STAVNA ACADEMY INSTRUCTORS
SHANNON McCONVILLE: OWNER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ›
Shannon fell in love with dance at a very young age. Originally from Tennessee, she began her training at the City Youth Ballet with Susan Pace-White. She has trained all over the country with many of the nations most distinguished artist including David Howard, Edward Villella, Gelsey Kirdland and Alonzo King. She received a B.F.A from Radford University with a concentration in performance and choreography under the direction of Frano Jelincic and Dagmar Kessler. Upon graduation, Shannon became a principal dancer with the San Diego Ballet. During her time with the company she had the opportunity to dance various lead roles under the direction of Robin Morgan and Javier Velasco. After moving to Virginia, she is proud to have founded the Stavna Ballet, a non-profit dance company in December of 2010. In 2012 she opened the Stavna Dance Academy, becoming the offiial training school of the Ballet. Most recently, Shannon was awarded one of Richmond's 2013 "Top 40 under 40".
NOELANI COREY: MODERN, JAZZ ›
Noelani was raised in Richmond, Virginia where she studied dance from a very young age. She attended Thomas Dale High School's Specialty Center for Visual and Performing Arts and graduated with numerous awards for her innovative choreography. She also participated as a member of the Thomas Dale Dance Team. In addition to dancing at school, Noelani trained at Chesterfield Dance Center where she was a part of the competition company "dELIRUM." They competed at dance competitions, including West Coast Dance Explosion, where Noelani received the Regional Senior eLite Dancer Scholarship to dance in Las Vegas. Competitions exposed her to current contemporary dance from teachers like Travis Wall, Liz Imperio, Allison Holker, and Kim Wolfe. Noelani is currently training as a Dance & Choreography Major at Virginia Commonwealth University where she is continually evolving as a modern dancer and choreographer. Noelani is so excited to be working at Stavna.
JENNIFER KLOTZ: BALLET, JAZZ, & CONTEMPORARY ›
Jennifer Klotz grew up dancing in her hometown of Allentown, Pennyslvania where she studied various stayles of dance including Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Contemporary and Tap. Jen is a graduate of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA where she earned her BFA in Modern dance performance under the direction of Donna Faye Burchfield. upon graduation Jen moved to Richmond, VA and began her teaching career with Stavna Ballet in 2013. In addition to teaching at Stavna, Jen is an adjunt professor at John Tyler Community College and is a Barre fitness instructor in the Richmond area. She has had the pleasure of performing with the Stavna Ballet in their productions of Snow White, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and most recently has been cast as Peter in Peter Pan!
MEGAN BAKER: BALLET, MODERN›
A native of Tennessee, Megan Baker began her dance training at age 6 with Van Metre School of Dance, under the direction of Amy Moore Morton. Megan received her B.A. in Dance from Radford Univeristy and studied under Frano and Dagmar Jelinsic, Peggy Hunt, danah bella, Margaret Devaney and Inessa Plekhanova. Megan was a member of the Radford University Ballet Theatre all four years of college, performing on campus as well as for other festivals such as ACDF. After graduating college, she danced as a soloist for Appalachian Ballet Company, as well as performed as a guest artist with Momentum Dance Lab. In Washington, DC, Megan performed with CityDance 2, Ariden Dance, and Mich-Mash Productions. Megan was recently certified in massage therapy, dances with RADAR, and is thrilled to be back in the studio teaching at Stavna, sharing love and light through movement.
RACHEL SEEHOLZER: BALLET ›
Rachel Seeholzer is from Los Angeles, California where she began her training at the Pacific Dance Academy with Louise Mandel. Rachel continued her training at the School of Ballet Chicago, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, Lines Contemporary Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre (now the Charlotte Ballet), and The Richmond Ballet. In 2014, Rachel joined the Charlottesville Ballet as an apprentice and was promoted to company in 2015. Rachel as well will be joining The Suzanne Farrell Ballet for the 2016-2017 season. Rachel’s teaching began with the Degas Dance Studio where she created their first ballet production of The Nutcracker, as well as with the Los Angeles Ballet Academy where she began her studies of the RAD (Royal Academy of Dance) method. Rachel continues to teach throughout the Richmond area and is excited to begin her first year with Stavna Ballet.
MADISON CASE: BALLET, JAZZ, TAP, CONTEMPORARY›
Madison Case, a native of Kentucky, began her training in ballet, tap, jazz, and modern at The Dance Centre of Elizabethtown under the direction of Sherry Barnard. Alongside her additional training with Allegro Dance Theatre and Fleur de Lis academy she performed in many musical theater productions. In 2014, she was accepted to the Governor's School for the Arts as a dance major. She then moved to Chicago to dance with Ballet Chicago’s studio company and went on to dance with Charlottesville Ballet and Manassas Ballet Theatre. Madison has acted as choreographer for the Clint Vaught Young Actors Institute at the Youth Performing Arts School for two years. She is thrilled to be teaching tap and ballet at Stavna and can’t wait to get started!