Karla Petit Palmersheim - Owner
Karla has been teaching, choreographing, coaching and promoting the art of dance since 1996. At the DanceXchange she teaches both recreational and competitive jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical, kick line, pom and hip hop. Karla is the founder and director of XPressions of Faith, a liturgical dance ensemble that promotes the use of contemporary Christian music and current dance styles (lyrical, jazz, hip hop, etc.) as worship. Karla has performed professionally with the Tobak Russian Dance Company, Third Rabbit Dance Ensemble and for J. Paul Mitchell Hair Systems. Additionally, she has performed with the national finalist University of Evansville Dance Team, the Exisdanz Open International Dance Team, the DanceXchange Adult Company, the Upper Room Dance Ensemble, A Call to Dance liturgical company and in MN PerformDance’s Christmas production, "All Wrapped Up." Karla has coached and choreographed for dance teams in Indiana, London and locally at Mayer Lutheran High School and South High School. She has also choreographed for productions with MN Perform Dance, Minnetonka High School, Ramsey International Fine Arts School, Christ the King Lutheran Church, Christ Presbyterian Church, City Hill Church and Hope Lutheran Church.
Karla's passion is being a catalyst for instructors and dancers across the Twin Cities. She finds great joy in seeing her vision for the DanceXchange come to life. There are few things more satisfying than creating and maintaining a safe and nurturing environment for dancers to hone their craft and share their talents with the world.
"I want to personally welcome you to the DanceXchange. My family and my staff are committed to providing a great dance studio experience for you and your dancer. We take the privilege of teaching your dancer very seriously. I have been in this industry for many years. I have seen what works and what doesn't work and bring that expertise to every aspect of our studio. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, my staff and I are here to listen. We know that you have many options when it comes to activities for your kids. Thank you for choosing the DanceXchange!"
Kyle Gerhart
Kyle Gerhart has been dancing since the age of 6, and is trained in tap, jazz, ballet, creative movement and modern dance. After majoring in elementary education at the College of Saint Benedict, she moved to the Twin Cities to participate in the local dance community. Kyle's passion is to share the joy of dancing with people of all ages and abilities. She has worked with dancers as young as 18 months and as old as 101. Currently, Kyle is working at the DanceXchange teaching both recreational and competition classes and teaching creative movement and modern at North Ballet Academy in Rogers. She has traveled to from Minnesota to New York City and even all the way to South Africa to study dance. Over the past few summers, Kyle has spent weeks training at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio and the Alvin Ailey Dance Studio in New York City. She is a trained Lester Horton Modern Technique instructor. She is very excited to be with the DanceXchange again and loves working here.
Nicole Knudsen
Over the last 23 years, Nicole's vast experience in studying the technical aspects of Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Musical Theater, Hip Hop, Pointe, and Contemporary dance have given her the expertise to compete and teach at the most advanced level. Nicole grew up dancing at Gayton's Dance Studio in Northgled Colorado. Studdying with Denver Nuggets choreographer and professional dancer Lisa Corbell and many other such as Robin & Jody Gayton. She has traveled nationwide to personally compete. She participated on the State Champion danceline Rosemount Irishettes. Lori Ledoux
Lori Ledoux grew up in Waconia and developed her passion for classical ballet and jazz under the direction of Sue Gunness. She later went on to receive her BA in Dance from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and her K-12 Dance License from Minnesota State University, Mankato. During college, she furthered her education in modern, jazz, ballet, tap, and dance history, which eventually lead here to her true calling, teaching. Lori currently teaches full time at Ramsey School, Performing Arts Magnet K-8 in south Minneapolis, where she gets to teach all K-4 dancers. She has been there for 3 years and loves getting students moving and grooving on a daily basis. She also thinks it's just amazing that dance can be integrated into public schools and that she gets to play and work with so many wonderful young artists. This is also her first year teaching ballet technique at the DanceXchange and she looks forward to getting to know all of the wonderful students. Lastly, Lori's other passion includes her two-year-old son Simon, who is the love of her life.
