Staff

Kayla Daley - Owner/Director/Instructor

Kayla has been teaching dance for almost 20 years. She is originally from Hillsdale, Michigan and started dancing when she was 5 years old. A passion for dance grew as she continued taking various styles and learned more about the artform. She has studied Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Hip Hop, Lyrical, Contemporary, Modern and Pointe, and she performed regionally and nationally as a competitive dancer for several years. She became an assistant dance teacher at age 14 and taught classes of her own by the time she was a senior in high school. She went on to pursue this passion for teaching and performing in college, attending Eastern Michigan University’s Dance Program. In addition to the Dance Program, Kayla was Vice President for the university’s student-run dance organization Dance Forum, and she was also a captain on the university's dance team for a season. Kayla’s noteworthy performances include being honored to perform and have her own choreography presented at the American College Dance Festival, performing in Italy at the Dance Grand Prix Italia, and being selected to perform for the university's Undergraduate Symposium. In 2009 she was the recipient of the Dance Major of the Year Award. Kayla graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Dance (studio management) with a Business Minor in 2010 where she heavily studied both Ballet and Modern dance techniques.

Kayla has been privileged to teach at several dance studios and work with many wonderful students over the years. She was a long-time teacher at Spotlight Dance Studio, Co-Owner and Co-Director of Spotlight Performing Dance Company. During her time at Spotlight, she received several choreography awards and top overall scores for her competitive dances. Kayla was also an instructor and head of the ballet program at Gift of Joy Dance Company. She is now excited to have her own studio, Inspired Creations Dance Studio, where she can continue to share her love and passion for dance in a positive and uplifting environment.

Kayla’s main focus as an instructor is to provide encouragement and inspire students to be the best they can be through quality dance training. Her focus is on building a strong technical foundation, and she believes that repetition, along with hard work and discipline, will help students achieve success. However, she has been quoted for saying, “Don’t just do the steps, dance them!”, encouraging her students to find a connection between the dance steps and music, and to use what they are feeling to “dance from the heart.” She feels that dancing is truly a gift, and she hopes that others can use dance as a tool to help them through difficult circumstances in life, provide them with a method to express feelings through movement, or simply dance as a way to have fun and bring joy into the lives of others. She is grateful for each day that God allows her to dance and share her passion with those around her.

Natalie Conner - Assistant Director/Instructor

Natalie has great love, passion, and appreciation for dance. This passion blossomed when she took her first dance class at 5 years old and it has grown and carried into young adulthood, leading her to pursue a degree in Dance Education. She studied as an apprentice under Kayla Daley who was her head ballet instructor for 7 years at Gift of Joy Dance Company. Natalie has studied ballet, pointe, lyrical, contemporary, tap, and hip hop. She has 6 years of teaching experience at Gift of Joy Dance Company, as well as substitute teaching advanced and competition tap classes at Teresa's Academy of Dance, head teaching preschool movement, ballet, tap, and hip hop classes at 2/42 Community Church’s School for the Arts, and head teaching ballet and contemporary classes at the Institution of Dance Arts. Natalie has been teaching at Inspired Creations since they opened and became the Assistant Director in 2024. Natalie is a certified Rhythm Works Integrative Dance instructor, a dance program geared towards teaching classes for children and adults with special needs. She has used that certification to co-teach child and adult Rhythm Works classes. Natalie is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level Three of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. Natalies main goal as a teacher is to give students a solid technical foundation as well as instill in them the same love for dance that has been such a blessing in her life.

Therese Noch - Instructor

Therese’s love for dance started at the age of three and continued to grow. She studied ballet, modern, and jazz at Ballet Chelsea, and early on she discovered her passion was for ballet. In high school she became a part of the pre-professional ballet company at Ballet Chelsea, and participated in many Nutcrackers and spring productions. She danced the lead roles of Clara, Sugarplum fairy, a swan in Swan Lake, and Hermia in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Along with performing in shows, she achieved level IV Cecchetti and won several awards at the Michigan Youth Arts festival at Western Michigan University. Therese recently has graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a major in Art History and a minor in Dance. At Eastern she performed in several student productions including the lead roles of Black Swan in Swan Lake and Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. Therese plans on teaching and performing and she continues going to school.

Samantha Bowling - Instructor

Samantha fell in love with dancing at the age of 5 and has been dancing for over 15 years. She started her dance journey at American Dance Academy where she studied many styles including ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, modern, lyrical, contemporary, and Hawaiian/Polynesian dance, while also competing on their competitive dance company for 11 years. She has also studied Irish step dancing at Michigan Irish Dance Academy where she has been a part of the Performance Troop. She has had many dance performance opportunities including the Detroit Opera House’s Nutcracker Ballet, Disney Performing Art at Disney Springs, and numerous college dance and theatre performances. She recently graduated from The University of Tampa with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre and a Minor in Dance; and is furthering her education with a Master of Arts in Theatre from Regent University Online.

Along with dancing, Samantha has a passion for singing and acting, and has been taking lessons for over 12 years. She has sung professionally in both Oakland and Livingston counties. While performing professionally, Samantha enjoys teaching voice lessons through her private studio, Samantha Bowling Studio, and choreographing for youth theatre companies. Samantha loves teaching children and adults of all ages and cannot wait to share her love for dance and the performing arts.

