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



Carrie Walpole – Contemporary, Tap, Hip Hop
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!
Meiwan Gottschalk – Tap
Meiwan Gottschalk has been dancing for the past twelve years and plans to continue dancing throughout her life. She is trained in various styles including ballet, modern, contemporary, tap, and jazz. Trillium has been a wonderful place to learn dance and Meiwan hopes to pass these feelings on to her students.