Faculty Bios

Sara Bachman-Rhodes

Sara Bachman-Rhodes began dancing and making music as a young child. Thrilled so by the feeling of moving and being moved by music, she pursued playing the clarinet through college, studying music and music education at both Eastern and Western Washington Universities. There she studied clarinet under Eugene Zoro and Virgina Jones. Additionally, for eight years, she has been a student of the Education Through Movement program with Phyllis Weikart, focusing on bringing about learning through movement, reflection and brain development.

Her experience includes 20 years of private music instruction, several years of Summer Stock musical theater, clarinettist with the Spokane Symphony, four years teaching music and P.E. in the public schools, four years as a preschool teacher in both the public and private sector and 10 years of sharing music and movement with very young children.

Anneliese Childress

Anneliese began dancing at the age of seven under the direction of Christine Zeigler. After high school, she attended Cornish College of the Arts on scholarship and as part of Cornish Dance Theatre. Her professional debut came as a lead dancer and showgirl in Astroworld's two million dollar show "Here's Hollywood". Her feet are showcased in the opening credits of the movie "Footloose". She was a scholarship student to the Gus Giordano Dance School as well as an apprentice to the Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago dance company. Anneliese was included as an ensemble member of Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre Company's casts of Wizard of Oz and Singin' in the Rain. She has had the opportunity to study under such teachers as Flemming Halby, Frank Bays, Paul Sanasardo, Sara De Luis, Jim Kolb, Gus Giordano, Jeffrey Mildenstein, and Doug Caldwell.

Anneliese is not just a dancer; to her credit she has held leading performance roles in both straight theatrical productions as well as musical theatre shows. Anneliese has been seen as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's Macbeth, Elsa from the Sound of Music and Lola from Damn Yankees. She has been choreographing since she was 14 years old and has choreographed and/or directed over 35 musicals for various theatre groups and schools.

Anna Maria DeLuca

Ms. Deluca was trained in Russian/Vaganova technique with master teachers Delphine McDade, Ronn Tice, and Magali Messac. She studied dance and music education at Cornish College of the Arts and the University of Washington.

Ms. DeLuca danced with Ballet Bellevue, and Seahurst Ballet Company. She has choreographed for Hans Wolf, conductor Seattle Opera, Gilbert and Sullivan Society, as well as commissions for several dance companies in the Seattle area. She has also choreographed three full Nutcracker Productions for Eastside Dance Theater. Ms. DeLuca is a certified yoga instructor and a Pilates instructor.

Megan Fox

Ms. Fox began dancing at the age of 3 and has been performing ever since. Growing up, she danced competitively with the Elite School of Dance, Puyallup, Washington in ballet, tap, and jazz groups. Also, she competed in multiple tap solos receiving honors such as highs scoring solo and numerous judges' choice awards.

Currently, Ms. Fox is studying elementary education and theatre education at Central Washington University and has been a member of the Orchesis Dance Company there for two years. Ms. Fox choreographed tap dances for the Orchesis spring show.

Bev Ormbrek

Since age of five, Beverly has been dancing. She has trained in ballet, modern, African, jazz, Bartenieff fundamentals of movement and Pilates.

Her teaching career began at Central Washington University in Ellensburg Washington. She has taught and taken workshops throughout the Northwest and Colorado. Some of the teachers she has had the honor to work with have been Bill Evans, Anne Green-Gilbert, Murray Lewis, Barbara Lloyd-Dilley/Merce Cunningham, Rire-Woodbury Dance Company, and Joan Skinner. Recently, Beverly became a Stott certified Pilates instructor. She has since opened her own studio, Pilates From the Inside/Out. She continues to teach modern dance at Stage Door Dance Studio in downtown Ellensburg.

Chantell Ray

Love of dance, love of life. That has been Chantell Ray’s motto for years. Chantell started dancing at the age of 5 and hasn’t stopped since. Her dance training has included tap, jazz, and ballet, but her deepest loves are ballroom and modern dance. She always loved ballet until she was introduced to modern at 13 years old. Her passion and inner voice came out like in no other genre. For the next 5 years she had private lessons that encouraged a collaboration of self expression and choreography to enhance her love and skill in the art form.

As Chantell moved into the college years, she continued her exploration in modern and discovered ballroom dance. She loved the opportunity ballroom gave to socialize and connect with others. She joined and taught for the dance club Swingcats at CWU until her husband graduated. She and her husband have furthered their skills by taking workshops with world renown people such as Ron Montez, Catrine Ljunggren, and Frankie Manning.

Chantell was a member of CWU’s dance company, Orchesis, where she enhanced her own voice through choreography and performance. She graduated from CWU with a minor in dance.

As her family began and grew she found ways to keep dance alive by teaching workshops and choreographing dances for her church youth groups. She has enjoyed returning more to teaching and choreographing in the last 2 years when she moved back to Ellensburg. She is also currently teaching ballroom at CWU.

Through the years she continues her education and experience by participating in camps and workshops with figurative people and dance troupes in the dance community. The love of dance continues forward, always.