Summer Intensive for High School Students
July 13-July 19, 2025
Levels: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Age range: 9–12th grade High School
Program Overview
African, Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Hip Hop
Instructors: TBD
Immerse yourself in a one-week, college-level program and become part of a community of talented and serious artists from diverse backgrounds. The Summer Intensive at the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Illinois provides a perfect platform for high school students to prepare for success in auditions, work with professional choreographers, learn about careers in the arts, make new friends, and get a taste of college life. Current Dance at Illinois faculty, graduate students, and recent alumni teach classes during the day, and fun evening activities are planned throughout the week.
Faculty:
Dr. Kemal Nance: Umfundalai: A native of Chester, Pennsylvania, Dr. Nance is a performer, choreographer, and scholar of African Diasporic Dance. Attendees at the Colloquium of Black Arts in Bahia, Salvador knighted him “Kibon” – the name of a Brazilian ice cream to reflect the “delicious time“ they experienced in his movement class. Nance is a master teacher of the Umfundalai technique of African dance. His work with the National Association of American African Dance Teachers has resulted in teachers’ training programs for budding African dance artists to be certified in the technique.
Nance performed as a principal dancer with Kariamu & Company: Traditions (Philadelphia, PA) and as a recurring guest artist with Chuck Davis’ African American Dance Ensemble (AADE) in Durham, North Carolina. He currently directs the Nance Dance Collective (www.blackmendance.com), an all-male dance initiative that produces dance works about Black manhood. His choreographies have appeared on national and international stages including the Afro Dance Xplosion Showcase in London, United Kingdom and the Stella Maris Dance Ensemble’s seasons of dance in Kingston, Jamaica. His scholarly research has been published in several anthologies including Karen Bond’s Dance and the Quality of Life, Kariamu Welsh’s and Esailama Diouf’s Hot Feet and Social Change African Dance in Diasporic Communities, and the Doug Risner’s forthcoming Masculinity, Intersectionality and Identity: Why Boys (Don’t) Dance.
Tyesha Lewis: Jazz Funk, Conditioning:
Ty’esha Lewis (Ty) is a dance/movement artist, choreographer, teacher, scholar, and activist. She was born and raised in Houston, TX, where her love for dance and the arts began. Ty received her BFA in dance from Sam Houston State University in 2015, and her MFA in dance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2023. She has trained in a variety of dance forms from modern, contemporary, and ballet to jazz, improvisation, street, and community dance forms, both nationally and internationally. She also has a background in somatic studies such as Pilates, yoga, and Alexander technique. Ty has taught dance/movement for 12 years and strives to cultivate spaces for her students to utilize dance as a form of expression, physical engagement, and meaning-making. In her choreographic research, she utilizes movement as a tool for developing spaces for immersive experiences, interdisciplinary collaborations, and understanding human behavior. As Ty continues to expand on her training and studies she maintains a feminist perspective, that is open to the diverse understanding of dance, movement, the arts, and life.
Sonia Kellermann: Tap, Musical Theatre:
Sonia Kellermann is the artistic director of Dance at Franklin in Portland, OR and serves on the Arts Advisory Committee for Portland Public Schools. She holds a BFA in Dance from NYU, Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois where she was a Visiting Lecturer. She has been teaching dance in public schools for over twenty years including Ballet, Tap, Musical Theater Jazz, Modern, Improvisation, and Composition. She has performed her original choreography in Europe and across the United States.
Anna Sapozhnikov: Modern:
Anna Sapozhnikov is a teacher, choreographer, and performer with roots based in Chicagoland. As an educator, Anna created the dance program at York High School in Elmhurst, Illinois, where she taught from 2008 to 2019. Her teaching credits also include serving as dance faculty at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Youth Performing Arts High School in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as the Louisville Ballet School. Anna received her BFA and MFA in dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she is currently Senior Assistant Head of Program Administration & Engagement as well as a Lecturer in the Department of Dance. She holds her K-12 teaching certification from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.