About Elizabeth

Elizabeth Chayer opened American Dance Institute in Seattle in 1989 and has served as Artistic Director for 26 years. She received her teaching certificate from the School of the Hartford Ballet in Connecticut. Elizabeth has taught for the University of Alaska, Alaska Pacific University and Anchorage Community College. She also taught and served as assistant director to Alice Sullivan at Alaska Dance Theatre, in Anchorage Alaska for five years.

Elizabeth founded American Dance Institute in Anchorage, Alaska in 1984 and served as its director for five years before relocating to Seattle and opening the Seattle branch. She performed with Alaska Dance Theatre and with several local choreographers in Hartford, Anchorage and Seattle.

Elizabeth is the school’s artistic director and still loves to teach.

Elizabeth on opening day, standing in front of entry to Studio #1 in 1989.

Mary Castaniada is a dance instructor and  Office Manager for American Dance Institute. Mary hails from Los Gatos, California. She holds a BS in Business Administration with and concentration in Management from California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo. Mary has multiple years of small business management and customer service experience. She has also worked as a community mediator.

Mary began dancing in 1995 at Sterling Dance Theatre, in San Jose, California. She studied ballet, jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, pointe and ballroom. Mary is also certified as a PADI Divemaster and enjoys rock climbing.

Mary Castaniada and Skippy, the wonder dog.

Janelle Jones began Irish dancing at the wee age of 5 and competed on the West Coast and in Canada until the age of 13 at both the local and National level. With the frenzy of River Dance, she started assistant-teaching in 1997.

In 1998 she rekindled her passion for competition and rejoined the Comerford School of Irish Dance. With a new enthusiasm, she competed on the 1999 Nationals Teams, and qualified at the Western Regional’s in both solos and teams for the 2000 World Championships.

She would qualify and compete at the World Championship level again in 2002 & 2004 placing 4th and 3rd respectively for team competitions. Janelle has a desire to share her passion for Irish Dance and watch each student grow – no matter what their age or experience level. She has been teaching Irish Dance at ADI since 1998.

Janell Jones in an traditional Irish dance competition dress.

Darci Deaver has been teaching at American Dance Insititute for a little over 1 year years teaches Ballet.

Darci began her dance training at the age of four at Tabor Dance Academy, in Scottsbluff, Nebraska under the direction of Kathy Tabor and Tiffany Tabor Mackrill. Her career in dance began with creative movement classes and progressed to jazz, tap, ballet and pointe techniques.

At the age of twelve she became a teacher’s assistant for jazz, tap, ballet, pointe, and hip hop classes. At the Tabor Dance Academy, Darci assisted with over forty classes of varying skill levels and dance styles, and helped to manage classes of up to twenty-five students. In Scottsbluff, she attended multiple workshops and competitions such as Los Angeles Dance Force, Tremaine, The Pulse, and New York City Dance Alliance.

She studied dance in London, England and Paris, France and earned a bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and a minor in Interior Design at the University of Wyoming.

Her BFA in Dance was under the direction of Marsha Knight, Margaret Wilson, Lawrence Jackson and Jennifer Deckert. Her college training included the following modern techniques Graham, Limon, Laban and Horton, Vagonova and Cecchetti ballet techniques, and Luigi jazz technique. She was an Honors Student consecutively during her college years.

She has a long performance resume as well. Among her most notable are The Nutcracker, Chicago, Continuous Momentum: Works by Bill T. Jones, Cinderella and many more. Also during her time in Wyoming she continued teaching dance as a teacher’s assistant at the University and as an instructor at Laramie Dance Cener. She has also attended the American College Dance Festival and performed in the adjudicated and informal concert for three consecutive years.

Darci is an alumni member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. She currently lives in Seattle where and loves teaching and performing.

Encarnación “La Paloma”

Encarnación was born in Barcelona to a family of exiles from the Spanish Civil war and lived between Barcelona and Mexico City most of her life. Still, her family kept her immersed in flamenco music.

Encarnación is well versed in the art of flamenco. With the ability to dance, sing, and play guitar; her talents give her a unique edge as a flamenco artist. A one of a kind performer, she entrances audiences everywhere with her grace, depth, musicality and intense energy.

As a core member of Children of the Revolution, she released 6 CDs, and performed to packed houses at the Paramount, Benaroya Hall, Meany Hall, St. Michelle Winery, Summer Nights series, The Triple Door and Kirkland Performance Center. She has toured around the world including co-headlining the World’s Guitar Festival along with Manuel Barrueco in Quebec.

