Faculty and Staff

Staff

Amanda Kurtz- Artistic Director

A native of Cincinnati, Amanda Kurtz began her training at Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Tech Ohio, and Contemporary Dance Theater, and Tanze Performing Arts Studio. She has a B.F.A. in Dance from Ohio University through the Honors Tutorial College, where she performed in many faculty and guest artist works including pieces by Sean Curran, Travis Gatling, Ruben Graciani, and Stephanie Batten Bland. She has performed with many Ohio choreographers such as Rachel James, Susan Moser, and Julie Cruse as part of Ohio Dance Festivals, Choreographers Without Companies, and Contemporary Dance Theater’s Performance and Time Arts Series. She has performed with Tiny Spaces Dance Company with Darcy Shaffner over the past three years. Her work has been shown in cities around the region.

Amanda has taught a wide range of styles from ballet and modern to developmental gymnastics and creative movement in studios from Ohio to California including Contemporary Dance Theater and Tanze Performing Arts Studio in Cincinnati and Kids In Motion in Oakland, CA. She has also taught non-major Modern dance at Ohio University. Amanda is certified to teach Pilates Mat classes through Power Pilates. Amanda is delighted to be a part of the Factory Street family for her third year. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Art History at Ohio University.

Darcy Shaffner – Administrative Assistant and Instructor – Tech 3/4 Jazz, Tech 5/6 Modern, Pilates, Creative Kids Company (Composition)

Darcy Shaffner has been a lover of dance since her first classes in Upper St. Clair, PA at the age of five. Her on again-off again relationship with the art form was solidified when she was in 7^th grade and discovered non-competitive dance and musical theater. Her dance interests took her in yet another direction when she discovered her love of modern dance and choreography at Ohio University, as well as a new home in Athens, where she has happily remained ever since. At OU, she performed in ‘Tensile Involvement’ by  legendary dance icon Alwin Nikolais, as well as works by James Hansen, Ursula Payne, and Michelle Geller. She has been a teacher at Factory Street Studio since 2006, and was hired to be FSS’s Administrative Assistant in 2011. Darcy is also a certified Beginning and Intermediate Pilates instructor (certified through Power Pilates) and has taught Pilates at WellWorks since 2005. During the 2010-2011 school year Darcy intermittently served as artist-in-residence with the grant-funded Project LAUNCH through the Dairy Barn Arts Center, bringing dance to public schools in the form of an after school program for districts with reduced arts funding and programming.

Darcy currently choreographs, improvises, performs, and serves as Artistic Director for her collaborative summer project Tiny Spaces Dance Company, est. 2009, with students, teachers, and alums from Factory Street Studio. She is also a member of Steampunk Ballet, est. 2011, and performed Amanda Kurtz’s “Work of Egg” for the Performance and Time Arts Series at Cincinnati Contemporary Dance Theater.

Faculty

Elizabeth Atwell - Tech 4 Ballet, Tech 5/6 Ballet, Advanced Pointe/Variations, Pre-School Movement Fun, Movement Fun, Creative Movement 1A
Elizabeth  is a choreographer, dancer, and movement arts teacher. After serving as the Director of Factory Street Studio from 2007-2009, she spent a year overseas studying dance on a Fulbright Fellowship. Her training includes American Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and North Carolina School of the Arts. She holds a B.F.A. in theater performance from Ohio University. Elizabeth is also the director of Steampunk Ballet, Athens’ newest dance company, specializing in classically influenced choreography alongside live rock music.

Chelsea Goettge – Creative Movement 1B, Tech 2 Modern, Tech 3 Modern, Tech 4 Modern, Tech 5/6 Modern

Chelsea Goettge currently teaches modern and creative movement classes at Factory Street Studio and can be seen performing with Tiny Spaces Dance Company on occassion. She recently became the Executive Director of Appalchian Progressive Education (APE Center), a non-profit Arts organization dedicated to conflict resolution through cooperative creativity. Chelsea has a BFA from Ohio University in Dance Choreography and Performance. She has studied dance abroad in Spain, Ghana, and Prague.

Kenya Gest – Hip Hop 2

Ella Hackworth – Movement Fun, Tech 1 Tap, Tech 2 Tap

Ella Hackworth has been dancing at factory street for 15 years, including pointe, ballet, modern, jazz, tap, and hip-hop. She has been teaching at the studio for 3 years though she began as an assistant teacher at the age of nine. Her favorite thing about dancing at factory street is the non-competitive and creative collaboration between students of all ages.

Kathryn Jankord – Beginning/Intermediate Pointe, Tech 5/6 Ballet

Kathryn Jankord began dancing at the age of 7 at Northeast Ohio Dance Academy. Throughout her high school years Kathryn danced with the pre-professional company Northeast Ohio Dance Ensemble performing works of classical and contemporary ballet, modern, and jazz. Kathryn has appeared in works by Brenda and Christopher Stygar, Sabatino Verlezza, Michelle Geller, Travis Gatlin, John Bohuslawsky, and many others. In 2007 she was admitted to the Ohio University School of Dance with a 4 year Talent Scholarship. Kathryn will complete her BFA in Dance and BS in Exercise Physiology at Ohio University this spring. This is Kathryn’s third year teaching at Factory Street Studio and she is happy to return.

Tom Porter – Tech 3/4 Tap, Tech 5/6 Tap

Maggie Kersten - Tech 2 Ballet, Tech 3 Ballet, Conditioning for Pre-Pointe

Maggie has been dancing since she was 7 years old, but found her love of choreography and teaching during high school at Interlochen Arts Academy. She has previously taught at Beachfront Dance Studio and Indiana Ballet Theatre, both in her home of Northwest Indiana. Her choreography experience includes pieces presented at Interlochen during her senior year, multiple pieces at Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts summer 2010, and one group piece at Ohio University where she is currently an Honors Tutorial College student in Dance.

Kelly Hogan – Tech 5/6 Jazz and Creative Movement Education Intern

Kelly has been dancing since age four, first at Marjorie Jones School of Ballet for 13 years, and continuing at Ohio University. She is currently studying Dance Education at OU, with Child Development and Dance as two areas of concentration. She has been teaching  beginner and advanced Jazz class at the Ping Center at OU for the past year as well. She is very excited about joining the Factory Street family!

Shauna Vickers – Hip Hop 1

Shauna has been dancing since she was 3 years old at FSS. She then began Irish dancing and competing for the Nugent School of Irish Dance and continued this training for 7 years. Shauna returned to FSS to pursue other dance forms, and her love of dance and choreography has continued to grow. Last year Shauna choreographed a Hip Hop piece that was performed at a fundraiser for My Sister’s Place. The past two summers she has furthered her training by attending Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts dance intensive, where she has taken classes from many different teachers and choreographers, and was selected to perform in several pieces by choreographers such as Natrea Blake and Zane Booker. Shauna is currently a member of Steampunk Ballet. Shauna is attending Ohio University and is majoring in dance.