About Allison:
Allison is a Chicago transplant originally hailing from Toledo Ohio where her journey began at the tender age of three. She started dancing at a local studio and hasn't stopped since. As a child, she would often create her own "pieces" much to the detriment of her living room furniture, and you could often catch her doing leaps down empty aisles at the grocery store, or hallways at school. Allison was a competitive dancer for 14 years travelling around the country to perform in cities such as New York, Las, Vegas, and Myrtle Beach.
As she grew older her passion for dance grew with her and she continued her education after high school getting her B.S. in Dance Performance at Illinois State University. While attending ISU she was a part of both Illinois State Dance Theatre and the Illinois State Dance Association. With ISDT Allison was part of performances, student concerts, and the American College Dance Festival. Throughout her pre-professional career she worked with choreographers such as Jon Lehrer, Sonya Tayeh, Frank Hatchett, Al Gilbert and Kim Neal Nofsinger. She also broadened her horizons studying acting, improvisation, and other technical aspects of the theatre that have helped her become the dancer and teacher she is today.
Allison has been teaching dance in the Midwest since 2004, instructing students ranging in age from toddler through adult (her oldest student to date is 65 years young). She has been an educator and teaching artist for studios, youth theatre programs, and schools in Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois for students of all levels in both competitive and non-competitive capacities. Current certifications include YPAD, RWID, RAS, and VIRTUS alongside coursework focused on creating trauma informed classrooms that integrate SEL framework into the curriculum through NEDO. From March of 2020 through December of 2023 Allison had the privilege of being the Program Manager of Dance and Movement at the Old Town School of Folk Music where she oversaw the growth of the program from 34 classes across the board to close to 80 classes in almost 20 genres of dance, a faculty of over 20 educators, a full set of serial workshops, as well as adult showcases and biannual youth dance recitals. Currently she is sharing her love of dance with her students all over the Chicagoland area at various studios and programs.
Allison's most recent foray into the professional performance world was behind the scenes as the founder and director of the Community Choreographer's Festival. Community had its debut featuring thirteen Chicago based artist's original works in an evening length performance in November of 2023. Previously Allison was a member of the Artistic Board and choreographer with Innervation Dance Cooperative(1998-2019) for three seasons as well as a performer with the company for six. Allison is a former member of the educational outreach dance company IDC S.P.E.A.K.S. and has worked with Body Movin' Dance, The Subconscious Development Motion Project, The Monocle Ecclectic Dance Company, and several other independent choreographers since moving to the Chicago are in 2011. She has performed original works at the Emergence Choreographer Showcase, RADFest, Kaleidoscope Choreographer's Festival, and Dance Chicago. Along with her dance training Allison has been teaching fitness since 2013. She is certified in both Zumba and Lotte Berk Barre Fitness formats.
When Allison is not dancing or teaching you can usually find her reading science fiction, working her way through all the Star Trek series (for the umpteenth time), or tending to her many plants and herbs. Sometimes, she still leaps down grocery store aisles when no one is watching.
