Caroline Blair began her pre-professional dance training at Community Ballet in Huntsville, Alabama at age 13. She furthered her training with American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey Ballet. Upon graduating from the University of Arizona with degrees in Linguistics and Russian & Slavic Studies, she returned to Huntsville Ballet as a dancer and faculty member. In 2015, Caroline joined Chattanooga Ballet, where she danced for six seasons. While with Chattanooga Ballet, she held the position of Pointe Coordinator and was an active member of the faculty. Career highlights include Sugar Plum in Nutcracker, Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Tsarevna in The Firebird, the Lilac and Violente Fairies in productions of The Sleeping Beauty, and Dream Laurey in Oklahoma. Other credits include soloist roles in Romeo and Juliet, Paquita, Giselle, and The Magic Flute. Since retiring from full-time professional ballet in 2021, Caroline remains an active part of the dance community in Chattanooga - teaching, choreographing, and occasionally performing with organizations throughout the region.
Benjamin Holliday Wardell is a dynamic dance artist, director, and educator joining the Chattanooga Ballet school faculty this fall. Bringing 26 years of elite performance and creative curation to the studio, Ben began his career at Cincinnati Ballet, where he achieved the rank of soloist, before moving west to dance with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet and later spending over four years with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. As a prolific international freelancer, he has toured with Aszure Barton and Artists, performed with Lar Lubovitch, anchored Lucky Plush Productions as an ensemble member, and collaborated with director James Darrah on multiple opera productions. A performance highlight includes co-creating and performing a featured solo at the New World Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas and Pat Birch. On the directorial side, Ben previously served as the founder and Creative Director of the performing arts collective The Cambrians, and most recently designed the Body Language dance series for Fever Originals. He is a recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship and was named a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist.
Originally from Rochester, New York, the bulk of Julie’s training came from Margarita De Saa and John White at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet in Philadelphia. As a professional dancer, she spent the majority of her career with The Georgia Ballet under the direction of Gigi Hyatt, where she was fortunate enough to perform a variety of principal roles in both classical and contemporary ballets. She was shaped the most artistically by the title role in Giselle, technically in the Grande Pas De Deux from Don Quixote, and creatively as Katrina in A Sleepy Hollow Story choreographed by Janusz Mazon. In 2003, early in her dancing career, Julie attended a teacher training course at Pacific Northwest Ballet, which sparked her love for the art of teaching. Since then, Julie has taught primarily at The Georgia Ballet School, as well as The International City School of Ballet (ICSB). Many of the students she was privileged to work with are now dancing professionally in ballet companies around the world.
Dillon Davis is a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee and began his ballet training at Chattanooga Ballet and Center Stage Dance at age twelve. Dillon started his professional career as a trainee at Alabama Ballet under the direction of Wes Chapman. While with Alabama Ballet he danced in George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes, An American in Paris, Giselle and The Sleeping Beauty. He later attended the highly respected Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet under the tutelage of Marcia Dale Weary.
After completing his training at CPYB, Dillon performed professionally with Nashville Ballet and Dance Theater of Tennessee dancing various soloist roles such as Escamillo in Carmen, Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank, the jester in Cinderella, and Franz in Coppélia. While with Dance Theater of Tennessee, he had the opportunity to work with world renowned choreographers Ma Cong, Darrell Grand-Moultrie and Ron De Jesus of Hubbard Street. Dillon then moved back to Chattanooga and danced the rest of his career with Chattanooga Ballet for seven seasons and retiring from the company in 2021. Dillon is happy to continue to be a member of the Chattanooga Ballet community by teaching in the school.
Chiara began dancing hula at the age of three with Hālau Hula O Nā Mele ʻĀina ʻO Hawaiʻi under the direction of Kumu Hula Luana Haraguchi. She received her ballet training from Diana Turner Hauser in Oradell, NJ, American Ballet Theatre's New York Summer Intensives, and the Barnard College Dance Department while attending Columbia University. From 2015–2018, Chiara performed with Columbia Ballet Collaborative, dancing in original works by Charles Askegard, Maurice Brandon Curry, Kevin Jenkins, Barry Kerollis, Robert La Fosse, Morgan McEwan, Kelley Potter, Janice Rosario, Michelle Thompson Ulerich, and Connor Yockus, and repertoire by George Balanchine (Serenade, Valse Fantaisie, Who Cares?) and Jerome Robbins (Antique Epigraphs). In 2019, Chiara began teaching ballet at Queen Emma Ballet in Honolulu, HI and choreographed numerous works for her students from 2020-2025. She also completed the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Teacher Training Program in 2021. She joined Chattanooga Ballet as a teacher in 2025. Chiara holds a BA in Astrophysics from Columbia University and a PhD in Earth & Planetary Science from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She loves the arts and sciences, and wants to instill a love and passion for both in the next generation of artists and thinkers.
