Our Staff
Casey Dalton
Casey grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, training at the School of the Washington Ballet under Mary Day, and later at the Kirov Academy of Ballet where she was fortunate enough to be a member of Alla Sizova’s last graduating class in the United States. As a student, she attended summer intensives at American Ballet Theater, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, and Boston Ballet. In 2004 she joined Colorado Ballet, and spent 11 years dancing corps de ballet, demi-soloist and soloist roles in all of the classical and neoclassical repertoire, as well as originating roles in many contemporary works by choreographers such as Dwight Rhoden, Jodie Gates, Val Caniparoli, and more. From 2016-2020, she performed as a freelance Principal guest artist with companies in Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. For the past seven years, she has been teaching and coaching students throughout the Denver area, working in a class setting as well as offering private instruction to students of all levels, with a focus on creating strong, healthy, and intelligent dancers.
Danielle Heller
Danielle is passionate about dance. She started teaching at the age of twelve and has not stopped advocating and celebrating dance since then. She loves people and believes that “Everyone can dance, they just need to find the right dance form. As soon as this happens, their own unique gifts start to emerge.” She wears many hats in the Colorado Dance Community. She has helped pass legislation to support dance teachers in public schools and has chaired two rounds of Colorado Dance Standards revisions. She has taught dance at all levels and in all capacities from the college setting to the private studio setting. She performed professionally as a Tap Dancer from 1998-2010 with Taps are Talking: Women in Tap. She is the owner and artistic director of Peak Academy of Dance. Currently, she is working on her Ph.D. in Mythological Studies with an emphasis on Jungian Psychology, having already completed two M.A.s in Education, and a BA in Foreign Language, Dance, and English. She is a state-certified teacher and holds a Type D administration license. Danielle is deeply committed to opening and holding space for MADC to bring dance to a new level in our mountain community.
Betsy Hoffman
Betsy is a lifelong dancer, beginning classes at age 2 and never stopping! She grew up training and competing at large dance studios in Minnesota and Michigan. After moving to Colorado in high school Betsy dove into the competitive dance team world, serving as captain of the 2006 State Champion Evergreen High School Poms, followed by captain of the nationally-ranked University of Colorado Varsity Dance Team and earning the rank of All-Star at the high school and collegiate levels. Post-college, Betsy had the opportunity to begin her teaching career at a small studio in Eagle, Colorado, while also choreographing and working with various high school dance teams throughout the state. In 2007, Betsy found her passion and permanent studio home when she took over as Owner and Artistic Director of Kinetic Arts Dance Studio in Evergreen, Colorado. She has completed the dance teacher training program from Dance Educators of America, and focuses primarily on tap, jazz, and early childhood dance, along with choreographing and directing the competitive teams at her studio. She lives in Conifer, Colorado with her husband and two boys, Carter and Sam.
Travis Loving
Travis Loving has been invested in the artistic community for his entire career. He began his journey by exploring poetic cinema at the University of Colorado, Boulder where he received a BA and a BFA in film studies and film production. After working in independent television production for several years, he began working for a high-tech software company. After bolstering his leadership capacity with an executive MBA from the University of Colorado, he now works as the CTO of an international software firm as well as Technical Director of Peak Academy of Dance. He melds a keen understanding of business and technology with a deep and enduring passion for the power of artistic expression.
Michele Major
Michele Major has been training dancers in classical ballet for over 20 years. Before moving to Colorado with her family, Ms. Michele owned and operated a community dance school in Eugene, Oregon and was also the Founding Artistic Director of a non-profit dance organization which provided opportunities for students and audiences in the local area. She has staged and directed many student productions, including classical ballets, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, A Midsummers Night’s Dream, sections from Paquita, La Bayadere, and Gisele, and her own choreographed versions of The Snow Maiden, Hansel and Gretel, and The Blue Bird. Prior to launching her school, Ms. Michele performed professionally in classical ballet, contemporary ballet, and musical theater, most recently performing with San Diego Ballet, and City Ballet of San Diego. She earned a BFA in Dance from Southern Methodist University and has completed teacher training in Vaganova method, including both lower and upper grades. Ms. Michele is passionate about training healthy and capable dancers and loves sharing all the benefits of classical ballet with students of all ages and aspirations. She has trained many dancers who have gone on to professional performing careers as well as other dance and arts careers and involvement in the larger dance community.
Shelby McKee
Shelby McKee is the owner and director of Evergreen Dance Center which administers the dance program for Evergreen Park and Rec. She has been teaching dance to the Evergreen community for over 15 years. Shelby's numerous performance, competition, and workshop opportunities have paved the way for her teaching career. She is classically trained in Vaganova and Cecchetti methods of ballet and has studied lyrical, contemporary, modern, jazz and tap from master teachers all over the United States. She keeps up to date on her dance education through online teacher-training courses, attending local conventions and taking class. Although Shelby enjoys performing, her true happiness is found in choreographing, teaching and connecting with her students. Shelby encourages her students to believe in themselves and that anything can be achieved with passion, dedication and hard work.
Nicole O’Farrell
Nicole O’Farrell has been dancing since 1988. She is trained in ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, modern, contemporary, pointe, and musical theater. She has had the opportunity to receive training from Kit Andree, Phan Peterson, Thommie Walsh, Bill Hastings, Chet Walker, Jenny Schiff, and Jacob Mora (just to name a few). Ms. O’Farrell has performed in many events such as competitions, parades, festivals, showcases, and most of The Schiff Dance Collective’s evening length works. She was with The Schiff Dance Collective for it’s duration (2005-2019) as a teacher, choreographer, and performer. In the Fall of 2017, Nicole was promoted to be the Director of the Talent Group Program at Peak Academy of Dance. Ms. O’Farrell has taught all over Colorado since 1998, was a guest teacher at 2 Studios in Oregon for a summer, and attended the Dance Teacher Summit in New York in 2009. In 2020, she created The Essential Dance Company for dance teachers and alumni that needed a safe space to explore their passion for dance. Nicole strives to help dancers of all ages live their best life.