The ARTery instructor bios: Dancing Classrooms

Carole Dunic started dancing at
age seven and has performed
with the Raleigh Civic Ballet, the
Peninsula Ballet Theatre, the
Fairfax Ballet and the Omaha
Dance Project. She first moved to
Omaha in 1989 and taught ballet
at Ballet Omaha and the Jewish
Community Center. For the past
ten years, she has attended the
Adult Ballet Intensive in
Richmond, Virginia. Carole
continues her ballet studies at
the Omaha Academy of Ballet,
and for the last two years she
has also been studying ballroom
dance at Just Dance in Omaha.
Her degree, from the University
of North Carolina, is in public
health education. Carole and her
husband have two sons.

MariAnne Hartmann has been
dancing for five years at Adair
Dance Academy, taking tap
andballet. She and her husband,
Dan, have three children, and
Mari Anne has been actively
involved in the Columbian School
Parent Teacher Organization and
previously the Belle Ryan PTA.
Very active in her church, Mari
Anne has served as a Sunday
School teacher, nursery
volunteer, and Vacation Bible
School volunteer. She was a
founder of the Confident Kids
Program, teaching the year-long
program to hundreds of children.
Mari Anne's daughters study
dance at Adair Dance Academy.

Jacqueline Adams is a student at
the University of Nebraska at
Lincoln, majoring in biology with
a minor in dance. She has been
dancing since the age of nine at
Entenman's Studio of Dance in
Bellevue and has been a student
teacher there for seven years. In
high school, Jackie participated in
the dance team and was team
captain her senior year. She
recently performed at the Omaha
Community Playhouse in the
2005 production of Swing! and
Ralston Community Theater's
2006 production of Chicago.
Currently, she is involved in the
Omaha Dance Project.

Shelley Brakhan Fritz, owner of
The Dance Directive, has taught
dance and competed
professionally since 1984,
opening The Dance Directive in
1994. She has received
numerous teaching and
performing awards, including Top
Teacher in both the Midwest and
Northwest Regions, first place in
the Fred Astaire Midwest
Regional Championships, and a
dance scholarship from the
University of Nebraska. She
earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts
Degree in dance with an
education emphasis from the
University of Nebraska. With her
wide range of dance knowledge
(Ballroom, Country, Swing, Latin,
Modern, Ballet, Jazz, and Tap),
she has performed and
competed nationally in venues
such as the main stage of the
Lied Center for Performing Arts in
Lincoln, Nebraska.

Patti Zukaitis began her training
with the Omaha Academy of
Ballet when she was 12 years
old. She received her BFA degree
in dance from Creighton
University in 1974 and graduated
from NYU's Tisch School of the
Arts with an MFA in dance in
1986. She performed with A
Company of Dancers from
Creighton University, the Omaha
Ballet, and with modern
choreographers in Omaha and
New York, and holds the
Associate Diploma with the ISTD.
Patti has been a teacher with the
Omaha Academy of Ballet for
more than 20 years and is
currently a faculty member in the
dance department at Creighton
University and UNO.

Carol Burk is an experienced
teacher with a particular
emphasis in working with young
children. She earned her
bachelor's degree in English from
the University of Illinois in
Chicago. Carol has studied dance
since 1985 and began teaching
in 1998. She studied under
Valerie Roche at the Omaha
Academy of Ballet and at
Creighton University. After
moving to Chicago, she studied
at Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance
Theater and Columbia College.
Other community involvement
includes leadership in La Leche
League International and
volunteer work at her church.

Michele Patterson studies ballet
and tap at the Omaha Academy
of Ballet and Adair Dance
Academy. She's a classroom
volunteer at Dundee Elementary
School and is an active member
of the PTA, chairing several
committees. Michele and her
husband, Richard, have two
children.

Midtown in Omaha, Nebraska
Dancing Classrooms Teaching Artists

'Art Is for Everyone'

Stephanie Hearn is a senior at
the University of Nebraska at
Omaha earning a degree in
broadcasting with a minor in
French while working at
KPTM/KXVO. For the past year,
Stephanie has been learning
ballroom dance and recently
helped form a ballroom dance
club at the University of
Nebraska at Omaha. She has
taught swim lessons and
coached a swim team for the
past two-and-a-half years in the
metro area.

Stacie Hartwig teaches second
grade at Catlin Arts Magnet
School and is a member of The
Moving Company at the
University of Nebraska at Omaha.
She has been a member of
Showcase UNO, the university
swing choir, performed at the
1996 Olympics and was on the
award-winning National High Kick
team in 1998. She has studied
ballet and jazz dancing for many
years and appeared frequently in
musical-comedy productions
between 1994 and 1998.

Pam Dutton has been an
enthusiastic Latin and ballroom
dancer since 1999, competing on
the pro-am circuit and teaching
beginning dancers. She and her
husband have two children, one
a student at Dundee Elementary
School and the other at
Beveridge Magnet Middle School.
As chairperson of the fundraising
committee, she works closely
with teachers and students.

Nick Del Signore was a member
of the Northwest Missouri State
University Dance Company for
two years, concentrating in
hip-hop and lyrical style dances.
He minored in theater and was a
lighting and sound crew
supervisor for the three campus
stages, teaching students how
to maintain and operate stage
lighting and sound equipment.
He works with children on a daily
basis as a photographer for
Lifetouch school and sports
photography.

Melissa Rotolo earned a Bachelor
of Arts degree in dramatic arts at
the University of Nebraska at
Omaha. After graduation she
acted with the Omaha Theater
Company for Young People on
the main stage at The Ros as
well as with the national touring
company. She has taught many
classes and workshops for
kindergarten through high school
students. Melissa began learning
social dance in 2000 and says
she is "thrilled to join [her] love
of teaching and love of dance" as
part of Dancing Classrooms.

Marian Fey (director, ARTery
artistic director) began dancing
when she was five years old in
Omaha and continued her dance
education in Arlington (Va.),
Tucson (Ariz..), and Hutchinson
(Kan.) In Hutchinson she studied
with former Rockette Betsie
Andrews and began teaching
younger students. Marian also
studied dance at Kansas State
University, where she earned a
bachelor's degree in education.
She has used her learning as
well as her natural gifts for
teaching and working with
children to operate preschool
programs and teach ballet and
tap to all ages, most recently at
the Adair Dance Academy in
Omaha.

Almost immediately after seeing
the film Mad Hot Ballroom, a
popular and widely distributed
documentary about Dancing
Classrooms, she contacted Pierre
Dulaine in New York, worked with
OPS and former ARTery executive
director Barb Farho to organize
the program and obtain funding,
and launched Dancing
Classrooms in Omaha in January
2006, making Omaha the first city
outside of New York to offer the
program. During the first three
years, the Omaha program has
doubled in size each year. Marian
and her husband, Paul, have four
children in OPS.

Mary Kingslan Gibilisco Please
click HERE for full bio.

Lynne Nevin earned a Bachelor of
Arts degree in art history from
the University of Nebraska–
Lincoln. She teaches dance at
UNL and the Omaha Academy of
Ballet and has also taught at
Creighton University, the Emmy
Gifford Children's Theater, the
Omaha Jewish Community
Center, and the Pure Movement
Dance Institute in Lincoln. She is
a teaching artist for Arts Are
Basic with Lincoln's Artist in the
Schools program and holds the
Associate Diploma through the
Imperial Society of Teachers of
Dance Professional Teaching
Examination. Lynne is a
registered member of the Royal
Academy of Dance, London.