Lisa Luiken-Woxell

Lisa began dancing at the age of three under the instruction of Connie Jo Wilson. She continued her training with Janet Morse, Robert Thomas, the Des Moines Ballet School, and Central Iowa Dance. Lisa has been teaching since 1987 and is a Dance Master Certified Instructor. She has taught at Connie Jo Wilson's School of Dance, The Dancer's Workshop, the Newton YMCA, Carol Tetmeyer Dance Studio, and Stacey's School of Dance. She has performed with the Iowa Dance Theatre, the Nutcracker Ballet (CY Stephens), the Neuman Project, the Barnstormers Flightline, and with Dance Olympus on tour.

Maureen McGrath

Maureen McGrath, a native of Des Moines, graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Science in Dance and Apparel Design. Before joining the Dancenter, she taught jazz, tap, ballet and tumbling in Des Moines for over ten years. She began teaching for the Robert Thomas Dancenter in 2000 and has been in charge of the Dancenter Dancers competition team since 2001. Since assuming the competition program, Maureen has taken the Dancenter Dancers from a team of less than 20 dancers to over 60 dancers from Ames, Iowa Falls, and Fort Dodge. Under her direction, the team has won numerous first place, high point, top soloist, and top team awards at competitions in Des Moines, Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Kansas City, and Omaha. This year, the team will compete over 70 solos, duets, group, and production dances in jazz, tap, lyrical and musical theater categories.

In addition to creating the choreography, Maureen designs the competition costumes and has won numerous awards for both choreography and costuming on both the regional and national levels. Two of her solo dancers have won first place honors in the large school division of the Iowa State Drill Team Association Solo Contest, competing her choreographies against over 75 dancers from all over Iowa. Maureen also teaches all levels of jazz, tap and combination classes in the Ames, Iowa Falls, and Fort Dodge studios. She has choreographed the Russian and Arabian parts in the Iowa State Center Nutcracker for the past four years.

Maureen continues her personal dance education every summer, training in New York City with Master Teachers including Suzi Taylor, Joe Lanteri, Doug Caldwell, Joe Tremaine, Mike Minery, Jason Parsons, Frank Hatchett, and Michele Asaf. She is a certified instructor and by Dance Educators of America.

Deborah Butterfield

My name is Deborah Butterfield. Everyone calls me Coach. I have been involved with Gymnastics since 1992. I take every opprotunity that I can to learn anything about gymnastics and choreographing. In the past I have traveled to Minnosota, Illinois, Indiana, Florida,and all over Iowa to learn as much as I can about gymnastics and choregraphing recital routines. I have had 5 National champions and many 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place titles. In 1997 my beginner girls brought home a 2nd place over all Team Title from the U.S.T.A. Nationals in Orlando Florida. My teams has performed all over Northern Iowa. We were asked to perform at a Minnosota Viking Exibition game, 1/2 time at basketball games, Malls,talent shows, county fairs, and recitals.

I am certified in coaching sub-beginner thru the advanced levels of power tumbling. I also have my saftey certificate in power tumbling and trampoline. My up coming year at Robert Thomas is filled with building a strong power tumbling team with opprotunities to compete in Power Tumbling at all levels. We will perform at the annual recitals and other events to be decided.I am very dedicated to ALL of my gymnasts and I strive for excellence. I will set goals for every gymnasts and build a strong foundation with progression skills and Team work. I will choreograph fun filled routines for the recitals at the end of the season. I am very proud to be representing the Robert Thomas Gymnastics in Fort Dodge and Story City.

Rob Tebben

Rob Tebben has been dancing for about 2 years. He started with breakdancing, but has added hip hop and ballroom to his repertoire. He placed in regional competitions as a member of the ISU Competition Ballroom Dance Team. Rob is also active in the Ames High Drill Team, and has danced on the All-male and Co-ed routines. In his free time he loves to play footbag, and he breakdances whenever he can. Rob loves music, and plays trap set in jazz band.

Wendy Jones

Wendy Jones began her dance training in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, at the age of 8. She moved back to Iowa when she was 10 and continued her training at Ballet Iowa. There she performed in the Nutcracker and other small performances. At 13, she started dancing at Moore School of Dance to pursue more Jazz, Modern, Musical Theater, and competition. After deciding to pursue ballet more seriously, Wendy started dancing with Central Iowa Dance. There she received leading rolls in the Nutcracker, danced with the Des Moines Metro Opera, and also participated in the AIDS benefits. She also taught ballet and creative movement at Iowa Dance.

After graduating high school in 2000, she auditioned for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Teachers course to continue her love for teaching. At the Royal Ballet she completed both the Cecchetti elementary and intermediate certifications. While the Cecchetti method was her emphasis, Wendy also received training in creative movement, pre-ballet, music theory, Vaganova method of ballet, modern dance, anatomy, and injury prevention. She also was involved in the First Steps Chorography workshops and summer intensive programs.

