senior year of high school under the guidance of Frances Taylor. Soon after graduating high school, she joined the Dance in the Rockies teaching staff, where she teaches ballet, jazz, lyrical, and hip hop. In the summer of 2007, Kristi worked with TarpleyBech, a company in which she studied and performed contemporary dance with a live jazz band. Kristi plans on continuing learning more styles of dance to shar with her students by traveling to New York, attending competitions, and by attending dance conventions.
Anne Gillis
Anne Gillis was born in Denver, Colorado and was raised in Durango. The majority of her training was with Catherine Hicks at the Durango Ballet Academy, whom she studied with for 10 years. She has studied with the Colorado Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, David Taylor Dance Theatre, and the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet.
Currently, Anne is a senior at Fort Lewis College planning to graduate in May with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.
Talia Bamerick
Talia has been involved in professional, semi-professional, and academic dance and theater since 1996. A choreographer and performer in ballet, modern, and creative movement, her works are inspired by the many reknowned artists with whom she’s worked, including Nancy Cranbourne, Brian Fischer, Jana Hicks, Wade Madsen, Shannon Mitchell, Robert Moses, KT Nelson, Brenda Way, and Katherine Moller. She was a principal dancer with 3rd Avenue Dance Company and has performed in numerous dance and theatrical productions, including Penumbra’s Oblivion, the 1997 and 2004 productions of Skins at Fort Lewis College, the 2005 production of Skins in New York City, and the 2007 production of Mandala. Talia taught ballet for years and has choreographed numerous dances for Fort Lewis College productions. She has a B.S. in Environmental Biology from Fort Lewis College.
