ARTIST BIO
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Shanna VanDerwerker is an educator and choreographer in Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Point Park University. Her most recent choreography credits include Sunset Blvd at Porchlight Music Theater and Spamalot at Mercury Theater Chicago. Shanna received a Jeff Nomination for her choreography on Lysistrata Jones for Refuge Theater Project and has also been the Associate Choreographer for Pippin at Venus Cabaret Space, Matilda and Joseph at Drury Lane in Oakbrook. Other choreography credits: Can Can for Porchlight Music Theatre, multiple shows at The Fireside Theatre in Fort Atkinson, WI, favorites include Singin’ In The Rain, Newsies, 42nd St. and most recently Saturday Night Fever. Shanna was Christopher Gattelli’s associate for over 10 years, working on shows Amazing Grace and High Fidelity on Broadway, and Silence! The Musical at the NY Fringe Festival.
In 2019 Shanna was named an Inaugural Honoree of the Rachel Rockwell Foundation’s Fierce Women Behind the Table by Porchlight Music Theater. As a performer and member of Actors Equity Association, credits include: Broadway company of Wicked, Beauty and the Beast (Drury Lane Oakbrook), Kiss Me, Kate (TUTS Houston), dre.dance company (NYC), and Kids of the Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
After over four years as the Dance Captain of the First National Tour of Wicked, Shanna relocated to Chicago where she is on faculty at Dovetail Studios, CCPA of Roosevelt University and Columbia College Chicago. She also choreographs and teaches workshops for studios across the country. shannavdance.com​
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CLASS DESCRIPTION
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A Broadway style musical theater jazz class with a technique based jazz warmup focusing on building strength and stability. Combinations focus on a range of styles representing what can be found in theater today with a strong emphasis on story telling. We combine the technique we build in the warm up with acting and musicality to connect to the story. But most of all, we celebrate the joy dancing gives us as the ultimate way to communicate.
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