URBAN BEAT STAFF
All of our staff are professionally trained and will offer your dancer a fun friendly environment to learn and grow.  Our teachers continue to dance professionally and train on a regular basis to give your students truly the best when it comes to technique and style.  We pride ourselves on a diverse staff to meet all our dancers' needs.

SHANNON MURRAY (Owner/Program Director) Shannon B. has her BA in Dance Administration and Teaching and has worked in arts management for the last 7 years. She has been teaching dance for the last 15 years in Chicago as well as in Los Angeles. Her experience as a performer includes various music videos, Culture Shock Chicago, Fivestar Boogie Productions, Joel Hall Performance Workshop, Carnival @ Key Club in Hollywood and Americas Top Model Closing Party to name a few. Her extensive background in Hip-hop, Jazz, Contemporary and her experience as a director have made her a leader in the industry. Between her experience in LA and Chicago she can offer students a well rounded training environment for dance. Many of her students have gone on to be professionals in the dance industry including current UBD staff members Christina Rodriguez and Casey Scherrer.  Today she is grateful to have Urban Beat Dance to share her vision of dance with our community.

CASEY SCHERRER was born and raised in Evanston, Illinois, Casey started dancing at the age of twelve with Kids Can Dance. Her love for Hip Hop dance grew as she entered college and began teaching dance classes for  KCD and training professionally with Chicago dance company, Dance2XS. As Urban Beat Dance developed in 2006, Casey continued to teach kids at the studio, but wanted to pursue more in Hip Hop dance. She co-founded CODA, a Chicago based Hip Hop company, and has been dancing with them ever since. Along with local competitions and showcases in Chicago and throughout the Midwest, Casey has been able to travel to Los Angeles and Las Vegas over the last four years to compete at the International World Hip Hop Championships. Casey was also the coach of the Evanston Township High School Pomkits for two seasons, where she choreographed the routine that took 6th place at the 2008 UDA National Championship in Disney World. After five months abroad in Spain, Casey has returned and graduated from DePaul University with a double major in Elementary Education and Spanish. She continues to dance with CODA and is thrilled to be back teaching at UBD!

CHRISTINA RODRIGUEZ has been dancing and teaching at UBD for over 4 years. Christina has moved from the Urban Beat Elite hip hop company to CODA, to an active member of Hip hop Connexion Elite. Christina can been seen dancing at many local Chicago shows such a HYPE, the One, Dance Chicago as well as dancing with local vocal artist as a back up dancer. She is also attending school as a Business major with a minor in Dance. Her recent credits include lead teacher for Black Eyed Peas flash mob on the Oprah Block Party 2009. She is currently the Manager of Special Projects for Dance Community Chicago, as well Assistant to the UBD companies. She is the lead teacher for Urban Beat for two of our After School Programs at Dawes and Linconcwood Schools in Evanston and Skokie for the past two years.

MISSY SMITH originally from Winslow, Arizona, recently came to Chicago from Peoria, Illinois to pursue her promising dance career after performing with The Illinois Ballet for 3 years. Originally studying under Elizabeth Troxler at the Northern Arizona Preparatory School of Performing Arts in Flagstaff, Arizona, Missy was one of the few dancers to gracefully pass the Royal Academy of Dances elite Grades 5-8 levels of technique. She went on to dance professionally with Ballet Tuscon and the National Ballet of Panama, and now currently dances with the Elements Contemporary Ballet here in Chicago. Melissa also has taught Ballet and Jazz at the Northern Arizona Preparatory School of Performing Arts and the CentralIllinoisDanceSchool. She currently teaches Ballet, Jazz, and Hip Hop at local studios throughout the Chicagoland area, as well as, teaches Ballroom Dance to young children in the Chicago Public School.

ANGELINA GRIMA, has received her BA in Fine Arts in Dance at Western Michigan University. During her stay, Angelina participated in many performance opportunities having worked with artists such as George Faison (original choreographer for The Wiz on Broadway), Robert Battle, Eddie Taketa (a company member in the Doug Varone Company), Diane McIntyre, Willie Shives (current artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet) and of course the credited faculty. She was also the recipient of many scholarships through her dance major. Angelina was a member of the student touring company “Western Dance Project,” which received national honors performing at the Gala Concert at American College Dance Festival. She was a member of “Hip-Hop ConnXion: Rhythmic Soul Project,” a student run hip-hop company based out of Chicago, IL for which she choreographed. Angelina currently tours nationally on staff with Monsters of Hip-hop and the recent Monsters of Contemporary convention. This past summer she was featured at the B96 Summer Bash, performing behind DJ Flipside of B96, featuring artists such as Jesse McCartney, Danity Kane, and T-Pain for an audience of 30,000 people. Her style is said to be quirky and heavily influenced by hip-hop movement and the cabaret shows of the 1920s. Her recent credits include lead teacher for Black Eyed Peas Concert at the 2009 Oprah Block Party.

