Workshops with Wellspring
Master Class Faculty
Scroll below to see our 26/27 line-up of guest artists!
Workshops with Wellspring are led by professional dance artists, Wellspring company members, professors, undergraduate and graduate students. Classes are open to dancers and movers of all levels, ages 15+.
Workshops are held on select Saturdays beginning at 11:30 a.m.
Participants must register by 72 hours prior to the workshop date.
$35.00/Workshop 11:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. | $20.00 w/ valid student ID (please bring to workshop)
$20.00/Master Class 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Register online. Billed on date of workshop.
Heather Mitchell
OCTOBER 10
11:30 A.M. - 2:00 P.M.
Elements of the Orisha
WORKSHOP
Water. Wind. Fire. Earth. Thunder. The natural world is alive with movement. In this workshop, we’ll explore the Orisha through the elements and forces of nature they embody. Through story, rhythm, and movement, we’ll experience the distinct energies and movement qualities of selected Orisha and explore what happens when we allow those forces to move through our own bodies.
MEET HEATHER
Heather Mitchell is an African Diasporic Dance performing artist who has been based in the Kalamazoo community for over 10 years. She continues to perform with the Rhythm Life Collective formerly known as Dunuya Drum and Dance. Her work includes choreography at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, The Civic, FaceOff Theatre Company, and Rootead Youth Dance Company. She is a Teaching Artist with Education for the Arts and is an adjunct for the dance departments at Western Michigan University and Grand Valley State University. She is also the recipient of WMU’s 2020 Community Dance Advocacy Award.
As a teaching artist, Heather has facilitated numerous workshops and classes that sought to connect people of various backgrounds to the cultural knowledge, joy, and sense of community that African Diasporic dance brings. She believes that dance is the language of the spirit and is meant to be shared with her community!
Kayla Wiese
OCTOBER 17
11:30 A.M. - 12:45 P.M.
Heels
MEET KAYLA
Kayla Wiese (she/her), originally from Rochester Hills, Michigan, began her training at local dance studios, training in a multitude of styles. She continues her training in Kalamazoo, Michigan, pursuing a BFA in dance at Western Michigan University School of Theater and Dance, where she has had the opportunity to work with choreographers such as Peter Chu, Annalee Traylor, Monique Haley, and Kelsey Paschich. In 2024, Kayla joined Movement Reservoir Dance Company under the direction of Lachan Niedbala. While dancing with the company, Kayla has been given the opportunity to choreograph on the company. Additional, Kayla has had the opportunity to perform professionally as Minnie in West Side Story, presented by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchastra, choreographed by Erin Moore and directed by Chía Patiño. She has also been working with Lindsey Hanson Collective on a series of various projects including sight specific work and film. Outside of her training in school, Kayla has been blessed with the opportunity to attend programs to enhance her training, such as BODYTRAFFIC, Eisenhower Dance Detroit’s winter intensive, Cincinnati Ballet, and more. Most recently, she has been selected to present work at Eisenhower Dance Detroit’s NewDANCEfest as an Emerging Choreographer and was selected as the 2025 guest choreographer for Wellspring Dance Academy’s Youth Performing Ensemble. Looking forward, Kayla is excited to be presenting work this summer at Alluvion’s Emergence concert, Dancing in Summer, the Festival, and Dance City Festival in Detroit.
Alyse Kazimierczuk
OCTOBER 24
11:30 A.M. - 2:00 P.M.
Videography & Photography in Dance
WORKSHOP
The workshop will begin with a brief presentation on marketing principles, giving participants insight into how basic marketing strategies can be used to showcase dance online. Participants will then take part in an interactive lesson on filming and editing short-form video content. To put these skills into practice, participants will have the option to learn a simple movement phrase that will serve as the foundation for creating their own video.
MEET ALYSE
Alyse Kazimierczuk, from Metro Detroit, Michigan, recently graduated from Western Michigan University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a minor in Marketing.
