Artistic Staff

Founding Artistic Director: Kelly Archer

Kelly Archer was born with an urgency to create and to express herself through movement. She began training at a young age and began her professional career while still in high school. After graduation she was chosen to be part of the Edge Performing Arts Center’s scholarship program, which gave her the opportunity to study and perform movement with some of the most innovative choreographers in Los Angeles. In addition, Ms. Archer attended the University of Northern Colorado, where she was awarded both arts and academic scholarships, and earned a degree in theater with an emphasis in directing and a minor in dance. It was during her university training where she fell in love with concert dance.

Ms. Archer’s work has been presented at Jacob’s Pillow’s Inside/Outside Festival, the Tanzsommer Festival in Austria, the Palm Desert Choreography Festival at the McCallum Theatre, the Presenting Denver Dance Festival, and the Rocky Mountain Choreography Festival.

In 2016, she founded Chadash Contemporary Dance Movement, a professional company whose mission is “to stand in the ashes of the barn burned down and point to the moon, one foot in suffering, one foot in hope.” The company creates unique dance experiences through original storytelling that is soul-stirring, thought-provoking, and transcendent primarily through dance, but also employs many other media, including original spoken word, film, visual art, photography, and music. Chadash presents three full-length evening works throughout its season, with company dancers from all over the country.

Also passionate as a dance educator, she founded Colorado Dance Initiative in 2019, a supplemental pre-professional program that helps guide students into the best university/conservatory programs and professional careers. Since its founding, CDI has an almost a hundred percent success rate at helping young dancers attend their program of choice after High School. Before moving to Colorado, she co-directed the Pre-Professional division at Northern California Dance Conservatory, from its opening in 2006 until 2014 and co-directed iMPACT Dance Company, a non-profit, pre-professional program based in Northern California from 2004-2006.

Ms. Archer’s students have gone on to dance professionally with some of the most prestigious companies in the world. Her students can be seen dancing with Nederland Dans Theatre, The Cullberg Ballet, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Szalt Dance, Eugene Ballet Company, State Street Ballet, Wicked on Broadway, and the Rockettes, to name a few. Post high school, her students have gained admittance to such prestigious programs as The Julliard School, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, the Glorya Kauffman School of Dance at USC, London School of Contemporary Dance, Staatliche Balletschule Berlin, The Nederlands ArnemHogeschool, and more.

During her career as a choreographer, dance educator, and director she has become known for her unique ability to combine her skill and training in dance and theater in order to craft work that tells a story; cuts clean through and ultimately has something to say which perhaps could not be expressed in words. Her choreography explores themes of longing, hope, liberation, wonder, and compassion. It has been a great passion of Ms. Archer’s to provide inspirational, holistic, and aesthetic training for her students. Her choreography and classes emphasize a strong, technical base while cultivating contemporary fusion movement to create work that ultimately speaks to the human condition. She also feels the importance of fostering the creative soul within her students in order to develop their own voices to communicate through intentional movement. She is blessed to be able to do what she loves so much and to pass along what she has learned on her journey as an artist, dancer, choreographer, and educator.

Kelly has a burning passion for the arts and believes they hold a power that can heal, transform, and bring beauty into our world. This passion extends to nurturing the artist’s heart as she believes this is ultimately where all great art is conceived.

Associate Artistic Director:

Stephanie McGill

Stephanie McGill is a native of Colorado and received her early training from the Academy of Colorado Ballet and Dance Arts Studio, where she studied ballet, tap, modern, and jazz. She attended Denver School of the Arts with a major in Dance and went on to earn a B.F.A. in Dance, graduating with honors from the University of Arizona. She also received training through summer intensives with Milwaukee Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Columbia City Ballet, and Long Beach Ballet. Stephanie has danced professionally and toured with many Colorado dance companies, including Boulder Ballet, David Taylor Dance Theatre, and 7 Dancers, performing in soloist and ensemble roles. Stephanie is currently a company member with Chadash Contemporary Dance Movement where she also serves as Associate Artistic Director for both the company as well as their supplemental training program Colorado Dance Initiative.

Stephanie began her teaching career at Dance Arts Studio, the studio she grew up at, and has over 24 years of instructing expertise with dancers of all ages and abilities. She is an accomplished teacher of ballet, pointe, creative movement, tap, contemporary, and jazz. She has taught at many studios around Colorado, including masterclasses at Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop, and has co-run the performing group companies and served as the director of the Pre-Professional program at DAS. She is also a certified Pilates instructor and owner of Fluid Movement Pilates LLC, where she believes that movement is an essential healer for the mind and body.

Stephanie will be opening her own dance studio Artistry Dance Movement, in the summer of 2025, with the mission to share with the community and her students her passion for dance and her belief that dance is a true form of expression that helps to shape and mold who we become, and can create a beauty that can help to change the world!

Chief Story Teller in Memoriam:

Judi Daniels

The late Judi Daniels was instrumental in the creation of Chadash and forever will be honored at the heart of all we do. Below is her bio so that you may know her and the role she played.

Judi Daniels is an actress, poet, painter, writer, and spoken word artist. Early on, she acted in community theatre at venues such as the Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City and the Stagedoor Comedy Playhouse in Sacramento and was a member of a traveling improv troupe based in Columbia, CA. She has a Masters degree in Theatre Arts with an emphasis on Film and another in Educational Administration. She taught Theatre Arts, Film Analysis and English Literature and Language classes for twenty-two years. She is currently serving as an Artist in Residence for Chadash, contributing story, poetry, and spoken word pieces as well as film and multi-media production and direction.

Judi has become part of the heart and soul of Chadash. She helps to conceptualize our stories, in part by writing the storyline for the shows, and she also contributes a theatrical perspective for how the dance and other artistic elements will connect and integrate to tell the stories. Through an evolving collaborative process, Judi and Kelly are combining their passions for dance, theater, and storytelling with the explicit goal of creating a process that is life-giving for our Chadash family and our audiences.