Stacey has a BA in Dance from Point Park University, which is one of the top ranked performing arts programs in the country. While at Point Park, she studied everything from classical ballet to hip hop to Broadway jazz. Upon graduation, she taught for various local schools and recreational programs until September of 2004, when her live long dream of opening Spotlight Dance Studio became a reality.

 

Emily West

 Faculty

 

 

Emily has been dancing since age 6 and began her training with Stacey Kabasinski at the age of 12. Upon Spotlight’s opening in 2004, she was a member of the first Spotlight Jazz Team and a classroom assistant. Emily graduated in 2010 from Allegheny College with a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Dance and Movement Studies. While in college, she taught jazz and tap at Studio 83 in Meadville, PA and interned at the ARC working with special needs students with dance and movement. Emily was a member of the Allegheny Dance Team and choreographed for three years in the student-run annual performance of Orchesis Dance Company. She also organized Allegheny’s first all ballroom concert, an Evening of Ballroom Dance. She has studied jazz, ballet, pointe, hip hop, tap, musical theatre, lyrical, contemporary, and ballroom dance. Emily has attended the Music Works Dance Teacher Connection conventions and has studied with master teachers such as Joe Tremaine, Roni Mahler and Joe Lanteri.

 

 

Ellen Koeppel

 Faculty

 

 

Ellen was born in Buffalo NY and began her dance training with The Royal Academy of Ballet under the direction of Beth Waddell and continued her dance training at Mercyhurst University. Her performance experience includes three seasons with the Greater Buffalo Youth Ballet where she performed roles in Firebird, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. She has also appeared with Lake Erie Ballets The Nutcracker, The Mercyhurst Dancers and Liturgical Dance Ensemble. Being passionate about serving her community, Ellen has volunteered numerous hours as a movement therapy instructor working with disadvantaged teenage girls and the Parkinson’s Partners of Northwest Pennsylvania. In addition she has been invited to teach at the Royal Academy of Ballet’s summer intensive for the past three summers as well as choreographing for the final workshop performance. Ellen graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in dance with minors in art therapy and psychology from Mercyhurst University. She is excited for her third season teaching with Spotlight Studio and aspires to attend graduate school for clinical counseling with emphasis on mental illness and addiction.

 

 

 

Carissa has been with the Spotlight family for four years and has loved every minute of it! She has been dancing since she was 4 and has been teaching dance for 8 years. Outside the dance studio she is a Middle School English teacher in Fort LeBoeuf. She has two kids and she likes to swim, ride 4-wheelers, doodle, do crafts, kayak, read, go to the beach, and do anything outside.

 

Mackenzie Link

Faculty

 

 

Mackenzie is proud to be a contributing artist at Spotlight where she began her dance training under Stacey at the age of 12. Mack has been choreographing since her senior year in high school after attending several conventions such as Rhee Gold’s Dance Life Teacher Conference, The Pulse 14^th Annual Teacher Workshop, and many more. Mack is honored to work with the classroom assistants every year along with the Junior Company. Additionally she has created 3 dance videos to showcase the meaning of dance here at Spotlight.  Mack currently resides in Pittsburgh, PA where she is studying business at Point Park University and is a member of the company Exhalations Dance Theatre.