05/18/2026
We are SOO excited to welcome Miss Ava to our team of instructors next season!
Miss Ava is a dancer and choreographer based in Pittsburgh, PA, pursuing a BFA in dance with concentrations in performance/choreography and entrepreneurship at Slippery Rock University (SRU) under faculty guidance such as Jennifer Keller, Erin Kouwe, Emmalee Hallinan, Annie Franklin, Melissa Teodoro, and Irishia Romaine. Ava is a member of the SRU Honors College, National Honors Society, is scholarship Chair for SRU’s National Honor Society for Dance Arts, a junior co-leader of Palenque Colomiban Dance Ensemble, and is in Rock’n Fusion Commercial Dance Club.
She attended Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School as a dance major and performed in the centers, The Nutcracker (Columbine Doll, licorice), choreographed by Jennifer Verba and Krista Shovlin. In 2023, she choreographed a work entitled ‘The Love of You,’ which was showcased in Choreography Project: Everlasting Memories.
Recently, Ava has had the chance to work directly with SRU Dance students in both SRU Dance Theatre and during their choreographic research for their BFA Capstone. SRU has allowed opportunities such as working with Kizuna Dance’s Cameron McKinney during a repertoire piece entitled Strange Attractors, showcased in the Faculty and Guest Concert, Emerging Artist, and in the American Dance College Association (ACDA, 2025). She was also a dancer in Wilted Figs, choreographed by SRU Dance’s Gianna Dobrich, which was performed at ACDA (2026) and was selected to be performed again in its encore concert. Ava was a protégé member of the intensive and worked with Kevin Wilson, Gigi Torres, Rachel Siegel, Laura Aronoff, and Christie Sirota-Jordan.
Ava hopes to travel the world dancing. She has studied abroad in Belgium, taking classes, seeing dance performances, and experiencing the dance world globally. Ava hopes to have a future performing and traveling for cruise lines and contemporary companies, as well as opening her own dance studio.
