Our Team

We are so pleased to offer instruction from these talented and kind dance professionals!

Chelsea Erickson

Director

Chelsea Erickson has been directing the Novi Civic Dance program since 2014. She first studied Vaganova technique under Sergey Rayevskiy before obtaining her Bachelor of Art in Dance from Alma College. At Alma, she participated in many guest pieces, her favorite of which was a cultural exchange at the University of Technology in Tainan, Taiwan, where she was personally chosen to be a part of two select, collaborative pieces.

She teaches many genres of dance, including acro, contemporary, jazz, hip hop, tap, and musical theatre, though ballet is her true love. She draws upon past experience as a Rhythmic Gymnastics coach and Bar Method instructor to inform her holistic approach to instructing dance. She enjoys choreographing unique ballet-influenced contemporary pieces and was awarded "Best Choreographer" at the World Ballet Arts competition regional in Detroit, MI.

Through she has high expectations for her students, she prioritizes a patient and kind approach to dance instruction and encourages the love of dance through the joy of movement.

Miss Chelsea was on temporary leave with her husband and toddler in Nagoya, Japan from January 2023-July 2024! She took several ballet and pilates classes a week at REI Dance Nagoya to continue to develop her dance knowledge.

In the upcoming Summer 2025 Session, Miss Chelsea will be instructing Ballet and Contemporary classes, as well as coaching our competitive students for upcoming regional ballet competitions such as Youth American Grand Prix.

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Michelle Quenon

Ballet Mistress and Assistant Director

Michelle Quenon began her formal ballet training at the Academy of Russian Classical Ballet under the direction of Sergey Rayevskiy in her hometown of Novi, Michigan. She went on to continue her training at Butler University, where she received a BFA in Dance Performance and a minor in English. While at Butler, she danced various roles with Butler Ballet, including the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, the Arabian lead in The Nutcracker, and soloist roles in both Derek Reid’s Waiting for Rides and Marek Cholewa’s Dance of the Amazons.

Following graduation, she spent two seasons dancing with Nevada Ballet Theatre under the direction of James Canfield, where she danced in The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty and Cynthia Gregory’s Swan Lake. She also had the opportunity to work with artists from Cirque du Soleil during NBT’s annual collaboration with Cirque.

After her time with NBT, Michelle moved back to the greater Indianapolis area to join Ballet Theatre of Indiana, where she danced the role of Giselle in Giselle, as well as the roles of Renfield in artistic director Stirling Matheson’s Dracula, and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker.

Miss Michelle is the current Artistic Director at Ballet Chelsea in Chelsea, MI.

Wendi Stepchuk

Instructor

Wendi Stepchuk received her Bachelor of Fine and Applied Arts degree from the University of Akron. Studying dance in Akron, Ohio, she has performed in Repertory Dance Concerts, Choreographer's Workshops and a traveling dance company. She has been dancing since the age of 4 in all genres of dance, specializing in ballet, pointe and lyrical. Wendi performed in the Detroit Nutcracker Ballet under director Iacob Lascu, on the stages of the Ford Theater, the Fox Theatre, and the Detroit Opera House. This included ensemble and solo roles.

Wendi has been teaching dance for 30 years including ballet, pointe, lyrical and tap for dancers ages 2 through adult. She has been a Guest Artist at Churchill High School in the Creative And Performing Arts Program, where she is an alumni of the dance program. Wendi was the dance instructor at the Academy of the Sacred Heart School for multiple years. She has been teaching at the Dance Centre for 30 years and has taught at Angie Hahn’s Academy of Dance and as a Guest Artist at other local studios.

Grace Russell

Instructor

Grace began her early dance training at Dance Alliance in Saline, where she was immersed in the styles of ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical and modern. Deciding to hone in on her classical ballet training, Grace attended the Academy of Russian Classical Ballet in Wixom, MI under the tutelage of Sergey Rayevskiy. Rising to the highest level in the studio, she performed many leading roles in the Nutcracker and spring productions as a student at ARCB.

Grace furthered her ballet and contemporary training by attending intensive programs at the Kirov Academy of Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet Academy, Complexions, and Alonzo King LINES Ballet. She attended the year-round program at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet in New York City, under the tutelage of Gelsey Kirkland. In 2010, she traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia to participate in the Dance Open Festival on scholarship. At age 17, Grace also placed in the Top 12 Senior Classical Division at the Youth American Grand Prix in Indianapolis, IN.

Since 2014, Grace has been teaching at dance studios all around Metro Detroit. She has also been a company member and choreographer for Ballet Edge Detroit since 2020 and loves to perform when she can.

In 2024, Grace furthered her ballet education by completing Valentina Barsukova’s teacher training program.

She loves sharing her passion for dance with her students and challenging them to push out of their comfort zones to grow as artists and individuals.

Graces’s students have received invitations to programs such as: Alvin Ailey, Hope College, University of Michigan Department of Dance, Nevada Ballet Theater summer intensive, Grand Rapids Ballet summer intensive, Cincinnati Ballet summer intensive, Eisenhower Dance summer intensive and Cecchetti summer intensive.

In addition to working in the dance studio, Grace is also going into her third year as a certified personal trainer, specializing in strength training, group fitness classes and cross training for dancers.