Hi, my name is Suzanne. I teach for two studios in a large Midwest suburban area. I have been teaching full-time for almost 4 years, but I have spent the majority of my post-college life teaching 2-3 hours after my job in the mortgage banking industry. I have a daughter, Lily, who just turned one and we plan on adding to our family in the next couple of years.

I am in my mid-thirties and have been dancing since I was five. My first dance teacher became a very close friend of the family and although my own mom has passed away, my sister and I still refer to her as Grandma. I got to take Lily to visit her during a recent trip home to the eastern border of Iowa.

As Grandma retired when I was 12, the majority of my training was then received by a former member of the Nancy(France) Opera Ballet and her partner who had danced with the Royal Ballet. I went to Butler University for the first two years of my college program, but decided that no job in the dance world would ever be able to pay off four years of student loans at Butler even though I was on half tuition academic scholarship.

I completed my degree at the University of Iowa, studying under Francoise Martinet who was my mentor and inspiration to be a teacher. She is a former Joffery principle dancer and last year received the CORPS de Ballet International(a collegiate teaching organization) lifetime achievement award. Everything she gave me, I am attempting to give my own students. I primarily teach ballet and a few lyrical and modern classes.