Lydia Bonney - Instructor

Lydia's love of the stage began at three years old with her first tap dance routine. She has since studied all styles of dance, including ballet, tap, jazz, acro, lyrical, contemporary, musical theater, and hip hop, with her greatest love being tap dance. Beyond competing for six years, she is an active member of the Detroit Tap Repertory, where she has served as a dance captain and company assistant for the last seven years. Along with DTR, she has also performed with Tap Dance Detroit and Tap 24.7 in shows throughout the Detroit and Cleveland areas, including the Detroit Pistons Halftime Show, American’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Motor City Soles, House of Blues Cleveland, TapSpeak, Murder at the Tap’Ocho, Beatles on Tap, and live on TV. She has taken many master tap dance classes and has had the opportunity to learn from Savion Glover, Jason Samuel Smith, Diane Walker, Gregg Russell, Sam Weber, Brenda Bufalino, Miller & Ben, and many more modern hoofers. She has also worked as an intern for the Motor City Tap Fest. Her performance training extends into music and acting. She has trained with Interlochen Center for the Arts summer theater program and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art of London dynamic young actors program. Always moving, Lydia’s physical training also includes taekwondo, kick boxing, rock climbing, and yoga. Lydia enjoys working with people of all ages and is excited to share her love of dance and performance with her students.

Christy McDade - Instructor

Christy’s love for dance began at age four when she asked her mom to sign her up for tap and ballet classes. She began her journey at Gift of Joy Dance Company, and for the next ten years of her life, learned many different styles of dance including lyrical, hip hop, contemporary, ballet/pointe (as per Kayla Daley) and tap. At age fourteen she started to fall in love with the art of ballet.

After auditioning for The Nutcracker at Brighton School of Ballet, and landing the role of the Archangel in the Cloud Scene, Christy decided she wanted to pursue ballet as her future career. Since this was right around the time of Covid, she began training privately under Jacy Klein (first company member at Alabama Ballet) and shortly after moved to Northville Ballet where she received training in the Enrico Cecchetti syllabus method under a former student of Rose Marie Floyd, Kathy Cooke as well as Isabelle Vidosh, her long-time pupil. She then moved to The Link School of the Arts where she trained under another student of Rose Marie Floyd, Betty Michell, and tested out of her sixth level of Cecchetti in two years! She finished out her training at Brighton School of Ballet where she was blessed to graduate under the tutelage of Katrina Frelich and get some valuable experience in the Vaganova method.

During high school, Christy was honored to attend various intensives and workshops where she learned from masters such as Lauren Anderson (former Principal dancer at the Houston Ballet), Shawn Stevens (former Principle dancer at New York City Ballet), Steve Rooks (Alvin Ailey), Vincent Hardy, Andrew Kaczmarek, and Caroline Sheridan.

After high school, Christy moved to Jackson, Mississippi, to pursue her BFA on scholarship in dance as well as her BA in English. During her freshman year in college, Christy trained under Ravenna Tucker Wagnon, a former Principal Dancer at the Royal Ballet in London as well as Marcie Robertson, a former Ballet Magnificat soloist. She was able to be a part of various workshops where she trained under masters such as Kevin Jenkins, Dianne Maroney-Grigsby, Lisa Hess Jones, Carol Anglin, and Laura Morton.

Christy has also been honored to dance in many ballets such as The Nutcracker, Copelia, Raymonda, Swan Lake and Paquita. Her favorite roles have been Black Swan, Dewdrop, and a snowflake in the Royal Ballet’s choreography of the Nutcracker.

While ballet is wonderful, Christy’s fulfillment comes from her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Christy believes that dancing is a gift from God intended for worship and desires to dedicate everything she does to Him. Her ultimate goal is to glorify God and honor His plan for her life. Christy is excited to see how He’ll use her in the lives of her students this year!

Sara Johnson - Instructor

Sara Johnson has been dancing for as long as she can remember! She began her passion for dance at Gift of Joy; moving to Maria’s School of Dance in 2020. Along with performing in musicals at the Community Theatre of Howell, dance and the arts served as a fabulous creative and emotional outlet through childhood and into adulthood. Post-graduation, Sara has continued to engage with dance through teaching and choreographing.

Sara has been teaching dance since 2020, focusing on Ballet and Tap and later adding Lyrical, Contemporary, Jazz, and Hip Hop. In the 23-24 season she choreographed her first competitive number, which earned a standout award. As a teacher, Sara aims to create an uplifting and upbeat classroom environment, and to instill a passion for both creativity and expression, as well as hard work and growth.

Outside of dance, Sara is currently attending Eastern Michigan University for a Master’s degree in Cybersecurity. She enjoys crochet, yoga, drumming, and playing games with friends.

Bree Bonney - Instructor

Bree Bonney is a homeschooled senior who is excited to be sharing her love of dance with her students. Bree started dancing when she was three years old and has trained in all dance styles including ballet, tap, jazz, acro, hip hop, lyrical, pointe, contemporary and mystical theater. She danced competitively for seven years and has attended many dance workshops and conventions throughout the state. Bree also worked as a dance teacher's assistant for several years at her previous studio and was happy to assist the younger students here at Inspired Creations last year.

Outside of dance, Bree trains in Taekwondo where she has earned her second degree black belt and has served as an instructor for five years. She also loves art and has been taking art classes at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit throughout high school. Her favorite art forms include figure drawing, colored pencils, and pottery.

ICDS STAFF