Summer Session Begins 6/17!
Summer Enrollment Opens 4/9!
Mindy Marcus
Owner, Artistic Director, Dance Instructor
Mindy grew up in a studio environment, beginning her training at her mother's studio at the age of 3. She trained for over 15 years in the disciplined studio environments of her mother’s studio as well as at Dance Movement and Denver Contemporary Dance, where she devoted intensive study to Ballet (Cecchetti), pointe, jazz, tap, lyrical and modern, (Graham & Horton). She studied with instructors such as Debbie Marcus, Brian Manning, Paula Morgan, Kenneth Green, Thomas Dixon, Debbie Mercer and Franca Telesio Smith, among others. She also attended two summer intensives at DTDT, where she had the privilege of studying with Prof. James Clouser.
Mindy began modeling and dancing professionally with Toma and Associates at the age of 8 and went on to dance professionally with local companies such as Davis Contemporary Dance, Louder Than Words Dance Theater and Legacy Dance Ensemble in her adult life.
Mindy began teaching dance in 1994. She has taught for multiple local studios and organizations over the past 26 years, including, but not limited to, Colorado Ballet, Belliston Academy of Ballet, Sweatshop Dance, Denver Dance Center, Denver Ballet Theater, Kim Robards Dance, Regis University and Classical Ballet of Colorado. She is also regularly invited to teach as a guest artist master instructor for local studios, schools and professional dance companies.
In addition to her professional dance experience, Mindy has a musical theater background with credits that include leading roles in local productions. Her off-stage credits include director and music director roles for local community theaters and choreography projects for the MACC, Performance Now, Front Range Music Theater, Augustana Arts, Castle Rock Players, Douglas County High School, Smoky Hill High School, Cherry Hills Christian Middle School and Rock Canyon High School.
Deborah Marcus
Dance Instructor
Deborah, (Deb), has been a part of the dance community--on and off--for over 30 years and was a member of Dance Educators of America until 1990. She began teaching at her teacher’s studio in Wheeling, West Virginia when she was 14. There she assisted in ballet classes and taught baton twirling and acrobatics. At the age of 14 she also landed the role of Juliet in a local production of the Ballet, Romeo and Juliet. Performing this principal role inspired her to go on to dance in multiple summer theater productions, both professionally and non-professionally.
​
Deborah has trained with Mary Elizabeth Fassig, Joe Tremaine, Paula Morgan, Kenneth Green, Brian Manning, Roni Mahler, Douglas Wassell and Gus Giordano and has served on dance faculties with Paula Morgan, Brian Manning and Kenneth Green.
Deb went on to own and direct her own studio in Colorado for a total of 27 years. She also served as Artistic Director for F.A.C.T.S. (Fine Arts Center for Talented Students) in Littleton, Colorado and taught ballet, tap, and jazz at Denver School of the Arts for two years.
​
After closing her studio, Deborah continued to work as a dance instructor/choreographer at Aurora Dance Arts, Denver Contemporary Dance and Dance Movement. She has also taught master classes in tap and ballet in both Denver and Boulder.
Deborah has trained dancers who have gone on to dance professionally on Broadway, in major companies in New York, Denver and Las Vegas and has instructed and mentored a number of students who have become dance instructors, including CDC's Owner and Artistic Director, her daughter, Mindy Marcus.
Brittany Walker
Adjunct Dance Instructor, Guest Choreographer
Brittany Walker began her dance training in Miami, FL with the Patricia Penenori Dance Center and Mencia-Pikieris School of Dance. She attended Coral Reef Senior High School, the only Mega-Magnet school in the southeastern United States, where she studied under the Visual and Performing Arts Academy, and during which she attended the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater summer intensive.
​
She attended Belhaven University to claim her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance between 2005 and 2009, and studied under Cynthia Newland, Laura Moton, Ravenna Tucker, Britta Wynne and Stephen Wynne. She also spent her time at Belhaven participating in festivals hosted by American College Dance Festival.
Walker went on as a choreographer and dancer for TALK Dance Company for three seasons, creating work for "Handel's Messiah," which was performed in Russia with the Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011. Ms. Walker has continued to choreograph for Belhaven University for their dance ensemble, dance ministry, two senior project solos and was an adjunct professor of Jazz dance at Hinds Community College. She has guest performed with the Noumenon Dance Ensemble of Chicago, Elements Dance Collective of New York and worked as an instructor at Arts Immersion of Colorado, a high-quality, tuition-free, innovative middle and high school for the performing arts. She choreographed two winning contemporary senior solos for the Youth American Grand Prix in 2015 and 2016 and is currently the Resident Choreographer at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center in Colorado, where she produces dance performances for the Sangre de Cristo Ballet. Ms. Walker performed with the Elements Dance Collective in Rhode Island in 2017 and the Hannah Kahn Dance Company from 2017-2018. Ms. Walker is the founder, choreographer and a performer with Evolve Dance Project.
