Melanie Sullivan-Coyle
Jazz, Contemporary, Tap, Director: Sullivan Youth Ensemble

Melanie is the Owner and Artistic Director of The Sullivan Dance Centre. She has been a dance educator in the Charlotte community for over thirty years. As a young dancer, she was a scholarship student to the Washington School of Ballet where she studied under Mary Day. Over the past fifteen years, Melanie has developed a unique technically based jazz curriculum that provides dancers with an artistic approach to jazz dance which prepares them for dance in college or a career on the stage. Her students have received scholarships to Carnegie Melon, Alvin Ailey, Gus Giordano Dance Center, Tremaine Dance Center, School of American Ballet, Point Park University, Oklahoma City University, North Carolina School of the Arts, LA Dance Magic Final Cut, Studio and Convention scholarships, as well as numerous other prestigious programs.

Her choreography has been recognized for excellence regionally and nationally by New York City Dance Alliance Critics Choice, American Dance Awards Diamond Choreographers Awards, Dance Troupe, Inc. and many others. In 2010, her dancers received top overall Large Group Recognition in National Competition as well as many other top scoring groups. In addition, Melanie was honored to have received the Ray Hollingsworth Memorial Choreography Award (Winston Salem 2010) for her solo piece Coming Home performed by her student Holly Van halsema.

Melanie has coached many title recipients including both regional and national titlists. She is a five time choreographic finalist for the Leo’s Competitive Event at the Gus Giordano Jazz Dance World Congress where her company performed in Monterrey, Mexico, Phoenix, Az, Chicago, Il., and Buffalo, NY. This event honors choreographers that are producing innovative and artistic work in concert jazz dance.

Melanie has served as an adjudicator for several competitive dance organizations as well as giving master classes in her unique style of jazz dance. She has had students in the Broadway Casts of Wicked, Cabaret, Legally Blonde, West Side Story, and Sweet Charity to name a few.

Melanie still finds her greatest joy in the classroom with her students. Her students are her daily inspiration and teaching her greatest blessing! Watching her students grow and seeing them deepen their love of dance is a gift for which she is deeply grateful. She is a proud wife and mother of four who loves spending her free time on the lake with her large and boisterous Irish family! She is especially proud to be a part of a Dance Family that has encompassed three generations of dance educators and professional performers! Her goal is to see the studio through to many more generations of Sullivan Dancers!

Melissa Hale Coyle
Classical Ballet, Pointe, Variations, Character

Melissa is the Artistic Director of the Ballet program of the Sullivan Dance Centre. Melissa was born in Waco, Texas and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There she received her early training from Roman Jasinski and Moscelyne Larkin. She studied as a scholarship student for two summers at American Ballet Theatre with Leon Danelion and Patricia Wilde. After graduating from high school, she joined American Ballet Theatre as a company member for three years. While at American Ballet Theatre, she appeared in the motion picture “The Turning Pointe”. Ms. Hale later joined Cincinnati Ballet Company where she performed in principal roles and Tulsa Ballet Theatre where she was principal dancer for six years. She also appeared in the CBS TV movie of the week, “The Cowboy and the Ballerina”.

For the past 22 years, Ms. Hale has lived in Charlotte, North Carolina where she is on the faculty and the Artistic Director of the Ballet Program at Sullivan Dance Centre. She also is the Co-Artistic Director of the Charlotte City Ballet Company and is a part-time faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. For many summers, Ms. Hale has been on the teaching faculty of American Ballet Theatre's Summer Intensive in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has been a guest faculty member for North Carolina's Dance Theatre's Summer Intensive and has taught company classes for North Carolina Dance Theatre. Ms. Hale has also been a guest choreographer for Carolina Voices, Atlanta Dance Theatre, The Charlotte Philharmonic Orchestra, The Dance Collective, South Carolina’s Governors Summer School, Ballet San Antonio, Orange County Performing Arts High School, Miami Valley Dance Company and the Civic Ballet of Chicago. In 2001, The North Carolina School of the Arts awarded Ms. Hale the “Best Dance Teacher of North Carolina”. Melissa Hale Coyle is an ABT Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 3 of the ABT National training Curriculum.

Lisa Leone
Classical Ballet, Pointe, Variations

Lisa Leone began her training in Tacoma, Washington under the direction of Jan Collum. After dancing the role of Cinderella in Washington, the choreographer Tom Pazik, also director of Atlanta Ballet II, invited her to study in Atlanta. Upon graduation from high school, she danced with the Atlanta Ballet. Lisa has also danced with Ballet Rotaru touring Romania and performing at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. Following her time with Ballet Rotaru,she moved back to the West Coast and danced as a soloist with Oregon Ballet Theatre performing as a guest artist. In addition to being on the faculty at The Sullivan Dance Centre she is also Co-Director of the Charlotte City Ballet Company. Lisa and her husband Stephen H. Smith, a professional sculptor, live outside Charlotte on a farm where he has his sculpture studio. In addition to teaching Lisa manages his business, helps work on an occasional sculpture and enjoys meeting the people they have the pleasure of working with through their business.

