Meet Our Dance Staff

Danika Bielek

Danika graduated from Arizona State University with a B.F.A. cum laude in Dance Performance/Choreography as a scholarship recipient. While at ASU, she benefited from training with significant instructors, companies and choreographers such as modern dance pioneer Daniel Nagrin, Kee-Juan Han, Madame Xenia Christova, Bebe Miller, Joe Goode Performance Group, "Uncle" CK Ganyo, Marion Kirk-Jones, and Cliff Keuter. In addition to training at ASU, Danika took classes at The Phoenix School of Ballet under direction of Kelley Brown and at the school of Ballet Arizona.

Danika's performance credits include dancing with Phoenix, Arizona's oldest modern dance company, Desert Dance Theater and Peak Ballet of Colorado Springs, CO. Other choreographers she worked with are Kelly Roth, David Rousseve, Bill Evans, and Rosangela Silvestre, founder of the exquisite Silvestre Technique. Later, she performed as a modern dance soloist with classical and jazz musicians and founded, choreographed for and danced in the Colorado-based modern dance company, Composite Dance Theatre.

Teaching is one of Danika’s greatest interests. She is honored to have over 20+ years working as a dance educator. Her specialties are contemporary and classical modern dance techniques. She is also experienced in teaching jazz dance, ballet, creative movement for children, dance for musical theatre, movement improvisation, dance history and dance composition. Most recently, she has been in training under the Dance for PD (Parkinson's Disease) program with the Mark Morris Dance Center (Brooklyn, NY) and founded Rhythm Connections for PD of Central Kansas.

Past positions include Dance Department Chair at Pikes Peak Community College (Colorado Springs, CO) and Executive Director and Dance Director of the Bethel College Academy of Performing Arts (Newton, KS). As a choreographer she has directed and choreographed for student companies, has guest choreographed for contemporary companies, and multiple college-level musicals and operas.

Danika is honored to be a part of ArtisTree's Dance Branch faculty since 2006, and a rehearsal instructor and dancer with Prairie Nutcracker since 2007. In addition to teaching at ArtisTree, Danika has recently started working at Barton Community College as the Performing Arts Dance Instructor/Coordinator.

Marla Blickhahn

Marla was raised in Anaheim, California and trained in the Los Angelos area in a variety of disciplines and teachers including jazz with Joe Tremain, ballet with Stanley Holden and ethnic dance at Orange Coast Community College.

She joined the staff of ArtisTree's Dance Branch in 2003 sharing the richness of her California training and teaching experiences.

She, her husband, Henry, Director of Christian Education for Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Hutchinson, and their son have lived in Hutchinson, Kansas since 1999.

Marla is also owner of Necessities, Past, Present & Future, a popular outdoor and indoor antique shop in Hutchinson's antique district & Voila! a vintage boutique housed in the Parkside Building adjacent to ArtisTree.

When she's not at home, in her shop, on ArtisTree's dance floor or the stage of a local theatre, she can be found reading a good book, at the movies, antique-ing or shopping.

Mara Whitaker Klenda

ArtisTree Ballet Mistress

Mara began her ballet training at the age of three in Tacoma, Washington. She has studied with David Howard, George de la Pena, Rebecca Wright, Kimberly Glasco, Boston Ballet School, Wichita State University, and chiefly with Nancy Hervey and Jill Landrith at Nancy Hervey School of Ballet in Wichita, Kansas.

In 1989, Mara joined Ballet Wichita, formerly Metropolitan Ballet of Wichita, as a junior member. In 1995 she was promoted to soloist, and to principal in 1998. Her roles include Sugar Plum Fairy, Dew Drop Fairy, and nearly every other female role in "The Nutcracker", Effie in "La Sylphide", Mazurka in "Les Sylphide", "Paquita", Little Swan in "Swan Lake", Coppelia in "Coppelia" and many others. Mara created roles in Jill Landrith's "Merlin's Song", "Blue", "Torch", and others. Mara also worked with guest choreographers Sean Duus of Kansas City Ballet and Rebecca Wright, formerly of American Ballet Theatre. In 1999 Mara was awarded the Kansas Cultural Trust.

Mara has been a ballet teacher and choreographer in Kansas since the late 1990s. She has been on staff with ArtisTree for over 10 years as Ballet Mistress and now shares the role of Ballet Mistress with Miss Jill. She loves to read and practices Pilates and yoga in her spare time.

Mara and her husband, Chris, are the proud parents of two sons, Digby and Bodie. In the Spring of 2019 Mara became Associate Director and Ballet Mistress of Ballet Salina under the Direction of Tamara Howe, Director of Tamara's School of Dance.

