COMPANY DIRECTORS

Wendy Sosa has been involved with dance for over 40 years. She grew up in New Hampshire and danced for most of her adolescent years in Boston. She started her training at the Nashua School of Dance and continued it at The Boston Ballet. She toured for two years with Jose Mateo's Ballet Theater of Boston. Wendy has been teaching since the age of 15 when she began her own summer dance workshop. She earned her Performance and Teaching Certification with the Hartford School of Ballet and her BA from the University of Northern Colorado. Wendy successfully completed Royal Academy of Dance examinations Primary through Intermediate. Along with RAD she has studied several other styles of ballet including Vaganova and some basic Cecchetti. She has had the distinct honor of performing in three original Balanchine ballet including Stars and Stripes, Serenade and Western Symphonies. Some of her lead roles include lead Spanish, Snow Queen and Dew Drop in the Nutcracker and Pigtail Girl in Graduation Ball. She has studied under several renown dance teachers including Arthur Leeth & Laura Young (Boston Ballet), Kirk Peterson (Hartford Ballet), Peggy Lyman (from the Martha Graham Company), Robert Barnet (Atlanta Ballet), Elina Mooney and Cliff Keuter to name a few. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Colorado Dance Collective (CDC) in Greeley. They are a nonprofit, adult repertoire company in Northern Colorado. She also serves as a board member for the CDC. Wendy teaches classes under her "Miss Wendy" moniker at the Greeley Warehouse in tandem with leading the Ballet Company portion of the CDC. Wendy has had the pleasure of not only training dancers but many other types of athletes and artists. She welcomes students from the local college's musical theater program to polish their dance skills and helps graduating high school seniors prep for dance team or pro team auditions. She has consulted on routines for gymnasts, ice skaters and baton twirlers. With so many wonderful studios in the surrounding area Miss Wendy has found her niche! Teaching and prepping older, adult dancers to move into the next stage of their careers is where she seems to shine.

Laura started dancing when she was 8 years old with Movin' for the Lord Dance Company in Greeley, directed by Cindy Lundy. She focused on ballet with Movin' for the Lord, and toured with their traveling company. They performed for multiple local church productions, and performed at Ballet Magnificat! at their summer intensive program. At the same time, Laura started to dance with the Conservatory of Dance in Greeley. There she studied ballet, pointe, lyrical, and hip-hop and competed for a year with their competition company. She performed with the Colorado Dance Theatre (CDT) doing The Nutcracker Ballet for 5 years, performing multiple different roles. She also performed in CDT's Sleeping Beauty Variations production, traveling to local schools to perform the variations and educate kids about dance. Laura has also performed as a dancer for multiple local theatre productions including: Oklahoma!, Pippin, Babes in Arms, Anything Goes, Once Upon a Mattress, My Fair Lady, and Brigadoon. Most recently, Laura performed with a local performance company, Elluminate, helping to raise money for hungry communities in Africa. She finally got involved with Colorado Dance Collective in January of 2018. She is a member of the ballet company, is the assistant director of the ballet company, and is now the Assistant Executive Director of the company. She is thrilled to be a part of this company and to now be serving as Assistant Executive Director. Not only does she love that CDC is an incredible company to be a part of as an adult dancer, but she loves how involved the company is in the community and that they continue to seek ways to fill needs in the dance community.

Kat started dancing in a ballet for figure skaters class when she was 8 years old. She fell in love with ballet and started training at Colorado School of Dance, where she mainly trained in ballet, but participated in various other styles including modern, jazz, hip hop and competition team, and was a teaching assistant as well. She then continued her training at the University of Wyoming where she studied ballet, jazz, modern, choreography, and pedagogy, and worked with a variety of guest artists including Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Ririe Woodbury Dance Company, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, AXIS Dance Company, and Jacob Mora. In 2014, she graduated with a BFA in Theatre and Dance with a concentration in Dance Science and a minor in Disability Studies. Kat then started teaching dance in 2015 at Dance Studio B in Laramie, Wyoming. When she moved back to Colorado in 2017, she started teaching at Immersion Dance Center in Fort Collins. Kat still resides at IDC, where she teaches ballet, jazz/contemporary/lyrical, dancer wellness, conditioning and technique, and choreographs for the competitive company. As well as finding an amazing studio to teach at in 2017, Kat was introduced to the Colorado Dance Collective. She has been a member of the ballet and jazz companies since then and is excited to take on a new role as Co-Director of the jazz company!