TONY SUHADOLNIK grew up in Seattle where he started dancing at a neighborhood studio at the age of ten.He furthered his training at the Arc School of Ballet in Seattle and, while in high school, was nominated for several 5^th Avenue Musical Theater Awards. In 2007, Tony moved to San Francisco to train for two years at Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet School’s Training Program. While there, Tony worked with Robert Moses, Alonzo King, Yannis Adoniou and several other Bay Area choreographers. After graduating, he then guested with Moving People Dance Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico before moving to Chicago. Tony is now dancing with Inaside Chicago Dance, and has been working with many Chicago base choreographers.  

ELMO is a Southside Chicago resident that started dancing in the early 90's. He has been trained in styles such as hip hop and African and was a pioneer in Southside dance style called footwork. He is currently a member of the professional hip hop company Chicago Onyx Dance Alliance (C.O.D.A) and has traveled across the U.S. competing as well as showcasing. His recent credits include lead teacher for Black Eyed Peas concert for the 2009 Oprah Block Party, Hip Hop Workshop at renowned 429 Studio in San Diego and Hip Hop Workshop at Western IL University.

THANH TRAN has been breaking since summer of 2005. He is an active member of Chicago’s very own 3^rd Degree Cypher Arsonists bboy crew. Also, he is affiliated with Phaze 2 Crosstown Combat crew that has been around since 1982. You can find him battling, performing, entertaining, and enlightening the youth of the hip hop culture. Thanh is known for his unique creative style and his quick feet. He believes from his prior knowledge and experiences he can teach others to open their minds to the real world of bboying which is why is excited to be teaching at UBD.

STEPHANIE PAUL is a native New Yorker who has proudly called Chicago her home since 2002. While working towards a B.S. in Communication Studies at Northwestern University, she discovered her passion for rhythm and dance as a member of Boomshaka, NU's percussion/dance/rhythm ensemble and as a student of Billy Siegenfeld (Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Artistic Director). After co-directing Boomshaka for two years, Stephanie graduated from Northwestern in 2006 with an undeniable need to continue creating, performing and educating.  In July 2006 she co-founded Be the Groove, a Chicago-based rhythmic performance ensemble, and she also serves as the group’s Artistic Director. When not working with Be the Groove Stephanie devotes her time to teaching dance and absolutely loves it.

KARLO FAMILARA, is the founder and artistic director of Design, a new company established in April 2009 in Chicago. He first began his training with Culture Shock Chicago in 2000. In 2001 he became a member of Hip Hop ConnXion Elite and remained artistic director of the company from 2001-2009. He has taught nationally and internationally in places such as China, Ireland, England, and throughout the U.S. His television credits include Dance Fever and just recently the Oprah 24th Season Kickoff Party performing alongside the Black Eyed Peas where he was hired as the lead dancer and assistant choreographer teaching 21,000 people, the largest flash mob in history. Karlo’s main focus is his passion to choreograph and teach. Although he experiments with all genres of movement, his inspiration is mostly pulled from soulful R&B music and the movie musicals of the 1930s and 1940s. Karlo plans to stay here in Chicago and travel throughout the world to further his training and knowledge.

CANDUS SUPPELSA has been a fitness professional for 17 years - loving every minute of it!  She teaches strength, interval, step, high/low, and core conditioning classes.  Her newest fitness passion is Zumba (also known as "exercise in disguise"), which she has been teaching for the past 3 years.  If you love music and movement you will love Zumba.  No dance experience necessary!  Candus is certified through the American Fitness Association of America (AFAA) and holds her personal training certification through the American Council on Exercise (ACE).








Jancy Jerome - YOGA I came to yoga for strength and flexibility. What I found was my breath. I have been a runner all my life. I did triathlons in my 20’s and 30’s, moved on to marathons and was finding that my body was becoming increasingly more inflexible.  Yoga not only strengthened my body, it brought back the fluidity that I had been slowly losing.  As I learned more and more yoga poses, I found my body uncoiling, relaxing and feeling comfortable. I studied with Suddha Weixler of the Chicago Yoga Studio.  I have a degree in Recreation and work for Chandler-Newberger Community Center where I teach 3-6 year olds preschool sports.