Instructors
Kelly Kledzik, Owner/Artistic Director
Kelly Kledzik started her dance career at age four at Peggy Leah’s studio of dance, later called The Dance Connection in Grayslake, studying Ballet, Tap, and Jazz throughout her entire student education. Her solid Ballet/Pointe foundation came from Pat Foster and Diane Peterson, who studied with the Joffrey Ballet in New York City. Kelly received extensive Tap training from Tap Legend Al Gilbert and her love of Hoofing from Tap Master Bruce Stegmann. She also studied Jazz at Gus Giordano’s, one of the epicenters for true Jazz dance.
Her 27 years of teaching in various studios brought her talents to the towns of Vernon Hills, Buffalo Grove and Wauconda. Kelly has taught Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop, Lyrical, Turns and Leaps, and Pom and headed up multiple performing and competition companies where her unique choreography in Jazz and Hip Hop has garnered multiple Judges Choice awards. Her time as a private dance team coach successfully landed many dancers on teams in the competitive dance world.
Kelly owned a business called Dance Fit Fun for 13 years, teaching creative movement at preschools and daycare centers, forming her love of teaching toddler students as young as 18 months old. Years of technical knowledge and eye for talent has made Kelly a popular judge in the dance, pom/dance team, talent and pageant worlds. She is also a sought after choreographer for dance soloists, dance teams, and musicals.
One of Kelly's greatest personal accomplishments was competing against hundreds of dancers and winning a spot on The Chicago Bulls Luvabulls dance team during their 2nd Championship Season. This prestigious position brought a high level of responsibility as a dancer as well as a representative of the Chicago Bulls organization. This experience created a demand for her expertise in dance team and hip hop at the middle school, high school and college levels.
Kelly’s loyalty to her students has contributed to her dancers becoming instructors and studio owners, obtaining degrees in dance performance and teaching, as well as landing spots on college dance/cheer teams. She keeps in touch with many of her former students as they are always part of her dance family.
With over 30 years of dance educator experience, Kelly teaches all student skill and age levels in Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Lyrical, Hip Hop and Dance Team, as well as a multitude of styles within each genre of dance. She continues her dance education by attending master classes, dance conventions, and teacher-sharing classes so she can continue to grow as an instructor and also share the latest trends. Kelly believes in passion and hard work, but more importantly having FUN!
Amanda Harmer
Amanda Harmer started dancing at the age of 5 at Talent Forum under the direction of Shelley Hoselton. She danced there for 6 years before transferring to the Chicago Ballet Academy where she studied under Leslie Saunders for 2 years. Amanda went out on a limb and auditioned for the Nutcracker at age 8. That was the beginning of a four-year dance career with Ballet Entre Nous, under the direction of Marc Nevins, performing in the Nutcracker as well as various other productions. Miss Amanda attended Milwaukee Ballet's Summer Program, became Cecchetti 1 certified, was accepted into Houston Ballet's Summer Program, took class at Joffery Ballet in NYC, and attended multiple Master Classes. After taking a leave from dance during high school, Amanda took classes at the University of Illinois while earning her Bachelor’s Degree. Now Amanda works as a college and career counselor for the Woodstock School District. She decided to take an adult ballet class at FCDC after she watched her daughter dance and realized she missed it!
Cari Holmes
Cari is trained in Modern, Jazz, Ballet, Pointe, Musical Theatre, Tap, and Hip Hop. She has had the privilege of performing as a member of Terpsichore Dance Ensemble, Prairie Spirits Dance Troupe, TJ & Company Dancers, and Daved Beck’s Evolution: The Next Level. Cari co-owned and was artistic director of Dancer’s Pointe for eight years. Cari received her Associate of Arts in Dance and Associate of Fine Arts in Vocal Music Performance from the College of Lake County and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from University of Wisconsin-Madison. While attending UW-Madison, she was awarded the Louise O. Kloepper Scholarship, the World Dance Alliance Scholarship and Bates Dance Festival Awards. During her degree coursework, Cari was also chosen to represent the UW-Madison Dance Department in the faculty adjudicated solo “Boxher” for the American College Dance Festival. After obtaining her degree, she returned to Illinois and co-founded a modern dance company, L-Theory Collective, in 2013. She choreographed, performed and taught master classes/workshops with the company until 2019. As a dance instructor for over 20 years, Cari continues to enjoy teaching and choreographing for students of all ages and seeks to provide a more bio-mechanically sound understanding during her students’ learning process in all dance forms. In addition to teaching, she has had the privilege of further developing her love for dance videography and editing through a variety of artistic dance videos and dance recital edits for Full Circle Dance Center.
