Paola Jenkins
Founder and Creative Director
Paola has been teaching
and inspiring Peachtree City's youth for over 15 years. She began her dance training at Hutchinson’s Dance
Academy, present day Festival Ballet Company. She continued her training at Georgia
State University, Graduating Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Dance Education in December of 1998. She has performed throughout her training with GSU’s “Movement Force” as well as professionally
with “Zoetic Dance Ensemble” and most recently with Atlanta based “Gathering Wild”. Paola has had the great pleasure of being instructed and trained by wonderful teachers from Philadanco,
Alvin-Ailey, Avila/Weeks, Garth Fagan, and The Joffrey and Atlanta Ballets. Paola
continues her training in order to keep her soul and mind fresh with the philosophy that we will always be students of life.
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Kathleen "Katy" Morgan, Artistic Director of Ballet
Katy grew up in Fayetteville. She has danced on full scholarship and taught at the Joffrey Ballet School in New
York City. She also danced with the Boston and Houston Ballets on Scholarship. She has studied and performed professionally with Ruth Mitchell Dance Company in Atlanta. She performs with the Griffin Ballet Theatre where she has danced in The Nutcracker,
Graduation Ball, Cinderella, Coppelia and most recently Firebird. She
has been with Griffin Ballet Theatre for five years, where she also works as a teacher/choreographer.
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Kara comes to us from
Boston, Massachusetts where she began her training. She moved to Atlanta and continued
dancing, singing and acting. Kara has been dancing for over 20 years and has won numerous dance titles, including
Regional Grand Champion and several other awards for both performance and choreography in tap. Kara has also
enjoyed performing in theatrical productions such as West Side Story (Graziella) and The Sound of Music (Marta).
She has performed alongside such greats as Savion Glover, Jennifer Millman, Tina Turner and Gloria Estefan. Kara
currently works at several metro Atlanta dance studios and is extremely active performer and choreographer. Kara received
her Bachelor of Excercise Science from Georgia State University in December 2002. She looks forward to many
more years of entertaining the masses.
Delia McDaniel was the owner and director of The Dance Center in Fort Walton Beach, Florida for 15 years. Her
students have won ballet scholarships to the Joffrey School in New York, North Carolina School of the Arts, Virginia School of the Arts and many
others. Delia's early training began with Chris Corey of the Southern Ballet, The Ruth Mitchell Dance Company, and the
Atlanta Ballet. She has performed and taught jazz with the Northwest Florida Ballet, choreographed for Junior Miss Pageants,
television commercials, high school national dance teams and competitive gymnasts. Throughout her career she has devoted
summer studies to studying with ballet and jazz masters in New York including David Howard and Gus
Giordano of Chicago.
Peter Swan began his training under Nicolas Pacana (former principal, Boston
Ballet and Atlanta Ballet) at Atlanta Festival Ballet. He was quickly promoted and danced many principal roles with the company.
After a short stint in Charleston,
S.C., Peter returned to Atlanta in 2003. He is a principal dancer with Ruth Mitchell Dance Theatre, Gainesville Ballet Company,
and a resident-guest-artist with Southeast Alabama Dance Company. Highly sought
after as a guest artist, Peter has performed throughout the Southeast with numerous companies and college programs. He serves as ballet master for Troy School of Dance in Troy, Alabama,
and is on the faculty at Gainesville Ballet Company. He has taught master classes
and summer intensives at companies and schools all over the Southeast, including The University of Georgia and Jacksonville
University.
Stacey Gardner began dancing at the age of eleven. She trained
at Dance Contempra and performed as Evolving Pointe Company Member
while studying with the school. Stacey became an alumni of the program this past spring when she graduated from Mc Intosh
Highschool in Peachtree City
and D.C's dance program. Throughout her training from she has taken class from master instructors Armando
Luna, Pamela Bolling, Karen Herbert, Peter Poulas, and Kristen Dixon. Stacey was accepted in Belmont Universities
Dance Program and Kennesaw State University and is excited to be joining
the Dance Contempra faculty
this year.
Ashley is a Dance
Contempra alumnus and former Evolving Pointe Senior Company member. She started her dance training at the age of 3 and has
studied ballet and pointe, tap, modern, jazz, and hip-hop. In addition, she has been accepted to and participated in summer
intensives at Joffrey Ballet and Pensacola Junior College. Ashley attended Southern Union State Community College on a full
dance scholarship where she performed and choreographed. From there, she continued to dance as she worked for her Bachelor’s
Degree at the University of Alabama. Ashley has taught during Dance Contempra's Summer Intensives and is now a full faculty
member.
Employment Opportunities Available
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