top of page
Meet our Instructors
Rachael Harding
Owner
For the past 20-plus years, Rachael Harding has built her career around dance—as a professional dancer, teacher, and choreographer. In 2015, Rachael realized one of her childhood dreams and proudly founded Miss Rachael's Dance in Denver, where she is inspired to share her passion for the arts with young dancers in the Denver community every day. MRD aims to provide young dancers with quality, structured dance education and appreciation for the arts in a supportive and enthusiastic environment. Rachael believes dance class is not just about dancing, but about teaching children valuable life lessons, including the importance of a positive self-image, confidence, and respect.
For the past 20-plus years, Rachael Harding has built her career around dance—as a professional dancer, teacher, and choreographer. In 2015, Rachael realized one of her childhood dreams and proudly founded Miss Rachael's Dance in Denver, where she is inspired to share her passion for the arts with young dancers in the Denver community every day. MRD aims to provide young dancers with quality, structured dance education and appreciation for the arts in a supportive and enthusiastic environment. Rachael believes dance class is not just about dancing, but about teaching children valuable life lessons, including the importance of a positive self-image, confidence, and respect.
Jessica Pittman
Teacher & Catalyst Dance Company Director
Jessica Pittman was born October of 1991 in Grand Rapids, MI. Her first eleven years of dance were spent training at a competitive dance studio, Dance Dimensions, to be versatile in many styles including jazz, tap, contemporary, modern, hip hop, lyrical and ballet. Here is where she also developed her passion for teaching students of all ages. She expanded both her technical and performance training by receiving a BA in Dance and a BFA in Painting in 2014 from Grand Valley State University. Through the Grand Valley Dance Company she has studied with renowned guest choreographers such as Lauren Edson, Autumn Eckman, and performed with the Thodos Dance Company of Chicago. Jessica has choreographed for various shows including Home presented by The Schiff Dance Collective, Open Space 2014-2016, Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop Showcases, Denver’s Choreography Collective, Interweave Dance Theater and many more. Along with dancing for Colorado Opera’s production of Aida, she has performed with Denver based companies Louder than Words, Davis Contemporary, Maureen Breeze Dance Theater, and Boulder based company The Schiff Dance Collective. She currently dances with Interweave Dance Theater, Third Law Dance Theater, and is a co-founder of new professional dance company, Industrial Dance Alliance.
Jessica Pittman was born October of 1991 in Grand Rapids, MI. Her first eleven years of dance were spent training at a competitive dance studio, Dance Dimensions, to be versatile in many styles including jazz, tap, contemporary, modern, hip hop, lyrical and ballet. Here is where she also developed her passion for teaching students of all ages. She expanded both her technical and performance training by receiving a BA in Dance and a BFA in Painting in 2014 from Grand Valley State University. Through the Grand Valley Dance Company she has studied with renowned guest choreographers such as Lauren Edson, Autumn Eckman, and performed with the Thodos Dance Company of Chicago. Jessica has choreographed for various shows including Home presented by The Schiff Dance Collective, Open Space 2014-2016, Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop Showcases, Denver’s Choreography Collective, Interweave Dance Theater and many more. Along with dancing for Colorado Opera’s production of Aida, she has performed with Denver based companies Louder than Words, Davis Contemporary, Maureen Breeze Dance Theater, and Boulder based company The Schiff Dance Collective. She currently dances with Interweave Dance Theater, Third Law Dance Theater, and is a co-founder of new professional dance company, Industrial Dance Alliance.
Raelynn Gurule
Raelynn grew up in Thornton, Colorado and trained under Rachael Harding from the age of 8. She has been teaching alongside Miss Rachael at the recreational and professional level for over 10 years. Raelynn graduated from Metro State University with a BFA in Dance and a BS in Sports Science. She has worked with Denver based professional companies Moraporvida and Edgar Page: Feel the movement. She is currently a company member with Industrial Dance Alliance.
