Faculty

Ali Corbett // Owner, Artistic Director

For the past 12 years, Miss Ali has been a part of the Dance Fusion of Harrisburg family. A native of Mount Pleasant, NC, Miss Ali began dancing at the age of 4 at The Studio, formerly located in Concord, NC. At the age of 12, Miss Ali began her training at Dance Fusion, under the instruction of Mrs. Lauren & Mrs. Vikki Artuso, and became a member of the very 1st competition team at DFH. As a competitive dancer, Miss Ali received numerous high score placements and special judges awards.

Throughout her high school years, Miss Ali was very involved in the theatre department at MPHS and also served as an assistant teacher to Mrs. Lauren. After graduating from high school in 2014, Miss Ali continued her education at Rowan Cabarrus Community College while also taking on a new role at Dance Fusion as a dance instructor for the recreational dance program. Since 2014, Miss Ali has expanded her teaching scope to include both recreational and competitive level classes at DFH. As a choreographer, Miss Ali's routines have placed consistently with highest overall scores and received choreography awards. Additionally, in 2020, Miss Ali became Acro dance certified through Acrobatic Arts.

Miss Ali feels fortunate to call Dance Fusion of Harrisburg her dance home and is excited to continue sharing her passion for dance & performing with her students as the new owner and artistic director of DFH.

Lauren Hinson // Founder, Dance Instructor

Lauren, a 2007 graduate of UNC-Charlotte with a BA in dance, has been teaching all over NC for the past 18 years. Her choreography has been recognized by many in the competition industry and has won numerous 1st place and overall awards. After being accepted into the School of American Ballet, in New York City, NY at the age of 12, Lauren chose to continue her dance training at Broadway Dance Center, also in NYC, and in Winston-Salem, NC at North Carolina School of the Arts. Lauren spent many winters performing in The Nutcracker with Dance Theatre of Fayetteville in Fayetteville, NC dancing such roles as Clara, Spanish, and Dew Drop. Lauren was also very active in Cape Fear Regional Theatre, performing in musicals including, The King and I, Music Man, and Grease. Before entering into college, Lauren spent her summers as head choreographer for CFRT's summer drama camps, teaching musical theatre style routines to children of all ages. While at UNCC, Lauren was a member of the dance team, The Golddusters, under the instruction of Veronica Bradley-Badgett.

Mrs. Lauren coached for the Harrisburg Cowboys' (Pop Warner) cheerleading program during their 2008 season and previously worked as an orthodontic assistant at Chad Johnson Orthodontics in Harrisburg Town Center. In Mrs. Lauren's free time she enjoys spending time with her husband, Brad and their daughter, Mary-Creighton. Mrs. Lauren owned and directed Dance Fusion of Harrisburg for 12 years and is thrilled to get back to teaching, choreographing, and sharing her love of dance with her students.

Valerie Eaton // Acro Instructor

Miss Val began her dance career in New Jersey at the age of four at the Modern Academy of Fine Arts and continued at Kelly O'Shea's Performing Arts in North Carolina for seven years. She danced competitively and traveled around parts of North Carolina and New York to perform. Miss Val has taught various styles of dance

and tumbling classes since 2006 and has choreographed award winning

performances at the competitive level. As an instructor, Miss Val hopes to instill confidence, passion, and joy within each student as they dance and tumble.

In addition, Miss Val is a certified Acrobatic Arts instructor.

Gracyn Gilleland // Dance Instructor

Gracyn has been teaching dance for 4 years and enjoys teaching a variety of genres and ages. Dancing since the age of 5, Gracyn competed for 11 years, both regionally and nationally. While competing, she won many first place awards, as well as numerous overall awards. In her Senior year, she scored the highest score of the weekend, in her division, for her solo at Nationals. While in high school, Gracyn participated in the Advanced Dance Program and her choreography was accepted into the Charlotte Ballet’s student program. Gracyn's choreography has won top awards, judges’ awards, and has placed in overalls at various dance competitions. Miss Gracyn is well versed in ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical and contemporary. She graduated from Cabarrus College of Health Sciences in 2021 and works full time as a Pediatric Home Health COTA/L. Gracyn has a passion for teaching dance, working with children and creating choreography! She is so excited to be part of the DFH Family!

Julia Ryan // Dance Instructor

Miss Julia is currently a student an UNCC, where she is majoring in psychology and planning to minor is dance. Julia danced for 12 years and 10 of those years were spent here at DFH. Julia spent most of her dance career being apart of our award winning competitive team, competing in various styles of dance including lyrical, jazz and contemporary. She earned numerous high scoring overall awards, as well as judges awards at the elite level during her time on the DFH competition team. Julia was a Teacher assistant for many years assisting in classes and camps with Miss Ali, Mrs. Lauren and Mrs. Val. She is so excited to step into the role as an instructor to continue sharing her passion for dance!

