Erin McKeever – Owner/Director
Born and raised in Humboldt County, Erin has been trained in various dance styles ranging from ballet, tap, and jazz, to modern and Latin dance. In 2006 she founded Dance Class with Erin Fernandez, now Trillium Dance Studios, which has grown to include more than 250 students, 10 teachers, a 3-studio location off the plaza and two performing companies. Over the past 12 years, Erin has created and produced 24 large-scale studio productions and loved every minute of it. She has taught and performed abroad in Spain with the Estada Internacional de Danza, and has earned Dance Teacher Magazine’s certification for dance educators. Erin has a degree in Elementary Education from HSU and has enjoyed seven years teaching ballet and jazz on faculty with Humboldt State University’s Department of Theater, Film & Dance. She loves nature and chocolate, and when she’s not in rehearsal or hot-glueing headpieces, Erin can be found on adventures with her husband Nate, son Orion, and daughter Sonja.
Allie Phinney – Senior Instructor
Allie, a San Diego native began dancing at the age of six where she found her love of music, movement and friendship! Growing up she danced and assisted at Carlsbad Dance Centre and Carlsbad High School; where she studied several forms of dance including ballet, jazz, modern and hiphop. Allie studied Communication and Dance at Humboldt State University where she refined her technique and studied other world dance styles. In March 2015 she was recognized by the Department of Interdisciplinary Dance studies for excellence as a performer and her outstanding contributions to the program. Allie has had the opportunity to learn from artists such as Pilabolous, Mark Morris, Trey McIntire and Lines Ballet, among others. In 2011 she joined the teaching staff at Trillium Dance Studios and the only thing she loves more than dance is our Trillium Family!
Carrie Walpole – Senior Instructor
Carrie Walpole started her dance career at a very young age and immediately fell in love. She graduated from Humboldt State University with a degree in Dance and has been teaching, choreographing, and dancing ever since. Carrie has performed with professional groups such as Blurredink, a contemporary company based out of Los Angeles, CA and INQ, a hip-hop company based out of Oakland, CA. She is excited to be a part of the Trillium family this spring!
Chloe Schmidt – Senior Instructor, Studio Manager
Chloe Schmidt has been dancing for 15 years and hopes to continue doing it for the rest of her life. She is trained in ballet and contemporary but loves to have fun with any type of dance. In 2013 Chloe trained with the Joffrey Ballet School at their summer intensive in San Francisco. This gave her the opportunity to be taught by an array of amazing teachers and dance alongside hundreds of highly accomplished dancers. Chloe is now a dance major at Humboldt State where she hopes to earn her degree and become a full time dance teacher.
Growing up in Northern California, Haylee began dancing at three years old and trained in Ballet, Contemporary, Jazz, Latin and Tap. She began her teaching career at Trillium Dance, teaching ballet to all ages and levels. During this time, she choreographed many pieces for Trillium productions, and performed in group and solo pieces. Haylee graduated from San Jose State University with a B.F.A. in Dance, where she received training in a wide array of dance techniques, pedagogy, and choreography. She was part of the dance program’s pre-professional company, University Dance Theatre, and has had the opportunity to work with professionals such as Heather Cooper, Raphael Boumaila, Mike Esperanza, Doug Varone and Dancers, and Camille A. Brown and Dancers. Haylee is so excited to be back with her Trillium family and to share her love for dance technique!