SSA Staff

Therese has been a children's theater instructor at the Schauer Arts Center for twelve years. She is the current director of their Rising Star yearly musicals. She loves working with the creative staff and talented children. Some of their most recent shows include Shrek Jr., Moana Jr., and Suessical Jr.

Therese has directed countless plays, written original scripts, and taught a wide variety of acting classes for over 30 years. In January 2022, she retired as Executive Director for the Milwaukee Youth Theatre, where she served for 26+ years. She has also served as Board President for the past two years.

Since moving to Winnebago County from Milwaukee, Therese has directed comedic plays and musicals for Fond du Lac Community Theatre. She has also participated in FDLCT’s children’s theater group and on its scholarship committee. Her favorite musicals to direct have been Addams Family, 9 to 5, and Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know. She has also assisted in the areas of costuming, props, and stage management for the organization.

In addition to being involved in Fond du Lac, Therese has also directed two homeschool groups, taught improv classes and directed and written liturgy plays for local Oshkosh churches.

Naiza Delica Gohr has been surrounded by music and performance since an early age. Her first musical debut was around the age of 6, singing Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid at every family party event. Alongside her brothers, she continued singing and added piano, violin, and theater. Naiza continued her musical studies into college, graduating from UW-Milwaukee with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Vocal Performance. In addition to performing in shows like West Side Story, Princess Ida, and In the Heights, she began music directing and pit conducting with recent credits including Shrek, Spamalot, Addams Family, Man of La Mancha, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Willy Wonka Jr, Madagascar Jr, Beauty and the Beast, and Flat Stanley Jr. She is extremely excited to continue her passion in the arts with the Schauer Arts Center for her fifth year! Sharing her love for music and theater, and seeing that passion and appreciation in other performers and artists of all ages is what keeps her happy and excited to continue in the fantastic world of Fine Arts!

Amanda is thrilled to have returned to the Schauer Arts Center and Rising Stars after ten long years! She will always hold a special space in her heart for this program, as it greatly impacted her theater journey growing up. Amanda credits Rising Stars with reviving her love for theater and her belief in herself through their production of Alice in Wonderland back in 2015. That show changed Amanda, giving her a piece of herself back and overflowing her with a confidence she didn’t know she had lost. It shifted the trajectory of her life in theater and sparked a whole new level of passion and commitment to her art. To say she is enthused to join the Rising Stars creative team would be the understatement of a lifetime. She can’t wait to help change the lives of every kid who comes through her rehearsal space the same way the Rising Stars program did for her. She has been teaching dance for five years, including the styles of hip hop, lyrical, tap, ballet, jazz, musical theater, and show choir performance, and has just started dabbling in the world of show choreography. The first musical theater production Amanda ever choreographed received recognition from the community as one of their best-ever productions, and she can’t wait to bring that level of excellence to The Schauer Arts Center as well! She can’t wait to see what theater magic we will all make together! 

And 5-6-7-8!

Anna has been dancing since age three and started classes at the Schauer School of the Arts (SSA) in 2010. She concurrently pursued her dance education from the Academy of Dance Arts, Danceworks, Valley Academy for the Arts, and Milwaukee Ballet. Through Valley Academy for the Arts, she’s taken an intensive course in the systematic teachings of Vaganova, Anatomy, Kinesiology, and developmental movement in children. 

Performing in countless dance productions with SSA, Storybrook Dance, Dance Alive National Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Valley Academy for the Arts, and Dance of Wisconsin has been a highlight for Anna. Taking master classes from Patrik Kasper (Storybook Dance Theater), Andre Valladon and Kim Tuttle (Dance Alive National Ballet), Karl Van Rabeneau, Jennifer Miller, Cyenthia Vijayakumar, and Karlies Kelley, as well as attending Dance Masters of Wisconsin workshops and Milwaukee Ballet’s 6-week pre-professional summer intensive have helped grow her craft. Anna has been professionally trained in ballet, pointe, contemporary, and modern dance, with varying exposure to tap, funk, Irish, ballroom, African, hip-hop, Afro-Cuban, and Latin dance. 

Beginning as a teacher assistant at SSA for three years, Anna then served a dance internship and began teaching ballet in 2015. Prior to 2020, she taught all levels of contemporary at SSA and taught ballet for Milwaukee Ballet School and Academy from 2018–2020. Since 2020, Anna has overseen and taught SSA’s ballet program and is now the Artistic Director for the Ballet Dance program.

Having choreographed original ballet, modern and contemporary group, and solo showcase dances for SSA’s 2016-2020 showcases, Anna also created an original ballet, “The Four Seasons,” in 2021. As of this year, she will now have written, choreographed, and directed a 4-year rotation of ballet stories for the SSA ballet program to perform. “Snow White and the Red Apple,” “Dance of the Swans,” and “Cinderella and the Glass Slippers” will be rounded out by “The Toy Shop.”

Outside the SSA, Anna is a wife, homemaker, and proud mother to two beautiful daughters and twin sons! 