Harrison Culbreth // Tap Instructor

Harrison Culbreth is an international performer, teacher, choreographer, producer and entrepreneur based out of Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a highly accomplished tap artist who has quickly developed his own up beat; energetic, and distinctive tap style. With a unique blend of heart, drive and admiration for the art, Harrison has become a highly qualified tap instructor throughout the country. Harrison loves to educate and challenge aspiring tappers to reach their fullest potential. He has taught and choreographed top scoring routines at several of the nation’s Top 50 studios, as ranked by Dancer Magazine. Harrison's choreography has been nominated for an Industry Dance Award.

Over the last several years Harrison has made an impact on several top dog competitions in the game. He has worked with Endless Talent, Applause Talent, Encore DCS, Star Talent, Epic Dance Showcase and Thunderstruck completing various task. Harrison travels the country weekly directing, hosting, announcing, producing, teaching and creating choreography for the events.

Sydney Shaw // Ballet Instructor

Sydney is a current student at UNCC where she is majoring in Elementary Education and minoring in Dance. She has been dancing since she was 5 years old. For 7 years she danced at Bonita's School of Ballet in Monroe, NC. She also danced with the Union County Youth Ballet and performed in their annual production of the Nutcracker. Sydney attended the University of South Carolina as a Dance Education major before transferring to UNCC. Sydney loves ballet and can’t wait to share her passion!

Sarah Grace Burton // Recreational Tap Instructor

Sarah Grace started her dance career at the age of 2, following in the footsteps of her two older sisters and her mother. She loved ballet, jazz, and musical theater, but her passion was always tap dancing. She danced at Triple Threat Dancenter in Winston Salem and became a dance teacher assistant at the studio when she was in middle school which she continued through her senior year of high school. She assisted with a variety of classes and ages, including tap, ballet, jazz, hip hop, and musical theater. In high school, Sarah Grace joined the dance competition team at Triple Threat and won several awards for her tap dances, including First Place Overall and First Place Top Score in Senior Solo Performances. Sarah Grace was welcomed to the Dance Fusion family in 2020 as a Dance Instructor for tap classes. She loves sharing her love of tap dancing with her students!

Kaila Ward // Recreational Hip Hop Instructor

Kaila Ward is a student dancer studying Dance and Mass Media Communications at UNC Charlotte. She started out as a cheerleader at the age of 9, but always had a love for dancing and performing ever since she could walk! In her hometown of Mooresville, North Carolina, she was a hip-hop company member of ELITE Dance Company. She was a dancer and senior leader of her high schools Blue Diamonds Dance & Color Guard team. At UNC Charlotte, she currently serves as the head of Jazz and Hip-Hop of M.O.V.E. Dance Alliance. She is also a member of UNC Charlotte’s Dance Department’s Student Advisory Board. Her latest project was dancing/ensemble character of UNC Charlotte’s rendition of the Broadway musical, Pippin, under the direction of Dean Adams. She currently studies under the Professors EE Balcos, Kim Jones, Todd Kubo and Delia Neil. Kaila is well trained in Hip-Hop, Musical Theatre, Jazz, and Contemporary styles of dance. Kaila is super pumped to be joining the DFH Family!

Makayla Church Rosenberger // Guest Instructor

Mrs. MaKayla graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Dance Education from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has experience teaching students of all ages and currently teaches public school dance. Her ballet training began at NorthWestern Studios and SG Ballet in Boone, North Carolina. She continued studying ballet at UNCC with Gretchen Alterowitz, Delia Neil, Renee Oliver, and former ABT dancer Melissa Coyle. In 2017 and 2018 Makayla trained with Paul Taylor American Modern Dance in New York City. During their intensives she studied both ballet and modern, and performed famous Taylor works. Makayla is passionate about helping students reach their fullest potential and find their artistry in dance.

Carly Cole // Guest Choreographer

Carly is a recent college graduate from UNC Charlotte with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance Performance, Choreography, and Theory. She has spent her life dedicated to dance and chose to continue her training after college in Los Angeles’ most iconic studio, Millennium Dance Complex where she achieved a certificate in Comprehensive Dance Training. She has award winning choreography in the competition dance industry and is an advocate for challenging dancers in their passion, artistry and technique. She believes the keys to life are a little bit of coffee, dancing and a lot of love.