Christina Koskinen
Christina started dancing at the age of 10, studying tap, jazz, ballet, lyrical, pom-pon, kick line and musical theatre. She won many regional and national titles, and started as an assistant teacher at age 15, and was teaching on her own by age 16. She has danced for Carnival Cruise Lines, and both Disney Land and Disney World. During her senior year in high school, she performed in an NFL Superbowl pre-game show. The following year, she danced with American All Star Inc., where she was voted best dancer. From there, she was asked to audition to be a teacher and choreographer for American All Star Inc. Christina chosen from a field of 10,000 entrants to represent the state of Minnesota, and traveled the country teaching camps and workshops to dance studios, teams, high schools and colleges. She has assisted with choreographing the NFL pre-game/half time auditions, and has worked with artists such as Gloria Estefan, Michael Jackson and Garth Brooks. During her time with American All Star, she had the opportunity to audition for Disney, where she was chosen to be cast as Belle in "Beauty and the Beast." She was also chosen as a dancer for the 1992 Special Olympics opening ceremonies performing with Gerardo. Christina continued her dance education through workshops and conventions, volunteers for Special Olympics and currently hosts workshops and conventions. After being a dance mom at DanceXchange, she’s excited to be teaching again. As the director or TalentXchange Productions, she will continue to bring more choreographers to the studio, in addition to hosting annual talent shows for various charities.
Eryn Stennes
Eryn Stennes has been dancing since the ripe old age of two, studying ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, musical theater, and pointe. She teaches tap, ballet and creative movement to children ages 18 months and up at the DanceXchange. Eryn has performed with Morris Park Player, MN PerformDance Starettes, XPressions of Faith Liturgical Dance Company, John Paul Mitchell Hair Systems and the DanceXchange Adult Company. Eryn has always had a heart for dance and enjoys being able to share her passion with her students at the DanceXchange. Eryn has devoted nearly five years to the study of “The Art of Being a Princess” (care of her 4-year-old daughter), and almost 3 years of “Superhero Technique” (care of her two-year old-son). Her dedication to these studies has fully prepared her for the princesses and super heroes she faces this year at the DanceXchange.
Kevin Iverson
Kevin Iverson has been dancing professionally since his graduation from the St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists in 2008. Growing up in New Hope, he's dancing at Summit School of Dance, performed at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, the Southern and also the Ordway. He currently dances with Minnesota Dance Theatre, which will be performing at the Cowles Center in its inaugural season. Kevin teaches jazz, contemporary/lyrical, hip-hop and ballet and has been doing so at the DanceXchange for four years.
Deane Tasler
Deane’s first love is musical theatre, and he has appeared on the main stage at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres in "Anything Goes," Disney’s "Beauty and the Beast," as Bernardo in "West Side Story," "Singin’ in the Rain," "42nd Street" and "Swing." He also had the great pleasure of joining the Metropolitan Ballet’s productions of "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" and Agnes DeMille’s "Rodeo" at the Historic State Theatre. He continues in musical theatre as a choreographer/director for Ashland Productions and choreographer for Maple Grove Senior high, where his work has been recognized at the annual Spotlight Awards. Since he fell in love with tap, he’s had the pleasure of taking class with tap greats Yukiko Misumi, Grant Swift, Jimmie Payne, Jr., Mark Yonally, Chloe Arnold, Jason Samuels Smith, Randy Skinner, Everett Smith, Derick Grant and Jay Fagan. In 2009, Deane won the Junior Division Choreography Award at International Dance Challenge in Minneapolis; and in 2011, the Teen Division Choreography Award at Bravo. He looks forward to sharing his love of tap dancing with the DanceXchange this year!
