Faculty

Hailing from Torreon, Mexico, Lorena was the artistic director and choreographer of the dance studio “Spazio di Ballo,” leading the first Mexican dance company in 25 years to be invited to the elite dance festival TANZSOMMER in Vienna, Austria.

Lorena has worked with choreographers such as Tymme and Aury Reitz, Adam Parson, Eddie Garcia, Billy Goodson, Alex Magno, and Mandy Moore. Her video appearances include performing in the films “Angel Baby” and “Steps”, as well as the television special “In Miami.” She has danced with Latin artist “Brenda,” and R&B artist “Joaquin.” She has also performed at Project Dance in LA and NY, the Choreographers Carnival 2000 in LA, the Lose Angeles Dance Invitational, and the 2007 Mt. Dew Tour.

Damon began dancing in high school, and was a member of the acclaimed Jefferson Dancers. In LA he was a member of Gregg Russell’s tap company “Tap Sounds Underground.” He was on faculty at the Edge Performing Arts Center, and worked at Disney California Adventure Theme Park with “La Feet,” a tap/drumming group.

Damon has been Featured in print ads with Nike and the Art Institute of Portland, performed in industrials for Sun Rider Products, Columbia Sportswear, Nike, and the Oregon Lottery, and performed in the Vans Invitational 2007 Mt. Dew Tour. Damon was co-founder of the Junior Blazer Dancers, and coached the team for its first 3 years. He has taught at Urban Jamm Dance Conventions, Groovestreet Productions, and Cross Connection dance Workshop.

Cynthia began her career at Ballet Pacifica under Lila Zali, she was the youngest to receive a Ford Foundation Scholarship award to attend the school of American Ballet in New York City. Cynthia was invited to study with the Joffery Ballet, the School of American Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet.

Cynthia was a principal dancer with Chicago City Ballet and Chicago Lyric Opera under Maria Tallchief for four years before joining Boston Ballet as a soloist. There she partnered with Rudolph Nureyev in his production of Don Quixote. Cynthia has been teaching ballet in the Portland area for 24 years, including ten years as Artistic Director of Portland Community Ballet. Cynthia will be teaching intermediate to advance levels of ballet.

Tamara began her training at the Tri-Cities Academy of Ballet in Richland, WA and joined the Mid-Columbia Ballet when she was 13. She primarily trained under Debra Rogo, she has also worked with Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Patricia Barker, Noelani Pantastico, Nickolaus Ade and Lindsi Dec, choreographer Alan Hineline, The Balanchine Trust’s Darla Hoover, and Artistic Director of The Ballet Classic of Havana’s Laura Alonso.

Tamara has received scholarships to the Craft of Choreography Conference and the Utah Regional Ballet Summer Intensive. She has attended the American Ballet Theater Summer Intensive, and performed at the USA International Ballet Competition representing Regional Dance America. Her performance credits include George Balanchine’s Valse-Fantaisie, Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, and many other non-classical works.

April has classical training in ballet, jazz, and lyrical, but her focus and passion as an instructor and performer is tap. She has had the privilege of studying under renowned instructors including Shauna Mindt, Cheryl Peters, Mike Minery, Lisa Hopkins, Terry Brock, Chloe Arnold, Greg Russell, and others. As a dancer, she was a recipient of numerous convention scholarship awards from associations such as LA Dance Force and New York City Dance Alliance, and she earned countless overall high score awards at regional and national dance competitions as a performer. In 2003, April was named Miss Oregon and was also the Miss Oregon talent award winner. She later made history on the Miss America stage in Atlantic City, NJ when she tapped acapella; in more than 80 years, it had never been done!

April has been teaching sporadically throughout the NW for the last 8 years. However, she is best known for her work as the owner and director of the Portland Tap Project, and her tappers have garnered many distinguished awards. In the last 4 years, the dancers in this small tap company have received more than 50 “Overall High Score Awards” for solos, duos, trios, and groups. April has also been recognized for her work with multiple choreography awards during this same time period. These awards have been for pieces performed at local, regional and national competitions.

By day, April is a high school history and government teacher with a B.A. in Political Science and Communications from the University of Washington. She obtained her Master’s in Education from Portland State University. On the side, she enjoys coaching pageant contestants in interview and talent.

She loves and appreciates all forms of dance and fulfills her passion for it through teaching.

Don Flores is originally from Portland, Oregon. He has been dancing in some form throughout his life, but truly found it as a passion when he reached high school. After practicing dance in the hallways in his high school and watching bootleg Mr. Wiggles tapes for hours at home he later found that you could learn dance in a classroom setting. From then on he has been taking classes all over Portland, Washington, and Canada. He is a second year member of the dance crew Moveo directed by Lorena Elliott, and Damon Keller. He started to choreograph pieces for the crew within his first year. Don also has other talents besides dance. He is a visual development artist for Laika a Portland animation studio and has worked on Laika’s first feature film, Coraline. Don is also a freelance photographer with his wonderful wife Lauren. With all of his creative passions he tries to incorporate all that he knows about dance, animation, and photography and apply them to his choreography. Don is an easy going and silly guy, always ready to inspire or be inspired.

Brian – aka, Mighty – is beginning his first year with the Moveo Performing Company as a part-time hip hop company member. As a b-boy, Brian brings with him over ten years of free style and performing experience. He is most passionate about b-boying, but has also recently developed an interest for other styles such as popping, locking, house, and other forms of hip hop. He says he is also developing an interest in free movement and lyrical variations of hip hop styles. Brian wishes to expand his repertoire of styles and “become comfortable in dancing in styles that I am not used to.” Brian is a double major in Marketing and Advertising at Portland State University and spends his spare time developing his skills as a DJ. He looks forward to creating “friendships and bonds with the company members” and hopes to get everyone into a cipher “and go until we drop.”

