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Faculty

Marie Chong, Director and Owner

Marie Chong spent over ten years dancing and performing professionally with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Spectrum Dance Theater, Atlanta Ballet II, and Eugene Ballet. She toured throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, performing works by George Balanchine, Lynn Taylor Corbett, Frank Chaves, Toni Pimble, Kent Stowell, Christopher d'Amboise, Ann Reinking, Margo Sappington, Lar Lubavitch, and many others.
 
Since retiring from performing in 1995, Ms. Chong has been an active member of the dance community. She has served on the faculty of the University of Washington, Cornish College of the Arts, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, Eugene Ballet School, Blue Heron/Vashon Allied Arts, Spectrum Dance/Madrona Dance Studio, and many other schools in the area. She is also a sought after Master teacher and is known for her engaging, technical classes.
 
Ms. Chong is a movement-performance enhancement specialist and coach. She works with elite athletes, musicians, actors, and dancers to design individually tailored movement and postural improvements.  She has certification in Pilates, Gyrotonic®, Gyrokinesis®, and is saftey certified through USA Gymnastics. She is also an American Ballet Theater® Certified Teacher, who has succssfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 3 of the American Ballet Theater® National Training Curriculum.
 
In 1999 Ms. Chong founded ARC Dance Company, a professional non-profit 501(c)(3) dance company that has a regular performance season July through December at the Bagley Wright/Leo K Theatre in Seattle, WA USA. ARC Dance performs works by nationally recognized and emerging choreographers in theater houses that seat 300-2500 audience members.
 
Ms. Chong continues to collaborate with the Seattle Symphony 2002-2007 and 2011 on various outreach and educational projects by creating choreography to symphonic music that is presented at Benaroya Hall.  Other community collaborations include projects with Seattle Early Dance, Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society, The Woodland Park Zoo, and the Ida Culver House.

In 2004 Arc School of Ballet (ASB) opened its doors. The school is a training ground for dancers of all levels and ages, including those aspiring to a professional career. ASB offers four coordinated programs to meet students' varying interests and comittment levels. The syllabus and curriculum created by Ms. Chong focus on elements of both classical and contemporary ballet technique and are complimented by other dance forms and fitness exercise such as Modern, Jazz, African, Pilates, Gyrotonic®, and Gyrokinesis® movement methodology.

Ms. Chong is a member of National Dance Education Organization, and Dance Educators Association of Washington, where she is a strong advocate of dance education as a means for shaping and empowering individuals to consider life's opportunities mindfully.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 Catherine Fenner, Ballet and Mother-Baby Dance  

Catherine Fenner began her dance training in Tacoma, WA with Jan Collum and Kay Englert. She performed with Balletacoma and Washington Contemporary Ballet. Dance has always been a passion and with the birth of her children, she discovered a second. Supporting mothers through childbirth and breastfeeding. She returns to the faculty of Arc School of Ballet this Fall 2011 from a hiatus of teaching dance to raise her three children.
 

 Cynthia Jordan, Ballet

Cynthia Jordan Began her ballet training in South Bend, IN and continued in Chicago, Boston, New York, Seattle and London, England.  She has a BA in Dance from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, and was one of 25 ballet
dancers chosen for the first Jacob's Pillow summer dance program. Ms. Cynthia performed with the Spokane Ballet and UW Chamber Dance Company dancing works by Paul Taylor and Mark Morris. She has a MFA in Dance from the University of Washington and taught ballet and Pilates at Pacific Northwest Ballet School prior to joining the faculty of ASB in 2009.

 Lara McIntosh, Ballet

Lara McIntosh has been dancing all her life. She is an active member of the Seattle dance  and drum communities. She is the director and founder of Wassa Dance where she teaches afro-infused dance classes that are greatly inspired by her travels to Brazil and Mali, West Africa. She has studied tap, ballet, acrobatics, and modern dance. She has taught in the past three ARC Summer Dance programs. She joins the ASB faculty this fall.

  Christy McNeil, Jazz

Christy McNeil is on the faculty of Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop and is the resident choreographer for Interweave Dance in Boulder, CO.  She has served on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts, Westlake Dance Center, Studio I, Arc School of Ballet and in 2008 created the dance curriculum for Sammamish High School. Her performance credits include Dance Captain and Company Manager with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Cornish Dance Theater, and the Rudolf Nureyev Ballet Festival in Kazan, Russia. She holds a B.F.A from Cornish College of the Arts where she was a full Kreielsheimer Scholarship recipiant. She is currently studying her Masters in dance at the University of Washington. She returns to the ASB faculty this fall.
 

Katie Sawicki, Ballet 

Katie Sawicki began dancing with Karen Edwards and Betty Kovach in Raleigh, NC. She studied ballet and modern dance at North Carolina School of the Arts, American Dance Festival, Princeton Ballet School, and the Hungarian National Ballet Academy. She performed with Princeton Ballet II, American Repertory Ballet and ARC Dance. She is has taught ballet, jazz, tap and gymnastics for several years. She joins the faculty of Arc School of Ballet this Fall.

 

Julie Tobiason, Ballet

Julie Tobiason is from Lyndhurst, NJ. She began her studies at the Studio Workshop and continued her training on scholarship at the School of American Ballet. In 1983, she joined Chicago City Ballet, and in 1986 joined Pacific Northwest Ballet, where she was a Principal Dancer from 1992 until her retirement from the Company in 2002. She has been a guest teacher for many schools and companies all over the country and currently teaches at Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She joins the faculty of Arc School of Ballet this Fall.

Susan Walby, Ballet

Susan Walby began dancing in Tacoma, WA and has performed with BalleTacoma, The Dance Studio, Washington State University, and Eugene Ballet. She is a certified Licensed Massage Practitioner, and Ballroom Dance instructor. She has been on the ASB faculty since 2007.