Gabrielle Bilger
Dance Instructor
Gabrielle Bilger started dancing in Pueblo Colorado at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center-School of Dance at the age of four. Gabrielle trained in Ballet, Modern, and Jazz dance technique vigorously under Michelle Boutros and Brittany Walker, both Dance graduates of Belhaven University. She performed principal roles during her pre-professional training at SDC School of Dance. These roles included Myrtha from the ballet Giselle, Carmen from the ballet Carmen, Sugar PlumFairy from the Nutcracker and more. Throughout this journey of dance, Gabrielle has been to numerous summer intensives at SDC SOD, as well as a four week summer intensive in Tivoli New York, at Kaatsbaan Extreme Ballet where she trained under Martin van Hamill and Kevin McKenzie, former principals with American Ballet Theatre, and Lorin Mathis, a former Corps de Ballet member with San Francisco Ballet. Bilger also attended Denver Ballet Guild, a ballet competition where she had the opportunity to take class as well as perform in front of Edward Ellison, Jennifer Ringer, and Ilya Kozadayev. After graduating high-school and the SOD, Gabrielle moved to Tampa, Florida where she trained under Christina Acosta, a former dancer under Merce Cunningham. As well as Richard Ploch, the Artistic Director of a former ballet company named Acanthus in New York. During her time in Tampa, Bilger also had the privilege to work with Jon Lehrer, founder of Jon Lehrer Dance Company in Buffalo, NY, where he set a piece on her and other peers in 2018 and 2019. After training with both Acosta and Ploch for nearly two years, Gabrielle moved back to Pueblo, Colorado and began teaching ballet and modern technique at R&R Center for the Performing Arts and Sangre de Cristo School of Dance. Gabrielle is currently dancing with Evolve Dance Project.
Taylor Ellen
Dance Instructor
Taylor began her dance training at age 3 in her hometown of LaGrange, GA. She trained at the LaGrange School of Ballet under the direction of Nancy Thuesen Gell and Amy Orr. She studied classical ballet, pointe, modern, contemporary, jazz, and tap, and completed an assistant and student teacher training program, and began instructing dance to young students.
She then went on to major in dance at Belhaven University in Jackson, MS, where she graduated cum laude in 2015 with her BFA in dance with an emphasis in classical Ballet. While at Belhaven, Taylor studied classical and contemporary Ballet, modern, choreography, dance production, dance kinesiology, and dance pedagogy. She also had the opportunity to work with many skilled instructors and guest artists including Ravenna Tucker Wagnon and Henry Danton (The Royal Ballet), and Caleb Mitchell (Houston Ballet) and several others who still influence her dancing and teaching today. Throughout the years, she expanded her training at various summer intensives including Ballet Magnificat!, Nashville Ballet, The Rock School for Dance Education, and The American Ballet Theatre.
After graduating, Taylor moved back to Georgia to teach at the Statesboro Youth Ballet, the dance program under the umbrella of the Averitt Center for the Arts. She was promoted to Artistic Director there in 2017 and served as such until 2021. While at SYB, Taylor taught classes in creative movement, classical and contemporary Ballet, pointe, variations, modern, tap, jazz, and conditioning to students ages 3 to adult. In 2018 Taylor added teaching classical Ballet to the students in the P.E. program at the Habersham School in Savannah, GA. Between Statesboro Youth Ballet and The Habersham School, Taylor choreographed and directed several full-length Ballets including The Nutcracker (2017, 2019), Cinderella (2018), Snow White (2020), Alice in Wonderland (2018), The Wizard of Oz (2021), and created 4 modern dance showcases annually from 2018-2021.
Elizabeth Gibson
Dance Instructor
Elizabeth began ballet training at the age of 12 at Boni's Dance and Performing Arts Studio in Houston, TX where she performed yearly at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. She also trained in gymnastics for many years and competed in many local and state competitions, being awarded the Ricky Deci Award for highest individual apparatus score in 2017. That same year, she moved to Kansas City and found Crescendo Conservatory. She had the opportunity to teach Creative Movement for 3-5 year olds at Crescendo Conservatory and to substitute regularly for their ballet, jazz, contemporary and tap classes, teaching all ages from 3-adult. She relished the opportunity to learn more of the art through teaching and has enthusiasm for passing on her love and passion for dance. She enjoys every opportunity she can find to mentor young ladies and inspire the next generation of dancers.
She performed in the Nutcracker 2018, 2019, 2020, the Fringe Festival 2019, Future Stages festival 2019, 2020 and 2021 and many local performances around the Kansas City area, along with many YouTube performances. In 2022, she married the love of her life and moved to Colorado, where she now hopes to share all she has learned in her past 10+ years of training. Beyond dancing every moment she can, her interests include cinematography and video editing, piano, violin and gardening. She has a high appreciation and great love for the arts.