Emmett McCall
Emmett has been dancing since 2012 and has been at Full Circle since 2019. They are a recent graduate of Silver Lotus Yoga's 200-hour teacher training program. Emmett has been practicing yoga for over 10 years. Emmett is a wonderful choreographer and is also a member of our Pre-Professional program.
Melisa Miles
Mel's bio coming soon!
Christine Sierzputowski
Christine has been dancing in teams and companies for the past 15 years, predominately in the styles of jazz, hip hop, and pom. Christine started her dance career in the Mundelein Park District taking jazz, ballet, and hip hop classes while also being a member of the her middle school poms squad. Realizing how much joy she felt while learning, practicing, and performing, she continued to expand her horizons and continued dancing in high school and beyond. Christine was a member of her high school dance team for all four years, where she competed and performed. Simultaneously, she participated in the Mundelein Park District dance company for a few years, and went on to take classes at Elite Dance Company. Her love for dance didn't stop there! Christine continued to dance in college, being a member of the Marquette University Dance Team for all four years of her undergraduate career. In addition to cheering on her favorite college basketball team, she performed at NCAA Division I basketball games and tournaments. Though her dance team career ended after she finished her bachelors degree in speech pathology and audiology, she continued to take classes in jazz, ballet, hip hop, and various cultural dances while finishing her masters of science in communication sciences and disorders in order to keep her dance skills fresh and invigorated.
Jaclyn Wagner
Jaclyn Wagner started dancing at the age of three and never stopped. She grew up going to Talent Forum in Libertyville and continued her dance career at Encore Dance Center in Vernon Hills. After graduating high school, she continued to Indiana University where she graduated with a degree in Secondary English Education, a minor in Spanish, and a license addition in English as a New Language. Jaclyn’s dance foundation began with Shelley Hoselton and continued later with Kelly Kledzik. Jaclyn has studied under many tap masters, including more than five years with Mark Yonally, founder and director of Chicago Tap Theatre. Additionally, she has studied with masters Gregg Russell, Lane Alexander, Ayodele Casel, Chloe Arnold, Sam Weber, Dianne Walker, and many others. While she loves all forms of dance, tap has always been her passion. During her time at Indiana University, Jaclyn spent time studying with and teaching alongside Sherilyn Nott Foley. She was a teacher’s assistant for both beginning and advanced tap, where she was able to run classes and choreograph pieces.
Drenda Weldon
Drenda Weldon is an ACE (American Council of Exercise) certified fitness instructor who's been involved with fitness most of her life. She is licensed to teach Zumba classes, REFIT, and is also a whole wellness coach. Drenda's focus on fitness has been designing and leading REFIT, Cardio Body Sculpting, PlyoFlow, BodyToning, Senior Fitness and Zumba classes since 2017. She keeps current of fitness and health standards, taking courses to develop helpful training for participants, with enthusiasm for leading effective and enjoyable fitness classes. She enjoys helping others experience their own health and fitness journeys.
Katie Whitaker
Katie Whitaker began her dance training in Libertyville at the age of 5. She continued her training through high school and graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2004 with a BA in dance. While at Columbia she studied under Eduardo Vilaro, Anna Paskevska, and Jan Ekert, among others. Through college and after graduation, Katie taught ballet, tap, and jazz for the Mundelein park district. In 2008, Katie started teaching for Encore Dance Center in Vernon Hills. She remained there for 5 years until her family relocated to southern California. For the past five years, Katie has been teaching various forms of dance at Stage Door Dance Center in Encinitas, CA. Stage Door gave her the opportunity to work with a variety of ages including children as young as 18 months. In June of 2019, Katie’s family relocated once again back to the Chicagoland area.