Sullivan Dance Centre 9506-C Monroe Rd.      Charlotte, NC 28270  704-708-4474

Melanie Sullivan-Coyle has been a dance educator in the Charlotte community for over 25 years. As a young dancer she was a scholarship student at the Washington National School of Ballet where she studied under Mary Day.  As an adult she turned her attention to Jazz dance, and trained extensively in the Luigi and Giordano methods of classic, traditional, Jazz.  Mrs. Sullivan-Coyle’s choreography has been recognized regionally and nationally, including the New York City Dance Alliance Critics Choice, American Dance Awards Diamond Choreographers Awards, Top Solo Choreographer and Top Group Choreographer at Dance Troupe Inc. In 2006 she won the National Choreography Award for her Jazz piece “Incantation” at Dance Troupe, Inc’s National event in Savannah, Georgia. Competitively, her students consistently receive top honors including regional and national title winners as well as the 2006 top scoring large group. Her concert work has also been recognized by the Gus Giordano’s Jazz Dance World Congress, an event honoring choreographers that are consistently developing quality innovative work in the art of classic Jazz dance. Mrs. Sullivan Coyle has been a finalist at the Jazz Congress five times, including the 2007 Congress in Chicago, Illinois. Her choreography has been adjudicated and selected for Festival of North Carolina Dance, The North Carolina Dance Festival (Charlotte), Dance in the Open-Charlotte Dance Festival and her professional company Queen City Jazz Company were the guest artists for the North Carolina Dance Alliances Annual Event-Headliners Concert at Wake Forest University in December of 2006. 

Mrs. Sullivan-Coyle is recognized as a master teacher and has conducted workshops in her unique style of Jazz for The Charlotte City Ballet, Cecchetti Council of America Southeast Branch, Union County Youth Ballet, and others. Melanie has served as a guest choreographer for the Charlotte City Ballet Company and is on staff at the Charlotte School of Ballet where she teaches advanced Jazz dancers. Melanie also serves as a judge for several nationally recognized dance competitions. In 2002 she founded the Queen City Jazz Company, a professional, non-profit concert Jazz dance company to raise the awareness of Jazz dance as an art form in the Southeast. Her work on Queen City Jazz Company has received critical acclaim. She serves as Artistic Director of the company and develops new choreographic work for the company each season. In 2006 she founded QCJC II, the sister company to Queen City Jazz Company. This apprentice company features dancers from as many as six area studios and Mrs. Sullivan-Coyle develops choreography specifically for these elite and talented dancers each season. Her students have received scholarships to Carnegie Melon, Alvin Ailey, Gus Giordano Dance Center, Tremaine Dance Center, School of American Ballet, Point Park, Oklahoma City, and North Carolina School of the Arts to name a few. She currently has former students in the Broadway casts of “Wicked” and “Legally Blonde”.  In 2005 she took over her family’s studio when her mother, Fran Sullivan, retired. Her goal is to see the studio through several more generations of Sullivan dancers! She is a proud wife and mother of four and continues to find her deepest joy and passion in the classroom with her students watching them grow and deepen their love for the art of dance! 

Melissa Hale Coyle 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 18 years, Ms. Hale has lived in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband and two sons. Ms. Hale is on the faculty and the Artistic Director of the Ballet Program at Sullivan Dance Centre. She also is the Artistic Director of the Charlotte City Ballet Company, on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, teaches company classes for North Carolina Dance Theatre, on the faculty of American Ballet Intensives and is the choreographer for the Charlotte Philharmonic Orchestra. Ms. Hale has also been a guest choreographer for Carolina Voices, Atlanta Dance Theatre, The Dance Collective, South Carolina’s Governors Summer School, Ballet San Antonio and the Civic Ballet of Chicago. For many summers, Ms. Hale was on the teaching faculty of American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 2001, The North Carolina School of the Arts awarded Ms. Hale the “Best Dance Teacher of North Carolina”

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 where she later danced with the Atlanta Ballet. She has also danced with Ballet Rotaru touring Romania and performing at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. For three years, Ms. Leone danced as a soloist with Oregon Ballet Theatre before moving to Charlotte and dancing as a guest artist. In addition to being on the faculty at The Sullivan Dance Centre, she also is the Associate Artistic Director of the Charlotte City Ballet Company.

Sydney Farrell began her training in Lancaster, PA where she studied under Ina Theobald, a member of the famed Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. After moving to North Carolina in 1980 her teachers included Gay Porter, M’Liss Dorrance, Jennifer Potts, Claudia Folts, and Beverly Barwick. Mrs. Farrell has performed with the Charlotte Ballet, Chapel Hill Ballet,Louisville Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, and Charlotte City Ballet Company.

Sara Atkins has a Bachelor of Arts from the Univeristy 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 in formal concert settings with the 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 program at Sullivan Dance Centre. Sara has received the American Dance Awards Diamond Award for Choreography and top score recognition for her work with the Sullivan Youth Ensemble. Sara continues to perform and choreograph for the Queen City Jazz Company of which she has been a member since 2002.

Ali Crotts received her early training from Fran Sullivan in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she was a member of the Sullivan Youth Ensemble. She continued her training at the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Cecchetti Council of America Intensive and the North Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts. Mrs. Crotts went on to study classical ballet under Delia Neil at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has performed with the Whirlwind Jazz Company in Durham, North Carolina, the UNCC Dance Program as well as multiple liturgical presentations.  She received a BA in Business Administration from UNCC in 1995, at which time she began a nine-year career with Bank of America.  In 1998, Mrs. Crotts co-founded Moves of the Spirit, a liturgical dance company.  She choreographed extensively and served as co-director from 1998 – 2002.  She began teaching and choreographing classical ballet, jazz and lyrical styles in 1988. In addition to being on the faculty at Sullivan Dance Centre, Mrs. Crotts is also President of the Queen City Jazz Company Board of Directors and Owner of Persnickety Stationery & Stuff.

Morningstar Allen is a graduate of the Sullivan School.  During her time as a senior member of the Sullivan Youth Ensemble her performance credits included: Gus Giordano's Jazz Dance World Congress (Buffalo, NY, Monterey, Mexico) and Festival of North Carolina Dance.  Ms. Allen was an honored guest performer in Kenya, East Africa where she delighted young African audiences with her special style of lyrical dance. She has performed all over the world, through mission work, bringing the Western world of dance to underprivileged countries.  In 2005 Morning Star moved from apprentice status to full company member with the Queen City Jazz Company. She will also attend the University of North Carolina at Charlotte pursuing her degree. Her unique brand of Hip-Hop will excite and energize our young students!