Laurie E. Coder

Laurie E. Coder, Tumbling Instructor, grew up taking gymnastics and dance in Ames, Iowa. In high school she was a four-year letter winner and started on the Ames High gymnastics team. Throughout her high school career, she placed in the top six in various events at meets and tournaments, including placing fifth on beam at State Championships. Laurie graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Exercise Science from Iowa State University. She was a member of the Ames Gymnastics Club, and taught for them for over 10+ years. In addition, she was an IDEA Foundation/ACE Certified Fitness Instructor at Fitness World West for 5 years. Laurie has a passion for both gymnastics and dance. She will further enhance the Elite Dance Program with tumbling. Her discipline, focus and drive in class helps the students establish and obtain their goals.

Trisha Smyth

Trisha Smyth, Dance Instructor, has been a dancer since the age of 5. She has been teaching in the Des Moines area for 15 years and choreographing competitively for 5 years. At the young age of 10, Trisha was selected to travel with a summer dance camp to assist with the camps in the next year. As a high school student she participated in Cheerleading, Dance Team, Show Choir and Colorguard. She has competed and received high honors in each of these programs. Trisha attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois where she created and grew the Dance Team program. Each of her 4 years at Knox, she was voted captain and choreographer. In her many years of dance, she has had the opportunity to learn pointe, ballet, tap, jazz, pom-pon, musical theatre, hip hop, lyrical, modern and several styles of ballroom. She continues to broaden her education by attending dance conventions and workshops. Trisha currently lives in Adel with her husband and boy/girl twins and works for Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield in downtown Des Moines . She is excited to share her ‘if you believe it, you can achieve it’ philosophy with the dancers.

Christina Duea

An Ames native, Christina Duea began dancing as a young child under the instruction of Ann Dirksen; her training continued and her love for dance grew under the instruction of Terry Thomas and even more so under the instruction of Robert and Miyoko Kato Thomas at the Robert Thomas Dancenter. During high studied at the Des Moines Ballet Company in Des Moines, at the Joffrey Ballet in New York City and the Joffrey Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Christina was in the first cast of the Iowa State Center/Dancenter's Nutcracker Ballet and danced in that production through her freshman year in college. She danced the parts of Moor Doll, Snowflake, Chinese, Spanish, and Snow Queen. In 2010 Christina returned to the stage and danced the part of Hungarian to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the annual production.

Christina started teaching ballet over 30 years ago and began her teaching career in high school as an assistant at the Robert Thomas Dancenter in Ames. She later became a lead instructor and taught many younger dancers at the Dancenter.

After high school Christina attended Iowa State University and was a member of the Iowa State football and basketball squads. Christina moved to Des Moines in 1988 and returned to teaching ballet at the Des Moines Ballet Company. She later went on to start the dance team program at Dowling Catholic High School and has also volunteered her time to help coach the Waukee High School Cheerleaders and to judge both dance team and cheerleading tryouts at high schools in the Des Moines area.

Christina works full-time at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in West Des Moines as an Human Resources Consultant.

Kylee Johnson

Kylee is a recent graduate of Valley High School and lives in West Des Moines. She will be attending DMACC in the fall studying marketing with the goal to move to Ames and attend Iowa State in a couple years.

Kylee started dancing at the age of four and began competitive dance at Charlee's Elite School of Dance at the age of ten. Over the last 8 years she has competed in numerous group ,duet and trio pieces as well as solos. Kylee was a consistent high point winner for group, trios and solos. She has also taken part in conventions at Giordano's, Adrenaline and TOPSworking with several professional dancers and choreographers. Besides continuing her training with conventions over the years, she also has studied one on one with DSM Dance Project founders, Blake and Lindsay Angier.

In her many years of dance she has had the opportunity to learn tap, ballet, pointe, jazz, lyrical, modern and hip hop.

She is excited to have the opportunity to continue her dance career by teaching while also attending conventions and workshops.

Abby Duesenberg

Starting at the young age of 3, Abby has had a passion for dance! Over the years, she had training in tap, ballet, pointe, jazz, modern, lyrical, and hip-hop. She also had the opportunity to attend various conventions such as Tremaine in New York City. During high school, Abby danced on the Waukee High School dance team for four years and was also a varsity Cheerleader for two years.

Post high school, Abby went on to the University of Kansas where she continued to study dance and was a member of the campus recreational dance troupe. Most recently, Abby performed as a member of the Storm Chasers dance team for the Iowa Barnstormers. Abby hopes to continue her training and broaden her education by attending more conventions and workshops in the future.

Abby currently lives in West Des Moines with her two young boys and works full-time for Principal Financial Group as a Business Operations Analyst. She is very excited for the opportunity to share her love of dance with the students!