Alyse explores the intersection of dance, marketing, and digital media, with a passion for connecting dance with wider audiences. She has supported the dance community through social media and marketing work with Western Michigan University’s School of Dance and Wellspring’s RADFest Dance Festival. Combining her creative and organizational skills with her commitment to the performing arts, she helps dance organizations expand their reach and engage larger audiences.
As a dancer, choreographer, and photographer, Alyse also uses digital media to promote her own work and share her life. Through her passion for storytelling and art, she has developed a consistent and authentic voice across social platforms.
Annalee Traylor
NOVEMBER 7
11:30 A.M. - 2:00 P.M.
Abstracting the Quotidian
WORKSHOP
The heart of this research encourages a practice of enlivening and exercising impulse. Through a guided landscape of provocation and play, we will become attuned to body language of the everyday. The normal, expected, and logical may begin to shift as we imbue the idea of defamiliarization--allowing us to reframe perspectives and possibly even opening up new ones. In this way, we will harness our creative power and deepen listening with ourselves and those around us.
MEET ANNALEE
Annalee Traylor is a creator, choreographer, director, and educator with a 16-year career spanning New York City, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta. Her interdisciplinary practice moves between dance, theater, sound, and stagecraft, creating tragicomic performances that open spaces for wonder, contradiction, and connection. Her most recent evening-length work, this thing is real, was named one of Atlanta's "Notable 9 in Dance" by ArtsATL, calling it "absolutely breathtaking and just a little bit dangerous."
Traylor's choreography and direction have been commissioned by Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre, Kit Modus, and Theater Emory, among others, and presented throughout the United States and internationally in Los Angeles, New York City, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Italy, Portugal, and the Netherlands. Her work has been supported through residencies with The Goat Farm, Dance Lab NY, the UNCSA Choreographic Institute, Highways Performance Space, Kennesaw State University, Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, Dance Gallery Festival, and Emory University.
Earlier in her career, Traylor was a founding member of Pittsburgh’s August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble, named to Dance Magazine’s 2012 “25 to Watch” list. During her time with the ensemble, she performed works by Kyle Abraham, Robert Battle, Camille A. Brown, Sidra Bell, Christopher Huggins, Kevin Iega Jeff, and Darrell Grand Moultrie.
Traylor holds a BFA in Dance Performance from Point Park University and an MFA in Choreography from California Institute of the Arts, where she received the S. Disney Lund Scholarship in Dance. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Theatre and Dance at Western Michigan University.
Kate Yancho
NOVEMBER 14
11:30 A.M. - 12:45 P.M.
Dance Fitness
MEET KATE
Kate Yancho (she/her) is originally from Dover, Oh, where her love of the arts began at an early age with focused study of the Cecchetti Method of Ballet at the Tuscarawas Dance Arts Center. This passion was deepened through opportunities to perform with her high school Thespian Troupe (#342) and at the locally based Little Theater of Tuscarawas County. Kate also held multiple leadership roles in school based organizations throughout this time.
Through college, Kate had multiple on-campus positions with an administrative focus and became heavily involved in the Association for College Unions International where she served on conference planning committees and organized on-campus recreation tournaments for the region. She received a BFA in Dance Performance from Kent State University then took a role in Student Activities at the College of Wooster.
She continued her studies with an administrative focus at Ohio State University where she received an MA in Higher Education and Student Affairs and completed an Graduate Assistantship with the Ohio Union and Campus Activities.
Kate relocated to Kalamazoo, MI at that time to serve as the Assistant Director of Student Activities at Kalamazoo College where she also served as the advisor to the student dance company, Frelon and choreographed multiple short works as well as Into the Woods and Carrie the Musical for the College.
In 2016, Kate was named as the Executive Director of Wellspring Dance (formerly Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers) and served in that role until 2025. Kate was appointed by Gov. Whitmer to serve on the Michigan Arts and Culture Council in 2021 and is nearing the end of her second term in this role. In 2024, Kate received the Gayle Hoogstraten Award for Excellence in Arts Administration by the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.
