RACHEL HOLMAN

RACHEL HOLMAN is a passionate dance educator with her MFA in Choreography and Performance in Dance from the University of Arizona. She also received her BS degree in Dance and Health Education from Southern Utah University where she returned as an adjunct faculty member to teach advanced modern and jazz dance. Her choreography was selected to perform most recently for the Tucson Museum of Art Grasslands Art Exhibit, University of Arizona True Places Concert, Southern Utah University Elevated Movements Concert, Southern Utah’s Red Rock Dance Festival, and Dixie State University Sear Art Gallery.  She also has an extensive musical theatre and dance performance background including lead understudy and dancer in the National Broadway Tour of the musical Footloose and Cassie in A Chorus Line. She currently teaches master classes in the community and serves as a guest artist and judge at festivals and competitions. Rachel is the Assistant Artistic Director and principal dancer for the St. George Dance Company.

KATHERINE RANE

KATHERINE RANE trained at the Academy of Nevada Ballet Theatre and Ballet Arts of Southern Utah as well as attending Walnut Hill School in Boston, Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle and the Houston Ballet Academy summer intensive programs. During High School she enjoyed all kinds of dance and competed in many drill team competitions, winning local, national and international solo competitions. While attending Brigham Young University on full academic and dance scholarships, Katherine performed all four years as a principal dancer with the BYU ballet companies. She graduated Cum Laude with her B.A. in Dance: Ballet Emphasis as Valedictorian of the Dance Department. After college, Katherine danced professionally as a principal artist with Utah Regional Ballet for three seasons. She performed such roles as the Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy in Jacqueline Colledge’s The Nutcracker and a lead in Alan Hineline’s contemporary ballet Resolute.  She then joined Saint Paul City Ballet and danced for three seasons as a soloist in the Twin Cities area. She is happy to be back in St. George with her husband and three active children and is excited to be working with SGDC.

SHELLIE THOMAS

Shellie Thomas grew up training with The Sacramento Ballet, Utah Metropolitan Ballet, and Odyssey Dance Theatre. She attended Brigham Young University as an MDT major while performing on BYU's Ballet Showcase Company. In 2010, Shellie performed in Tuacahn's summer season of Tarzan and Cats. Over the last ten years, you may have seen her performing and/or choreographing for The Stage Door, St. George Musical Theatre, and Hurricane Valley Theatrical Company. She currently teaches dance at Vista School for Arts and Technology and loves performing with the St. George Dance Company while being a wife and mother-of-four! 

WENDY SMITH

WENDY SMITH has almost 30 years of dance experience and has been teaching and choreographing for 15 years. She has performed with and choreographed for Dixie State College Dance Company, Weber State University’s Orchesis Dance Theater, Eminence Dance Co., God’s Messengers Dance Co., and St. George Dance Company. She was co-director of Eminence Dance Co. and God’s Messengers Dance Company for nine years and Studio Director of Premier Dance Center in St. George. She has been the recipient of many collegiate dance scholarships including the Celebrity Concert Series Performing Arts Scholarship and Dance Sterling Scholar Award at DSC and Dance department talent scholarships at DSC and WSU. Wendi loves to continue her own dance education and has completed a comprehensive independent study course covering Vaganova classical ballet technique and Balanchine methodology. She is currently a senior Dance Major at Dixie State University. Wendi is the Office Manager and ballet and pointe instructor at ALIGHT Dance Academy. She and her husband have three boys whom they love enjoying the simple pleasures of life with. 

ABE HEGEWALD

ABE HEGEWALD is very grateful to have found a place where he can express himself through the medium of dance.  Abe came to St George from NYC almost 2 years ago to perform in Tuacahn’s 2017 season of Shrek, Newsies, and Mamma Mia.  Having served part of his mission here, St George has always held a special place in Abe’s heart and he decided to make it his home at the end of that fateful season at Tuacahn.  Since making that decision, Abe has performed locally in Guys and Dolls, Young Frankenstein, and Chicago. He also was privileged to dance the role of Joseph in On Stage’s Christmas presentation of the nativity story told through dance. A proud BYU graduate from the Music Dance Theater program, he was a member of the Contemporary Dance Theater and the Young Ambassadors during his time at BYU.

ANDRIELLE DAVIDSON

ANDRIELLE DAVIDSON was raised in St. George, and has always been passionate about ballet. In her teen years she grew a love for choreographing and producing. At the age of 17 she produced the first - very small - edition of a Nativity Ballet on a chapel stage. Andrielle studies Ballet and Folk dance at BYU and performed with a folk dance team and choreographed with the Ballet Showcase Company. In 2018, she went on tour with the Sino-American Creative Performance Exchange to Shanghai and Beijing as a performer, choreographer and acting director. Seeing her work on an international stage inspired her to pursue more creative projects. Later that year, she and her mother, Lisa Clements, worked together to produce the second edition of Hope of the World, a Dance Nativity Concert and hope to bring it to the stage every year. She studied massage therapy and now specializes in massage for dancers. Andrielle has been enjoying the last few seasons with St George Dance Company while teaching dance to the rising generation of artists.

SARAH REYNOLDS

SARAH REYNOLDS studied ballet for twelve years, including being a member of Cache Valley Civic Ballet and then graduated with a BA in Modern Dance from University of Utah. She received the Teaching Award from the University of Utah in 2011. She has taught ballet and contemporary dance for Power Plus Studios in Taylorsville, Utah and for Midland Festival Ballet in Midland, Texas. This is her first season with St. George Dance Company.

RACHEL BLACKFORD

RACHEL BLACKFORD is a Utah native who recently completed her modern dance training with an emphasis in education at Utah Valley University, where she excelled as a performer, choreographer, educator, and dance scholar. In her time at UVU she acted as a director’s assistant in her third year on Synergy Dance Company, worked as a dancer with RDT on their 2019 re-staging of Doris Humphrey’s work Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, and has set several works on UVU’s Synergy Dance Company, and Contemporary Dance Ensemble. Her works Exodus et. Catherine Brown and Cries Made Inchoate were selected for adjudication at the Northwestern regional ACDA conferences in 2018 and 2020, and her more recent work was also commissioned to be restaged on UVU’s CDE for their 2020 spring show. Upon graduating Rachel received the dance education award of merit, and was recognized as the overall outstanding student for UVU’s department of dance. She is currently an assistant director for the dance companies at both Crimson Cliffs and Desert Hills high schools, and has enjoyed the opportunity to mentor young dance artists in her community. She recently joined St. George Dance Company for their 2020 season, and is eager to get back into the studio with her fellow company members to continue exploring her dance artistry as a mover, educator, and choreographer.