Jennifer McClary is originally from Ashland, Oregon where she began studying dance at the age of five. She toured Oregon and California with the Oregon State Ballet and Beaverton Ballet beginning at the age of 11. Jennifer has received scholarships to many Dance Institutions around the US, and studied at The Orange County High School of Performing Arts, Tremain’s Dance Studio, Philadelphia Institute of the Arts, All That Jazz, Joseph Wyatt Dance Studio, The Edge and Broadway Dance Center where she has taught, managed the front desk and produced their student shows for 5 years. Jennifer is a graduate of Point Park College with a BA in dance, concentration in Jazz, where she worked and performed with famous modern/jazz companies from around the United States including Hubbard Street Dance Company, River North Dance and Pilobolus. In 2002, she performed with Tracie Stanfield’s company Synthesis Dance Project at International Dance Festival in NYC and performed for Michelle Barber at the Alan Awards in 2003. She choreographs, dances, judges and teaches classes with En L’Air Aerial Dance Theatre, Ticket to Broadway and other studios both locally and across the country. Jen was invited to Dublin Ireland in 2007 to perform and assist with pushing progress artistic director Calen Kurka, and was very excited to become a part of :pushing progress, the company because this company is dedicated, empowering and will truly impact audiences and individuals throughout time. As a new teacher of MVP she wants to encourage young dancers by empowering their abilities to excel in what she loves the most.

Patti Woffinden, a native Oregonian, was introduced to the world of dance at age nine. She received advanced training in Jazz, Tap, Lyrical, Ballet, Pointe and Musical Theatre. At age 11, Patti started dancing competitively at venues throughout the Western United States. In 1989 she performed at the Manza Beach Resort in Okinawa, Japan with BSharpp Production. After returning to the states in 1990, Patti continued her dance career by joining the team of Breck Wall and Patrick Maes, under the choreography of Michael Darrin. She performed in shows such as “Oh Yeah”, “Sizzle”, “Passion”, “Pazzaz” and “Bottums Up” in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Jackpot and Wendover, Nevada. Patti eventually moved back to the Portland area and has since been sharing the love of dance with all ages for the last 10 years.

Additional career highlights include: Appeared in a television commercial, dance workout and promotional videos, modeled for local businesses and casino brochures.

Jessica began dancing at the age of ten, training for seven years with a certified teacher from the British Ballet Organization.  In 2006 she was invited by Lorena Aranda to join Moveo Performing Company.  With Moveo, Jessica continued training intensely and traveled to various dance conventions in Portland, Los Angeles and Canada.  She performed at such venues as the Keller Auditorium and Artists Repertory Theatre.
In 2011 Jessica graduated from the University of Portland with a degree in Elementary and Middle School Education, focusing her endorsement in mathematics.  She is currently a licensed school teacher in the state of Oregon and is an aspiring photographer.

Ryan Smith

Ryan Smith, originally from Spokane, Washington, started dancing at the age of ten. After only five years of training, Ryan began choreographing and entering routines in numerous competitions in the Northwest Region. This led Ryan to receive several young choreographer awards, scholarships and much exposure in the area of Hip Hop. By age 16, Ryan was choreographing and teaching workshops in cities across Washington, Idaho and Montana. Ryan recently made his way to the Portland area to train and perform with Groove Nation Dance Academy. Ryan has danced with crews such as RMX, MOVEO and UNSEEN. Ryan has taught at several studios in southwest Washington and Oregon, and currently resides at MVP Dance Elite.

Kacey Hristov

Kacey Hristov was born in Midland Texas but has lived in Portland, OR for the majority of her life. She joined a performing tumbling team at the age of 5 and later switched to a regular gymnastics academy after  the tumbling team closed training in artistic gymnastics. It was at this gym that she was introduced to rhythmic gymnastics and continued in the sport for 7 more years.

Her accomplishments would include consecutive state and regional champion for 4 consecutive years, state games of  Oregon champion for consecutive 2 years, Junior Olympic qualifier placing in the top 15 in the nation both years, US national championship qualifier placing 9th in 1999, and 5th in 2000 making the US National Team.  She was also selected to receive multiple specialty awards such as  ”best amplitude”, and the judges chosen “Miss Grace Award” for  outstanding expression, musicality and amplitude.

She has been teaching  acro and gymnastics for the last 5+ years at various gyms and
studios in the greater Portland area and is currently a member of the MOVEO
performing company.

Starsha Dalmer

Starsha has been studying dance from a very young age. She has accumulated more than twenty years of experience in competitive dance as a competitor and now as a qualified and certified instructor. Starsha possesses extensive training in jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical, acro, hip hop, vocal training and musical theatre. Trained at Tiffany’s Dance Elite in Hamilton, Ontario, Starsha was awarded a variety of titles and scholarships which resulted in travels from Las Vegas, New York, touring in Australia as well as a full year apprentice scholarship in L.A.

Starsha can be seen in movies and commercials; her theatre production credits include “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”, “West Side Story”, “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “The Music Man” to name a few.

She has performed at the Gemini Awards, Remax Awards, Toronto Film Festivals, Legends Alive Tour and Fashion Cares. Mac Cosmetics and Wella hair are some of the industrials she has worked on. She has performed as a backup dancer for artists such as: Chaka Khan, Geri Hallowell, Punjabi Hit Squad and Vanessa Olivarez of American Idol.

Starsha is focused on keeping her skills current by assisting the Triple Threat and CanDance conventions in addition to working with some of North America’s top choreographers such as Carrie Ann Inaba, Marty Kudelka, Tyce Diorio and Mandy Moore.

Starsha’s passion is dancing whether it is performing or teaching. She would love to pass on her technical skills and artistic talents to young dancers who wish to realize their full potential.