KATIE KINYON founded Performing Arts Limited in 2000.  She holds a BFA in Musical Theatre and Dance from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point.  Katie has had vast experience as both a performer and dance educator for the past 18years.  She has participated in many local dance festivals and performances both as a performer and choreographer.  She has choreographed musicals such as Mary Poppins, Anne of Green Gables, and The Sound of Music for the Chicago Women Charity Players, and her work as been shown as part of Dance Chicago.  Katie is very active in the community, providing dance programs at various North Shore schools such as Decatur Classical, Stone Academy, and St. Margaret Mary.  Katie’s students have achieved roles in "The American Girl Revue," commercials for the Illinois Board of Tourism, performed at Great America and are represented by such talent agencies as Shirley Hamilton and Ford Modeling. Katie has also started a performing company as part of Performing Arts Limited that produces such shows as The Nutcracker.  This year will mark its second anniversary.

Dance

SHAWN RENEE LENT holds a Masters degree in Arts Management with a concentration in Arts in Youth and Community Development from Columbia College Chicago, as well as her BFA in theatre and dance from Millikin University.  Shawn is the full-time Arts Integration Program Specialist at Columbia College.  Presently a member of the Open House Dance Collective, her choreography has been shown at many local festivals.  From 2001-2003, she worked in London, England as a dance critic and youth worker.  In addition, Shawn has the unique honor of being selected as a member of the Transatlantic Network 2020.

KRISTINA KASPER is from the Chicagoland area where she discovered her love of dance and rhythm. After years of traditional dance training, she furthered her education by receiving a Bachelor’s of Art in dance from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. While pursuing her degree, Kristina performed in several dance and theatre productions, was awarded the Festival of the Arts scholarship and was nominated for the Chancellor's Excellence in Leadership award. Her choreography has been adjudicated at the American College Dance Festival and produced in concert venues including Open House Dance Collective in Chicago.  She was an intern with the American Dance Festival at Duke University in 2004. Currently, Kristina is a dance educator, choreographer and a company member with Jump Rhythm Jazz Project. She received a 2006-2007 Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Achievement for Individual Excellence On Camera/Performer for the JRJP’s work in the multiple-Emmy-Award-winning documentary Jump Rhythm Jazz Project: Getting There, produced by HMS Media for public television.  Kristina is truly delighted to be starting her fourth year at Performing Arts Limited.

PETER HAMMER holds a B.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography from Hope College.  He has received the Mary Van Tamelen Prize for Creativity in the Arts and the Florence Cavanaugh Dance Award.  Peter teaches ballet, tap, modern, and jazz around the greater Chicago land area, and is returning for his second year at PAL.  At Performing Arts Limited, Peter teaches the special class Just for Boys.   In addition to providing inspiration to the dance students around him, Peter is a performing apprentice with the Emmy-Award winning Jump Rhythm Jazz Project.  Peter looks forward to co–teaching the tap program at Decatur Classical School.

MEGAN REISENWEBER graduated from the University of Missouri – Kansas City in 2006 with a BFA in Dance Performance.  While performing is a big part of dancing, teaching is where her heart is.  She has been teaching for 10 years, starting in South Dakota where she grew up, in Kansas City where she went to college, and now in Chicago.  She has taught ages 2 through adult in many different styles including, tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, modern and lyrical.  Since moving to Chicago, she has worked with Rebound Dance Company, Matter Dance Company and looks forward to dancing with many more while she teaches at Performing Arts Limited.

REBECCA SCHRAMM graduated from Northeastern Illinois University where she was a dance scholarship student.  Recently receiving her master's degree in education, she continues to be very active in the arts.  Rebecca has appeared in area dance festivals such as Around the Coyote and Dance Chicago and appeared as the soldier doll in Performing Arts Limited’s The Nutcracker.  In addition to returning for her sixth year at PAL, Rebecca teaches fifth grade at Armstrong Elementary School.

MEGAN RHYME is originally from Green Bay, Wisconsin.  In 2006 she graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in dance.  She has since studied with teachers such as Molly Shanahan and danced with artists such as Khecari Dance Theater, Janet Schmid, and Nicole Gifford Dance.  Megan teaches dance at several studios around the Chicagoland area, and loves teaching at PAL!

