Dancers

Miye Bishop
Miye, just finishing high school this year, will continue to take classes at WCC for another year before transferring to a university. She has attended dance workshops such as ABT summer intensive and St. Petersburg, Russia's ballet competition. She has performed in numerous ballet productions, dancing the principal roles in A Midsummer Nights Dream, Petrushka, The Nutcracker, Graduation Ball, Giselle, and Aladdin. This year, she will go on dancing with BRD and Northwest Ballet Theatre, teach dance classes, and will be open to any other dancing opportunities that come her way.

Jenna Buska
Jenna grew up dancing in Helena, Montana. She trained and performed in ballet throughout high school with Premiere Dance Company. In 2003 she made the move to Bellingham and began taking modern classes at Western Washington University. She was a member of Dance Makers in 2004 and has performed in WWU's dance department productions with instructors Andy Noble, Pam Kuntz, and Brandy Shelton. In 2007 she danced in Western's repertory production of Mark Morris's New Love Song Waltzes under Penny Hutchinson and Kraig Patterson. She graduated in 2007 with a degree in Human Geography.

Alona Christman
Alona started dancing at the age of five. She recently graduated from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle with a BFA in Dance. She has performed for such artists as Paige Barns, Bill Evans, Sonia Dawkins, Wade Madsen, Deborah Wolf, Mary Sheldon-Scott, and others. Alona is a long time member of Dance Gallery, as well as a founding member and dancer for Bellingham Repertory Dance. She manages the Firehouse Performing Arts Center that her and her husband Matt Christman started 6 years ago.

Brooke Evans
Brooke started dancing at the age of three. She has danced with The Santa Fe Aspen Ballet, Colleen Mulvihill, Tina Gerstler, The Elements Dance Company and others. This is her third season with BRD and she is pleased to be a core member this year. She is also a performer and teacher with Dance Gallery. She has two kids at home and a husband who sometimes acts just as young as their sons.

Sylvia Graham
Sylvia has studied dance at the University of Washington and the San Francisco Ballet and Boston Ballet schools. She recently moved to Bellingham to pursue a graduate degree in marine science. In addition to dancing, she loves traveling and exploring the outdoors. This is her second year with BRD and she is thrilled to be involved in the local dance community!

Tiffany MacSlarrow
Tiffany grew up in Bellingham and received her BA in dance from the University of Washington, where she was a founding member of the Dance Student Association.  She studied on and off at the Joy of Motion Dance Studio in Washington D.C. where she earned her teaching degree.  This is her 2nd year as part of BRDC and 3rd year with Dance Gallery.  Tiffany is an Instructional Coach and Teacher Assistance Program Coordinator in Ferndale School district.   Besides dancing, Tiffany loves to travel, teach children, and spend time with her husband Jasper.

Kathy Pottratz
When she's not at the Firehouse, Kathy Pottratz teaches Modern at WWU and serves as artistic director of Dance Makers, Westerns interactive dance troupe. In her contemporary studies Kathy has ventured into creative movement, performance and choreography. She has created many original works and co-choreographed four major musicals. he was invited to the American College Dance Festival, where she performed a duet that she co-created with her partner. She danced as a guest artist with Ririe-Woodbury for Alwin Nikolais Tensile Involvement. In Montreal, she-co choreographed and performed the experimental work: Barbara Streisand is my President. At Seeing Jazz, a national touring art exhibit, she demonstrated and lectured on improvisation through the visual and kinesthetic arts. Performing as a back-up dancer for Weird Al Yankovic was one of her most outrageous dance experiences!

Sarah Schermer
Sarah is a senior at WWU pursuing a BFA in Choreography and Performance of Modern Dance, with a minor in Environmental Studies. A dancer all her life, she grew up training in in ballet, jazz, and modern at Port Angeles Dance Center, in Port Angeles, WA. In her years as a university student, Sarah has been an active participant in the dance department, as a performer and choreographer in annual student run productions, as well as a performing in the annual faculty shows. Sarah has been involved in many independent student productions, the most recent of which was this year's BFA production "Three Ways In", where an original piece of her choreography was presented. She has also worked closely with Pam Kuntz on her two latest productions,"The Parent Project" and "Reporting live from Crazy", as dancer and costume designer for both. Sarah is a Balanced Body University certified Pilates instructor, trained through Core Kinetics pilates studio, in downtown Bellingham.

Kate Stevenson
Kate has been dancing her entire life, starting with ballet at a young age and continuing onto modern dance as an adult. Kate graduated from WWU with a BS in Fitness and Exercise Science and currently pursuing a BFA in Dance Performance from WWU. Kate has been involved with WWUs dance program for nearly 10 years performing in many student and faculty productions, including summer productions led by Montreal Dance. In addition, Kate has danced in community dance projects such as The Mom Project and Reporting Live from Crazy. For 3 years Kate taught for the WWU dance program, teaching open modern and ballet and was actively involved with DanceMakers, an elementary school tour program. Outside of dance Kate teaches many fitness and pilates classes at WWU and the Bellingham Athletic Club, certified as a Polestar Pilates Instructor and ACSM Health/ Fitness Instructor. Kate enjoys running, biking, mowing the lawn, and playing around Bellingham with her husband Trent.

Lena Traenkenschuh
Lena recently graduated with a BS in Pre-Physical Therapy and a BFA in Dance for choreography from Western Washington University. She began dancing at a young age and completed most of her early training at the Dance Studio in Port Townsend, Washington. As a student at WWU she has had the opportunity to participate in many faculty and student run performances at Western Washington University including a section of Lar Lubovitchs' Marimba in 2005 and a restaging of Mark Morris' New Love Song Waltzes in 2007. Over the years Lena has developed a passion for Choreography and has had several opportunities to present her work, most recently in the BFA production Ways In. She is thrilled to be a part of this company.

Vanessa Wallen
Vanessa has recently graduated from Western Washington University, with a BFA in Dance Performance. Over the past four years she has performed in nearly all of WWU's annual concerts including the restaging of works by Mark Morris and Susan Marshall. She was also honored to perform at the 2006 American College Dance Festival in Laramie, Wyoming. Vanessa has taught various styles of dance over the years and is currently teaching in Bellingham and Anacortes. She is thrilled to continue performing with Bellingham Repertory Dance and is grateful for the opportunity to work with the phenomenal artists in this community and beyond!

Diane Williams
Diane studied dance since childhood and went on to study Dance at the University of Washington. She later transferred to WWU where she was the recipient of a full-tuition Monica Gutchow Dance in Education Scholarship. She is currently teaching Modern, Jazz and Lyrical at Northwest Ballet School and is also employed full-time as a Graphic Designer. As a founding member of BRD, Diane thinks it's pretty neat she can continue to pursue her passion for dance while living in the great community of Bellingham.