 Shannon Westveer is an accomplished and warm hearted dance teacher. Before coming to All About Dance, she taught at a prestigious studio in Brentwood, CA called Dance For Kids, while also teaching as a volunteer at the Boys & Girls Club of Hollywood. Shannon loves working with children and teens and is very dedicated to teaching others the love of dance. She believes in teaching children how to express their personalities and creativity through dance.
Shannon has an extensive dance background that includes ballet, jazz, tap and hip hop training. She began dancing at the remarkable young age of two, when her ballet teacher made and exception for her, admitting Shannon to the class due to her unusual ability. At the age of four she added tap and jazz to her repertoire, the latter of which has been her favorite form of dance ever since. Despite a rigorous 6 day a week, 3 hour a day dance schedule, Shannon managed to find time for gymnastics— by the age of ten had nearly become an Olympic level gymnast. In addition, while in high school she joined the cheerleading squad where she regularly choreographed team dances for both games and competitions. Given her love for performing on stages, Shannon participated in numerous dance competitions and pageants over the years. She has held several national and local titles including Miss Troy, Michigan, which qualified her for the Miss Teen Michigan USA Pageant. She also danced for Ballet Arkansas, Inc. in the Nutcracker and spent several summers in performing arts dance camps. At the age of twelve, Shannon auditioned onto a Senior Dance Line that gave her the opportunity to participate in competitions like Tremaine, one of the largest competitions in the Midwest. After completing her high school years, Shannon continued to dance in college. During her third year she joined the Synergy Dance Team at NAU. At this time she also began to teach children’s dance classes for the Flagstaff community. She started out as an assistant and within seven months she had taken over the classes as the sole teacher. Shannon taught dance in Flagstaff for over two years and has since taught at two different studios in San Luis Obispo, CA and one in Thousand Oaks, CA. During the summer of 1999 she taught at Pat Jackson’s American Dance for two of their dance camps, while she was also teaching 3-7 year olds at Central Coast Gymnastics Center. After moving to Los Angeles she taught 6-12 year olds jazz and hip hop at Academy of Dance & Performing Arts. Teaching 3-12 year olds made all her years of hard work seem worthwhile. Shannon holds a B.S. degree in Advertising from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. As a native of Michigan, Shannon just recently moved to Chicago from Los Angeles with her husband and looks forward to its endless opportunities! |
