MISS LAUREN MARTIN

Miss Lauren Martin is the owner of Inspiration Performing Arts Center. She has been with IPAC for the past 11 years and is continued to be inspired by each and every person that walks through the doors, everyday.  She started her dance career at the age of 2 where her love of the art began and grew.  She continued learning technique in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical and Pointe. Lauren dance competitively for many years, attending many regional and national dance competitions / conventions and attended summer classes with the Classical Ballet Academy under the direction of Andrew and Cheryl Rist. Lauren graduated from Minnesota State University Mankato in 2011 with a BS in dance and minor in child psychology. At MSU-Mankato, she performed in many faculty and student dance concerts along with adjudicating many of her own works for the dance program’s student showcase. In addition to the many accolades and awards she has received through the years, Miss Lauren recently received the Ultimate Choreography Award and Overall Top Score for Minnesota’s Regional at Cathy Roe’s Dance Competition for the third year for her beautiful piece “Framed Memories”, “Schindler’s List” and “Brotsjor”, all set on our Senior Performance Company dancers. Her choreography and performance skills were featured in Poland  summer 2014 as a part of the International Dance Festival and returned the of summer, 2017 with IPAC dancers teaching Musical Theater to dancers from all over the world.  Miss Lauren most recently obtained her certification in Progressing Ballet Technique that she is looking forward to sharing the students of IPAC. Miss Lauren is a proud ImPACt!™ team member, and has traveled to Haiti to bring the kids of Haiti the gift of dance. Miss Lauren is a lover of all things dance, travel, her 3 adorable nieces and handsome nephew, and yoga. She always has a smile on her face, and is dedicated to giving back to her fellow team members, students, parents and the entire community at-large. Her positive energy and big heart is what helps to make IPAC go ’round. Her hope is to continue to share her love for the art of dance with many students, for many more years to come!

MISS STEPHANIE GILDNER

Miss Stephanie started dancing when she was twelve years old at a local WI dance studio. It was there that she fell in love with dance first as a student, and eventually an assistant teacher. She then moved to Minneapolis to further embark on her dance journey, taking classes at Zenon dance school and participating in multiple choreographic projects. Miss Stephanie attended Minnesota State University-Mankato, studying dance performance where she excelled, and was granted amazing opportunities to perform, travel, and work with many celebrated artists. Through the leadership and encouragement of the faculty she brought several original dance works to the stage. Miss Stephanie was then chosen to work with Dancing People Company in Oregon and was able to take dance to a whole new level- on a trapeze! Miss Stephanie’s dance journey has taken her from coast to coast, where she has had memorable experiences working with dance artists who have helped her grow both as a dancer and choreographer. Eventually landing back in Minnesota where she had wonderful opportunities to work with Black Label Movement, Christine Maginnis, Jeffrey Peterson, Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner, Stages Theater Company, and produce/choreograph/perform in many of her own original dance works. Miss Stephanie greatly enjoyed being a part of the Minneapolis dance community creating and collaborating with local Minnesota artists and musicians developing thought provoking, mix-media dance works. Her passion organically transitioned from performing to teaching, and has now been teaching at IPAC for 8 years! She absolutely loves being a part of the IPAC community and sharing her love for dance with students of all ages and abilities. Miss Stephanie’s favorite styles to teach include: jazz, tap, modern, contemporary, improvisation, and hip hop! Miss Stephanie loves making memories with her family, spending time outdoors, and her favorite food is tacos!

MISS SAMANTHA A. KERKHOFF

Miss Samantha teaches voice and piano at IPAC and is head of the music department. She has been with IPAC for over 10 years. She started her musical journey at the age of 5 when she started piano lessons. Throughout her elementary through college, she did vocal competitions, took piano lessons, played the saxophone, performed in the top choirs and was a lead performer with many solos. Samantha graduated from Minnesota State University Mankato with a Bachelor of Science degree in K-12 Music Education with an emphasis in vocal studies. She was also Chapter President of Minnesota Educators National Conference. She was hired right out of college to be the music teacher at Magnuson Christian School and also started a student band at the school teaching all instruments. She has recently started the Show Choir here at IPAC and had a very successful first recital! Her hobbies include: reading, attending concerts and plays, exercising, and spending time with her family She lives in Lino Lakes with her husband Chris and children Sullivan and Cassidy. Music is a life long passion for her. In turn, her goal is to give that passion of music to her students! 

MISS PA HOUA LEE

Miss Pa has a Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Performance from Minnesota State University, Mankato. She started playing piano at 8 years old and have 20+ years of experience She excited to start her journey with IPAC! She will also be a pianist for Von Maur (a department store). Besides piano, she also play alto saxophone. Her favorite hobbies include: reading, hanging out with family and friends, and performing for others. She have a passion for playing/teaching piano and her goal is to inspire her students to do the same.