Jackie McMenaman
Jackie McMenaman did not take the road less traveled to becoming a dancer or a teacher. Beginning her athletic career as a pint-sized swimmer taking to the water as physical therapy for a broken collarbone, she soon realized that kick-boards and swimming lanes did not inspire her creativity. Opting to get artistic in the water led to synchronized swimming which was supplemented by ballet classes. Not long thereafter, Jackie realized her love (and the greater long term career potential) of being in the dance studio. Henceforth, Olympic dreams were swapped for pointe shoes and a new passion blossomed. Jackie’s dance education began on scholarship with her local studio, and was later supplemented with scholarship opportunities from Montana Dance Arts Association, Ballet West, Summer Dance Laboratory, and others. In college, she owned and operated her own ballet studio where she honed her teaching skills and had the privilege of instilling a love of dance in her students. Upon moving to the Denver area, she joined the ranks of David Taylor Dance Theatre, later Dawson Wallace Dance Project, where she performed as a mainstay and a principal dancer for over twelve years. During that time she was personally mentored by the renown ballet master Nikoloz Makhateli, whom she credits with her technical and artistic development. Jackie has also performed with Gravity Works Dance, Zikr Sacred Dance Ensemble, Summit Dance Collective, Chadash Contemporary Dance Movement, Fox Theatre Productions, Montana Ballet Company, Colorado Renaissance Festival and Delusions of Grandeur Productions. Favorite roles include the Dewdrop Fairy and the tipsy maid in DTDT’s Nutcracker, the nymph in Makhateli’s Morning in a Field, and the beatnik girl in Jeoff Horgan’s Cheek to Cheek.
Rhianna Cranston
Rhianna Cranston is a professional dancer, educator, and choreographer based in the Denver area. Born and raised in Kansas, Rhianna has diligently trained and performed in a diversity of techniques, including ballet, tap, jazz, modern, hip hop, and contemporary. She received her B.F.A in Dance from University of Kansas, where she served as President of UNITY Hip Hop Dance Crew and choreographed and performed multiple works for The University Dance Company along with student produced shows. After graduating, Rhianna moved to Colorado to dance with Cleo II at Cleo Parker Robinson Dance (CPRD) for a season before becoming a member of the CPRD Arts in Education Team, where she is currently teaching dance education in schools. Rhianna is also a certified Wolf Trap Teaching Artist for the Greater Denver area, teaches in studios, and does freelance guest instructing and choreography for dance and pom teams. She is grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the MRD family, and is eager to share her passion for dance education and performance with the community!
Amy Robinson
Amy began her dance training here in Denver at the age of 4, where she studied at a variety of studios in the area. She went on to receive a B.F.A. in Dance with a minor in Psychology from the University of Kansas, during which time she studied Modern, Jazz, Ballet, Lyrical, Contemporary, Musical Theater, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical East Indian while also performing with the University Dance Company under artists from such companies as the Kansas City Ballet, Parsons Dance and the Jose Limon Company. In addition to teaching for Miss Rachael’s Dance, she has taught students of all ages at Aurora Dance Arts for the past ten years, where she also choreographed for numerous recitals and productions including "The Nutcracker", "Fairy Tales from Around the World" and "Alice in Wonderland". She has performed with a variety of Denver-based companies, including Kim Robards Dance, Avatar Movement Dance Company, Radical Love Movement, and Davis Contemporary Dance Company.
Maggie Trela
Maggie Trela is thrilled to be teaching this season with Miss Rachael’s Dance! She is originally from Denver, a graduate of Denver School of the Arts and has trained in tap, ballet, jazz, lyrical and modern dance at several studios around the state. In addition to her background in dance, she is also an actor and theatre educator, and spent the first part of her career working in Los Angeles.
Besides teaching at MRD, Maggie works at the JCC Denver with the pre school enrichment program.
Besides teaching at MRD, Maggie works at the JCC Denver with the pre school enrichment program.
Mariah Williams
Mariah Williams was originally born and raised in Austin, Texas. Mariah recently graduated from MSU Denver with a degree in Psychological Sciences and a minor in Dance. Mariah grew up playing soccer for 18 years, however, she has always loved to dance and was on the dance team in high school. This is her third year teaching with MRD!
Adrian Ashdown
bottom of page