Sydney Farrell
Classical Ballet

Sydney Farrell was born in Frankfurt, Germany. She began studying ballet in Lancaster, Pennsylvania under Ina Theobald, a member of the famed Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. In 1980, she moved to Charlotte, North Carolina and continued her studies at the Charlotte School of Ballet. Sydney was a member of the Chapel Hill Ballet Company from 1983-1986 after which she returned to Charlotte to dance under Claudia Folts and Beverly Barwick at the Charlotte City Ballet Company until 1997. During this time, she also performed with the North Carolina Dance Theatre and the Louisville Ballet where she served as children’s ballet mistress for the Charlotte cast of Louisville Ballet’s production of Cinderella. Sydney began her teaching career at the Charlotte City Ballet School in 1985 and joined the staff of Sullivan Dance Centre in 2004. In 2009 she joined the faculty of St. Martin’s Episcopal Preschool where she teaches in the two year old classroom.

Sara Atkins
Modern, Sullivan Youth Ensemble

Sara Atkins has a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a focus on performance and choreography. She performed extensively in student and faculty concerts while attending UNCG. Sara has presented her own works, as well as performed in formal concert settings, with Queen City Jazz Company, Prime Movers, and she has studied with Paul Taylor, Limon, Trisha Brown and Alvin Ailey studios. She is the director of the modern dance program at Sullivan Dance Centre. Sara has received numerous choreography awards at various dance competitions throughout her time with the Sullivan Youth Ensemble, some including Dance Troupe Inc. Outstanding Choreography for all Duets/Trios, and separately, Small/Large Group Performances and the American Dance Awards Diamond Award for Choreography, along with top score honors and overall awards for her work with the company. She continues to love to teach and provide instruction to the kids at Sullivan Dance Centre, “They are the reason I am there!”

Morning Star Allen-Campbell
Contemporary, Hip Hop, Sullivan Youth Ensemble

Morning Star Allen-Campbell has been dancing at the Sullivan Dance Centre since the age of six. During her time in the senior company of Sullivan Youth Ensemble her performance credits included,: Gus Giordano's Jazz Dance World Congress (Buffalo, NY and Monterrey, Mexico), and Festival of NC Dance. Mrs. Allen-Campbell performed with Queen City Jazz Company for 5 years moving from apprentice to full company member. Currently Morning Star has moved from performing to choreographing and her recent credits include: Dance Troupe Inc. National Choreographer of the Year Award 2010 for the uplifting and inspirational "Son Of Man". Morning Star has coached dance title recipients in 2008 and 2010. Her students have received regional and national title recognition. Her unique, soulful brand of Contemporary and Hip Hop will keep each student energized in all classes.

Susan Cherin Gundersheim
Musical Theatre

Susan Cherin Gundersheim has a degree in theatre from Northwestern University with concentrations in Acting, Musical Theatre and Theatre Education. Over the past 25 years, Susan has worked as an actress, singer and dancer in theatre, film and television in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Massachusetts, and now Charlotte. Since moving to Charlotte, Susan has been fortunate enough to work at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte (Mrs. Potts in Beauty & the Beast, Turtle/various in A Year with Frog and Toad), CPCC Summer Theatre (Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods, Sarah in Company, Narrator in Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) and Actor’s Theatre (Jillian in Birth). Other favorite roles include Nina in The SeaGull, Corie in Barefoot in the Park, Jesus in Godspell, Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, Queen Aggravain in Once Upon A Mattress.

In addition to her work as a performer, Susan has enjoyed directing, musical directing and/or choreographing many productions as well as teaching private voice and musical theatre workshops. Favorite shows she has directed and/or musical directed include The Diary of Anne Frank, Crimes of the Heart, Godspell, A Chorus Line, Seussical, Snoopy, The Wiz and Honk. Susan also has spent the last 25 years teaching theatre and voice, to students ages 3 – adult and has extensive experience as an arts educator in the K-12 setting. She has created elementary, middle and high school level community drama programs, developed and taught K – 12 theatre curriculum, organized arts/education advocacy foundations, and supervised elementary after-school arts programs.

Currently, in addition to her teaching duties at Winthrop, Susan has pioneered a new drama program at the Jewish Community Center in Charlotte that includes K – 5 drama/voice classes, summer production camps and a full scale, annual musical, which she co-directs with her husband, Winthrop faculty member Stephen Gundersheim. Susan also offers Musical Theatre Workshops in Charlotte and specializes in counseling and coaching high school seniors in their preparations for the college and/or conservatory audition process. Susan has also recently rekindled her interest in songwriting and her song “Rise Above” were used in the productions of Birth (see www.boldaction.org) all over the world last year. Susan has worked on many shows with her husband Stephen, but their favorite productions are their three children, Hannah, Rebecca and Doron, who force them to use their skills as both teachers and performers every single day.