Kristen Brewer Sitter

Kristen Brewer Sitter was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  In 2001, Kristen received her Bachelor of Arts in Education degree from Louisiana State University.  During her time at LSU, she taught jazz, tap and hip hop at LeBalanc Dance Academy.

Kristen moved to Durango, Colorado in 2002.  She taught Montessori in Ignacio, Colorado.  Shortly after teaching in Ignacio, Kristen taught dance at the Durango Sports Club .  The Dance Center hired Kristen to serve as the Office Manager while also teaching ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop and power dance.

In 2008, Kristen started Durango Dance which provides dance instruction for both children and adults in tap, hip hop, ballet, jazz, break dance, lyrical as well as offering fun adult blast dance workouts.  Durango Dance moved to its convenient permanent home on the corner of 11th Street and Main Avenue in 2009 with three fully equipped studios.

Erika Wilson Golightly

Erika Wilson Golightly hails from Denver originally where she studied jazz, modern and ballet with Robin Gayton. Growing up near the city afforded many opportunities to work with Cleo Parker-Robinson and Ronnie Whittaker, and participate in numerous professional performance and competition experiences from a very young age. It wasn’t until college that Erika immersed in formal ballet training with Shannon Mitchell-Hyatt and received the highest quality training and appreciation for classical dance.

Erika earned degrees in English and Theater at Fort Lewis College and is near completion of a second degree in psychology. She has been featured as a guest artist in several Fort Lewis productions including Skins and has choreographed several musicals and stage productions including The Wizard of Oz, as well as guest performer or choreographer for successive Animas Music Festivals. She is a current and founding member of the Salt Fire Circus and tours regionally as an aerial artist.

Erika started teaching dance at the encouragement of teachers immediately out of high school and has continued to explore movement, body-mind connection and the craft of teaching. Erika is a certified yoga instructor and also teaches therapeutic, hatha and vinyasa yoga. Her highest intention and motivation is to impart healthy precision and subtle awareness for greater embodiment and freer expression. Most especially, Erika intends to inspire a love of movement that prevails throughout the years to anyone who is willing and curious.

Suzy DiSanto

Suzy has taught, performed and choreographed throughout California and Colorado. She holds an M.A. in Dance from Mills College in Oakland, California as well as a teaching credential in Laban Movement Studies from Laban Centre in London, England. She is also a member of the Society of Dance History Scholars.  Suzy has performed in works by choreographers Donald McKayle, Joe Goode, Wade Madsen and Bill Evans. Before coming to Durango she was a founding member of Central Coast Company Dance. Locally, she was the founding Artistic Director of 3rd Ave Dance Company. Suzy has choreographed for 3rd Ave Dance Company, FLC Theater Dept., San Juan College Theater Dept. the Diamond Circle Melodrama, Snowdown Follies and Durango Performing Arts Company. She has taught for 12 years in the Four Corners area, currently she teaches the Jazz and social dance programs at Durango Dance!  She is the founder of “Take the Lead”, a ballroom dance instruction program in the Durango 9R School district.

Jamie Pittman

Jamie was born in Houston, TX and raised in Northern Virginia. Her love of performance began as a child when she would dress up as Michael Jackson and make up dance performances for her family in their living room. This passion grew as she danced competitively for Studio One Performing Arts School in Springfield, VA. There she studied jazz, lyrical, and hip hop. From 1994-1999 she performed and competed for Studio One at competitions throughout the East Coast. Jamie moved to Durango, CO in 2000 to attend Fort Lewis College and earned a Bachelors Degree in Exercise Science and Business. While attending school she danced and choreographed in many of the college dance productions for Dance Co-Motion and the Fort Lewis College Theatre Department. During this time she also studied West African dance, belly dance, jazz, hip hop, and contemporary at Barefoot Dance Studio. In 2007 she performed in the production of “Mandala” and “Kinetic Kaleidoscope.”

Jamie is currently a founding member of the Salt Fire Circus in Durango, CO. She is a dancer, choreographer, and aerial artist for the company.

She is presently a hip hop teacher at Durango Dance in Durango, CO. Jamie hopes to create a space for her students that embodies a love of dance and movement that will encourage joy, non-judgment, happiness, and inspiration. Her students touch her life and heart everyday and she feels blessed to have the opportunity to work with them and be a part of their lives.

When she is not dancing, she enjoys cooking, crafting, running, and hanging out with her adorable dog Mia Bella.

Jessica Perino

Dance has the remarkable ability to unite us with ourselves and others. Jessica holds this central to her work, nurturing students’ trust in their own innate movement voices and capabilities in tandem with providing sound technical training. Intended for visiting relatives, Jessica choreographed her first evening-length work (inspired by an oriental rug and set to a cheesy seventies easy listening record) when she was four. Inherent love for movement led her to train first as a gymnast, but life’s little curlicues brought her back home to dance. Jessica has had the pleasure of working with Dance CoMotion, Fort Lewis, University of Northern Colorado, Colorado Dance Theatre, Crested Butte Dance Collective, and Boulder Ballet. She has had the honor of dancing with New York companies The Next Stage Project and David Dorfman. Jessica also helped to create the toddler movement program for Studio Maestro, now Manhattan Movement and Arts Center. In 2007, she directed and produced her first show, “Mandala.” Currently she is co-artistic director of fledgling touring company, Clutch. Following the completion of a B.A. in Early Childhood Education from Naropa University, Jessica returns home to teach, learn, share, dance, and love completely. In the near future she hopes to create a program that will increase access to dance for all populations – sharing this powerful and joyous medium with all those who seek it.

Tracy Henderson

Tracy Henderson teaches adult beginning hip hop. She moved around alot through her life but spent most of her young adult life in Austin.
She took a few dance classes growing up, but really became devoted to dance and especially hip hop in 1993. Since that time she has been a student of hip hop, including advanced hip hop with Maya Sol Dansie at Durango Dance. Tracy is a dedicated Martial Artist who has been studying various styles of Martial Arts since 1993 and she is also a mother and business owner.

Tracy is an enthusiastic teacher and is very vested in her students. Her teaching style is both serious and playful…serious in that she will work one on one with each student to help them acheive their goals, but playful in that she knows everyone’s goals are different, every personality, ability, and style are different. Having fun in class is a priority!

Tracy’s passion is music… dance is the way she enjoys and expresses herself through music. She hopes above all, at her students learn to enjoy their own unique expression through dance.

Lani Dill

Lani grew up in Northern Virginia and has been dancing and performing since she was five years old. She majored in dance in college. She has trained in Virginia, New York, Orlando, Atlanta, Los Angeles and at Northwestern University. Lani was the Director and an instructor at a dance studio in Alabama for 15 years. Lani has a true love for all forms of dance and a passion for musical theatre. She was the choreographer and assistant director of a community theatre for over 20 years. She has choreographed, directed and performed all over the United States.

Drew Malhmood

Drew Malhmood has been dancing for 6 years now with training in jazz, hip-hop, break, swing, salsa and many other social dance forms. He started assistant teaching, as well as doing a lot of work with The Dance Connection where he received the award for “most unique choreography.” Two years later he took on his own classes at The Dance Connection; teaching hip-hop, break, swing and salsa. After a year of teaching at there he has come back to Durango to take over the break classes at Durango Dance!

“I describe dance as a way to be free of life’s constraints and letting your body move with its own expression. Dance is about respect, respecting each others movement and acknowledging that everyone has the right to move.”