Southport Performing Arts Conservatory

Mr. Altin Naska is an internationally known award winning choreographer, dancer, and master teacher, with over two decades of performing experience in Europe and the United States. He was a soloist with Istanbul State Opera and Ballet and Istanbul City Theater in Turkey, also; soloist with Tirana State Opera and Ballet in his native Albania where he graduated from the Albanian Academy of Ballet and studied choreography at the Tirana Institute of Arts.

Reggio 'The Hoofer' McLaughlin began his career dancing in the subways of Chicago, where he developed his unique and extraordinary style of hoofing. Now he is a Chicago tap icon. Reggio has been profiled on educational television programs, numerous news highlights, magazines and books. He is currently appearing in a tap documentary called 'JUBA-Masters of Tap', partnering the legendary Ernest 'Brownie' Brown. He is also featured tap dancing in a documentary due out in 2005 on the legendary singer Nat King Cole.

Michelle Burger passion for dance has followed her for a total of 19 years. A 2007 Ball State University graduate, Michelle received her B.A. in Dance Performance, with a minor in Religious Studies. While at Ball State she received the Alumni Award in Dance, and Upper-class Scholarship in Dance, as well as Academic Honors. She has had the opportunity to work with and perform pieces by Gail Benedict, Bill Evans, Doris Ressl, Sarah Semonis, Audra Sokol and Lou Ann Young.

Jessica's dance background includes over 19 years of dance including ballet, tap, jazz, pointe, modern, hip-hop and b-girling (break-dancing). In college, Jessica was a member of the NDA-competitive University of South Dakota dance team, took classes in the University of Minnesota dance program and was on scholarship with the Zenon Company and School in Minneapolis and with Joel Hall Dance Center in Chicago. She has performed for numerous choreographers through her scholarship at Zenon and experience as a professional dancer for various dance teams.

Irena A. Svidovsky, originally from Belarus, is a professional DanceSport competitor specializing in the Latin style. Although her first experiences with dance were jazz and ballet, she ultimately fell in love with ballroom. She first performed and competed in high school, but left dancing behind to study computer animation in college. Soon after graduating, Irena realized how much she missed dancing and quickly resumed training and competing.

AJ Tran began informally dancing at the age of 9. She started choreographing and dancing on a Hip Hop team, named Hypnotik, at the age of 14. She fell in love with the culture, and was appointed President the next year. In 2010, she led Hypnotik to be the first dance team in Northside’s history to be awarded 1st place in the annual talent show. Today, she still holds the title as President and is the director and choreographer of the team.

Cheryl Cavey moved to Chicago four years ago from Colorado to pursue a career in dance. She briefly attended Columbia College Chicago as a Dance Major at before moving on to a work study position at Visceral Dance Center where she currently trains. She is incredibly grateful to have worked the likes of Darrell Jones, Nick Pupillo, Ricky Ruiz, and Van Collins, as well as various companies around the Chicago area including Rasa Dance Chicago, The Laboratory Dancers, and currently with Esoteric Dance Project.

Daniel Haywood, known as BRAVEMONK in the Hip-Hop community, is an eclectic, passionate, and energetic soul whose dance was inspired by Gung-Fu, his older siblings, and various street dance styles.