Meet the Faculty
Janet Blacik
Director
Janet Blacik has been the Director of MYDT since 1994, first as a partnership and then incorporated in 2001. Janet has a background in studio art, civil engineering and business management. She tap danced as an adult (not very well) for 4 years. She's hoping her love of dance will keep her young.
Emily Blacik Joos
Assistant Director | Ballet | Modern
Emily has been teaching at MYDT for over 20 years. Prior to her career as a teacher and choreographer, Emily was a founding member of Li Chiao-Ping Dance, with whom she performed around the country including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Emily is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Dance Program with a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography.
Margaret Marinoff
Ballet | Pointe
Margaret studied dance at the University of Utah and the University of Minnesota where she received a BFA in Dance. She has also trained with many prestigious teachers across the United States, and has performed with the Continental Ballet.
Conley Pitzl
Ballet | Jazz | Modern | Musical Theater
Conley Pitzl is a graduate of MYDT and has been teaching there since 2017. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in dance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and recently achieved her doctorate in physical therapy from the University of Minnesota.
Chloe Sekhran
Ballet | Jazz | Modern | Musical Theater
Chloe is a graduate of MYDT and attended the University of Iowa, where she earned degrees in Dance and Marketing, and completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training. In addition to dancing at MYDT, Chloe has attended multiple dance intensives, including training at Minnesota Dance Theatre and Interlochen Center for the Arts. She has performed in works by various choreographers throughout the Midwest, including Eloy Barragan, Kristin Marrs, Margaret Marinoff and Emily Blacik Joos. Chloe has been teaching at MYDT since 2020.
Brittany McMillan
Acro | Combos
Brittany McMillan was born in Los Angeles, CA. Her family was in the entertainment industry, so performing arts were part of her life at an early age. At the age of two, she started dancing and singing at The Lost Angeles Academy of Performing Arts. Upon moving to Minnesota, Brittany began taking gymnastics and competed gymnastics at Tartan High School. Dance became a big part of her life again once her first daughter started dancing. She has experience teaching preschool classes, creative movement, ballet, tap and acro.
Genesis
Mora-Hernandez
Jazz | Combos
Genesis first studied ballet at Minnesota Dance Theater and then entered MYDT where she danced for 10 years and from where she graduated in 2023. She is also a graduate of Minnesota Virtual Academic High School, and began working full-time in the fall of 2022 at Spanish Immersion Bilingual Childcare and Education Center. She will be finishing up her Child Development Associates Degree this fall!
Marrisa Starr
Ballet
Marissa danced at MYDT for 10 years and graduated in 2023. This will be her second year assisting the winter dance team at Holy Angels where she helps to strengthen their ballet technique. She is a student at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design where she is majoring in photography.
Taryn Meyer
Tap | Ballet
Taryn received foundational training at Misty’s Dance Unlimited and Ballet La Crosse in Onalaska, WI, and earned a BA in Psychology with Dance and Exercise Science minors from Hope College. She has studied and performed internationally, including in Paris, Liverpool, Toronto, and Galiano Island, BC. Taryn is co-founder and administrative manager of the Haut Haus Collective, an ensemble of tap dancers and instrumentalists reconnecting and blurring the lines between jazz music and tap dance. She loves teaching and sharing with students what her teachers and mentors have so generously given her.
Liliqui Short
Tap | Hip Hop
Liliqui Short began dancing 18 years ago at Short Dance Studios south of the Twin Cities in Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Pointe, Hip Hop, Acrobatics, Modern, and Lyrical/Contemporary and began teaching at 15. She attended Oklahoma City's Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment, furthering her Dance training while studying pedagogy. She holds a bachelor's degree in performing arts with a dance history minor and continues sharing her love of dance by teaching.
