Marie Chong

Artistic Director, Choreographer, and Educator

Marie Chong spent over ten years dancing and performing professionally with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Spectrum Dance Theater, Atlanta Ballet II, and Eugene Ballet. Since retiring from performing in 1995, Ms. Chong has been an active member of the NW dance community. She has served on the faculty of the University of Washington, Cornish College of the Arts, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, Eugene Ballet School, Blue Heron/Vashon Allied Arts, Spectrum Dance/Madrona Dance Studio, and many other schools in the area. She is a sought after Dance Educator and Coach, teaching and coaching for professional companies, schools, competitions (YAGP), and dancers around the world.

Ms. Chong is a rehearsal director, movement specialist, and coach. In addition to directing and teaching in her own dance school, she works with elite athletes, musicians, actors, and dancers to design individually tailored performance improvements. She has certification in Pilates, Gyrotonic®, Gyrokinesis®, and is safety certified through USA Gymnastics and US Figure Skating. She is a Certified Teacher with American Ballet Theater® , who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training in Primary through Level 5 of the American Ballet Theater® National Training Curriculum. And was a Teaching Artist for Disney Theatrical Group.

In 1999 Ms. Chong founded ARC Dance Productions, a professional non-profit 501(c)(3) company. ARC Dance Productions maintains and supports a 9,000 square foot facility in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. ARC presents dance education programs, performances, and a resident professional dance company (ARC Dance Company). Since 1999, under the artistic direction of Marie Chong, ARC has produced performances seen by over 50,000 people in standard theater venues with seating capacities of 300 to 2500. The professional ARC Dance Company, presents a regular performance season at the Bagley Wright/Leo K Theatre at the Seattle Center along with ARC Youth Dance Company, the performing company of the School.

Ms. Chong continues to choreograph and direct for ARC Dance and other professional dance companies, as well as Cirque du Soleil and Disney Theatrical Group. From 2019 – 2022 she was bicoastal working between Seattle and New York as Rehearsal Director for Dance Theatre of Harlem.

She is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, National Dance Education Organization, Dance Educators Association of Washington, US Figure Skating and USA Gymnastics.

In 2004 the ARC School opened its doors. The school is a training ground for dancers of all levels and ages, including those aspiring to a professional career. The School offers four coordinated programs to meet students’ varying interests and commitment levels. The syllabus and curriculum created by Ms. Chong focus on elements of both classical and contemporary ballet technique and are complimented by other dance forms and fitness exercise such as Modern, Jazz,  Body Movement Works, Pilates, Gyrotonic®, and Gyrokinesis®.

Susan Fuller

Ballet and Alternative Techniques

Susan Fuller began dancing in Tacoma, WA and has performed with BalleTacoma, The Dance Studio, Washington State University, and Eugene Ballet. She is a Licensed Massage Practitioner and certified GYROTONIC® trainer. She has been on the ARC faculty since 2007.

Courtney Larano

Ballet and Alternative Techniques – Tap & Jazz

Courtney Laraňo was born and raised in Seattle, WA. She began dancing at Kathy’s Studio of Dance training in various forms of dance including ballet, tap, jazz, theater, modern, contemporary, and ballroom. She continued her formal training at Arc School of Ballet and after graduation she pursued her higher education in New York at NYU where she continued to dance and compete with the NYU Ballroom Dance team throughout the East Coast. She continues to pursue her Masters in Kinesiology and Exercise Physiology from San Jose State University California and has worked in public health and grant administration, helping to bring evidence based fall prevention programs to the older adult community. She joins the school faculty fall 2021.

Melissa Meng

Ballet

Melissa Meng is from Vestal, NY.  She began her dance training with Rafael Grigorian at the Rafael Grigorian School of Classical Ballet. She has performed professionally with Colorado Ballet and Avant Chamber Ballet. She has a BS in Ballet from Indiana University and joins the School faculty fall 2021.

Emma Ruhl

Jazz and Alternative Techniques – Musical Theater & Tap

Emma Ruhl is a local Actor, Dancer, and Choreographer, who loves to perform and teach, taking every opportunity to share her love of dance and theatre with others.  She started dancing at 3 years old and has studied a wide range of dance styles including Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Tap, Contemporary, Lyrical, Swing, and Hip Hop.  By the age of 8 she had been introduced to the world of Musical Theater where she had the opportunity to embrace her love of dance, theater and singing in one art form. She is a graduate of the University of Washington’s Dance Program. She joined the ARC faculty in 2014.

