Artistic/Co-Director
Terrell Davis is also the Founder/Artistic Director of Davis Contemporary Dance Company. He was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He has a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in dance from Western Illinois University (WIU). His dance training began at Lincoln Park High school in Chicago with Efe McWorter. He was a full scholarship student at the Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre. At JHCDT he trained with Rodni Williams who introduced him to the Horton Technique. Mr. Davis was awarded to full six week scholarships to the pretigious American Dance Festival. At WIU he trained with Candice Winters-March, Heidi Clemmons, and Denise Breakfield. Was award Outstanding Student Performer at the AMrican College Dance Association. He also Co-Directed the Gwendolyn Brooks Cultural Center Dance Troupe with Keesha Jackson and was a member of the University Dance Theatre.
He got his professional start with the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company with the blessing of Founder Jeraldyne Blunden, and worked with the legendary artist Sherri “Sparkle” Williams. His journey then brought him to Denver to join Cleo Parker-Robinson Dance Ensemble (CPRD), where he danced for six years. He was a Principal Dancer and also served as Assistant Rehearsal Director for the company. While at CPRD he danced many lead roles and also worked and trained with master teachers and choreographers such as Milton Myers, Donald Mckayle, David Rousseve, Nejla Yatkin, Christopher Huggins, Ronald K Brown, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Kevin Iega Jeff, Gary Abbott, Marceline Freeman, Randy Brooks, Susan Richardson, Miljenko V. Banovic, Jelon Vieira, Kris Kehl, Lizanne McAdams-Graham and Robert Sher-Machherndl just to name a few. He also danced with Moraporvida Contemporary Dance Company with Jacob Mora. As a Royal Caribbean Dancer/Dance Captain it allowed him to dance and travel the world with one of the leading cruise lines with Royal Caribbean Productions. He appeared and was featured in the Starz on Demand “I like the Way You Move” Halloween commercial in 2010. He danced in Kaia Kena’s music video “It’s Right.” He also choreographed the lyric video for Brazilian artist Paolo Meola’s “Sweet Lie.”
Mr. Davis’ teaching experience has been at the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance academy, Academy of Colorado Ballet, the Academy of Classical Ballet, Manuel High School, Smoky Hill High School, Hannah Kahn’s Open Studio, Denver Dance Center, Danza Dance Academy, guest lectured at Colorado School of Mines, and many other dance schools in Denver. He currently teaches at Dance Kaleidoscope and is director of the Elite Dance Company. Internationally, he has taught at the Professional Dance Studio in Novi Sad, Serbia. He has also been an international teacher and judge at the Novi Sad Dance Festival.
His musical theatre choreography credits are productions at Wolf Theatre Academy (WTA) of Beauty and the Beast, Seussical the Musical, West Side Story, Wizard of Oz, Les Miserable, Legally Blonde, Man of La Mancha, Annie Get Your Gun, Rent, Grease, Hello Dolly, My Fair Lady, Heathers, and Matilda. Mr. Davis has Co-Directed/Choreographed Thoroughly Modern Millie, Chicago, and Pippin with Reace Daniel at WTA, and choreographed Oklahoma for Golden High School. He has also Co-Directed and Choreographed Chicago at Denver School of the Arts (DSA). He was nominated for a Bobby G Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for A Chorus Line at DSA. He worked with Steve Wilson and Billie McBride at Denver Children’s Theatre choreographing Rumpelstiltskin, Androcles and the Lion, ArtDog, and The Jungle Book. He also choreographed Toxic Avenger for Breckenridge Backstage Theatre. Terrell has worked with Ballet Wyoming choreographing Night Run, and Human: Skin Deep We’re all the Same in collaboration with Davis Dance. He also performed with Opera Colorado in their production of Aida and choreographed A Promise of Living for the Opera in collaboration with Rocky Mountain PBS. Mr. Davis has also taught and his choreography was presented at the National High School Dance Festival at the University of Madison Wisconsin (Regional) and Point Park University (National).
Recently, he’s choreographed Wonderland: Alice’s Rock and Roll Adventure and Hurrican Diane at the Aurora Fox, The Fantasticks at Town Hall Arts Center, taught at the Snowy Range Dance Festival at the University of Wyoming, was a feature alumni Master Teacher at Cleo Parker Robinson’s Summer Dance Institute for Legacy Week, and taught masterclasses at the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop at CU Boulder. Institute Legacy Week, and taught master classes at the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop.
Learn more at www.davisdanceco.com
Education/Co- Director
Rachel Oliver Young is the Education Director of the Classical and Contemporary Pre-Professional Dance Program at Denver School of the Arts, and a certified teacher through the Colorado Department of Education. Rachel holds an MFA in Dance, as an Arts and Sciences Fellow at CU-Boulder, and a BS in Dance and Biochemistry from Beloit College, having graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Rachel is an American Ballet Theatre® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 3 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.
As an educator, Rachel strives to provide a deep and factual understanding of anatomical information, while encouraging body awareness, strengthening, and an increase in flexibility in her dance classes, and offer injury prevention and dance wellness to students at Denver School of the Arts. Rachel completed her Pilates Mat certification through ITT Pilates at A Body of Work in San Francisco, and has been teaching Pilates for the past 11 years. Rachel holds an MFA in Dance, with concentrations in Performance, Choreography and Somatics and Dance Wellness, studying Alexander Technique and Body-Mind Centering. Additionally, she has worked in physical therapy settings around the country, working one-on-one with patients, educating proper biomechanics and form for injury recovery.
Rachel has performed professionally across the country as a freelance dancer and a company member. Rachel has performed professionally with Avodah Dance (New York), Ballet Afsaneh (San Francisco), Carli Mareneck (West Virginia), Dance Theatre/Shannon (San Francisco), Double Vision (San Francisco), ecnDanceworks (Chicago, now The Moving Architects in NY), Gesel Mason (New York), Presidio Dance Theatre (San Francisco), Shandoah Goldman/Carte Blanche Performance (New York), Shaun Irons & Lauren Petty (New York), Tough Cookie (Brooklyn), You & Me Performance Project (Denver), and the West Virginia Dance Company, touring the Mid-Atlantic Region for three years under the direction of Toneta Akers-Toler and Donald Laney, performing work by Gerri Houlihan, Doug Varone, and others.
As a dance maker, Rachel has created work for women’s prisons, public schools, outside spaces, multi-media performance spaces, and traditional theaters. Rachel’s choreographic work has been presented nationally and internationally, most notably being commissioned by Bare Bait Dance Company, Centennial State Ballet, and West Virginia Dance Company, sponsored by the Atlas Black Box Experimental Studio in Boulder, CO and selected for performance at WestFest Dance in New York and Performática in México, and presented at the University of Iowa, WV Wesleyan University, the Philly Live Arts & Fringe (PA), Dixon Place (NY) and Triskelion Arts (NY).
Rachel has taught dance courses and as a guest artist at public schools, dance studios, women’s prisons, community centers and universities across the country including University of Colorado-Boulder, Metro State University, for the Colorado Ballet, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Longmont Dance Theatre, Presidio Dance Academy, Radford University, Performática, and Pikes Peak Community College. Through teaching Dance & Popular Culture at CU-Boulder, Rachel was nominated by the Theatre & Dance department and awarded the Graduate Part-Time Instructor Teaching Excellence Award by The Graduate School at CU-Boulder.
Learn more at racheloliveryoung.com
