Danielle Heller: Danielle received her BA from Colorado State University, her Master of Education from Capella University, her Principal’s License from CSU Global Online and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Archetypal Mythology with an emphasis in Jungian Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. In 2014 she served as chair for the Colorado Dance Endorsement Committee, whose work allowed the state to pass legislation enabling dance educators to become endorsed to teach in the K-12 public school sector. In 2018 and in 2022 she served as chair and co-chair for the Colorado Dance Standards Revision. She has taught for Red Rocks Community College and various festivals around the United States. She served as Principal and administration for an online/sitebased middle and high school arts program called Arts Immersion. She participated as a core member of Ellie Sciarra’s tap company, Women in Tap: Taps Are Talking, from 1999-2009. During the last two years, she served as Dance Captain for the company. From 2013 to 2015 she served as founder and artistic director of The Rhythm Tree Tap Company. In 2017 and 2018 she facilitated and hosted the Rocky Mountain Percussive Dance Festival. As owner and artistic director of Peak Academy of Dance since 1999, she teaches in the Tap Program, oversees the Exploratory Program, teaches the teacher training and assistant program and supports the staff. In her spare time, she loves to spend time with her family, gardening, skiing, traveling, and coming up with new and innovative ideas.
Maddie received a BFA in Dance from Colorado Mesa University in the Spring of 2022 with an emphasis on choreography, pedagogy, and performance. As a choreographer, she has created two collegiate-level works that were chosen for the faculty concert at Colorado Mesa University. One of these pieces titled “Exhaustion” went on to be performed in the American College Dance Association Northwest formal concert for 2022. As a performer, Maddie has worked with several guest artists and professors at Colorado Mesa University ranging from artists such as Bailey Anderson who focuses on inclusivity of physical and mental ability as a driving force for choreography all the way to Teena Maria Custer a street dance theater artist. As well as primary dance educators Amanda Benzin, Meredith Lyons, Kathy Diehl, and James Wallace. Maddie Jacobsen: As a teacher, Maddie has experience teaching Ballet, Jazz, Tap, modern, and Hip Hop and aspires to spark the joy for movement, history, and technique in all students and in all styles. She has been trained by Danielle Heller in her Teacher Training class as well, as completed the Colorado Mesa University Pedagogy class with Amanda Benzin.
Emily Jones: Emily Jones graduated from Oklahoma City University in 2019 with a degree in American Dance Pedagogy, and has been teaching in the Denver metroplex area ever since. She is currently teaching at Move! Dance Space and Arts Center, is the advanced tap instructor and competition tap coach at Colorado School of Dance and is the rehearsal director for Rocky Mountain Rhythm's youth ensemble. Originally from Texas, she has worked for several studios across the U.S., including working with the Dance Connection in Hillsborough, NJ to create a novel, story-based preschool curriculum custom for their studio’s needs. Emily has performed with groups such as the American Spirit Dance Company and the OCU Pep Team, and served as the director and choreographer for the Spirit of Grace Liturgical Dance Company for two years. One of the things she loves most as a teacher is seeing her students walk out of the classroom with a little more confidence and joy in their hearts than when they started.
Wendy Westwood: Wendy Westwood has danced her way from Colorado to California to New Zealand and back again. She has loved to choreographyh and teach dance for as long as she can remember. She grew up in Conifer, doing after-school theater classes and productions in the early days of Stagedoor Theatre and dance training at Barbie Graham-Meier School of Dance and Peak Academy of Dance. In 2004 she earned her degree in Theater and Dance from Chapman University in California. After meeting her Kiwi husband, she spent 6 years in Wellington, New Zealand where she worked as a freelance performer (Rugby 7's Cheerleader), choreographer (FERN Dance Theater) and dance teacher (New Zealand College of Performing Arts & Wellington Performing Arts Center). She also directed her own tap company (the Tap Arts Project), taught middle school (Tawa Intermediate School) - directing their dance academy and supervising their bi-annual production, and started a family. Wendy earned her Graduate Diploma in Teaching Elementary School in 2008 from Victoria University in Wellington. In 2010, the Westwoods returned to Conifer. Since their return, Wendy has worked up and down the Aspen Park corridor as instructor and choreographer with Peak Academy of Dance, choreographer for Stagedoor Theatre, teacher at Creative Minds Early Learning Center, teacher at West Jeff Elementary, as well as a performer and choreographer for Rhythm Tree Tap Company. Although she enjoys all styles of dance, tap has always held a special place in Wendy’s heart. She believes that everyone has the capacity to feel rhythm and use their feet to make music. Wendy loves working with people of all ages and is very excited to continue her involvement with Peak.