Teaching Staff
Amy Noirot-Vance
Amy is the Owner/Artistic Director of Center Stage. She opened the studio in 2003 with a vision to provide quality dance instruction, discipline, a sense of accomplishment, and to introduce a new repertoire of progressive new concepts of entertainment, dancing, and staging that will inspire students to reach for the stars. From her earliest memory it has been her dream to be a dance teacher, to pass on the magic and her passion for dance to her students. It is her belief that all children need positive experiences in their lives, and wants her students to leave class feeling good about the work accomplished.
Amy started dancing at the age of 3, at D & D Productions where she studied Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, Tap, and Tumbling for 14 years. She became a student teacher at age 11 and at age 15 joined the TazWood Dance Company. During her 14 year stay with TazWood she served in several different rolls on the Board of Directors, did student choreography, taught and choreographed for the children's outreach program, performed many leading roles, and was the assistant to the Artistic Director.
Amy has attended numerous dance conventions and workshops, performed with the Peoria Orchestra, was a member of her high school dance team, she has done choreography for several different plays, attended and performed at a number of National College Dance Festivals, and has performed for different charitable events. Before opening the studio she also worked full time at Morgan Stanley where she was the Branch Managers Assistant and the head coordinator for Online Trading. When she is not at the studio she spends her time with her husband and her daughter Francheska, who is also a dancer!
Olivia Gabbert
Olivia has been teaching at CSAD since 2008. She has danced competitively and non-competitively for a total of 30 years, and has had amazing performance opportunities at the Orange Bowl halftime, Citrus Bowl halftime, Atlanta, GA Olympics, Chicago Bulls, Bozo Show, Disney World, UDA nationals, Six Flags, St. Louis Blues, the talent competition show Live at the Apollo in the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York, as well as pretty much any stage, fair, festival, or sports game in the tri-state area! She has done numerous dance pieces for the dance department at the University of Iowa, where she received her degree in Elementary Education. She has a Master's degree in reading and is pursuing a Master's degree in curriculum and instruction. Her love has always been for jazz, until she joined a hip hop competitive team in College, and has loved both equally ever since. She has been coaching and choreographing for years and has won choreography awards at various competitions. She was also a Chicago finalist in season 1 of SYTYCD, and made it through eight rounds of auditions. Her claim to fame is the girl in the neon green shirt in the background of one of the episodes! LOL Olivia is a Kindergarten teacher at Grundy in Morton, when she's not busting a move at Center Stage, she can be found spending time with her husband, Joe, and their boy/girl twins, Kane and Ogden.
Kelsey Meeker
Kelsey has been teaching at CSAD since 2013. She loves teaching Modern and Contemporary, but she also teaches Ballet, Tap, and Jazz. She has been dancing both non-competitively and competitively since the age of 3. After high school she attended Millikin University where she received her minor in dance, and was a member of the dance team. She received her Masters of Health Administration from Penn State University. She also had the amazing opportunity to work in Walt Disney World as a Character Performer, as well as, dance there with the team she belonged to through Jr. High and College! When she's not at the studio she loves spending time with her family and friends, and walking her three dogs Luna, Calla Lily, and Arya!
Amie Whitaker
Amie has been teaching at CSAD since 2013. She teaches tap, jazz and ballet, but is partial to tap. She has been dancing since she was 3 years old and before teaching for CSAD taught at other studios. While in High School, she was on the dance team and took dance classes while in college. She has had the privilege to take part in a dance abroad program which took her to Australia! If she's not at the studio you can find her on the family farm with her 4 amazing children Phoebe, Cord, Sophie and Emery, and Grandson Kane.
Tori Morgan
Tori started dancing at age 3 all the way to 19, competitively and non competitively. She was on the dance team throughout middle and high school and has gone back to choreograph for the high school teams after her. After high school she had her son Josiah which resulted in a 2 year break from dance. She has been teaching, at CSAD since 2016. If she had to choose she would pick contemporary as a favorite, but loves all styles equally. When she's not dancing she can be found spending time with her son Josiah.
