SYNERGY DANCE ACADEMY FACULTY

Kari Tafoya 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 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.

Posy Knight began dancing at The Cumbrae School of Dance in Ottawa, Canada in 1987 with Marion Harvey. Continuing her training at the Washington School of Ballet from 1990-1994, Ms. Knight landed in the Springs her freshman year of high school and formed a strong bond with Ormao (then known as Jazz Works West,) as well as the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center/Repertory Company, the Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration and teachers Esther Geoffrey and Debbie Mercer. Additionally Ms. Knight guest performed in productions with UCCS Theatreworks, the Colorado Springs Symphony, the Colorado Ballet, and Ballet West (UT.) She earned her B.F.A. in 2002 from the Juilliard School, where she trained with and danced in the works of revered American modern choreographers such as Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Margie Gillis, and Lar Lubovitch amongst others. Ms. Knight danced from 2004-2007 with New York-based modern company Rioult, receiving praise in the New York Times. In 2009 her work PLAYLIST was awarded "Best Choreography" by the Pikes Peak Arts Council. Since April, Ms. Knight has appeared with the Ormao Dance Company, Our Community Dance Company, David Taylor's Zikr Ensemble, Boulder's Delusions of Grandeur Productions, and with the Club of Arts. She can be found teaching and choreographing at Ormao and Pikes Peak Community College, in addition to being the newly appointed director of ballet at Synergy Dance Academy. She was recently accepted to the University of CT’s Theatre Design Masters School in scenography and art direction and will begin in the fall of 2011.

Jacqui Stein has been a part of the dance world since 1993. She has danced under many teachers in Colorado Springs and has taken classes from instructors like Mia Michaels, Tina DiAmato, Cory Finn, and Gus Giordano. She competitively danced through the years and participated in Starpower Dance Competition’s elite group Power Pak. Jacqui earned a full ride dance scholarship to West Texas A&M University. In Amarillo, Texas, Jacqui was a member of the Lone Star Ballet Company. She has been teaching dance since 2004, and has choreographed competitive and recreational pieces for other dancers. She has shared her love of the art with children for many years before that by working with other teachers as an apprentice. Jacqui hopes to continue inspiring young dancers and hopes to have the opportunity to dance more actively with Synergy in the future.

Andrew Caballero Info coming soon.