Faculty
Kari Herman
Kari Herman is the owner and artistic director of Synergy Dance Academy. She started teaching at age fourteen and began dancing professionally at seventeen. Her performance experience includes commercials, music videos, and industrial shows throughout California, Texas, Las Vegas and Colorado. She returned to her home town of Colorado Springs after training and performing in Los Angeles with the industry’s top instructors and choreographers. Kari’s versatile dance background and passion for the arts enables her to instruct and choreograph in jazz, lyrical, ballet & hip-hop. Her energetic teaching style motivates students to take their training to the next level. Her students have received top honors at competitions, received scholarships to the EDGE Performing Arts Studio, Univ. of Arizona and Walt Disney.
Helen Estrella
Helen was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of her youth was spent in the rigors of competitive artistic and rhythmic gymnastics through which she found her love of dance. Helen eventually moved to Los Angeles to dance with some of the industry’s top choreographers. In 2002 she found her way back to Sonoma County where she directed local competitive companies until the birth of her own, Estrella Dance Company. Helen is known for her cutting edge, contemporary style and is currently a faculty member of “Winterfest & Summerfest The Convention”. She is a nationally recognized instructor and choreographer who travels extensively teaching master classes and setting choreography on various dance companies. She can also be seen on tour with “Talent on Parade” as an adjudicator and Dance Directive faculty member. She currently directs her own company out of her studio, The Dance Room in Northern California.
Angie Plank
Angie was born and raised in Northeastern Colorado. She started dancing at Jami’s School of Dance in Sterling at the age of 3. Angie grew up taking all styles of dance such as Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop and Tap. In high school she traveled with her studio to New York and LA to take classes from some of the industry’s top instructors/choreographers. After graduation, Angie attended The University of Nevada Las Vegas as a dance major; there she studied Ballet, Modern and Jazz for two semesters. She also took class from some of Las Vegas’ top choreographers and performers at Backstage Dance Studio. After two years in Las Vegas, Angie moved back to Colorado and started teaching combo classes with Barbra Dixon. She taught for two years at Barbra’s and at Westside Dance teaching Hip Hop. The last four years Angie has been teaching combo classes, Ballet, Jazz, and Hip Hop to all levels at Dance Dynamics in Northern Colorado.
Lisa Orr
Lisa has over twenty years of dance training and performing experience. She began dancing at the age of three in Michigan at a small local studio. Raised in multiple cities, she expanded her dance education at schools throughout the country, attending schools in Albuquerque, Kansas City, Chicago and eventually Colorado Springs. In Colorado Springs she began her pre-professional training as a member of the Springs City Ballet Senior Ballet Company and later the Colorado Classical Youth Ballet, performing title roles in Le Corsaire Pas de Deux and Paquita. She attended classes taught by nationally acclaimed teachers such as; Kurt Peterson and Sascha Radetsky of the American Ballet Theater, Lindsay Fisher and Eva Draw of the National Ballet of Canada, and Leslie Peck of the University of California. She was also accepted into multiple prestigious performing art schools throughout the country such as; Tulsa Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet School, Interlochen School of the Arts, and American Academy of Ballet. She continued to dance through her college years, adding new styles to her traditional repertoire and obtaining professional training from BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio and Ballet Austin in Texas. Recently she has performed with and contributed choreography to local dance companies The Bridge Dance Project of Colorado Springs and the Avatar Movement Dance Company of Denver. She also shares her knowledge of dance with students throughout the Southern Colorado area. Today she is thrilled to be sharing her knowledge and passion for dance with the talented students of Synergy Dance Academy.
Kenny Svensson
Kenny Svensson began his dance career at the age of 20 when he was accepted to the ballet academy in Stockholm, Sweden. During his three years of school, he worked as a dancer in different shows, and with top European choreographers. He was also selected to train with world known company CullbergBaletten in Stockholm, Sweden.
Upon graduation, he continued to work in the industry with Companies, and various shows and events. He was among the top dancers of So You Think You Can Dance - Scandinavia. He has taught Master Classes largely in Sweden, but also in Europe. He has assisted top choreographers at events, and also choreographed for studios. In 2008, Kenny decided to challenge himself and moved to L.A. In L.A., he studied at the Edge Performing Arts Center, and worked with choreographers such as Malaya, Adam Parson and Mandy Moore. Currently, Kenny is working at Synergy Dance Academy, but continues to teach in Europe and keep himself busy in the industry. He is a part of Body By Luwa, a dance/workout team in Sweden. He has also worked with top Swedish artists like Linda Pritchard. Kenny thinks of Dance as his best friend, It has always been there and is always loyal and pushes him to become a better version himself - What more can you ask for in a friend...