She has continued this success with her touring company “Flamenco de Raiz” with husband/flamenco guitarist,/producer Eric Jaeger “El Comanche”. FDR has toured with such prestigious artists as Rafael de Utrera, Sergio Martínez, Juanma “El Negro”, Jesús Montoya, José Cortés and Manuel Guiterrez. She released a live CD with Rafael and Juanma in 2011, and hit #1 on the Amazon flamenco charts in 2015 with the single “Rumba al Maestro”. FDR is known for their world class theatrical productions that capture the essence of traditional flamenco while pushing the boundaries forward with original compositions and production numbers.

Encarnación returns to Spain every year with Eric to connect with her flamenco roots, and with her friends and family in Sevilla and Barcelona.

website: http://flamencoseattle.com/

Jessica's Bio

Jessica Lagreid, is American Dance Institute's newest Irish Step Instructor. She joins long time Irish dance instructors Janelle Jones and Addie Keller. Jessica will be teaching Children's Beginning Irish.

Jessica began Irish dancing at the wee age of 6 with the Deely-Smith School of Irish Dance in the San Francisco Bay Area. She danced competitively up through her high school years, competing at a championship level across the western United States.

While she enjoyed the competitive side of Irish dance, she's always been more drawn to and passionate about the performance side. She was also a member of her high school's performance dance ensemble where she explored and enjoyed jazz, modern, ballet, and contemporary dance styles.

After graduating from Arizona State University in 2010, she was eager to get back into Irish dancing and joined the Bracken School in Phoenix, Arizona. She moved to Seattle in the fall of 2014 and was excited to find Irish dance opportunities in the area.

Tracey Wong is a street-style dancer, choreographer, and community event curator. She is currently the co-director of the Hip Hop company, Studio 3, and is also apart of the CRUW, an all-female dance crew. 

When Tracey attended the University of Washington, she was the captain of the UW Hip Hop Student Association Dance Team.

She has been a featured dancer for artists such as for Kore Ionz at Bumbershoot and Flavr Blue at Capitol Hill Block Party. She has also been a featured dancer at NORDSTROM and Microsoft.

Tracey not only performs, but she creates large events for the Seattle street-styles community to grow! Her most recent project is "Queen of the Hill", an all-female freestyle dance battle at Seattle's Folklife Festival. This is an annual event where Tracey invites many talented dancers throughout the PNW to come to Seattle to showcase their talents.

Margaret's Bio

Originally from Fort Collins, CO, Margaret holds a BFA in Dance and a Minor in Women & Gender Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder. She has been a member of Louder than Words Dancetheatre in Denver, CO and most recently with Keshet Dance Company in Albuquerque, NM.

Margaret has directed the pre-professional programs at Mountain Dance in Fort Collins, where she also grew up dancing. At Keshet Dance Company, her teaching experience was diverse and included teaching Adaptive dance, working with dancers with disabilities.

Margaret is a dance and teaching artist with an affinity for improvisation, and a desire to explore the infinite ways her body moves. As a teacher, she takes pride in guiding others’ discoveries of their dancing bodies, and wants everyone to feel empowered to take up space in the world.

Margaret is new to Seattle and incredibly excited to get involved with the dance community and to be joining the staff at ADI.

After high school, Emilee moved to California to attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. There, she studied ballet, creative writing, contemporary dance grounded in movement research and a collaborative creative process, and Batsheva Dance Company's signature movement language, Gaga.

Emilee Hope Putsche trained in Vaganova ballet and a variety of other techniques, including character dance, modern, jazz, and flamenco at the International School of Classical Ballet for over a decade.

At 16, she joined a local modern dance group, the Stone Dance Collective, directed by her instructor Eva Stone.

Emilee Hope Putsche trained in Vaganova ballet and a variety of other techniques, including character dance, modern, jazz, and flamenco at the International School of Classical Ballet for over a decade.

Still looking to expand her horizons, Emilee continued her studies at London Contemporary Dance School, where she received a BA Honours in Contemporary Dance. Since returning to Seattle in the summer of 2014, Emilee has had the pleasure of dancing with Stone Dance Collective, City Opera Ballet, and Ktisk Contemporary Dance.

She has also choreographed for Transcribe, a collaborative project with actors and writers, and as assistant to Eva Stone for Woodinville High School's performances of Fiddler on the Roof and Chicago.

Maia grew up dancing in Seattle, then went to Northwestern University in Evanston where she graduated suma cum laude with a Bachelors in Theatre and a minor in Dance. While there, she performed in works by Chicago based choreographers including Jeff Hancock, Joel Valentin Martinez, and Maray Gutierrez.

She has also participated in Strictly Seattle and Dance This! intensives in Seattle. She has taught both drama and dance to students in the Evanston School District, and interned at Seattle Children's Theatre, where she is now a teaching apprentice.