Kelly Parks is the Owner/Director or MCDA and the Artistic Director for Trinity Dance! She has been training dancers for over 25 year. She has a B.A in Dance Management with an Physical Education emphasis. Kelly love watching young dancers discover their potential. She is the mother of 3 daughters,and has been married to her husband Scott for 19 years! "I truely believe it is a privlege to share dance education with each of my students. "
Michelle Clapacs has been teaching and choreographing for 20 years. She is respected throughout Northeast Ohio, and works for many different dance groups. She enjoys sharing her talents with students and is always excited to teach. She is the mother of Stephen and Alecia.
Diana Meredyk Has been teaching dance for the past 20 years. For seven of those years, she was Director of her own studio. She received her B.A. from Baldwin-Wallace College in Dance Management. She has been Regional Director for Creative Dance for Children, a program designed for preschoolers, and she has provided choreography for local musical theatre productions. She truly enjoys being in the dance studio and teaching. She lives in Olmsted Falls with her husband, Steve and children, Steffany, Emily, Benjamin and Penelope.
Mary Quigley studied and danced with Ballet Guild of Cleveland under Alex Martin, Ford Foundation Scholar. She studied and danced with Oakland Ballet under Ron Guidiand at Chatauqua and San Francisco Ballet. She has taught in several local studios; this will be her third season with MCDA. . She lives in Medina with husband and three teenage daughters.
Kim Harbaugh has been involved in dance since she was 5 years old. She has many years of experience in tap, jazz, acrobatics, ballet, pointe, and lyrical and has been teaching for over 16 years. Kim has also performed and choreographed for a ballroom dance company which performs all over Ashley Marks began dancing when she was 3 years old, where she was introduced to ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical and pointe. She continued her training throughout the local area including in college. While in high school Ashley was the captain of the dance team. She is currently the Advisor for the Buckeye Dance Team. Nicole Blum won 8 national cheerleading championships by the age of 17. As a four-time All-American, Nicole took her cheerleading talents to a new level when she decided to re-vamp the cheerleading program at Medina High School, bringing the team from 12th place to 3rd, in 2 years. Nicole has recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business from The University of Alabama. During college, she spent her summers working with Americheer, coordinating their international Cheer and Dance Championship Competition in Disney World. With Americheer, she had the opportunity to teach cheerleading clinics to various high school teams across the United States. Nicole is a much called upon judge for cheerleading try-outs for multiple high schools around Northeast Ohio. Currently she serves as the Medina High School Cheerleading Competition Team choreographer . She is thrilled to share her cheerleading knowledge with MCDA.
Sara Mion began dancing at the age of 8, focusing primarily in ballet, she was also a member of North East Ohio Dance Ensemble. During her high school years Sara was active with several community theater groups, and was the head choreographer for The Galaxy players productions of "The King and I", "A Christmas Carol" and "Guys and Dolls". Sara took ballet, and swing dancing while attending BGSU and Franciscan University of Steubenville where she earned her degree in Early Childhood Education and a license to teach prek-grade 3.
For the last 3 years Sara has been a teacher at St. Francis Xavier school, and has taken a break from dance until recently to be mommy to Nathan (2) and Noah (10 months). After taking the adult ballet class last spring, Sara is excited to join the MCDA staff and share her love of dance!
Mallory Underwood is excited to join the teaching staff at the Medina Centre for Dance Art! A dancer since the young age of three, Mallory has studied ballet, tap, jazz, modern, and pointe extensively, along with hip-hop and lyrical. She attended Cecil Dancenter, located near her hometown of Elkton, Maryland, for 14 years. She was also a member of Cecil Dancenter’s performing company, Cecil Dance Theatre, for six years. While with CDT, Mallory danced roles such as Dew Drop Fairy, Marzipan, and Lead Russian Candycane in The Nutcracker, Scar in The Lion King, and the Genie in Aladdin. Mallory is currently a senior at Baldwin-Wallace College, studying Early Childhood Education and Dance. She performed in the annual B-W Dance Concert for two consecutive years and was chosen to serve as Student Director for the 2009 concert.
Jennifer Sandoval Eccher Jennifer has recently made the move from Chicago back to her hometown of Cleveland and she couldn’t be happier. During her time in Chicago she was involved in the dance community through teaching, performing and choreographing in the Chicago area and neighboring suburbs. She has had the pleasure to be a guest artist with Perceptual Motion Inc., Tyego Dance Project, T.J. & Company Dance Theatre, SMART DANCE, K-Dance Theory, Gifford 2 and many other talented Independent Artists. Her choreography has been presented nationally and internationally through Thought Forms Dance, T.J. & Company Dance Theatre, Dance Chicago, Solestance, Around the Coyote, Full Circle and Morrison Dance Company. Jennifer holds a B.F.A in Dance Performance at Kent State University