Regan Kellet Saunders
Regan began dancing at home to the accompaniment of her sister’s piano playing. It wasn’t until she was a sophomore in high school that her mom enrolled her in studio classes. She started taking classes at the DanceXchange in 2003 and continued taking adult competition classes here until 2008. Throughout her dance career, Regan has performed with Dances, Chances, Circumstances; the Zenon Scholarship Program; Dragons Dance Team and Minnesota PerformDance Productions. She coached the Minneapolis South High Dance Team for five years and was the Director of the Starettes for two years. She is extremely excited to be back at the DanceXchange – this time as a teacher.
“I really enjoy pushing people to be the best that they can be. I can' wait to see how far these dancers excel!”
Laura Mitchell
Laura Mitchell graduated from Luther College with a major in Dance and Psychobiology. She has studied dance in the Midwest with Bonnie Mathis, Lise Houlton and Barbara Mahler in New York City with David Parsons, Douglas Dunn and Susan Klein and in San Francisco with Joe Goode. She is the Artistic Director and Founder of Mitchell Performance Group (MPG). Her award-winning choreography has been seen at the Walker Art Center, Intermedia Arts, Zenon Dance Company's Block E group and various other companies. She is often a guest artist at schools/studios and enjoys setting pieces on pre-professional dancers. For the past 18 years, Laura has enjoyed teaching and choreographing Ballet and Modern dance to young dancers and see their dreams come true. She is happy to be a part of the innovative and nurturing staff at DanceXchange and excited to see what the dancers will achieve in the next coming year!
Laura Reed
Laura Reed grew up dancing for Betty Hill Dance Studios in West Des Moines, and knew from an early age she wanted dance to be a part of her life forever. She took all styles of dance including tap, classical ballet, jazz, lyrical and competed with the studio. To this day, the owner and director, Debbie Westphal, is still one of Laura’s greatest mentors and inspirations. Laura was also a synchronized swimmer in high school and danced on the Varsity dance team.
Laura moved to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota and cheered for the Minnesota Vikings for six seasons. During her sixth year on the team, she was honored to be selected as the 2008 Pro Bowl Cheerleader. Some memorable moments in Laura's Vikings career are performing with the Beach Boys for the troops in Germany and at Walter Reed in Washington, DC. After retiring from the Vikings, she danced with the Minnesota Swarm Performance Team for the 2010 season. Laura continues to be involved through teaching audition prep classes for the Minnesota Vikings each spring and serves as the VP of Communications on the MVC Alumni Board.
Laura has a BA in Communications Studies from the University of Minnesota, and works at The Line Up as an Account Coordinator. Laura feels blessed that she was given so many opportunities through dance and wants to thank her parents for encouraging and supporting her love and growth in the art form! She resides in Shakopee with her amazing husband, Nathan, and two dogs and two cats.
Mette Brink
Mette Brink started her love of dancing at age two and grew up training in jazz, lyrical, tap, ballet, pointe, kick and musical theater. Mette went of to St. Norbert College in Green Bay, where she danced and choreographed for the school dance team. She moved back to the Twin Cities a year later to attend the University of St. Thomas, where she is currently getting her degree in Psychology and Child Development. Mette co-coaches the Holy Family Dance team, and has choreographed several routines for the University of St. Thomas Dance Club. Her dance teaching career started seven years ago, and she is entering her second year teaching at the DanceXchange.
In the summer of 2010, Mette worked as an instructor for National Dance Alliance (NDA) where she traveled and taught at high school dance team camps. For the past three years, Mette has been dancing for Exisdanz International Open Jazz, Hip Hop, and Pom teams, which qualified and competed at WORLDS in Orlando, and won the World championship title in Hip Hop. Mette is inspired everyday by her dancers at the DanceXchange to continue her growth in the dance world and cannot wait for another amazing year at the studio!
Nicole Coehlo
Bio coming soon
Katie Stoltman
Bio coming soon
Darcy Loeb
Bio coming soon
Ariel & Elsa
Bios coming soon
Guest teachers: