Last month we shared about the partnership between Chehalem and the Newberg High School dance team. CVDA has another community partner: George Fox University. Kristen Stoller is currently an adjunct dance professor and has been the dance team coach at the college in the past. This year Michelle Berg is coaching the GFU cheer team.
Michelle is a CVDA alum and the current tumbling instructor at both the Newberg and McMinnville studios. Besides dancing at CVDA, she has a background in power tumbling, cheerleading at Newberg High School, and the University of Oregon for four years, where she earned her degree in Sociology. After college, Michelle was recruited to audition for the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. Out of 500 women, she made it to the final round of 50. Outside of teaching tumbling and coaching cheerleading, Michelle works at A Family Place http://www.familyplacerelief.org as an outreach interventionist/teacher interventionist.
As the head cheerleading coach at George Fox, she provides a fun and energetic environment for the 15 cheerleaders and helps them gain skills in stunting, dancing, cheering, and tumbling. Michelle notes there are differences between teaching and coaching.
“At CVDA I focus on teaching technique and I tailor my lesson plans to focus on the growth of each individual,” she said. “With the GFU cheer team I mainly focus on team preparation that includes members working together to gain new skills and adjust existing skills to build a cohesive group.”
Michelle believes having diverse faculty members that are involved and collaborating in various pursuits in the community enhances the dance community in and around Newberg. “Kristen Stoller is one of my biggest role models. Watching how she runs her business and interacts with the community inspires my work with the GFU cheer team and in my other work as well,” commented Michelle.
The George Fox cheerleading team is a non-competitive team that performs at home football games and men’s and women’s basketball games played at home. Check out the GFU schedule here. http://athletics.georgefox.edu/sports/fball/index Look for the team to perform at community events and help out with community service projects, too.
Michelle advises her tumblers and cheerleaders to always “follow your dreams and to never give up on something you really want to do. If you work hard enough, you’ll be able to achieve anything. I have always lived by Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote – ‘Do the thing you think you cannot do.’”
NOTE: Amanda McConaughey, also on staff at CVDA as a ballet instructor, is the Cheer Team Captain – pictured front and center!