About – LA Dance

A Place Where...

Experience, Explore, and Excel in all areas of the performing arts.

HIP-HOP

CONTEmPORARY

POINTE

LYRICAL

BALLET

TAP

JAZZ

TUMBLING

"L.A. Dance is a wonderful place for your child to learn confidence. My daughter, Jessica, has been going there for two years and she loves her class with Ms. Jamie. She dances all the time now (Jesse’s kindergarten friends even wrote about her and said that’s what Jesse likes to do…she likes to dance and perform). She looks forward to each fall when she gets to begin her class again. We will be enrolling again this year and look forward to another year with Ms. Jamie. She is a phenomenal dancer and teacher. She has such great patience with the little ones. We just love her and love L.A. Dance!"

- LYNETTE

Laura Farrell

Miss Laura has been dancing since the age of three. Growing up, she took classes in Ballet, Tap, and Jazz dance. She started competing at the age of 11 and won many regional and national awards. She has been teaching both recreational and competitive dance for the past twenty seven years, twenty five of those years as owner and director of L. A. Dance.

Lillie Hamilton

Miss Lillie grew up in the Kalamazoo, MI area and trained at Center Stage Dance Studio from ages 3-17. She graduated cum laude from Oakland University with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance in 2018, where she received the Outstanding Dance Performance MaTilDa award. Lillie performed professionally in the main stage production of “Luminosity” at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio during the summer of 2017.

Leanne Dukatz

Leanne is a lifelong dancer who started as a student at L.A. dance when they opened where she studied ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, and clogging distinguishably placing with high marks throughout her tenure. After graduating from being a competitive dancer in 2006 she was invited to join the staff at L.A. Dance to pass on her knowledge and passion of dance.

Jamie Nelson

Jamie trained at L.A. Dance in her youth, studying tap, jazz, ballet, hip hop, and lyrical. She joined the L.A. Dance staff as an instructor in 2005, where she discovered the joy of teaching. In addition to training at L.A. Dance, Jamie has attended several national conventions including multiple years at Break the Floor, Syncopate, Summer of Adrenaline, and Motor City Tap Festival. She continues to attend conferences to learn from master dancers.

Miss Ann

Carmen Wade

Miss Carmen comes to us with a wealth of knowledge. She runs our Pre-professional Ballet Program. Some of Miss Carmen's credits include: Conducting classes and workshops to teach technique, pointe, variations, conditioning and pas de deux. She maintains state and regional reputation for ballet program and has the ability to help students earn scholarships to major dance institutions, such as Oakland University, Michigan State University and The Joffrey Ballet.

Dakota Gerhold

Miss Dakota grew up in White Lake, Michigan and trained at The Art of Dance starting at the age of four. She was a member of Oakland University’s Oakland Dance Theater and Repertory Dance Company where she performed works by Sandra Torjiano, Dusan Tynek, Millicent Hodsen and Kenneth Archer, Zvi Gotheiner, and others. Dakota had the opportunity to study abroad in Berlin, Germany where she studied and performed at Tanzfabrik and the Freie Universität in 2018. She has worked with numerous professionals at their summer intensives including Hanna Bricston, Jenn Freeman, Loni Landon and Alexandra Wells. Miss Dakota is a graduate of Oakland University’s dance program where she has earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance. This will be her fourth year at LA Dance!

L.A. Dance began with the mission to instill in its students self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-discipline. To provide quality instruction in the performing arts. To teach students not only how to set goals, but how to achieve them. To not only create strong performers, but strong individuals.

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