Amy Kolbenschlag graduated with her Bachelor's of Art in Dance degree from Nova Southeastern University in 2012. She also studied dance at Palm Beach Atlantic University before coming to Nova. In 2007, Amy started learning dance at the University Center for the Performing Arts. She has studied with Eileen Hebron, Jin Young Lee, Kathleen Klein, Gaynelle Gosselin, Elana Lanczi, Katie Sopoci Drake, Daniela Wancier, Augusto Soledade and choreographer Heather Maloney. She had the great opportunity to be a part of Florida’s first Waterways Dance Project in March 2011. She also participated in the final Merce Cunningham Summer Intensive in New York City in June of 2011. Later, Amy interned with the University School working with Toranika Washington, who is head of the dance department. An honoree recipient of the scholarship grant award for dance as well as the Dean’s List, Amy took pleasure in learning about dance in Nova’s enriching environment. She has also performed in the Fort Lauderdale Christmas Pageant for three years, working with Christy and Jeff Crevier. Amy has worked for Broward Dance Academy and at Owasso Dance Company as well as KE Dance and Tumble. She became involved with TuMM Dance in late 2013 when she moved to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and enjoyed dancing with them. After moving to Illinois, Amy taught varying dance styles at Heavenly Rhythm Dance Studio, as well as competitive dancers ballet at Kern’s Dance Studio and Sloan’s Dance and Gymnastics. Amy took a step away from the studio setting when she became the dance director at Gateway Legacy Christian Academy in 2021. She has completed her first dance film entitled, “Weathered” which was released on April 12th, 2025 and has begun working on her second dance film, “Child of God”. After moving to Chattanooga, TN in 2025, she joined Cleveland City Ballet and Chattanooga Ballet to teach young dancers. With a robust teaching career of more than 15 years, she is looking forward to the future and where her dancing steps will take her.
Ryan was born in Oklahoma City and raised in Chattanooga, TN. Ryan found his love of Hip Hop dance at the tender age of 9 years old and has been dancing ever since.
To better his Hip Hop skills, he took several dance classes anywhere he could and loved to watch live performances from his favorite artists. From 2013-2015 Ryan trained at WEAVE: A Conceptual Dance Company to help shape his Hip Hop style and learn other dance styles.
Ryan has taught Hip-Hop at various dance studios and schools around Chattanooga such as Ballet Tennessee, Chattanooga Ballet, Modern Play, Divine Dance Studio, Raw Art Dance and Entertainment Corp, Baylor School, Girls Preparatory School, Chattanooga High Center of Creative Arts, D. Williams Dance Academy and Tennessee Association of Dance. He is currently teaching Hip-Hop at Velocity Dance Center, Normal Park Museum Magnet School, Red Bank Middle School and High School.
Ryan is also an Artistic Teacher, dance instructor and company member of The Pop-Up Project and appeared in their dance film “The Light We Share”. Ryan preforms at different events and collaborates with local artists on special projects around the Chattanooga area.
Megan Quiroz McSween is a native of Grand Rapids Michigan where she began her professional ballet career as an apprentice with the Grand Rapids Ballet at age 16. From there, she was hired as a Seasonal Artist with the Joffrey Ballet during her senior year of high school. After a year as a trainee at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle, she returned to the Joffrey Ballet where she remained for eight seasons, performing featured roles in ballets such as Robert Joffrey's Postcards, Edwaard Liang's Age of Innocence, and Christopher Wheeldon's Carousel, A Dance. In 2009 Meg was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch”. Since then, Meg has served on faculty for the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City, the Grand Rapids Ballet School, Grand Valley State University, IPC Ballet and Ballet Memphis. In addition to teaching dance, Meg is a certified GYROTONIC instructor. Since moving to Chattanooga in 2019 Meg has loved exploring the beautiful terrain with Brian and their three kids, Connor, Micah and Madelyn. Meg enjoys her time in the studio with the CHA Ballet dancers and students, as well as the occasional opportunity to guest perform with the company.
Emily specializes in Broadway tap and musical theater styles, bringing an energizing dynamic to each class, whether for beginners or advanced students. With over 30 years of teaching experience, she aims to bring joy to her classes while instilling proper technique and developing musicality.
After a successful professional dance career as a performer, Emily moved to Chattanooga from Los Angeles in 2008. Prior to teaching at Chattanooga Ballet she was on faculty at Ballet Tennessee for five years. This will be her fourth year as the tap instructor for Chattanooga Ballet. She also enjoys choreographing for musical theater. Her recent choreography credits include Freaky Friday, Newsies, Schoolhouse Rock, and High School Musical 1 & 2, with Christian Family Theatre.
Emily is committed to continuous improvement and strives to bring out the best in herself for each class. She is a lifelong dance student, regularly taking classes at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway in NYC during summer and winter breaks, as well as attending tap festivals.