Faith Kruzick
I have been teaching dance at Center Stage since 2018. My love and passion for dance was developed at this studio. I danced at Center Stage for 9 years and continued my dance career on Illinois State University's competitive dance team. With this team I got to dance at NDA College Nationals in Daytona, FL. This was a highlight of my dancing career and I am so thankful I got the opportunity. I love being back at Center Stage and sharing what I've learned with various students. I love all styles of dance, but if I had to choose a favorite it would be jazz or lyrical. When not teaching dance, I can be found teaching sixth grade!
Ashton Millard
This is Ashton's second year teaching at Center Stage. She came to CSAD when she was 5 and danced until she graduated Morton High School in 2021. She was a member of our Competitive dance team and a teaching assistant for 4 years. Her favorite style of dance is Contemporary. Ashton attended the Disney College Program in the spring of 2022. She is now back and attending ICC.
Marina Lau
Marina danced at Center Stage for 13 years and is a current graduate of Morton High School. She was a member of our competitive team for 9 years, an assistant teacher for 7 years, and started teaching private technique lessons 2020. This summer Marina became a Certified Acrobatic Arts Instructor. She is currently attending ISU where she is majoring in speech-language pathology and minor in dance.
Morgan Ranney
Morgan is currently an alumni after attending University of Arizona where she earned her BFA at the School of Dance, graduating in May of 2023. Here she had the opportunity to be in several master works, including those of George Balanchine and Frank Chaves. She also had the chance to work with notorious professionals, including Thang Dao, Gianni Howell, Christopher and Tamara Compton, Hayley Meier, Sam Watson, and many others. Morgan is so excited to begin her professional career at Central Illinois Ballet for the 23/24 year season, under the direction of Rebekah Von Rathonyi.
Morgan grew up in Columbus, Ohio. She began dancing at the young age of 2, and found her love for ballet while training at Columbus City Ballet School and Conservatory under the direction of ShirLee Wu. Morgan performed the lead role “Swanhilda” in the classical ballet, “Coppelia.” She also was able to perform lead roles in “The Nutcracker,” “Swan Lake,” “MidSummer’s Night Dream,” and many others. She also attended Infusion Dance, under the
direction of Shane Carpenter, where she was able to work with notorious choreographers, including: Chelsea Thedinga, Brooke Pierotti, Mia DeWeese, and many others.
Morgan has recently had the amazing opportunity to partake in summer and winter residencies with Joshua Manculich, in his new company “Whirlwind,” based in Columbus, Ohio. She performed past masterworks by Joshua, and was able to be a part of brand new masterworks. She plans to continue freelance work with Joshua in the future.
Morgan is a passionate artist with huge dreams! She is well versed and ready for what the dance world has to throw at her! She is so excited to begin her journey into the professional dance world.
Emily Diederich
Emily began dancing at the age of three, training in various styles including ballet, tap, jazz, pointe, hip hop, lyrical, and contemporary. Emily was a competitive dancer for seven years and trained at some of the highest pre-professional companies in north central Illinois until she was sixteen. While she was still continuing her dance education, she began assisting and leading children’s dance classes at her home studio. Since 2018, Emily has instructed dance classes and camps of various styles and levels as well as worked as a choreographer for children’s theatre productions.
Emily is currently a student at Bradley University studying elementary education with an ESL endorsement. She plans on continuing her dance education and teaching throughout college and beyond. This will be her first year teaching at CSAD.
Gabby Hasinger
Gabby began dancing at age 3, she has been dancing with Center Stage for nine years. and this is her 7th year on the CSAD Competitive Team. She has been a teaching assistant for 5 years, this will be her first year as an Instructor! Gabby is currently a Jr at Morton High School where she is on the Varsity Dance Team and runs track. Her favorite dance style is Hip Hop and is excited to teach others and hopefully make them love it as much as she does. This past summer she taught Adult Hip Hop at 309 Fitness. She has attended multiple conventions and taken several classes in LA.