Faculty
Gay Lynn Meadows - Director/Owner
Early Childhood, Ballet, Pointe, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical and Adult Classes
Gay Lynn is the Director and Owner of the Elite Feet Dance Studio. She has been teaching and choreographing for the past 34 years, in the techniques of Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Pointe and Lyrical.
Besides being the Dance Director at Elite Feet Dance Studio Ms. Meadows is currently the Director of the Elite Feet Dance Company. Company students compete 3 to 4 times a year winning numerous platinum and gold awards, overall high scores and choreography awards. You will also see the company performing at various events in the surrounding area.
From June 1974 to June 1977 Ms. Meadows was the featured dancer and staff choreographer for The New Virginians, a performing group sponsored by Virginia Tech’s Music Department. In this capacity, she organized the staging and choreography for The New Virginian’s renowned musical variety review, which spanned virtually every style of music. The group performed between 35 to 60 times per year across the eastern United States. Georgia Pacific sponsored the group for a National Tour ending with a performance on the nationally televised Dina Shore Show. In 1979 Ms. Meadows moved to Mt. Airy, MD and for ten years was the Director for the Mt. Airy Recreation Dance program. Under her direction, the program grew from a handful of students to over 250 students. For the last 17 years she has been choreographing and teaching dance at various studios in the Frederick area. Ms. Meadows has also choreographed numerous musicals for community theaters including, Hello Dolly, Oklahoma, Gypsy, Into the Woods, West Side Story, Kiss Me Kate, and Bye Bye Birdie.
Ms. Meadows earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Dance and a minor in Secondary Education from Radford University in Virginia.
Jennifer Shipley
Early Childhood, Ballet, Lyrical/Modern, Jazz
Ms. Jennifer Shipley will be returning for her second year at Elite Feet Dance Studio. Jennifer teaches Jazz, Lyrical, Modern, Ballet and Tap. Previously she taught in the Frederick area for seven years. Along with teaching responsibilities she has worked with the Elite Feet Dance Company choreographing and rehearsing competition numbers. Recently a several of Jennifer’s pieces won top scores as well as choreography excellence awards. Jennifer received a Bachelors of Arts in Dance from the University of Maryland, College Park in December 1998. At UMD she received training under Alcine Wiltz, Alvin Mayes, Meriam Rosen, Anne Warren, Sylvia Druker, Crystaline Wright, Mary Slater and Paul Jackson, all having trained and performed with major Ballet, Modern or Tap companies. Prior to college Ms. Shipley trained locally under Terry Peyton, a former Rockette, in Northern Virginia and Linda Dymerski in the Frederick, Maryland area.
Jessica Huebner
Ballet, Pointe, Lyrical/Modern, and Adult Conditioning
Jessica is a 2004 graduate of Towson University with a BS Degree in Gerontology and a Concentration in Dance. She has certification in Vaganova Ballet Technique from John White, and has been teaching for the last five years. She currently is a member of the Kathy Harty Gray Dance Theater in Virginia. She also has performed as a soloist for the ballets Cinderella and Coppelia. She has taken master classes with such professionals as Chandra Moss – Dance Theatre of Harlem, Patricia Soh – New York City Ballet, Linda Denise Evens Hurrell – Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and Eric Underwood – American Ballet Theatre, just to name a few. She has been teaching dance classes in Creative Movement, Stretch and Conditioning, Tap, Jazz, Modern and Ballet since 2000. We are happy to have Jessica returning to Elite Feet to teach our Ballet and Pointe Classes.
Cindy L. Hsu
Tap and Jazz
Cindy Hsu has a B.A. in Dance from Colorado State University. She is a Certified Tap Teacher through the American Tap Dance Institute. Prior to returning to Maryland, Cindy was the Dance Director at John F. Kennedy High School in Denver, Colorado. Cindy’s performance experience includes: Director, Dancer and Choreographer with Step Aside Tap Company (Washington, DC), principal dancer with Women in Tap (Boulder, Colorado); principal dancer with the National Tap Ensemble (Washington, DC), and dancer with Manhattan Tap II (New York City). She has studied tap with Chris Baker, Buster Brown, Heather Cornell, Mark Goodman, Lisa Hopkins, Idella Reed, and Olivia Rosencrantz. We are excited to have Cindy returning for her second year with the Elite Feet Dance Studio.
Hans Nelson
Ballet and Pointe
Hans Nelson is a native of Frederick. His training started at Frederick School of Classical Ballet, and then took him around the world. He has trained at the School of American Ballet in New York City, the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC, the Ecole-Atelier Rudra Bejart in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Boston Ballet School, the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and participated in Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell at the Kennedy Center. Hans has been teaching in the area since 2002 and taught at Elite Feet Dance Studio last year as a substitute teacher. We are delighted to add Hans as a regular teacher to our Ballet program this year.
