Jazz Week Teaching Artists
Karla Grotting is a founding member, principal dancer and associate director with The Flying Foot Forum, who has been dancing with Joe Chvala since 1990. She has toured nationally with JAZZDANCE by Danny Buraczeski, Minnesota Jazz Dance Company and Keane Sense of Rhythm as well as performing in many works with Off-Leash Area. Karla is on faculty at the University of Minnesota and is excited to be a guest artist and teacher at St Olaf College Dance Program throughout 2014-15. Her awards include the U of M Student’s Choice Award for Outstanding Teacher in the College of Liberal Arts, a 2007 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Dancers and a 2010 Sage Nomination for Outstanding Educator. Karla creates her own dance works which blend the unique styles of her tap, jazz, modern and percussive dance experiences and has set original works on the FFF, The Eclectic Edge Ensemble, St Paul Conservatory for the Performing Arts, Keane Sense of Rhythm Social Club and others.
Zoe Sealy a major influence in the development of jazz dance in the Upper Midwest moved to the Twin Cities 40+ years ago. In 1972 she founded the Zoe Sealy Dance Center, which for many years was a primary training ground for jazz and tap artists. In addition Zoe founded and was Artistic Director of the Minnesota Jazz Dance Company and toured with the company in the 70’s and 80’s throughout the U.S. and Canada . Zoe has taught extensively and her work has been commissioned across the nation and internationally in Australia , Canada , the Caribbean, China , Japan , Korea , and Taiwan . She has been on the faculties of the International Music Camp, Jacob’s Pillow, Northwest Ballet, and Ballet Arts Minnesota. Zoe was on the faculty in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at the U of MN for 25 years. Now retired, she continues to freelance as a teacher and choreographer and is active in the dance community sitting on various arts panels, and boards. Her most gratifying work now is advising and mentoring younger jazz artists, helping them to develop their skills and encouraging them as they grow in their chosen fields.
Marciano Silva dos Santos is originally from Brazil. He studied theater and dance in Brazil. He moved to Minnesota after been recognized by the American Folkloric Society as a “Brazilian folk artist of unique and 
exceptional ability and merit”. He has worked with TU Dance, Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater, and in Penumbra Theatre’s Black Nativity. He is a dance instructor at the University of Minnesota and has taught master classes and residencies at Carleton College, Macalaster College, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, ACDFA - American College Dance Festival, Minnesota Dance Education Summit, Distance Learning with The Cowles Center, TU Dance Center, Minnesota State University Mankato, University of Minnesota Morris, Penumbra’s Summer Institute, among many others.
Marciano has developed his own contemporary dance movement in Minnesota and founded his own dance company called Contempo Physical Dance, a company that fuses Afro-Brazilian dance, capoeira and contemporary dance. Contempo Physical Dance has premiered work such as Motiro at the Ritz Theater, Batuque at The Cowles Center and SenZalma at The Cowles Center. Marciano has also produced a solo work called Dialogue of Roots. He was awarded "Best Dancer of 2009” by City Pages, named "the hottest choreographer in town" in Minnesota Monthly's Fashionable Fall Arts Preview 2012, and called "one of the most radiant performers in the Twin Cities" by the Star Tribune in 2013.
Marciano’s Brazilian Contemporary Dance is based on the corporeality of Afro-Brazilian dance explored through the lens of his personal movement research. The dynamic movement vocabulary that has resulted from this body-based research is used by his company, Contempo Physical Dance. Students will explore this vocabulary, work within alternative and changing time signatures and increase their awareness of rhythm, space, weight shifting, counterbalances, fall and recovery. The class will incorporate leaps, turns, the integration of floor work, traveling actions across the floor and the development of a student's sensitivity to effort quality and dynamics within the style.
Linda Talcott Lee is an Emmy award winning choreographer and Broadway veteran who is currently an 
affiliate faculty member at the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Catherine’s. Her choreographic credits include BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at the Ordway Center, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHISTMAS at the Children’s Theatre Company, A SERVANTS’ CHRISTMAS and HORMEL GIRLS at the History Theatre, THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE and CITY OF ANGELS at BCT, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, GREASE, H2$, DAMN YANKEES, 7 BRIDES FOR 7 BROTHERS, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, ACL, WSS, HSM, SEUSSICAL, WORKING, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, CINDERELLA, URINETOWN, 45 MINUTES FROM BROADWAY, VIOLET, BROTHER WOLF, STREET SCENE, VAGABOND KING and RIGOLETTO. Her Broadway performing credits include JEROME ROBBINS’ BROADWAY, THE GOODBYE GIRL, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and SEUSSICAL. Linda earned an Emmy Award for her choreographic work in THE COMEDY HALL OF FAME with Jason Alexander.
Erinn Liebhard is a dance artist passionate about American vernacular dance forms. She 
holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota, and is currently pursuing her MFA in Dance at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Liebhard Co-Founded and Artistic Directs Rhythmically Speaking, an organization supporting and presenting jazz and rhythm-driven dance in the Twin Cities. Her choreography has been seen at Bedlam Theater, the Bryant Lake Bowl, Intermedia Arts, the Lowry Lab Theater, Patrick’s Cabaret, The Phipps Center for the Arts, the Red Eye Theater, the Ritz Theater, the Southern Theater and the Zenon Studios in the Twin Cities, and various other locations in the US and Canada.
She has trained as a scholarship dancer with Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, and has performed for Lisa Conlin, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, the Eclectic Edge Ensemble, Rennie Harris, Gesel Mason Performance Projects, Pat Graney, Karla Grotting, Off-Leash Area, Kim Olson, Jeffrey Peterson, Zoe Sealy, Saint Paul City Ballet, the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers and numerous other notable artists. Erinn is also an active educator, teaching in numerous private studios, public education programs and colleges, including as a guest teacher for ACDFA, Gustavus Adolphus College and the University of Minnesota. She is currently an instructor technique and academic courses at the University of Colorado at Boulder. For work samples and details, please browse this site!