FACULTY

Jana has taught dance in the central Arkansas area for over 45 years and has been the owner and director of Shuffles for thirty-seven of those years. In addition to being committed to offering the highest quality of instruction and the opportunity to experience all forms of dance, she has enjoyed performing in many Arkansas Rep productions, including Sweet Charity, Guys and Dolls, Chicago, Good Woman of Setzuan, A Soldiers Tale, Evita and Into The Woods. Jana attended U of A at Fayetteville as a dance major, and while at the U of A at Little Rock she performed in the productions Cabaret and Pippin and was an instructor in the Theatre and Dance Department. She has served for many years as director and choreographer for the Arkansas Bar and Pulaski County Bar Association's biannual spoof The Gridiron and worked along side Maestro David Itkin as the stage director for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's Christmas Spectacular. Miss Jana was honored to receive the 2015 Arkansas Arts Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts.

Leslie Dodge began her dance training at a young age in Indianapolis, Indiana. Before focusing on ballet, she studied jazz, tap, and various modern techniques, and won many awards at various national dance workshops and competitions. After a year of professional experience as a company dancer in Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre, Leslie attended Butler University and graduated with high honors with a Bachelor's in Dance Pedagogy in 2010. For Butler Ballet, Leslie performed in The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Cinderella, and Antony Tudor's Dark Elegies, as well as in original works by Susan McGuire and Cynthia Pratt. In 2010, she had the honor of dancing the role of Odette in Swan Lake under the direction of Tong Wang. While at Butler, Leslie also taught dance and movement classes for the Butler Community Arts School throughout the Indianapolis area with a curriculum inspired by the National Dance Institute. As part of Ballet Arkansas, Leslie has performed in many works, including the The Nutcracker's Sugar Plum Fairy, as well as both Odile and Odette in excerpts of Swan Lake. Leslie has been featured in Tom Rudd's Mobile, Peter Zweifel's Visions From Within, Darrell Grand-Moultrie's Moultrie's Spring, and Kiyon Gaines' Bolero as well as Gerald Arpino's Birthday Variations. She has worked with such choreographers as Melody Mennite, Leslie Schickel, Sayoko Knode, and Greg Sample. In 2014, she was honored to participate in the Chop Shop Dance Festival in Bellevue, WA in an excerpt of Shayla Bott's Instantly Interruptible, and also performed in the St. Louis Spring into Dance festival. Most recently she danced the lead role in Raymonda and as the pink girl in George Balanchine’s Who Cares? Leslie also acts as rehearsal assistant for Ballet Arkansas as well as instructing at the Ballet Arkansas Summer Intensive. Leslie is also the director for the Pre-Professional Ballet Program at Shuffles and Ballet II.

Donna has loved dance all her life. She grew up dancing at the Little Rock Boys Club under the direction of Lou Ann Tisdale and continued teaching and then directing the dance program there while in college. At Shuffles, she has been involved in many areas of the school including teaching, costuming, receptionist, and production for the past 34 years. She has had the pleasure of costuming for Ballet Arkansas and the Arkansas Symphony. She has received the most pleasure from watching young dancers grow into disciplined and confident young adults.

Lauren McCarty Horak, a Little Rock native, is so happy and grateful to be teaching ballet at Shuffles Dance Studio, where her love of dance began when she started taking classes at age 3. After high school, and many summers spent training at North Carolina School of the Performing Arts, American Ballet Theatre, Nashville Ballet and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Lauren continued her dance education at

Butler University (Indianapolis), where she received her BFA in Dance Performance in 2006. She then moved to Chicago to perform in Theatre at the Center’s production of CATS (Victoria) and to train with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. She performed in Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s 2007 production of Hello Dolly! (directed by Brad Mooy and choreographed by Ron Hutchins) and after bouncing back and forth between Boston, NYC and Indianapolis auditioning and teaching, Lauren moved back to Little Rock to dance for Ballet Arkansas (2009-2017). During her time with Ballet Arkansas, under the artistic direction of Arleen Sugano (2009-2011) and Michael Bearden (2011-2017), Lauren had the opportunity to perform works by many different choreographers including Tom Rudd, Chris Stuart , Kiyon Gaines, Leslie Schickel, and Melody Mennite Walsh. Lauren has loved sharing her passion for dance with the students at Shuffles and her community, including working with Eric Mann (Unreel Films) and Elizabeth (Liz) Whitaker on the dance documentary Without A Mirror (Winner of the Big Apple Film Festival, Official Selection in the IndieFEST Film Awards, Berlin Flash Film Festival, Hot Springs International Women’s Film Festival, to name a few), as well as working with the students at Arkansas School for the Blind.

Micah grew up dancing at Shuffles since she was 3 years old and this begins her 3rd year of teaching Hip Hop. She graduated with honors from EStem High School in Little Rock and is currently attending Philander Smith College on a full scholarship. Micah has performed locally in Carti’s Festival of Fashion and in the cast of “Memphis” at Argenta Community Theatre in North Little Rock.