Entering her 10th teaching season, Anna considers it a joy to teach at Schauer School of the Arts. She treasures the opportunity to inspire and help develop your children to become the best dancers and individuals possible!

Celeste started her dancing career with Cashel Dennehy where she very quickly found herself on competitive solo and team trips around the country and abroad. After many years with Cashel Dennehy, Celeste moved to Kinsella Academy where she spent a few more years dancing until life moved her around the country. After two serious dancing injuries, Celeste's competitive career was put on hold but while rehabilitating, she was able to use her experience to teach dance and tutor young dancers in their careers. While living in South Korea, Celeste was the ambassador for the Cambodian National Dance Team and traveled with them on tour before returning to the states. After moving back to Wisconsin, she joined The Milwaukee Irish Dance Company and has been performing with them for the past 7 years. She is currently studying for her TCRG (International Irish Dance Certification), which provides an international, standardized teacher certification for Irish dance teachers. Along with teaching for the Schauer Arts Center, she also teaches choreography and competitive dancing in Milwaukee, and after teaching at Schauer School of the Arts for many years, Celeste is now the Artistic Director for the Irish Dance program.

Autumn was a student at the Schauer School of the Arts for 11 years. She started off with Ballet and eventually added in Irish dance. She greatly enjoyed being a part of the Irish Troupe for 3 years, and Captain for 2. After graduating in 2019 she spent one year with the Milwaukee Irish dance studio doing her first competition in early 2020. Alongside training she was a teacher's assistant for 5 years at the Schauer Arts Center before teaching her own classes for one year. On her own time she also has taught private in-home lessons for 5 years. 

Eric started the hobby of ballroom dancing at age 25 as a student of Social Life Dance Center is Wisconsin. Danced socially and competitively at a beginner level off and on for about 5 years. Since that time, he has continued to dance socially.

Katelyn had been dancing since she was two, doing many different styles, including ballet, contemporary, pom, and hip hop. When she started dancing at the Schauer Arts Center in 2015, she found a passion for ballet. In her time at SSA, she has participated in nine showcases and two Land of Sweets performances, taking on lead roles as the Evil Witch in Snow White and the Red Apple, was a part of the Swan Trio in Swan Lake, Lady Tremaine in Cinderella and the Glass Slipper, Marzipan and the Rose in Land of Sweets. Katelyn has taken contemporary at the Schauer Center since 2019 under Anna Nowicki, Mattie Zimmer, and Jasmine Uras. She has been en pointe for two years and received training from Milwaukee Ballet. For the last three years, since 2021, Katelyn has been an assistant ballet teacher to Miss Anna, and she completed an internship with her this summer. Katelyn loves working with young children in and out of dance. Katelyn is currently a childcare teacher to infants to five-year-olds at the YMCA in West Bend, alongside babysitting. Katelyn loves helping “littles” grow and develop in their dancing and as humans. She hopes to continue her education by becoming a teacher or working in childcare.

Black’s Flower Shop (Mary Black & Carley Shipley) — Floral & Greens

Jen Carviou—Wine & Art
 

Jeanne Kollmeyer is a Milwaukee-based visual artist and educator specializing in acrylic painting as her medium. She has worked in the Milwaukee area for many years as a youth educator and has developed a love of painting small works using bright colors and simple compositions. Her favorite subjects include fruit and vegetable still lives, flowers in pots, and seaside-themed paintings. She has recently begun to teach acrylic classes to adults at several arts centers. Her work has been displayed at the MARN marketplace and can also be found at Ebb and Flow Design Company in Riverwest.

Terri’s love for basket weaving started 25 years ago after taking a class at a local craft store. She had a great desire to learn more and this led to wanting to teach others to weave too. Terri is a member of the Wolf River Basket Guild and has attended the Siever's Fiber Arts School where she has the ongoing opportunity to learn from many basket weaving masters.

Lindsay is a business analyst by day and a creative 24/7/365. She loves sharing her enthusiasm for creative expression with students of all ages. Primarily a self-taught artist, she enjoys trying new and mixing different medias.

Terese is pleased to be teaching Preschool Music, Musical Theater, and all elements of music and theater for Arts Immersions at our beloved Schauer Center. In her past Schauer Center experiences, she has worked in most Technical areas, directed for summer Choral Camps and a Children's Choir, and music-directed for Rising Stars. Privately, Terese teaches beginning to intermediate bass guitar, cello, drums, guitar, piano, ukulele, viola, violin, and voice. She also loves teaching and leading music at Hartford Bible Church. For 13 years, she directed spring plays and coached Forensics at Hartford Union High School. Terese was a homeschool mom of four, is now a grandmother to two (so far!) and is an avid self-taught organic gardener/orchardist. In addition to formal education, many years of experience directing and performing with professional (Acacia Theatre), school (colleges, HUHS), and community groups (Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, Hartford Players, and others) have taught her that it's wonderful to be on all sides of any creative endeavor!