MALIK TURLEY has been teaching for over ten years. Working with moms in labor and watching their natural movements led Malik to explore belly dancing as a way to enhance her doula practice and she fell in love with the art form. She has been dancing on her own and with clients ever since, using a variety of belly dance styles to help women find the thrill of learning about their bodies through movement. Knowing the benefits that good health brings to both movement and self-image, Malik added fitness classes to her offerings in 2008, obtaining certifications through the YMCA and Zumba.  Malik is also the director of Zahara Fusion, a student troupe that performs American-style belly dance in and around the Chicago area.

JULIE PALMER is graduating this year from Lincoln Park High School as a Musical Theatre major. She has been dancing since the age of three and continues taking classes in tap, lyrical ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and classical ballet. She has taken voice, acting, or dance lessons from Performing Arts Limited since the age of ten and has learned from her wonderful teachers at the studio how to be one herself. She has choreographed for the Chicago Park District’s Summer Theatre Camp doing musicals such as Newsies, High School Musical, and Grease. Julie teaches ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and tap at Performing Arts Limited and looks forward to her second year with all of the fabulous students we are so lucky to have!

Music

LARRY BAER (PIANO) has a diverse background in piano performance and instruction. He has performed with a wide variety of orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the Chicago area, in addition to solo performances. Larry has also dedicated much time to music composition and arrangement, having written award-winning compositions that have been selected for publication across the country.  He also arranged music that was performed by dancers in the Open House Dance Collective. Larry teaches classical piano and music theory at Performing Arts Limited. A music scholarship recipient, Larry holds a BS from DePaul University.

Lindsey Poling (PIANO and VOICE) Pennsylvania native C. Lindsey Poling has delighted audiences with her performances throughout the East and Midwest.

While living in Erie, Pennsylvania, Lindsey performed both opera and oratorio works. She sang Hansel in Humperdink’s opera Hansel und Gretel, Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, First Prioress in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites as well as oratorio pieces ranging from Mozart’s Requiem to Rutter’s Magnificat. While in Erie, Lindsey performed Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Erie Philharmonic.

In Lindsey’s current home of Chicago, career highlights include La Zia Principessa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte, and Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos. Concert credits include Mozart’s Requiem, Lauridson’s Cuatro Canciones and Second Woman in Handel’s Solomon performed with Apollo Chorus.

Outside of Chicago, Lindsey has been seen performing Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, Nurse in Michael Torke’s Strawberry Field’s, Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflote with New Jersey Opera, Hippolyta in “ A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte with Peninsula Music Festival. She has had the pleasure of singing in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to WFMT Radio Chicago. Lindsey received her Masters in Vocal Performance from Northwestern University, where she studied with Pamela Hinchman and Sherrill Milnes.

ERIC ROSI-MARSHALL (GUITAR) has been teaching and performing music for almost 15 years. He has extensive classroom experience teaching students of all ages, from early elementary through college. Since moving to Chicago four years ago he has been active on the local and regional music scene, playing in a variety of styles that include American Folk, Bluegrass, Irish, Latin, Rock, and Gypsy Jazz. He performs regularly, both as a solo performer and as part of various ensembles, at local music venues as well as at the United Center, the Irish-American Heritage Center, and the Chicago Cultural Center. He has a rich background in music history and was an editor and contributor to the International Dictionary of Black Composers (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers) Most recently he was in the pit orchestra for the critically-acclaimed world premiere of the musical, Knute Rockne, All-American, at the Theater at the Center, in Munster, Indiana. He holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.A. from the University of Georgia.

Acting

ERIN REITZ  (ACTING) holds both a B.A. and an M.F.A. in acting, and teaches private acting lessons at P.A.L. For the last several years she has worked for various Chicago and suburban theatre companies, including Stage Left, The Right Brain Project, and Village Players. Most recently she appeared in the critically acclaimed Circle Theatre hits Hay Fever and An Ideal Husband. In the past she has taught numerous theatre subjects, including workshops in Stage Makeup, Theatre Games, and Dialects, as well as Acting for the Camera at P.A.L. and Acting for the Stage at both P.A.L. and Purdue University.