Skip to nav

Class Instructors

School Half-Day Crafternoons; DIY Fashion Labs

Nakeia "KiKi" Reynolds

KiKi is our insanely creative instructor who has a background in Fashion Design...more soon!

West African Dance

Amy Osterman

Amy took her first African dance class in Albuquerque, N.M. in Oct 1999. The deeply rooted call of the drums and the community this cultural art form creates kept her coming back for more. In 2001, her dance teacher Rujeko Dumbutshena invited her to be an understudy dancer in Blue Tribe dance company. As a dedicated understudy she quickly earned her way to a primary dancer. It was during her time in Blue Tribe that she developed a strong foundation in the technique and style of African dances from Zimbabwe, Congo and Guinea. Being exposed to different styles there was something special about Guinean dance and music that touched her deeply and she committed herself to figuring out a way to study in Guinea, West Africa. Her first trip to Guinea was in Dec 2004/Jan 2005. Having travelled to Guinea a total of four times since 2004, Amy loves to share her knowledge of African dance and music with anybody who is interested, from the novice to those who already knows just how great it is. She breaks down dance steps that are intertwined with the dynamic rhythms in a format that makes it easy for everybody to learn. Her classes are taught to live drumming by an ensemble of musicians and she warmly welcomes you to have fun in her classes.

Yoga

Carol Stone

Carol holds advanced degrees in clinical psychology and the science of energy healing. A student of yoga for more than 25 years, she has trained intensively with renowned yoga masters worldwide, and has taught hundreds of people to enhance their own ability to stand firmer in who they are. Courtney Lyons Courtney Lyons is an Evanston parent and seamstress. She has a bachelor’s of fine arts in Fashion Design and loves sharing the joy of sewing with kids of all ages. She runs several after school sewing clubs in D65 and is excited to expand the program into Ridgeville.

Intro to Sewing

Chris Shaw

Chris is an enthusiastic maker; among his many crafting hobbies, he has been sewing for practical reasons (like mending and making home decor) since he was a kid, and now enjoys working on more fun projects with his own kids. He is currently a math professor at Columbia College, but in a past life, he was a youth camp director, and he loves teaching.

Feldenkrais

Dan Delorenzo

Dan has studied the Feldenkrais® Method for 10 years and has been certified as a teacher of the Method by the Feldenkrais® Guild of North America. He has taught Awareness Through Movement classes to seniors and musicians. He hopes to introduce the benefits of this Method to a wide range of people in the Ridgeville area.

West African Drum

Greg Lundberg

Greg has been studying West African drumming for over 20 years and has performed for several years with two West Ativan jazz bands on percussion and conga: The Occidental Brothers Dance Band International and L’Orchestre Super Vitesse. He is also a high school English teacher at Maine East High School and a resident of South Evanston.

Jacqueline Anderson

Knitting Instructor

Joanna Melville

Joanna was a Jeff Award winning costume designer in Chicago for fifteen years. She has been sewing since the age of 16, and is an avid crafter, stitcher, and graphic designer who teaches classes, seminars, and camps. She loves teaching, learning new art and crafts techniques, dancing, and keeping her hands busy designing for community theater.

Dance/Yoga

Katie DeSalvo

Katie DeSalvo is a Chicago-native dance instructor of a kaleidoscope of styles. Her superpowers are making others feel nurtured and included, embodied expression, and coming up with really quirky analogies to help you learn a dance or yoga move. Apart from group and private lessons, her current projects include creating an Argentine Tango pedagogy that is trauma-informed and inclusive, choreographing Loyola Academy's spring musical, and teaching dance to teen refugees. Katie is willing to help you meet your life goals through the expressive arts, whether it be devising a wedding dance, guiding you to ballroom dance socially, infusing your event with a movement component, or anything in between. She's grateful to be at Ridgeville!

Youth/Adult Dance | Youth Grow Team | Garden Programs & Education Coordinator

Laura Downey

Laura has a doctorate of education in counseling psychology and is a retired board certified dance/movement therapist, licensed professional counselor and certified movement analyst. Laura uses her experience and training in lifespan, prosocial skill and motor development to shape her classes and help children and adults to be successful in class while promoting general well-being through movement. A Ridgeville resident, she has been teaching ballet, modern, tap, jazz and creative movement at professional dance schools and park districts for over 30 years and is honored to dance with fellow community members and our children. Laura’s 20 years of curriculum and program development provide a strong foundation for leading Ridgeville’s garden programs. As a hobby gardener, she is interested in further exploring urban agriculture, protecting pollinator culture and fostering native landscape. Laura is committed to engaging patrons in garden programming and park garden spaces, addressing food security through urban agriculture initiatives and improving the health of our community through engagement with nature.

Move & Groove Line Dance

Pat Bernard

When Pat isn’t designing landscapes you can find her dancing with her dog Thelma (who prefers a slow cha-cha), teaching line dancing, talking about line dancing or just thinking about the rhythms of the new dances she will be teaching. Pat has always moved to the beat of the many styles of music she loves, but when she rediscovered line dancing more than a decade ago she was hooked. Teaching for the past several years, Pat has introduced her students to soul, pop, latin and just a tiny bit of country dances - as long as you're movin’ you're groovin’!! “I’m a 9th Ward resident who walks throughout the 9th, 4th, 2nd and 8th almost daily so being able to offer dance classes to all my neighbors is especially meaningful. Helping my friends and neighbors forget the rest and dance their best for a few hours is pretty magical."

Return to Previous List