Cohesion Dance Staff
Tanya W. Call
Founder & Artistic Director
A native of Helena, Tanya is the Founder and Artistic Director of Cohesion Dance Project (CDP), in Helena MT. She established CDP in 2012 with a welcoming spirit and a desire to provide access for all to experience the joys of dance and a broader spectrum of performance opportunities.
Tanya received her Master’s of Physical Therapy degree in 2000 and danced professionally, with various companies including Ricochet Modern Dance Theater, in Richland, WA and Keshet Dance Company in Albuquerque, NM where she also worked as the Outreach Coordinator and Rehearsal Assistant. While at Keshet, Tanya worked with a range of dancers from beginners to professionals in class and choreography and led their unique adaptive dance program for people with disabilities. She danced several lead roles in Shira Greenberg’s Nutcracker on the Rocks™, and experienced first-hand the powerful effect that mentorship and collaboration can have on every individual involved in a production.
Tanya currently teaches modern dance at Creative Arts Center in Helena, as well as modern and modified technique classes through CDP. She worked as a pediatric physical therapist for 14 years, but currently focuses her time developing and expanding dance opportunities through Cohesion Dance Project.
Sarah Dassinger
Managing Director
Sarah hails from Kansas, where her love of dance began at the age of four. She has danced all over and landed in Great Falls, Montana in 2010. She began teaching at Miss Linda's School of Dance and has collaborated with many musicians through different symphony's. She added teaching at the Creative Arts Center and now is very glad to also be a part of the Cohesion family. One of Sarah's favorite roles was the
Rat Queen in Nutcracker on the Rocks.
BJ Allen-Prudden
Intern Coordinator & Facility Assistant
BJ was born and raised in Helena, MT., and has been dancing since the age of 6. She began dancing with Cohesion in 2017 and joined their intern program in 2019. She's obsessed with the moon and her favorite flavor of anything is coconut.
Lois Petersen
Bookkeeper
Lois is a native of Montana originally from Great Falls. She recently retired from Carroll College as an accountant and joined the team at Cohesion. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, 2 children, 4 grandchildren, listening to music, morning walks, and creating fabric and paper in her studio.
Aree Brugman
Administrative Assistant
Aree was born and raised in Montana; moving around the state he has finally landed in Helena, MT. Well currently a student at Helena College he decided to turn down his work study in order to fulfill his role at Cohesion. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, crochet, and watercolor painting.
Jessica Partridge
Studio & Outreach Instructor
Jessica is our newest teacher at Cohesion bringing with her a plethora of dance and teaching experience in her past. Through our studio-based Creative Movement classes and School & Community Outreach programming, she guides students through creative movement and exploration with joy.
Téa Woodland
Studio Instructor
Téa has been dancing at Cohesion since 2014 and is currently teaching the 6–8-year-old beginning modern class. She is a budding choreographer bringing a creative and unique style to her movement sequences and site-specific pieces. Téa was recently featured in the lead role of Julynn Wildman’s Body in Motion video/installation at the Holter Museum of Art.
Karen Ogden
Studio Instructor
Born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, Karen began dancing at the age of 5 and never stopped. She trained at BalleTacoma and Pacific Northwest Ballet School before earning a degree in communications at the University of Washington. Her journalism career brought her to Montana, where she taught ballet at the Missouri River Dance School and Miss Linda's School of Dance. She also enjoys flamenco and ballroom dance. Karen moved to Helena in 2017, where she is grateful for the opportunity to help dancers of all abilities experience the joy of movement at Cohesion.
Amber Wilke
Studio & Outreach Instructor
Amber is a Helena native and mother of two. She has been involved extensively with Cohesion as a volunteer, student, NOTR cast member, mentor, and instructor with Cohesion's Adaptive Dance Outreach program.
Julynn Wildman
Studio & Outreach Instructor
Julynn was born and raised in Colorado where her early training with Between the Bones and Kim Robards Dance Company exposed her to modern, ballet, jazz, improvisation, and Feldenkrais method. She holds a BA in Dance and Anthropology from Bard College at Simon's Rock, and coursework in Interdisciplinary Arts and Media at Columbia College Chicago provided her with opportunities to perform and collaborate around Chicago, IL. She was brought to Helena, MT through a position with AmeriCorps and was thrilled to find such a generous, dancing community at Cohesion.