Devi Rosson started studio dancing at 2 years old and has had a passion for dance ever since. From competitions in her youth, to varsity poms team in high school, and the Colorado Eagles Chicks as an adult, dance has always been a constant in her life. For that reason, she feels extremely lucky to have found the CDC, where she can continue dancing even as a mom and coach. Devi has been connected with CDC since the start and is super excited to bring her enthusiasm for jazz to the company as a co-director for this upcoming season.

Shaena has been dancing for 18 years going on 19! She grew up dancing at the Dance Factory doing Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Lyrical, Hip Hop, Contemporary, and Musical Theatre and going to school in Eaton and graduated from Eaton High School! During high school she managed football in the fall, played tennis in the spring, and danced year round. Dancing, she did countless Jazz, Tap, and Hip Hop solos! When she was 14 I took my Tap solo and Hip Hop trio to Nationals! At competitions and conventions over the years she got a lot of scholarships, but the most memorable was in 2018 when she got a scholarship to dance with World Dance Movement in Castellana Grotte, Italy. In 2019 she flew to Italy and got to take classes from some of the top choreographers in the world! Teachers from Italy, France, Russia, and Greece come together to put on an amazing production! After the show, she was given a scholarship to Pace University in New York! After high school she continued to dance at CDC for a year doing Jazz, Tap, and Hip Hop! After a year at CDC she went on to be a Colorado Eagles Chick and just finished her second season there and hoping to go on to be a 3rd year vet! Currently, her hobbies include golfing, traveling, and taking her puppy everywhere she can! She can’t wait for you to come get your Happy Feet on with her!

M’lyn Miller was born and raised in Greeley, CO and has been dancing throughout her life in various ways. She started dancing when she was around 5 years old in styles of ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop. After a small break, she joined the Twilight Twirlers at around 13 – 14 years old where she learned to baton twirl and entered competitions for marching and group competition. This is when she started to really enjoy dance and the connections she could make with those around her. When she was a freshman in high school, she joined a local dance company, Elluminate, where dancers were able to raise money for children in Africa. While in this company, M’lyn was able to choreograph performances and work in a mentorship role with the dancers in the company. This opportunity gave her a lot of experience in running a show and figuring out logistics with choreography and stage set up. After Elluminate, she joined Northern Colorado Dance Fusion as an instructor for a beginning ballet class and she also took classes in hip hop. While studying at the University of Northern Colorado for a bachelor’s in Communication Studies, she took dance classes in hip hop, ballet, tap, and modern. While taking the hip hop class at UNC, she was introduced to the Colorado Dance Collective where she joined in January of 2018 in the hip hop company. Joining the CDC has been life changing for her and has provided a sense of family and support. M’lyn loves the connection to community that CDC brings and the opportunity to collaborate with others on projects and performances that bring people together.

Sofia was born in El Salvador, but has lived most of her life in Greeley, CO and has an Animation Certificate from Aims Community College

Sofia has been dancing for about 9 years now. She specializes in popping, freestyle, hip hop and animation. She has trained with Dance Fusion, the Greeley West dance team, and Colorado Dance Collective.

Sofia's main inspiration to become a dancer was a dancer she saw on YouTube named Fik-Shun. His style was so unique and awe-inspiring that it made Sofia want to learn from him and dance like him. From there she found more dancers to learn from and more styles to incorporate in her dancing.

My name is Shanise Garcia I am from Greeley Colorado and I have grown a passion for dancing since I was little. I learned how to dance by watching dancers on YouTube and big celebrities perform like Michael Jackson and Chris Brown, which inspired me to be a dancer. In high school my friends and I made our own dance group called Dark Illusions and we started performing in our High school dance concerts. Once I was old enough to pay for dance classes I joined Inspire Dance Academy in when I was 19 and danced there for a couple years. I would assist my friend in teaching hip hop classes at Inspire Dance Academy. A year later I joined Colorado Dance Collective and have been dancing with the company for 4 years now. I have grown my dancing career year after year and now I have become the Assistant Hip Hop Director for the company.

