Summer Dance Faculty
Christine Juarez
Coordinator - Ballet, Pointe, Children's, Jazz
Christine received her BS in Ballet and MS in Modern Dance from Indiana University. She has performed extensively throughout the Midwest. She currently serves as a master artist for the state of Washington in the Artist-in-Residence program. She is a choreographer and Artistic Director for Vashon's Allied Arts. She has served on the Cornish faculty for 10 years as a teacher, choreographer and summer dance program director.
Steve Casteel
Intermediate Ballet
Steve received his early training from Jan Column School of Classic Ballet in Tacoma, WA. At the age of 16 he trained and performed with Boston Ballet II. Steve was a member of Houston Ballet from 1987 to 1997 where he became a soloist. In 2002 Steve received his BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts, and in 2004 his MFA in dance from the University of Arizona. Steve has taught at Bainbridge Dance Center (Bainbride Island), Berkeley Ballet Theater (Berkeley CA), Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle), Dance Fremont (Seattle), Spectrum Dance Theater (Seattle), and The Dance School (Everett).
Paula J. Peters
Jazz Senior Division
Ms. Peters received her early training in ballet, modern, jazz and tap at British Dance Academy in Renton, WA under the direction of Sandra Baca. In October of 1991 she joined Spectrum Dance Theater (Seattle, WA) as an apprentice and immediately moved on to become a full company member where she remained for 14 years. She also served as SDT's rehearsal director from 1998 to 2005. With SDT Ms. Peters performed lead roles in works by numbers choreographers, including Ann Reinking, Margo Sappington, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Claire Bataille, Danny Buracezki, Daniel Ezralow, Trey McIntylre, Donald Byrd, Wade Madsen and Dale A. Merrill, touring throughout the US, Europe and Mexico. In addition to working with Spectrum she performed in local industrials and independent artist productions. She has taught as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Washington, the Montana Dance Arts Association, and is currently on faculty at Dance Fremont and Cornish College of the Arts. Upon resigning from Spectrum Dance Theater in May of 2005, she joined Next Stage Dance Theatre for 2 seasons. Ms. Peters received her BFA in Dance through the Professional Dancers Program at Cornish College of the Arts in 2007.
Tina Mollis
Musical Theater Workshops
Courtney Harris
Ballet and Pointe
Michele Miller
Advanced Modern
Zhenjun Zhang
Advanced Ballet
Zhenjun (ZJ) Zhang was one of four kids selected from an arts school of hundreds to enter a dance company school. His prize for surviving the audition process was joining the army and taking eight actual hours of dance classes of day, including Russian-style ballet, Chinese Classical Dance, Folk Dance and Acrobatics. After almost 6 years of training, ZJ was offered a job. As a member of the company he performed in many places in China, from the Great Hall of the People to lonely mountain outposts. During this time he also spent long hours practicing alone with a tape recorder; naturally, he began choreographing and after several years, he went the Beijing PLA Arts Academy to study choreography. Shortly thereafter, he moved to New York where he danced with companies including the Martha Graham Company and the Jose Limon Company, performing work by Graham, Limon, Tudor, Kylian, McKayle, Varone, Haim, Robbins and others. ZJ appeared in The King and I Broadway and West End productions and has been involved with productions of The King and I in different capacities including choreographer, dance captain and performer. ZJ is a member of Actor’s Equity and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. In 2007 he completed his BFA at Cornish where he teaches for the Summer Program. ZJ teaches ballet, modern and creative movement in Seattle and China. He also continues to choreograph.