Marie Maugans-Coleman

Marie studied dance with Patrick and Jennifer Crommet from the Royal Winnapeg Ballet, Carol Iwasaki of Ballet West, and Annette Thornton, Artistic Director of the Newton Dance Center. She has studied with various dance teachers including Thalia Mara, William Christiansen, and Rosella Hightower.

She was a dance instructor and choreographer for over 25 years at The Newton Dance Center, Bethel College, and with Newton Community Theatre and a number of area high schools and colleges before moving to Hutchinson in 2005. Artistree has been her dance home ever since.

Full time she is a nurse practitioner at COMCARE of Sedgwick County. Her husband is Dr. Robert Coleman, a podiatrist in Hutchinson since 1985. Seven children and eight grandchildren keep her busy between working full time, gardening, and dancing.

Laura Rocco Mourn

Laura's dance training is rooted in ArtisTree (then Studio 3100) with "Miss Betsie" Andrews. While dancing at Studio 3100, she also studied under "Miss Marian" Fey, "Miss Kara" Davis, "Miss Lori" League, and "Miss Jacque" Eaton. In her early years as a dance instructor with Studio 3100, Laura was also a member of Mosaic Dance Group under the direction of Smruti Patel.

She began assisting dance classes under Miss Betsie while in high school & continued teaching dance at ArtisTree while attending college. She graduated from Sterling College with a degree in elementary education.

She and her husband, Justin Mourn, are charter members of Prairie Nutcracker.

In her 19 years in education, she has taught 2nd, 3rd and 5th grades, as well as junior highschool, in Kansas and Colorado.

She currently teaches agriculture education to area elementary classes as well as teaching her own children.

After living in Denver, Colorado and south central Kansas, Laura, Justin, and their children, Charis and Benjamin are pleased to find themselves back on the plains of Kansas and back at ArtisTree for her 14th year of dance instruction.

Jill Landrith

Jill Landrith has been teaching dance since 1978 and is the owner of the Jill Landrith School of Dance in Wichita, Kansas. She is currently on faculty in Wichita State University’s Dance Department lecturing on Dance History. Jill is also the Artistic Director of Metropolitan Ballet, Inc. after being the Artistic Director of Metropolitan Ballet of Wichita (now known as Ballet Wichita) for twenty years, after being Associate Artistic Director for five years. She created an innovative introduction to dance and the arts open to all children five to ten years of age for Unified School District 265 in Goddard, Kansas, and directed that program for nine years.

Jill was a soloist with the Aachen Ballet in West Germany and a member of Ballet Met of Columbus, Ohio. While she was still in Germany, Jill appeared as a Guest Artist with noted choreographer Robert Wexler, and had many roles created on her by Thorsten Muller. It is her goal to make similar opportunities available for her students now. Jill's dance training includes extensive work with David Howard, Maggie Black, Rebecca Wright and Francoise Martinet in New York City, and Bill Martin-Viscount in Texas. Jill began her studies in dance with her mother, June Landrith.

Jill Landrith was featured in an article in the October 2004 issue of Dancer magazine. Recently, she was a guest teacher for the Washington Ballet School, and has also been a guest teacher for The Springfield Ballet, as well as for schools in New Jersey, Florida, and throughout Kansas.

Remmington Phillips

Mr. Remmington began his ballet training at age 13 when he was first recruited for Metropolitan Ballet of Wichita's Nutcracker. He has never stopped dancing since. He received his training at Jill's School of Ballet and came to ArtisTree by Jill's recommendation as ArtisTree's Boys Ballet instructor.

Mr. Remmington enjoys teaching and performing. He especially enjoys teaching partnering classes. The results of Remmington's first season teaching Boys Ballet at ArtisTree were demonstrated on stage at the Fox Theatre in December of 2018 and May of 2019. In a word: WOW!

Mr. Remmington lives in Wichita with his lovely wife, Katie, a writer and publishing consultant. By day, Remmington is a construction worker on large Wichita development projects.

Molly Zongker Williamson

Molly began dance lessons at the age of six, receiving twelve years of training at ArtisTree. She has also trained with Nancy Hervey’s School of Ballet in Wichita, June Landrith’s School of Ballet in Topeka, The University of Missouri Kansas City, and The University of Kansas.

Molly attended summer dance intensives at Virginia School of the Arts and Joffrey Ballet. While Molly has trained in many different areas of dance, her main focus has been ballet and pointe.

Molly and her husband Pippin live in Hutchinson and are the proud parents of two daughters, Liza and Nora.

Molly and her husband are charter members of Prairie Nutcracker. Molly now dances the lead role as Prairie Nutcracker's Prairie Doll.

2021-2022 Dance Branch Instructors

Laura Mourn,  Danika Bielek, Mara Klenda, Sarah Snider, Betsie Andrews, Marie Maugans-Coleman, Jill Landrith, Marla Blickhahn, and Remmington Phillips. Not pictured: Rhiannon Vieyra.