Armando has been dancing since the age of three and believes that expression through the body comes before any other form of expression and is the most primal. Armando's dance roots start in ballet folclórico and being part of a traditional danza group in Mexico. Armando and his family then moved to the USA in search of the American dream. With exposure to pop culture at that time in the early 90's, Armando quickly became a fan of breakdancing and hip hop culture. Gravitating to the likes of Michael Jackson music videos and programs on tv such as Live In Color. Armando, much like many other Hip Hop dancers, began to work on his own style and moves at home on the kitchen floor. Spinning on the floor and attempting new tricks and moves that would impress others at school dances. Getting into high school Armando became part of an a male dance group. They choreographed their own routines and performed during school assemblies and went on to dance throughout the state of Colorado. This is also where Armando started teaching his own classes at the age of 15. In his college years Armando applied at a local dance studio and within a year grew into teaching the advanced classes and competition routines for the studio. Going on to win multiple first place awards, Armando felt like he found a home. Armando began to travel to LA to learn from master teachers and also attend conventions to gain more knowledge on teaching fundamentals and how to groom a dancer. Armando is one of the founding members and teachers of the Colorado Dance Collective for 10 plus years. Armando now finds himself asking how he can be more than a teacher and establish culture and creative direction within the dance community in northern Colorado. Armando has also been the Hip Hop dance teacher at The University of Northern Colorado and has had a great time contributing to their recognized theatre department. Armando is energized by the wide spectrum and diversity that Hip Hop dance culture presents. It is an art form that provides inclusivity and access. Armando believes that class is just as much about the student as the teacher. In Hip Hop each person brings something to the dance circle and it is honor to participate in discovering that within each dancer. In class Armando will use hip hop foundations to explore creativity, courage, identity and self awareness. Dance is something that will come up in everyone's life and becoming more comfortable with body movement is a must. As much as Hip Hop has its foundations and structure it is also a social expression to help humans interact. In Armando's class students will be asked to think critically about who they are and what they represent in order to leverage their ability and give it value. With over 30 years of dance experience and 18 years teaching Armando looks forward to participating and sharing his knowledge. Armando earned a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Northern Colorado. He currently lives in Greeley, Colorado, and is deeply embedded in creative leadership throughout the community. His art studio space contributes to the revitalization of Downtown Greeley and he serves on the Greeley Creative Arts District Board. Armando is on the Think360 artist roster, an agency that places working artists in schools for workshops, residencies and performances.

Alyssa began dancing ballet at 3 years old with Stites Dance Academy (now Stites Performing Arts Center) in Portland, OR. She pursued ballet there for many years and was even featured as a lead character in their studio production at the age of 8. She later danced for other studios, including Beaverton Dance Center (Beaverton, OR) and Gallery Ballet (McMinnville, OR) through highschool. While studying ballet through her childhood she dabbled in jazz, swing and other forms of dance. After highschool she went on to receive her Bachelors of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. She decided that wasn’t quite enough and moved to NYC to participate in the Academy of Musical and Dramatic Arts’s (AMDA) 2 year certificate program. There she received education in many styles of dance including Musical Theater, Partnering, Jazz, Ballet & Tap. With that education she pursued a career in musical theater performance for many years before the birth of her first child. While “taking a break” from performing, she studied briefly at Dancesport Ballroom studio and discovered her love of Swing dancing. Social swing dancing filled her “dance bucket” while she took 10 years off of performing, raising her 2 kids. After moving to Greeley at the end of 2020, she discovered the Colorado Dance Collective and her love of dance was reignited. She joined the Ballet Company in Fall of 2021 and the Swing Company in Spring of 2022. Now, she is so honored to be taking the swing company into new adventures, with the help of Todd Teter, as Swing, Stage and Social Company. She and Todd hope to explore a diverse collection of partnering styles while focusing their choreography on musical theater & swing. They want their new company to be welcome to the community, while hope to also challenge their company members to explore new styles and challenging choreography.

Todd has been a Lindy Hopper for around 9 years as well as been in musical theater for 12. He is super excited to get to put it to a different format and incorporate different styles into the company this season!