Staff Instructors
Robin Welch: Ballet
Emily Bryan: Ballet, Modern & Jazz
Emily Bryan is a dance educator, choreographer and performer. She holds an MFA in Dance from the University of New Mexico and a BA in Dance and English from Gustavus Adolphus College.
Emily has a passion for dance education and seeks to inspire and challenge her students to grow both physically in their technique and performance, and academically in their understanding of dance as an art form. She has taught in higher education at The University of New Mexico and Red Rocks Community College. In the public school sector, as the founding dance teacher at Parker Performing Arts School in Parker, CO. Emily has also served as a teaching artist in outreach programs at Colorado Ballet, in community and pre-professional programs at Keshet Dance Company in Albuquerque, NM, and in the private sector at Greater San Antonio Academy of Ballet in San Antonio, TX, among others.
Her choreographic works have been presented in many venues across the country and her academic research has been presented at the Congress on Research in Dance (now the Dance Studies Association). Emily has a long performance history that began with the Lincoln Midwest Ballet Company here in Nebraska, and now also includes works by Donna Jewell, Vladimir Conde Reche, Cynthia Gutierrez, Michele Rusinko, Melissa Rolnick, Erika Pujic, Martha Graham (re staged by Eric Newton and Mary Anne Santos Newhall), Jose Limon as part of the American Dance Legacy Southwest Project, and with the Lawine Torren Dance Company in Solden, Austria to name a few.
As a lover of all things surrounding the arts, Emily also has extensive experience in arts administration. She has held press and marketing positions at Keshet Dance Company, Lincoln Arts Council, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and American Dance Festival.
Emily, her husband Austen, and two children, Addison and Jackson, recently moved to Omaha after 10 years of life in the Air Force. They are thrilled to be back in the “good life” and putting down roots in this great community!
Sarah Cantoya: Tap, Jazz & Musical Theater Dance

Bailey Dickson has been an Instructor for Robin Welch and Rachel Vickrey for over six years. Ms. Dickson is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level V of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. Bailey is the Resident Choreographer and Rehearsal Assistant for Heartland Youth Ballet.
Ms. Dickson has also studied at the University of Oklahoma’s Summer Intensive, Regional Dance America’s National Choreography Intensive and trained with other highly-respected Master Class teachers including Elaine Bauer, Victoria Vargas, Michael Vernon, Mauro Villanueva and Leslie Crockett.
Ms. Dickson has performed with Ballet Omaha in The Nutcracker, Omaha Theater Ballet in The Rainforest and Cinderella and in Heartland Youth Ballet performances. As a member of Heartland Youth Ballet from 2011-2019 she danced roles in The Entertainers, Pridelands, Movementum and Vivaldi Concerto created by numerous national choreographers.
Ms. Dickson has choreographed several pieces that were chosen by Regional Ballet America and The Ballet Alliance to be performed in Festivals. She also created a piece for another RDA company, Nebraska Contemporary Dance Theater for which she received the coveted Monticello Award for Choreography.
Katrinka Stayton: Contemporary, Ballet & Competitive Team Director (The Dance Lab)
Katrinka Stanton has been a freelance dance professional in the Omaha area for many years. She teaches ballet, contemporary, partnering, pointe, jazz, jazz/funk, leaps and turns, pilates, yoga and tumbling. Katrinka has choreographed for competitive teams, universities, opera companies, dance companies, high school dance programs and taught for ballet schools in the United States and France. Most recently, she’s specialized in ballet and contemporary competitive choreography for schools in the Omaha area such as The Dance Authority, Cherrie Anderson School of Dance, Tapio Dance Company, Dance Explosion and The Rose Theater.
Katrinka trained with Ballet Omaha, the Omaha Theater Ballet and the University of Iowa and over the years studied with a vast array of instructors such as Robin Welch, Bob Vickrey, Basil Thompson, Jeffrey Bullock, Terry De Mari and Elise Flagg. She also had the opportunity to attend special classes with such well known film, stage and actor/dancers as Tony Shephens and Anne Reinking at Steps on Broadway.
As a performer, Katrinka performed in The Nutcracker in Omaha with the Joffrey Ballet and Moscow Ballet and Dayton Ballet. She also performed Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast with Ballet Omaha and was a guest artist for many smaller regional companies.
Her limitless interests also led her to receive a Masters in Public Administration at Bellevue University and a Bachelor’s in General Studies in Speech Communication from the University of Nebraska in Omaha. She received various certifications in Pilates, and teaches Yoga. A woman of many talents, we are very happy to welcome her to Heartland Conservatory of Dance.
Staff Instructors:
Ana Crowell & Madison Ireland Sykes
Adjunct Instructors: Lauren Beitel & Brian Priesman
Lauren Beitel: Jazz & Contemporary
Lauren Beitel, a Lincoln native, teaches math at Omaha Central High School, where she also coaches the cheer and dance squads. Lauren has her Bachelors Degree in Math and Masters Degree in Teaching from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she was a member and captain of the Scarlets Dance Team. During college she taught at True Dance, and choreographed for their competition team and for local high school dance teams.
Lauren trained in ballet, jazz, contemporary, tap, and hip hop at True Dance, and was a member of the Lincoln Midwest Ballet Company, performing in their productions of the Nutcracker and Snow White. In addition to her local training, Lauren competed at the regional and national level with her studio’s and high school’s competition teams. She also attended summer dance programs with American Ballet Theater, Virginia School of the Arts, American Academy of Ballet, and NYU’s Tisch Dance School. Lauren has also performed in musical theater productions with Lincoln’s Pinewood Bowl.
She is excited to share her passion for dance with her students at Heartland Conservatory of Dance
Brian Priesman: Acting Improvisations
Brian is an Omaha-based Actor and Theater Teaching Artist. As an actor, he’s performed regionally and nationally. Favorite roles include “Hot Blade Harry” in Urinetown: The Musical, the Baker in Into the Woods, Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing, Charlie Brown in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, and Patsy in Spamalot: The Musical. Growing up, Brian studied both musical theater and dance (tap & jazz) at multiple studios throughout the metro-area. As a teaching artist, Brian has taught for the Omaha Community Playhouse, the Nebraska Theater Caravan, the Rose Theater, the Omaha Children’s Museum, and Why Arts? Brian studied Theater and English at the University of Nebraska and Acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Brian's greatest achievements are his two brilliant children, Tess and Ezra.
Guest Faculty & Choreographers:
Kim Sagami - Joffrey Ballet Chicago / Kim Sagami
Armando Luna - Armando Luna Dance
Mauro Villanueva - Mauro
Robert Vickrey - https://www.pbt.org/the-company/artistic/artistic-team/
Nicole Cisler - Choreographer http://www.bremertondancecenter.com/meet-our-staff.html
Altin Naska - Artistic Director Chicago Music & Dance Festival International https://www.plainfielddanceacademy.com/the-owner
Ashlee Knapp - Ballet - New York City Ballet Director of Rye Ballet
Adrian Frye - Ballet - Principal Artist, Ballet West https://www.balletwest.org/dancers/adrian-fry
Liz Reiter - Classical Jazz - Gus Giordano Pilates & Jazz Instructor Kansas City Ballet