Jennifer Fincham is the Owner and Creative Director of Central Illinois Dance Academy.  She has over 29 years of dance experience, and still continues her training by attending and participating in dance conventions every year.  Jennifer grew up taking a wide repertoire of dance classes, including ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical/contemporary, pointe, character dance, Broadway, and improvisational movement and also competed in numerous competitions throughout the country.  During that time, she has studied with some of the best choreographers and technicians in the country, including Joe Tremaine, Doug Caldwell, Desiree Robbins, Keri LaGrand, Mia Michaels, Chris Judd, Brian Friedman, Adam Shankman, Judy Rice, Sonya Tayeh, Tyce Diorio, Greg Russell, Jeremy Plummer, and David Howard.  Jennifer has competed and trained with nationally recognized convention circuits such as Tremaine, JUMP, Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, Showbiz, Hall of Fame, Star Systems, and Cathy Roe.  Her teaching goes back to the high school days, where she was a 3-time captain of her high school dance team, as well as the dance captain for the National Champion Mt. Zion Swingsations show choir…since its inception in 1977, the Mt. Zion Swingsations have won more national titles than ANY other high school show choir in the country.  The choreographer of the Swingsations selected Jennifer as a Co-Choreographer and staff member for Showchoir Camps of America where she traveled the country for 2 summers working and putting shows together for them.  In college at the University of Illinois, Jennifer was the only freshman selected for the competitive and nationally ranked Illini Dance Team, and spent 3 years with that team. Jennifer was also a member of the Illinettes dance team for 2 years.  She was also a staff member for the Universal Dance Association, as well as a judge for their regional competitions.  Jennifer was the coach of the Mahomet-Seymour High School dance team for 12 years, leading the team to a total of 5 state titles in Lyrical and Dance.  Jennifer has judged at the regional and state level for the Illinois Drill Team Association and is currently a certified technical judge for TEAMDance Illinois.  She has also been the Vice President of Competitions for TEAMDance Illinois, as well as Recruitment Director.

This year, Jennifer will be especially busy in the dance world as the Dance Director for the University of Illinois Illinettes, a technical judge for TEAMDance Illinois, a choreographer for the Maroa-Forsyth HS Dance Team in Illinois and the Murray State College Dance Team in Kentucky, and of course, an instructor at CIDA.  She lives in Mahomet with her husband, Eric, and 5 year old daughter, Bryleigh, and is looking forward to a fantastic year!

Heather Jackson is in her 2nd year with the CIDA staff with over 15 years of combined teaching experience not only in gymnastics, ballet, and cheerleading but in the classroom as well.  Heather started dancing at the age of 3, taking classes from Karen Alwin at Alwins’ School of the Dance in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Heather participated in ballet and acrobatics for many years.  She also took gymnastics at Albuquerque Gymnastics School where she competed for two years. She cheered for four years at Eldorado High School, where her squads won many competitions including 1st place All-City, 2nd and 3rd place at the New Mexico State Cheerleading Competition, and 4th place at the National Cheerleading Association (NCA) Competition in Anaheim, California. After high school, Heather took a teaching position at the Gymnastics Academy where she taught for five years while attending college to pursue her dreams of becoming an Elementary school teacher.  Heather graduated, cum laude, in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from the University of New Mexico.  She moved to Champaign, Illinois in 1999 and started her teaching career as a first grade teacher.  While she continued teaching, she obtained a Master’s of Education from the University of Illinois in 2003.   In 2006, she moved to Cape Cod, Massachusetts with her family.  While in Massachusetts she taught preschool and worked as a substitute playgroup coordinator for the Upper Cape Family Network. In 2008, her husband’s job brought the family back to the Champaign-Urbana area.  She enjoys scrapbooking and stamping as well as raising her two young children, ages 5 and 2.

Katy started dancing at the tender age of 3, taking a ballet class at the local park district. However, when the other girls in the class laughed at her black ballet shoes, she ran out of the class in tears and did not return to the dance world until she was 12. She immediately fell in love with the expressive forms of movement, spending all spare time at her dance studio and taking advantage of any opportunity to further her experience. Katy’s favorite class was Hip Hop, with her instructor Richard Gaines, who performed in Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video. She quickly became involved in the studio’s competitive dance company. When Lynn’s Academy of Dance changed locations, Katy found herself signing up for every class at DancEncounter, Ltd, where her most memorable performance was a pointe routine dressed as Puss in Boots. Katy has also been involved in theatre since a young age. She has performed in productions of Music Man, Carousel, Chrsitmas Carol and Aesop’s Falables to name a few. Katy became a member of her high school pom squad when she was eligible as a Sophomore. She was voted Captain by her teammates her Senior Year and enjoyed the responsibility and leadership that the job entailed. Then, Katy was thrilled when she saw her name of the team list for the Illinettes in 2007. She has been spending the last 3 years dancing with University of Illinois’ official dance team and has trouble finding words to describe the pride and joy she gets from keeping the tradition of entertaining so many Illini fans. Katy is extremely excited to begin teaching Hip Hop at CIDA and hopes that her classes will be fun and challenging for everyone.

Julia Kidd

Julia has a well-rounded tumbling background. She was a gymnast for seven years, a cheerleader for eight years and a tumbling instructor for two years. She started gymnastics at a young age and progressed quickly. By the age of ten, she competed as a level 8 gymnast. After enduring an elbow injury, she focused on cheerleading and used her tumbling talent to stand out on her competitive level 5 team. She competed with Ultimate Athletics in the 2008 Cheerleading Worlds  Competition where her team placed 9th in the world and first in the state of Illinois. In high school, Julia worked at the Crystal Lake Park District in her hometown. She taught many sports, including gymnastics and tumbling. She also worked at Cheer Fusion, a competitive cheerleading gym. She taught level 1 and 2 tumbling classes to children of all ages. Julia is currently a sophomore at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is a cheerleader for the Fighting Illini. She is majoring in kinesiology and plans to teach high school physical education and coach. She is very passionate about tumbling and looks forward to improving the skills of young tumblers.