Kate is currently the lead administrator for Kalamazoo RESA’s Education for the Arts (EFA) program which serves more than 25,000 students annually with arts learning experiences. EFA is celebrating its 32 year of service and received an Innovation Award from the Art Schools Network in 2024. Kate is thrilled to lead the implementation of a new strategic plan for EFA that will evolve the program to increase the impact on learners in Kalamazoo County.
Outside of her professional life, Kate is also the mother of 2 boys, teaches fitness classes, enjoys cooking and baking with her husband, and is her Mini Goldendoodle, Dolly’s favorite snuggle partner.
Dr. Allyson Lowis (above)
&
Marisa Bianan (below)
DECEMBER 5
11:30 A.M. - 2:00 P.M.
Building Durable Dancers
WORKSHOP
This session highlights a developing partnership between Wellspring, a professional modern dance company in Southwest Michigan, and Dr. Allyson Lowis, a physical therapist who specializes in working with dancers through both clinical expertise and lived experience in dance. Born from a shared desire for change in dance education, this collaboration explores how an anatomy-informed approach can support healthier, more connected, and more confident dancers.
This session asks: How can we train dancers who not only move well, but who understand their bodies deeply – artistically, anatomically, and personally? Participants will learn how this partnership has been integrated into Wellspring’s professional company practices as well as youth and adult dance academy programming. Movement-based exercises and teaching strategies will be shared that cultivate body awareness, agency, and sustainable movement habits in the classroom.
Central to this work is viewing the student as a whole human being, not solely as a dancer executing technique. By building anatomical awareness and encouraging curiosity about individual bodies, students develop a stronger sense of self and a healthier relationship with dance. This approach empowers dancers to recognize their strengths and limitations without judgment, strengthening trust between teacher and student and fostering a more inclusive learning environment. When woven into the classroom, anatomical terminology provides a neutral, shared language that fosters clarity, trust, and connection while learning.
This session will also share observed shifts within the professional company space. Rather than limiting artistic outcomes, this anatomy-informed approach has expanded them. Dancers report increased confidence, clarity, and ownership in their movement choices, allowing artistry to emerge from a place of embodied knowledge rather than external expectation.
By supporting dancers in knowing themselves more fully, educators help cultivate artists who are more connected to their bodies, their creative voices, and their communities. This session invites dance educators to consider how integrating anatomical and functional movement cross training education into daily practice can shape not only stronger dancers, but more grounded, responsive, and connected humans.
MEET ALLYSON
Allyson is a Kalamazoo native and graduated from Hope College with a BA in Exercise Science and a minor in dance in 2012. While at Hope she was in the pre-professional dance company dANCEpROjECT, now known as H2. After Hope she earned her massage therapy license before going on to Central Michigan University where she graduated with her Doctorate in Physical Therapy in 2017.
Allyson currently practices at Mindset Physical Therapy specializing in treating dancers.
Outside of work, she can be found hanging out with her husband and dogs. Allyson enjoys dancing, hiking with her husband and pups, and traveling.
MEET MARISA
Marisa Bianan (she/her) obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Western Michigan University in April 2018. Through her studies, Marisa had the privilege to work with leading choreographers, including Jeremy Blair, Monique Haley, Carolyn Pavlik, and Brendan Duggan.
Since graduating, Marisa has presented various choreographic works in the Midwest, including at the 2019 RADFest and Inaside’s Summer 2022 in-person/virtual hybrid concert. Recent accolades include becoming a finalist for the 2021 Maggie Allesee Choreography Competition; receiving a commission to create a new work for Western Michigan University’s First Year Performance class, which premiered in February 2022; and, being accepted into the 2023 + 2024 Detroit Dance City Festival Choreographer’s Showcase. Most notably, she received the 2024 Detroit Dance City Festival's Best Choreographer Award and presented at the 2025 Festival. Marisa stepped into the role of Artistic Director with Wellspring in 2024 and is excited to continue sharing her artistic vision with the Southwest Michigan dance community. 2026-2027 will be Marisa’s ninth season with Wellspring.