Margie Teman

Musician – Live Piano

Margie Teman grew up in a house filled with music in Spokane, WA. She followed in her mother’s footsteps as a church pianist and played for her first ballet class while studying piano performance at Cottey College. After moving to the Seattle area, she worked at SAFECO Life as a senior programmer analyst for 25 years while continuing to play for classes in studios throughout the area. This included Highland Dance Academy, where Margie’s two daughters danced for many years, as well as ARC Dance and Arc School of Ballet, Spectrum Dance, Evergreen City Ballet, The Children’s Dance Conservatory, Issaquah Dance Theater, Ballet Bellevue, and Cornish College of the Arts. She is a ARC Angel instrumental in maintaining ARC’s continued importance in the community since 2002.

GUEST & VISITING FACULTY

Marika Brussel

Ballet and Choreography

Marika Brussel is a contemporary choreographer working in the ballet genre. Informed by her background as a fiction writer, she utilizes storytelling in her dance-making. Her work strives to show our inter-connectedness and equity as humans, from country to country, class by class, and generation to generation, while pushing the boundaries of Classical Ballet. She has been teaching and choreographing for over 20 years and currently teaches at ODC Commons in San Francisco, CA. 2018 marks her first Summer teaching at ARC.

Alice Cao

Ballet

Alice Cao is a Seattle native and trained on scholarship at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School, after being selected for their DanceChance outreach program. She has performed professionally with American Repertory Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Oakland Ballet, Company C Contemporary Ballet, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, House of Verlaine, and ARC Dance Company. She has a BS in Computing and Software Systems from the University of Washington. She joined the School Faculty in 2019.

Cody Justice

Ballet

Cody Justice is originally from Boise, ID where she began dancing at Capital City Youth Ballet training under Sarah Phipps- Arnold and Joanne Michaels. She continued her training with Maria Vegh, Ballet Idaho, Idaho Dance Arts Alliance, Ballet West, and Arc School of Ballet in the pre-professional Mentor/Apprentice program where she was the recipient of the Julia Harig Scholarship. She has performed professionally with ARC Dance, Ballet Idaho, and All American Ballet Company. She joins the school faculty Fall 2021.

Carla Korbes

Ballet

Carla Körbes was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and began her ballet training at age five with local teacher. At age eleven, she began studying at Ballet Vera Bublitz. In 1996, Peter Boal danced with her as a guest artist of the school and encouraged her to come to New York to study at School of American Ballet. In 1999 she was made an apprentice with New York City Ballet and joined the company as a member of the corps de ballet in 2000. She was promoted to soloist in 2005 and later that year joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as a soloist. She was promoted to principal dancer in 2006. She is currently professor of music in ballet at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Aaron Loux

Alternative techniques – Modern and Choreography

Aaron Loux grew up in Seattle, Washington and began dancing at the Creative Dance Center as a member of Kaleidoscope, a youth modern dance company. He began his classical training at the Cornish College Preparatory Dance Program with Marie Chong and received his B.F.A. from The Juilliard School in 2009. He danced at the Metropolitan Opera and with ARC Dance Company before joining Mark Morris Dance Group in 2010. Loux retired from the Mark Morris Dance Group in 2022.

Erricka Turner

Ballet and Alternative Techniques – Jazz, Modern, and Musical Theater

Erricka Turner performed professionally with Spectrum Dance Theater, The 5^th Ave Theatre, Oakland Ballet, The Intiman, The Moore Theater, Village Theater, Sankofa Theater, and the Seattle Opera. She received her BFA in Ballet Education with Honors from University of The Arts, Philadelphia, PA, and her MFA in Dance from University of Washington. She has choreographed, taught, and lectured at Broadway Performing Arts Center, Harlequin Theatre, Spectrum Dance Theater, Ballet Bellevue, Evergreen State College, Northwest Dance Intensive, UW Dance Series, ARC Dance, Rainier Dance Center, Northwest Tap Connection, and other companies throughout the Pacific Northwest. She joined the faculty of ARC in 2013.

Audrey Warn

Ballet and Alternative techniques – Jazz

Audrey Warn is from Seattle, Washington and was a student at Arc School of Ballet from 2004-2013. She has performed with Arc School of Ballet and Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society. In 2022, she graduated from the University of Washington with a BS in physics and astronomy. Aside from dance, her other interests include Savate, hiking, acting, and puns. She joined the faculty in Fall of 2016 after being a teaching assistant from 2012-2013 at ARC.