Teen Intensive

Creative Dance Center Teen Intensive August 7-11, 2023

Experience freedom and growth this summer! A caring, non-judgmental, and inspiring faculty is ready to support your development as a dancer and creative artist.

Spend an extraordinary and enriching week with us at the Creative Dance Center during our Teen Intensive this summer. Students ages 13-19 have the opportunity to study with five passionate, unique, and gifted dance educators. Each day features dance class followed by a facilitated talk back and discussion on issues pertinent to teens/artists/creators/dancers. After the talk back students will take a class in different styles or dive into the creative process.

Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity – register now!

At least 3 years dance experience is required. Email terry@creativedance.org with questions about eligibility.

Tuition: $395. Attendance is required for all 5 days.

Teen Intensive Faculty and Schedule 2023

See full daily schedules by clicking the plus sign to expand drop down menus

Ellie Sandstrom

Ellie Sandstrom (she/her) is a Dance Educator, Choreographer and Performer who is fueled by movement in many forms. She is a Seattle Magazine “Spotlight Award Winner” and a Velocity Dance Center “Dance Champion.” She has studied various forms of dance technique, body conditioning, composition, improvisation, and performance at dance festivals and schools across the country including Cornish College of the Arts, where she received her BFA in Dance. Over the last 25 years, through Brain-Compatible Dance Education and culturally responsive teaching, she has taught at many schools, private studios, and universities in Seattle and beyond, including the University of Washington. She led packed classes at Velocity Dance Center for 16 years in both ballet and modern dance. From 2006-2021, she taught middle and high school students at The Northwest School, where she was the Dance Department Chair for 5 years. She has been a Teaching Artist for STG’s Dance This programming since 2007. Ellie was honored with a Teaching Fellowship award from the Jubilation Foundation in 2022.

Kaitlyn Nguyen

Kaitlyn Nguyen (she/her) is a dancer, teacher, and mother from Diamond Bar, CA (Los Angeles). She trained at The Ailey School and received a BFA in Dance Performance and a minor in Business Management at the University of California, Irvine. During her time at UCI, she had the privilege to dance in the late Donald McKayle’s Etude Ensemble, performing new works and repertory. She has danced with NYC-area companies including Nimbus Dance Works, iKada Contemporary Dance, and Armitage Gone! Dance, and Southern Californian companies such as Re:borN Dance Interactive and Nouveau Chamber Ballet. Kaitlyn became a mother to Lucile in 2018 and has since moved to Seattle. She danced with Spectrum Dance Theater and Seattle Opera under Donald Byrd. Kaitlyn is currently sharing her passion of dance touring with Khambatta Dance Company and teaching dance/movement at public schools in Seattle.

Etienne Cakpo + Yaw Amponsah

Etienne Cakpo, originally from Benin, is the Artistic Director and lead choreographer/dancer of Gansango Music and Dance. Etienne has been building his repertoire of traditional and modern dance for over thirty years. As director of Gansango Music & Dance, Etienne leads the company’s work with dozens of public libraries, schools and independent arts agencies locally and nationally to make performance of dance and music from Africa available to a wide range of audiences, including young children

Yaw Amponsah is a master percussionist from Ghana. Coming from a musical family from West Africa he is at home in the world of rhythm. A versatile player, Yaw can play many styles of music from Ghana including Highlife, Agbadja, Kpanlogo and more. His specialty is the music of the multi-part percussion ensembles of the Ashanti people. These sets of drums and corresponding rhythms can be made up of eight or more independent percussion parts. He is the leader of Anokye Agofomma and a member of Manghis Khan quartet.

Noel Price-Bracey

Noel PRICE-Bracey is a Detroit native, educator, advocate, and artist. She holds a BA in Dance from Western Michigan University and is currently working toward a MFA in Dance at the University of Washington (2024). As an independent artist Noel has performed and choreographed for many local Seattle festivals, community engagements, and interdisciplinary works since 2014. Noel established PRICEarts LLC in 2015 as a conduit for her passion to educate through art. In 2019 Seattle Dances honored Noel for her commitment to advocacy with their Dance Crush award. Recently she was commissioned to set work for Gonzaga University which was presented in Florence, Italy during Gonzaga Law School’s Human Rights Conference – Black Lives Matter as a Global Movement (2021). She holds this belief: My body is a source of knowledge, my practice is my protest. Theatrical expression, physical and verbal, are the primary mediums Noel uses to engage others, investigate phenomena, and illuminate public discourse.

Robbi A. Moore

Robbi A. Moore (they/them), from Hamden, CT, began dancing at New England Ballet and continued at Dee Dee’s Dance Center and New Haven Ballet. They are an alumnus of Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts, the Ailey Summer Intensive, Cunningham Trust Workshop, Jacob’s Pillow’s Commercial Dance Program, and the Complexions Intensive. Robbi graduated magna cum laude from the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program and has danced with Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre, The Steps Repertory Ensemble, AATMA Performing Arts, Whidbey Island Dance Theatre, Tacoma Urban Performing Arts Center, Karin Stevens Dance, the Guild Dance Company, Kinesis Project Dance Theater, The Gray, PRICEarts, Coriolis Dance, Khambatta Dance Company, and Spectrum Dance Theater. Robbi recently worked for The Village Theatre as Associate Choreographer for “Little Shop of Horrors.”