In 2003 Wendy moved back to Des Moines and started teaching, dancing, and performing with Central Iowa Dance. After asking a small hiatus to start a family with her husband, Wendy is very grateful to be able to share her experience and love of dance with students both present and future at Robert Thomas Dancenter.

Allie Arends

Allie Arends of St. Charles, Illinois, has studied Irish Dancing since the age of 4. At the peek of Allie,s career, she competed at the regional, national and world level, and won several titles throughout her 11 years as a competitive Irish Dancer.

Allie received her training under Ann Lavin-Cassidy, a former British National Champion, and Emma Lavin, a 4-time World Champion. Ann and Emma run the Lavin-Cassidy School of Irish Dance in Palos Heights, IL.

After competing successfully for 11 years, Allie began teaching at The St. Charles School Of Dance at the age of 15 until she left for Iowa State in the fall of 2005. Along with teaching Allie traveled and performed with several Irish bands, including New York based Lenahan.

Today Allie is a Journalism Major at Iowa State University, and is an Irish Dance instructor at the Robert Thomas Dancenter in Ames IA.

Gil McNaughton

Mr. McNaughton's education includes a Masters degree in Interdisciplinary Studies of Dance, Music, and History from West Texas A&M University and BFA in Dance from Sam Houston State University. He has taught at both of these institutions, as well as, Coe College and Southeast Missouri State University. In addition, Gil was Dance Director for the Reif Center of Performing Arts in Grand Rapids Minnesota and the Cedar Rapids Civic Ballet. Last year he was a guest teacher for the American College Dance Festival.

From 1970-1982, Mr. McNaughton was a professional dancer performing with the Dallas and Fort Worth Ballets, the Little Rock Ballet, and the pacific Ballet Theatre where he performed with Edward Villella, Violette Verdy, Conrad Ludlow, and Bill Martin-Viscount under the direction of George Skibine and Anton Dolin. He also performed in musicals with such stars as Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, John Davidson, Van Johnson, Ricardo Montelban, Martha Raye, and Eleanor Parker. Many of Gil's students have gone on to professional careers in dance, performing with ballet companies and in Broadway Musicals. His Irish dancers have performed with the Chieftains, Cherish the Ladies, and the Tannahill Weavers.

Leah Ingersoll

Leah has been involved with gymnastics for the past 16 years. At the age of eleven she began classes at The Dance Center (later named 3-D Power tumbling) in Mason City, IA. She was instructed by our very own, Coach Deb Butterfield. Leah was involved with many class recitals, performances and coached classes for 3-D Power tumbling. After one year on the competition team she won her first state title. In June that same year she headed to Orlando, Florida where she won National Champion. The following year she received her second State Championship title. Later that year Coach Butterfield moved to Des Moines and Leah's gymnastics career was put on hold. After a long break Leah and Coach Butterfield reunited here in Des Moines and she is now coaching for Deb at our Newton center. Leah attended college to become an interpreter for the Deaf and received her degree in American Sign Language. Aside from coaching Leah works full time as a sign language interpreter with Des Moines Public Schools.

Ellen Mullen

Ellen (Crawford) Mullen started teaching Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, and combo classes at the Robert Thomas Dancenter 25 years ago! She has taught all ages at all levels. An Ames native, Ellen started dancing as a child under the instruction of Ann Dirksen; her training continued and passion for dance grew under the instruction of Terry Thomas and, especially, Robert and Miyoko Kato Thomas at the Dancenter. She was later a Ballet major at the University of Utah, studying also in New York City, at Ballet West, and the Joffrey Workshop at the U. of Iowa. Ellen was in the first cast of the Iowa State Center/Dancenter's Nutcracker Ballet and continues to relish the opportunity to share the joy of dance with her students. It must be genetic, because her daughters now study at the Dancenter and help her teach! Ellen also teaches for the College of Business at Iowa State University, holding a Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the University of Minnesota.

Patsy McNaughton

Patsy McNaughton has been an instructor of Irish Dance and pre-school classes for twenty years. Before joining RT Dancenter, Patsy taught for the McNaughton Dance Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; the Reif Center of Performing Arts in Grand Rapids, Minnesota; the West Texas A&M University after school program in Canyon, Texas; and for the Mirror Image Dance Academy in Appleton, Wisconsin. Along with her students, Patsy has performed with the Chieftains, Cherish the Ladies, and the Tannahil Weavers. Patsy has a BS in business, a BA in Liberal Arts, and is currently working on a degree in nursing. She continues to perform as an Irish singer/dancer whenever the opportunity arises.

