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 Pearce

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!

Timothy Anders

Timothy began dancing at the age of three in a small Cecchetti studio in southern Illinois. To continue his training, he became a trainee at The Big Muddy Dance Company in St. Louis, Missouri. While there, he trained under Paula Davis and performed in many contemporary works. He also had the opportunity at Big Muddy to learn Harrison McEldowney's orginal work Group Therapy. He was also able to train and guest at El Paso Conservatory of Dance. While at El Paso Conservatory of Dance, Timothy had the chance to study under Marta Katz, and Daymel Sanchez. He has Guested in many roles including the Snow King, Nutcracker/Nutcracker Prince, Arabian Pas, and Cavalier in The Nutcracker; the Knave of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland; and in the pas de trois in Swan Lake. Timothy was in Nashville Ballet's Second Company where he danced in a variety of Paul Vasterling's works such as Carnival of the Animals, Peter Pan, and The Nutcracker. While in Nashville Timothy assisted in teaching partnering classes For Nashville Ballet. Timothy also joined as a company member at Central Illinois Ballas. At CIB Timothy performed principal roles including Jonathan Harker in Dracula; Nutcracker Prince, and Russian in The Nutcracker; Paris in Romeo and Juliet; and The Beast in Beauty and the Beast. In addition Timothy has been teaching Ballet to all Levels including running company classes and rehearsals for CIB and teaching at Cornerstone Academy. This will be his first year at CSAD.

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.