MISS CELINA SHEPPECK

Celina holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Entrepreneurship and Marketing from the University of St. Thomas. She is currently working on her MBA at St. Thomas and lives in Mahtomedi with her husband and two children (one of whom is a young and eager IPAC dancer!). Growing up in a big family and living in a small town, she learned about the importance of family, faith, and community. Her parents were both small business owners and she started working with her mother’s event planning and gift store at a young age. This instilled in her a strong work ethic while honing her skills in coordinating, planning, event management, and relationship building. Although new to the community, Celina was instantly drawn to the mission of IPAC and is very excited to be a part of this amazing institution. Her passions are: her family, learning, reading, exercising, and volunteering.

MISS AUTUMN GOETTING

Miss Autumn began her dance journey at 4 years old in a creative movement class. As she grew older, she began exploring different genres and wound up venturing into the competition dance arena. She taught many dance camps throughout her high school years, and also choreographed several large-scale community theater productions. She went on to attend Minnesota State University Mankato, where she graduated in 2018 with a BA in dance. While at MSU, Autumn developed her artistic voice and found a real passion for choreographing. Upon graduating, Autumn moved to Orlando to participate in the Disney College Program and landed a spot with Emotions Dance Company: a professional contemporary company out of northern Orlando. The highlight of Autumn’s time with Emotions was bringing her own choreography to the professional stage via her piece “Body Love.” Autumn is so excited to be teaching again and looks forward to being a part of the IPAC team!

MISS MIRANDA JENSEN

Miranda is an IPAC alum and has found her way back! She is trained in various styles such as modern, jazz, and ballet. Miranda graduated from MNSU Mankato in 2019 with a BS in Dance and a minor in Marketing. While attending MNSU Mankato, she performed in many faculty and student pieces along with creating some of her own. Miranda is currently working towards her certification in Personal Training. She is excited to be a part of the IPAC team!

MISS LAUREN SCHULTE

Lauren Schulte is an alum that danced at IPAC for 10 years and has now been teaching for the last 4 years.  Lauren has training in various styles of dance including tap, ballet, jazz and modern and contemporary. She has a BS in Ministry with an emphasis on children and families and a minor in dance from the University of Northwestern. She loves being able to combine dance and ministry together. She enjoys building relationships with students and their families and helping them discover their passion for dance just like she did. When she is not at the studio she enjoys spending time with family and friends, playing with her puppy Nala and enjoying all things Disney. Lauren is so excited to be a part of the IPAC team.

MR. JEREMY HINIKER

Jeremy Hiniker is a classical guitarist and teacher from the tiny town of Truman in southern Minnesota. His passion for music began with the alto saxophone in his school’s concert band and eventually led him to picking up and teaching himself to play the electric guitar. After a few years of playing in a band and performing across greater Minnesota, he decided to begin his formal guitar training under Wade Oden (Minneapolis Guitar Quartet) at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, MN, in 2013. During these years, he earned top marks and scholarships from the college before graduating summa cum laude with his Associate of Fine Arts degree in music.

Jeremy continued on to UW-Milwaukee where he recently graduated, earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts in classical guitar performance under world-renowned guitar virtuoso and pedagogue Rene Izquierdo. Apart from his studies, he was also a major partner in the Milwaukee Classical Guitar Society’s “Guitar Ambassador” program by performing and presenting in schools throughout Milwaukee to promote awareness, appreciation, and education for the classical guitar. In addition, he was a frequent performer across the greater Milwaukee area, performing in churches, coffee shops, and even yoga studios. He also taught privately and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Franklin and Oak Creek, WI.

Jeremy is continuing his studies as he pursues a Master of Music degree at the University of Minnesota, as the teaching assistant to Maja Radovanlija. In addition, Jeremy maintains an active performing schedule and private studio.

Career highlights include masterclasses with prizewinning guitarists, Marcin Dylla, Zoran Dukic, Odair Assad, Denis Azabagic, Eva Beneke, Isaac Bustos, Julia Malischnig, Kithara Duo, Shin-Ichi Fukuda and more. He has also had private lessons with John Dearman, Matt Palmer, Tariq Harb, Dariusz Kupinski, Olga Amelkina-Vera and Anton Baranov. He has also attended classical technique workshops by Grammy winning guitarists William Kanengiser and Ana Vidovic, as well as Irina Kulikova, Xuefei Yang, Marc Teicholz, Chris Stell, Francisco Bernier, Tilman Hoppstock, Marco Santor, Aleksandr Tsiboulski and Fabio Zanon.

MR. JUSTIN MOUA

Mr. Justin started singing early on as well as playing piano as a secondary instrument. During his vocal education, he was classically trained under the guidance of Judy Bender, Kimm Julian, Stephanie Thorpe, and Aaron Humble. He is currently studying with David Walton.

Mr. Justin is a graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato with a Bachelor of Arts in music with an emphasis on voice performance in 2018 and a Master of Science in speech-language pathology with an interest in voice and upper airway disorders in 2022. He received his vocology certification from the National Center for Voice and Speech at the University of Utah in 2019. Additionally, Mr. Justin was a cheerleader for his entire undergraduate years at MSU Mankato for the cheerleading team. He was the cheerleading captain for the basketball 2018 team.

