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 Teacher, Studio Manager

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!

Kara Ajetunmobi – Senior Teacher

Kara Ajetunmobi first began her dance training at the Professional School of the Arts in Torrance California. In those first few classes she knew she had found her passion! Kara has had the opportunity to take classes from various dance professionals such as Travis Wall (choreographer on SYTYCD), Christopher K. Morgan and Artists, Pilobolus and Hubbard Street Dance. Since graduating from Humboldt State University with a degree in Dance, she has been doing what she loves teaching different styles of dance to all age groups, performing and touring with the music and dance collective OLIO and is excited to be a part of the Trillium dance community!

Chloe Schmidt – Ballet, Pointe

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.

Ada has been dancing at Trillium since she was three years old.  She has been trained in ballet, modern, contemporary, Latin, and even some tap, jazz & hip hop.  She has attended summer dance intensives with Diablo Ballet in Walnut Creek, Joffrey Ballet’s Contemporary in San Francisco, and Joffrey Dance Fusion in Los Angeles where she trained with professional, well known teachers and danced alongside amazing dancers from all over the world.  Ada plans to dance professionally after high school and to keep dancing for the rest of her life.  She is so happy to be a part of the Trillium teaching staff and is very excited to share her love of dance with her students.

Dance has always been a part of Grace’s life. She spent a significant amount of time training in ballet, and spent her summers training in New York at American Ballet Theatre, Ellison Ballet also in New York, and in San Francisco at Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Grace spent two years as a part of the BFA Dance Program at Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and is thankful for the growth and experience she acquired during her time there. Grace is currently pursuing a career in Physical Therapy, which is what brought her to Humboldt State. She is grateful to have found a community to share her passion and love for dance with others here at Trillium.