Karen Poffenberger
Tap, Acrobactics and Combo Classe
Ms. Poffenberger is a native of Frederick County. She has been involved in dance and gymnastics since the age of 2. She has been teaching dance for over 10 years at various studios in the Frederick area. Along with her teaching responsibilities, she has previously served as co-director of other competitive dance troops. Her choreography has won top honors at various local and regional competitions.
In addition, she taught gymnastics at the Frederick Gymnastics Club for several years instructing students at both the recreational and competitive levels. Her students captured numerous state and regional awards. As a child, Karen also received a full scholarship for gymnastics to the Clarion State University in Pennsylvania.
She studied dance under the direction of Linda Elower Sicilia Studio of Dance. She continues to broaden her dance abilities and knowledge by attending classes under Master Teachers including Laurie Johnson, Frank Hatchett, Joe Tremaine, Doug Caldwell, Debbie Dee, Sonny Leo, Steven Boyd, Dena Rizzo, Karen Herbert and Janice Barringer. Ms. Poffenberger has studied in-depth with Tap Great, Debbie Dee and continues to attend special master classes several times a year with Ms. Dee at her studio in Boca Raton, Florida.
Ms. Poffenberger feels she has the best of all worlds by being able to share her love for dance and acrobatics at the same time! She enjoys sharing her energy, passion, and love for dance with all of her students
Whitney Crawford
Early Childhood, Lyrical, Jazz - Beginner thru Advanced
Whitney Crawford is a 2008 graduate of Shenandoah University where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Education, leading to her Virginia teaching license in dance for K-12. Following a comprehensive training program, Ms. Crawford also received her Pilates Mat Certification from the Pilates Method Alliance. During her four years at Shenandoah, Whitney performed in every main stage concert and many special events at the invitation of the faculty, including performances at The Virginia Historical Society, The Winchester Country Club and many others. In the summer of 2007, Whitney worked for Busch Gardens Entertainment, performing at their Williamsburg, VA park in the American Jukebox and Kinetix shows. In her senior year Whitney was invited to join the Dance Division’s Touring Ensemble. With this select group, she traveled up and down the East coast performing as a representative of the Dance Division to recruit new talent. Since graduating from college Whitney has joined Carla and Company and Jane Franklin Dance, two professional modern dance companies in the Northern VA/DC area. Whitney’s teaching experience includes private studios, recreation centers and preschool programs. She has taught Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop and Pointe to ages ranging from three to eighteen. Her choreography has been performed by private studios, competitive companies, High School Dance Teams and Theatre Programs, as well as The Shenandoah Dance Ensemble. Currently she is teaching dance and Pilates at several different locations throughout the area. Whitney is delighted to return to Frederick and to begin teaching alongside the teachers she grew up learning from.
Katie Meadows
Visiting Teacher
Katie obtained her B.A. in Individualized Study with a concentration in Dance and Body Image from New York University. She is currently performing with a contemporary dance company in New York, Malleable Dance Theater Company. She has also perfromed with other contemporary companies CollidE, SoDance Collective, and Enfocus Dance, for which she was also a choreographer. She has assisted master teachers Tony and Susie Vitale, Dustin Phillips, and Trish Minery. She has also taught ballet, jazz, lyrical, and tap and choreographed for companies in New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Connecticut,and Maryland. Most recently, she performed at Gyeonggi English Village in Paju, South Korea as a featured dancer and singer and also choreographed in the mainstage and street performances. While in Korea, she also choreographed and performed for Edutainers for UNICEF, a fundraising eventg to build schools in Afghanistan. Katie is now living in China teaching English for the Disney Company. We look forward to her coming back for special events.
Courtney Richardson
Visiting Teacher
Courtney Richardson is currently pursuing a degree in Early Childhood Education and Dance. She is a former member of Step Aside Tap Company based out of Knock on Wood studio in Silver Spring. She is also a former Caravan Kid for 2 summers in 2002 and 2003. She has received numourous awards such as the Betty Danny Hoctor award and Honorable mention for Distinguished scholar in the arts. She has trained under Jeff Hill, Anthony LoCascio (Former Tap Dog), Barry Youngblood,(Music Video Choreographer for such people as Jennifer Lopez and Brian McKnight) Sonya Livingston (Former Rockette), Susan Stovall and Miles Thoroughgood ( The Disney Company), Jennifer Mathie (Toured with the musical Fosse and current Rockette), Jamie Salmon-Hoctor (Joffrey Ballet), Andrea Hammond (Former Rockette), Jerry Rose (Ballet Master) Chris Smith and Holly Humphries (Former Disney Company Members), Bettie Jane Bryant, Katie Meadows, Gay Lynn Meadows, Jennifer Richardson, Cindy Hsu and Jessica Blanc.