Mr. Justin is also a Speech-Language Pathologist for the Minneapolis Public School district. He is currently involved with the Pan American Vocology Association (PAVA), American Speech-language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and ASHA’s Asian Pacific Islander Speech-Language-Hearing Caucus. At IPAC, Mr. Justin is a piano and voice teacher at IPAC. His students inspire and motivate him as he watches them grow into young musicians.

MISS ALLY ANTHONY

Miss Ally began her dance journey in central Iowa where she explored a variety of techniques in
ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, pointe, and contemporary. During her high school years, creating
choreography became a passion that manifested into backyard talent shows, group routines for
recitals, and competitive solos. After graduating in 2013, she attended Minnesota State
University, Mankato to further her understanding of movement and the dancing body through
modern dance techniques, somatics, and pedagogy. Miss Ally participated in several faculty
and student produced shows in addition to having her own choreographic works performed. In
2017, she received her Bachelor of Science degrees in private studio dance as well as French
with minor studies in marketing and art history. Post university, Miss Ally worked as a ballet
instructor for young and first-time dancers in the Twin Cities area at many community based
recreation centers until the pandemic of 2020. Miss Ally looks forward to meeting new dancers
and helping them better understand how to dance safely while still improving technical skills. It
is Miss Ally’s goal to help dancers develop a sustainable relationship to dance that improves
performance quality, artistic expression, and promotes injury prevention.

Michael Claver

Since the age of 8, performing has been at the center of Michael’s life. Throughout their formal schooling, Michael developed a love and passion for singing, specifically through musical theatre performance. This passion took them to Millikin University, in Decatur Il, where they studied Vocal Music Education. During his time at Millikin, Michael sang with The University Choir for 3 years. While at Millikin, Michael was able to see the world and perform in over 20 states and 4 different countries!  After graduation, Michael worked as a high school choir and theater teacher in the northern Chicago suburbs. In 2018, they journeyed north to Minnesota. During his time with Saint Paul Public Schools, Michael worked as music teacher at The Heights Community school before transitioning to Battle Creek Middle School. Here, they currently teach band, choir, and music explorations. Michael loves telling stories, and using music to empower young people to find their own voice! He is excited to work with IPAC students, and help young singers on their amazing and unique musical journey!

MR. DAN WOLFGRAM

He has always had a passion for the fine arts. Starting in grade school with acting and choir. In high school, at Concordia Academy in Roseville, he continued to grow joining the show choir His People and began helping with theater productions, not only acting but learning about lighting and set design. His senior year he design the entire set for the spring production of “Oliver”. Following graduation he enlisted in the Navy serving 4 years on board the USS Coronado. Stationed in Pearl Harbor and San Diego, he joined a military mentorship program pairing servicemen with high school after school programs. He was able to work with local high school theater programs working alongside their instructors as an aide helping students, while learning more about the technical side of theater. After leaving the Navy he attended the Theater Arts Program at Concordia University, St Paul, acting on stage and designing sets, lights, and sound backstage. In 2004 Dan and Hollie opened a residential care company, Working On Life’s Fulfillment (WOLF Inc), wanting to provide a place for adults with developmental disabilities to call home and be a part of a family. Today they still provide care for those honorary family members every day while helping their son Brady aspire to reach his dreams of acting, dancing, singing and playing guitar. Brady has been a member of IPAC for over 5 years now and loves spending time embracing his passion for fine arts and building sets with dad. As a family Dan, Hollie, and Brady love being able to add a new dimensions to IPAC recitals and sharing BBQ and helping wherever they can with students and staff. They love working with IPAC and truly believe it is Ohana.

MISS RACHEL DESJARDINS

Rachel started dancing at the age of 5, quit for a small amount of time, went to watch the Nutcracker and left begging her mom to go back to dance! Dance has been a part of her life ever since. Rachel has been a part of the IPAC family since her sister started dancing here. She became more involved as the years went on, photographing IPAC Photo Day and as of this year, she is also teaching a few classes at IPAC! A huge part of her heart for the arts is in the story behind the pieces we build and create: “I don’t think there is anything I love more than being able to do justice to a story or a feeling. Anytime I can come close to choreographing a piece that accomplishes that or capturing a moment perfectly in photography, I’m living my dream. I’m excited to be joining the IPAC family in a new role this year and looking forward to investing in this community!”

MISS ALLY DESJARDINS

Miss Ally DesJardins danced at Inspiration Performing Arts Center for six years and graduated from IPAC in 2016. Ally is in love with all styles of dance and is majoring in dance at Belhaven University. In addition to IPAC she has trained at St Croix Ballet, University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Alvin Ailey. Out of her passion for dance comes a passion for inspiring others through teaching, performing and choreographing. Ally is blessed to call IPAC her family and it will always be her home away from home.