Inna Kuznetsova

When I dance I feel the warmth of the desert sand and the light of the Egyptian sun.

Hello, my name is Inna Kuznetsova and I am an Oriental Dance instructor. I am originally from Saint Petersburg, Russia. My dance education includes: Ballet, Latina, Jazz, and of course Oriental. Oriental Dance, which is often called Belly Dancing or Middle Eastern dance, is the style of dance that attracts me most. I studied and performed in Russia, Turkey, Egypt, and Germany. My teachers are Anasteisha, Alevtina Suvorova, and Irina Popova. I have taken different workshops and classes with Mahmud Reda, Nour, Amir Thaleb, Aida Nour, Beata and Horacio Cifuentes.

Oriental Dance lets me feel feminine, beautiful, sexy, fit, and confident. I have a very good control over all of my muscles; my moves are smooth and graceful. Oriental Dance is an ancient dance; women danced it many centuries ago. It is not an easy dance to learn as many tend to think. A good Oriental dancer has a ballet background, as ballet is the foundation for most dances. Oriental Dance is the perfect dance for everyone. It doesn't matter if you are young or old, big or small, male or female, short or tall. You can dance Oriental Dance. If you like ballet, lyrical, modern or folklore you will love Oriental Dance. In my class my students will learn different styles of Oriental Dance including: Raks Sharqi (classical Oriental), Baladi (purely Egyptian), Saidi (dancing with a cane), Turkish style, dancing with a veil, swords, daggers, candles, and cymbals. My students in Russia always performed and I hope to have a team here that would like to perform as well. The costumes for Oriental Dance are gorgeous! I am looking forward to seeing you in my class!

Innah (Inna Kuznetsova) is a professional Egyptian dancer and an Oriental(Egyptian, Arabic) Dance teacher from Saint Petersburg, Russia.

She started dancing ballet when she was 5 years old and since then dancing has always been a part in her life. Innah has studied the art of Oriental dancing with master teachers from Russia, Egypt and Germany.

Oriental dance originates in the Middle East. Innah dances Egyptian Raks Sharqi style of Oriental dance which was established in Egypt in the beginning of the 20th century as a mixture of ballet with classical Oriental moves.

Innah goes to Egypt every summer to participate in Ahlan Wa Sahlan Festival, a major event for Oriental dancers from all over the World.Innah has participated in many festivals in Russia, Germany, the USA, and Egypt. She won the third prize in Berlin Oriental Dance Festival in 2006 and got an award for the Egyptian category in the Oriental Dance Festival in LA in 2007.

Amber Lind

Amber Lind was raised in Atlantic, Iowa, where she started dancing under the instruction of Ricci Spriggs-Reed at Dance Atlantic. In her high school years, Amber was very active in competition teams, as well as assistant teaching. After graduation, she moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where she became the Head Ballet Instructor for A Step Ahead Dance Studio, where she remained for one year. After college, she moved back home and began teaching with Ms. Spriggs-Reed again, until April of 2006.

Amber has attended several workshops, clinics and convetions over the years, and has also spent two summers of intensive training at Ballet Iowa. Amber is currently continuing her education and working towards her national certification as a dance instructor. Amber strives to be the best dance instructor and overall role model that she can be for her students. Her experience in instruction, choreography, and dance studio office management will help her to make this year your best year yet, for you and your child!

Molly Forrest

Molly was born and raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and moved to Iowa falls in April of 2007. She began dancing ballet at five years old with the Old Dominion University Ballet in Norfolk, Virginia, under Istvan and Neli Ament of Romania. She remained a student of theirs until their retirement to Budapest, Hungary in May of 2000. For several summers, she attended the intensive summer program through ODU Ballet, under the instruction of Nina Sahknovskaya of the Vaganova School in St. Petersburg, Russia. She also attended the Virginia School of the Arts summer intensive program in Lynchburg, Virginia. She taught ballet at the Russian Academy of Ballet in Virginia Beach and Old Dominion University Ballet, after The Aments retired.

With the ODU Ballet, she performed in the annual Nutcracker ballet for 14 years, dancing such roles as Clara, The Snow Queen, The Arabian Queen, Snowflakes, Waltz of the Flowers, and many others. She has also held other soloist and corps de ballet roles in ballets such as Coppelia, Cinderella, The Fairy Doll, Stars and Stripes, Classical Symphony, and various other works choreographed by Istvan and Neli Ament. Her favorite ballet is Swan Lake, and she has a cat named Odile, after the black swan Queen in the ballet. She firmly believes that classical ballet is the foundation of all forms of creative movement, and many athletes have attributed their agility to classical ballet. She attributes her success in ballet to having a strong connection with her teachers and hopes to establish that same connection of respect with her students. Molly looks forward to meeting each and every one of you!