Staff

Kari Kohls-Bruch

Kari Kohls-Bruch has studied & received her training throughout the United States. She currently owns her own studio & is the director/choreographer of the Starfire Dance Company. Kari has performed & choreographed for a large variety of shows in her career. Disney World, Six Flags, Disneyland of Paris, Boatmen's Bank, Tanzsommer Festival, Dolly Madison, JC Penney & Maurice's are but a few of the companies that Kari has worked with.

Kari has conducted classes on the convention circuit for Dance Olympus, Dance Caravan, PDTA & Starlight. She spends much of her time choreographing competitive material & teaching master classes for students all over the United States.

Melissa Gorman Shockley

Melissa Gorman Shockley has danced in numerous ballets as a principal dancer with the Gateway Ballet of St. Louis. She has studied and trained with such greats as Bruce Marks, David Palmer, Joe Giacobbe,and Gregory Huffman. Her dancers have won many scholarships to professional schools and programs and have performed on cruise ships, Las Vegas shows, commercials and industrials.
She owns and operates Techniques Ballet and Pilates Studio and Techniques Shockwave Competition Line. Two years ago she started Maximum Pulse Dance Company to educate and inform others about heart disease,working in association with the American Heart Association.
Melissa enjoys teaching, choreography, giving back to her community and being involved with her 2 children Trevor and Tylar.

Barry Youngblood

Barry  has worked with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Jordan Knight, Christina Aguilera, Plus One,  Pink,  Brian Mcknight and J.Lo (Jennifer Lopez). He has choreographed industrials for Sega Dreamcast, Nike, Reebok, NAMCO, AND Skechers.  His television credits include MTV Awards,  VH1 Awards, Miss America Pagent with Donnie Osmond, The Today Show, Regis and Kelly, The Young and The Restless, The Dove Awards, Nikki Cox Show, J.Lo NBC Special, and the Soul Train Music Awards with Busta Rhymes, and P. Diddy. He also performed for the Queen of England and with Kid Rock, Ja Rule AND J.Lo for the USO Show in Ramkin, Germany for the troops.  Barry has choreographed music video's for such artist as Rachael Lampa, Brian McKnight and Nelly.  He was a featured dancer in the movie "Bringing Down the Houze" with Steve Martin and Queen Latifa. You can also see his choreography on the UDA Div 1 national hip hop champions Hofstra University, USA national champs Idaho State University and the 3 time nationals UDA Div 1A hip hop champions Cincinnati Bearcats.

Katie Schaar

Katie Schaar is a recent graduate of Loyola Marymount University where she earned a BA in Communications Studies with a minor in Dance.  She is a member of Gregg Russell’s tap company Tapsounds Underground and has also worked with the L.A. based contemporary company Ledges and Bones Dance Project.  On top of traveling around the country teaching master classes, other credits include performing with Jessica Simpson, Creed, and Richard Simmons!  Katie was seen on Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” as assistant choreographer to Tyce Diorio.  She has also appeared in Disney’s “Holiday Spectacular” at the El Capitan theater in Hollywood, and was recently featured in a pilot for CBS titled “Life as a Song”.

Brandon Swaney

Biography coming soon!