Sharon Wehner
DDC Owner and Instructor
Sharon Wehner is a dancer, teacher, and movement coach. She enjoyed a fulfilling 22-year career as a Principal Dancer with the Colorado Ballet and has had the opportunity to travel the world as a guest artist, working with companies and renowned choreographers throughout her field. She currently performs as a freelance artist and teacher and recently made Denver Dance Center the home of her Dance and Movement Coaching business. Sharon loves working with people of all ages and abilities to find more health, vitality, and joy in their bodies through modalities such as ballet, yoga, Dance for Parkinson’s disease and mobility challenges, and the GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® methods. She runs a mentoring program for teen and pre-professionals to help aspiring dancers develop holistic mind-body practices that support their dance journeys. Sharon is also a certified sports nutrition coach and member of the International Association of Dance Medicine.
Since moving to Colorado in 1995, Sharon has enjoyed being an active member of the Dance and Arts community throughout Colorado. She is passionate about making quality dance opportunities available to all populations, which is why she is honored to take on the reins of Denver Dance Center in October 2023. She believes that DDC is an integral part of the Colorado dance community and is excited to carry the legacy that Kris Kehl began forward into the future…supporting the dancers, teachers, and companies that call DDC their home.
You can learn more about Sharon Here:
https://sharonwehner.com/about-me/
Amy Anderson
Amy Anderson has been a professional dancer in Denver, Colorado, over 25 years. She was trained at Colorado Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet (all on scholarship). Amy also trained extensively throughout Europe. She has performed with Pacific Northwest Ballet, as a soloist with Colorado Ballet, and a principal dancer with David Taylor Dance Theatre.
Amy has a Bachelor’s Degree in dance from Loretto Heights College and has been a dance instructor for 30 years.
After a serious dance-related injury in 1990, Amy began her studies as a Pilates Instructor with an emphasis on dance medicine and rehabilitation, the method in which she was rehabilitated herself. She became certified by St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco in 1991 and worked in this field as a member of Healthsouth (formerly Englewood Physical Therapy). In 1996, she moved to Colorado Center for Physical Therapy where she worked as a Dance Medicine specialist in chronic pain (for 13 years).
She started her private practice, Engage Movement Arts in 2008 which she continues today as well as working on the medical team at Colorado Ballet.
Jenna Carara Skipworth
Jenna is a Colorado native, freelance professional dancer, and teacher. She has spent many years of her career teaching many styles of dance while studying anatomy and functional movement for dancers. Jenna is a Nationally Certified Pilates Teacher, Certified Franklin Method instructor, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in music from Berklee College of Music. Jenna feels so honored to teach alongside such talented dancers and teachers at Denver Dance Center!
Casey Dalton
Casey grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, training at the School of the Washington Ballet under Mary Day, and later at the Kirov Academy of Ballet where she was fortunate enough to be a member of Alla Sizova’s last graduating class in the United States. As a student, she attended summer intensives at American Ballet Theater, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, and Boston Ballet. In 2004 she joined Colorado Ballet, and spent 11 years dancing corps de ballet, demi-soloist and soloist roles in all of the classical and neoclassical repertoire, as well as originating roles in many contemporary works by choreographers such as Dwight Rhoden, Jodie Gates, Val Caniparoli, and more. From 2016-2020, she performed as a freelance Principal guest artist with companies in Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. For the past seven years, she has been teaching and coaching students throughout the Denver area, working in a class setting as well as offering private instruction to students of all levels, with a focus on creating strong, healthy, and intelligent dancers.
Gregory Gonzalez
Gregory Gonzales graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in Sports Fitness/Kinesiology and Dance Minor. He was a dance scholarship recipient and Best Dancer Award winner while there. His teachers include: Larry Boyette, Dr. Sandra Minton, Karen Genoff-Campbell, James Clouser, Milenko Banovic, Jeanette Triomphe to name a few. Gregory has danced with several companies over the years, both ballet and modern. These include: The Dance Connection, David Taylor Dance Theater, Nevada Dance Theater, Ballet Arizona, Wylliams-Henry Dance Theater, Opera Colorado, Ballet Pacifica, Kim Robards Dance, Les Ballet Grandiva, Zikr Dance Ensemble, Ballet Ariel and the Colorado Ballet. He spent the bulk of his career at Colorado Ballet where he was promoted to Principal Dancer in 1997. Gregory has had the opportunity to work with many leading choreographers both past and present such as Christopher Wheeldon, Stanton Welch, Milton Myers, Doug Varone and Toro Shimuzake and to dance in ballets ranging from classical and romantic periods to Balanchine, Graham and contemporary works. Gregory also choreographs and was a Choreographer in Residence for the Colorado Ballet from 2003-2004. He created and/or collaborated on ballets such as Carmina Burana, Peter Pan, Broken Web, Incantation and Last Breath. He has choreographed for the University of Northern Colorado, The Dawson-Wallace Dance Project, Ballet Ariel, The Denver Independent Choreographer’s Dance Project, Denver School of the Arts, Presenting Denver Dance Festival, Engage Movement Arts, etc. Gregory was adjudicated and is a member of the Society of American Fight Directors and is recommended in rapier and dagger. He founded On Edge Productions with three other colleagues and created shows, both comedy and drama, that featured stage combat. Gregory currently dances with Colorado Ballet as a resident guest artist and with Ballet Ariel. He teaches dance, acting for dancers and floor barre. He also teaches anatomy using the Anatomy In Clay® System to dancers and for Anatomy In Clay® Centers. He has played guitar and bandoneon for the Natural Tango Tipica Orquesta and studied Argentine Tango and has created and directed work for Tango Colorado and Parasol Arts. Gregory is a recipient of the Legends of Dance Award for 2019 from the Dance Archive University of Denver
Katie Walsh Thomas was born and raised in Denver. Katie received her earliest training with Nanci Youngand Milenko Banovitch at the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Academy and with Becky Jancosko at Boulder Ballet. She attended summer programs at the School of American Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy at Vail, and San Francisco Ballet School before
finishing her training as a full-time student at San Francisco Ballet School. Katie began her professional career with Colorado Ballet and went on to dance with Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Eugene Ballet/Ballet Idaho, Spectrum Dance Theatre, Dominic Walsh Dance Theatre, and finally the Norwegian National Ballet, where she danced from 2006 until her retirement in 2021.
Katie became Romana’s Pilates certified instructor in 2003, studying with Romana Kryzanowska, direct protégé of Joseph Pilates, and has taught Pilates at Pilates Seattle International, as well as to the dancers of the Norwegian National Ballet and students of the Norwegian National Ballet and Opera Academy. In addition to teaching ballet in the Denver area, Katie also has her own Pilates studio, Embodiment Pilates.
Independent Instructors
*Please contact independently for more info on their classes
Lizanne McAdams-Graham