Guest Artists

Guest artists bring a variety of new styles and approaches to the Carthage learning environment. Their time with Carthage dancers offers concentrated opportunities for artistic growth and development while bridging the academic environment nurtured at Carthage with multiple professional dance communities. Recent artists include:

Gina Laurenzi

A mover, maker, researcher and educator, Gina Laurenzi (she/her) graduated from the University of WI-Milwaukee where she earned her MFA in dance.

Before beginning her chapter in Milwaukee, Ms. Laurenzi was awarded a full merit scholarship to train at Giordano Dance Chicago, later performing with Giordano II and Inaside Chicago Dance, among other Chicago artists. For seven years, Ms. Laurenzi owned and operated Laurenzi Dance (Kenosha, WI).

In her hometown of Kenosha, Ms. Laurenzi presented work regularly and mentored local dance artists of all ages. Choreographing for many arts organizations every season, Ms. Laurenzi has set work on dancers of the UW-Milwaukee Dance Dept., Water Street Dance Milwaukee, Danceworks Youth Performance Company (DYPC), Danceworks Performance MKE (DPMKE), Milwaukee High School of the Arts, Makaroff Youth Ballet (Appleton, WI), Carthage dance students, and the Milwaukee Ballet’s Pre-Professional Program students.

Since living in Milwaukee, Ms. Laurenzi has been able to perform the works of Daniel Burkholder, Simone Ferro, Marie Gillespie, Dani Kuepper, Deb Loewen, Jenni Reinke, Dan Schuchart, Dawn Springer, Christal Wagner, and Morgan Williams. Currently performing with Wild Space, DPMKE, and Hyperlocal; Ms. Laurenzi works to maintain an active performance calendar and connections with many artists in the dance community. Ms. Laurenzi is presently a lecturer at the University of WI-Milwaukee and co-artistic director at Danceworks in Milwaukee.

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Jenna Jozefowski

Jenna Jozefowski graduated from the University of Akron with a B.A. in Dance and a minor in business administration. Professionally, she has performed with Joel Hall Dancers II, RASA Dance Chicago, Chicago Dance Crash, and Chicago Tap Theatre. She has worked as an independent performance artist and choreographer; performing and presenting her work in Rebound Dance Festival, Dance Chicago, the Inaside Choreographic Sponsorship Event, and Chicago Freelance Dance, to name a few.

Ms. Jozefowski is a member of the Midwest Committee of the Cecchetti Council of America and currently holds a Grade IV Teacher’s Certificate. She has completed her iTap Teacher training as well as the Tap Teacher Training Program with American Tap Dance Foundation in NYC. She has been an adjunct faculty member at Carthage and several Chicago area studios, where she also serves as director of the tap performance companies.

Ms. Jozefowski is also an E-RYT 200 yoga instructor and a NASM certified personal trainer, and loves using her knowledge of strength and conditioning to help her students improve their dancing.

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Rebecca Crystal

Rebecca Crystal recently completed a Master of Dance Education program through the Royal Academy of Dance in London. She was awarded the Joan White Prize for her thesis research on creating engaging and meaningful experiences in the dance classroom. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance with minors in English and music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well as dance education PK-12 licensure from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Ms. Crystal is also a dancer, choreographer, and co-director of the modern dance project Delve Dance Chicago. She taught dance full-time in Chicago Public Schools for three years and spent four summers on the dance faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp. Additionally, she has taught at The Chicago High School for the Arts, Joel Hall Dance Center, The Old Town School of Folk Music, and Glenwood Dance Studio, and has worked as a teaching artist with Hubbard Street’s Movement as Partnership program in schools.

She has presented her research at dance education conferences and delivered guest classes to high schools and colleges in the greater Chicago area. Ms. Crystal has also studied and performed as a trainee with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company and has studied Gaga with Ohad Naharin/Batsheva Dance Company.