Emily Morrison
Owner & Artistic Director
Ms. Emily Morrison has held a passion for dance her entire life. She trained with S&R Dance under Mary Berryhill and Nikki Spinden-Meagher in tap, jazz, lyrical, and hip hop, and ballet with Jill Johnson at Studio 121 in Freeport, Illinois. Throughout her dance journey she has had the privilege of taking classes and workshops with a variety of instructors from all over the country. She joined the competitive circuit at age 8 and has not left it since!
Ms. Emily began assistant teaching at the age of 14 and by age 18 was able to take on classes as a solo instructor. She holds a BSW from Carthage College and during her time there also minored in dance. During her college years she continued teaching, doing for hire choreography for dance teams, coaching dance team, and choreographing each year for the Carthage dance show. Before graduating Carthage, Ms. Emily received the first Leadership in Dance award ever to be given out from the college. She now holds a masters in Arts Administration from Winthrop University.
Ms. Emily is now looking forward to her 18th year as a dance instructor. She has not only been an instructor, but she also created & directed two competitive programs for two different studios for 4-5 years each. She created a full jazz and lyrical curriculum for one of the studios, choreographed for her employers as well as freelance choreography for dance teams, coached a dance team for two years, and has become a master at rhinestoning costumes for competition by hand. She has even begun dabbling in amateur dance photography.
Ms. Emily prides herself in understanding that as an instructor she is also a student. To best serve her dancers, Ms. Emily continues to educate herself with the changes and additions to the dance world and is always looking for new challenges! She holds membership with Chicago National Association of Dance Masters (CNADM), National Dance Education Association (NDEO), Wisconsin Dance Masters (WDM), and the Wisconsin Dance Council (WDC) that she renews annually.
On a more personal note, Ms. Emily lives here in Kenosha with her husband and “fur-babies”, is an avid film lover, enjoys reading, and spending time with her family. She is extremely excited to welcome you to her dance studio family to continue to share her love of dance with her students!
Ms. Mckenzie Johnson
Instructor & Assistant Director
Mckenzie Johnson has been dancing for 16 years, she has studied tap, ballet, jazz, lyrical and modern. Mckenzie trained under Emily Morrison as a teacher’s assistant for 6 years before she began teaching at a studio in 2017. She is currently a senior at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, where she is majoring in American Sign Language Interpreting with a minor in dance. During her time at UWM, Mckenzie had the privilege of attending the American College Dance Association regional conference on scholarship from UWM. She has performed in works by local Milwaukee artists, Gina Laurenzi, Dani Kuepper, and Simone Ferro. She has also performed and collaborated in a variety of student works. In addition, Mckenzie has performed in a student composition showcase, performing a solo of her own choreography. She is excited to join EM’s Dance Center to continue her dance journey!
Lily Brill
Instructor
Lily has been dancing for 19 years. She has been trained in ballet/pointe, jazz, hiphop, lyrical, contemporary, musical theater and tap. Lily also trained under Emily Morrison as a teachers assistant for 2 years. Lily is currently student teaching in wheeling Illinois. Lily also spent 3 years teaching ballet, tap, hiphop, and jazz at the town of Normal, Park District. She is a senior at Illinois State University studying Elementary Education. She is also apart of their dance minor program. Lily loves working with kids. She has spent 2 years as an overnight camp counselor and 1 year as a supervisor at JCC Camp Chi. Lily is so excited to be part of the EM’s family!
Sarah Kangas
Aerial & Acro Instructor
Coach Sarah is the child of a ballerina and danced in her youth recreationally. Due to her high energy, and short attention span (that’s their superpower adhd!) Their parents decided to also enroll them in tumbling. Their love of combining acro elemenets into everyday life went from there. Sarah has been coaching acro dance since 2024, but before that was a full certified usag competitive gymnastics coach. Starting in 2014 they coached boys competitive gymnastics in Chicago, Illinois and upon moving to Wisconsin in 2018 they added girls xcel and junior Olympic track coaching, eventually ‘retireing’ in 2021.
Outside of the studio Sarah is a special education high school teacher in Racine. Obtaining degrees in psychology, sociology, leadership, and literacy in their lifetime. They also are an Aerial circus teacher and performer. They own their own circus show and spends all summer and fall touring the Midwest performing (dinder brothers circus). They enjoy reading, working out, dancing, and swimming like a mermaid.
They are proud to say that their son is a senior dancer on EM’s competitive team. Choosing to coach at Ems was an easy one becuse Ems values and goals align with their coaching philosophy. Sarah believes in supporting the whole athlete; strong body, strong skills, and strong mind. Focusing on positive reinforcement and acknowledging real emotions (such as fear, sadness, excitement, and joy) they are able to shape athletes into well rounded dancers/ gymnasts that feel successful on and off the floor.
Abby Minneci
Instructor
Abigail Minneci has been dancing for 14 years. She began at EM’s 3 years ago as a competitive student training in the styles of contemporary and hip hop and eventually expanding to jazz, open, tap, modern, and advanced ballet. She has been assisting in a variety of classes for the past two years. Abby plans to attend college with a minor in dance so she can continue her passion. She is looking forward to teaching in the fall.
Kailee Richardson
Instructor
Kailee Richardson has been dancing for 14 years training in styles of jazz, ballet, tap, contemporary, and hip hop. She has worked as an assistant for 2 years and began teaching last year. Kailee loves to teach young dancers and watch them grow and find a passion for dance. She hopes to continue dancing in college and is excited to continue teaching this fall.
Madelyn Richardson
Instructor
Madelyn Richardson has been dancing for 14 years. She has been trained in the styles of ballet/pointe, jazz, hip hop, tap, and lyrical. She has been training as an assistant for 2 years. Maddie plans to minor in dance in college and hopefully continue to teach dance in the future. She loves working with the young dancers and is excited to teach at EM’s Dance Center this fall.
Kristen Wiginton
Instructor
Kristen has been dancing for the better part of 36 years. She has been teaching and choreographing for 24 years. Some other fun items when it comes to her dance history are, she was the choreographer for Washington Park High School’s theater department for 12 years. She was in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times. She also used to be a backup dancer for Weird Al! She has taught pretty much everything from 2-3 year old baby classes, senior citizen tap classes, and everything in between. This includes both recreational and competitive dancing. Her personal favorite styles are Jazz, Tap, Lyrical, Contemporary, and Ballet/Pointe. She is a mother to two wonderful little boys ages 6 and 2, whom she hopes to introduce to the dance world now that she has found this new home. She also has a wonderful husband who has been very supportive of her getting back into dance and trying to help her find her way again since the closure of the last studio she was at, The Racine Studio of Performing Arts. She is super excited to jump back into teaching, and passing on her knowledge to the next generation.