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.
Maleen Olson
Operations Director
Maleen is a Montana native, born in Missoula and raised all over the country. She was happy to relocate back to Helena over 10 years ago to raise her 3 girls. Maleen has been part of Cohesion in various ways since it’s inception as a board member, class attendee and NOTR cast member. She is thrilled, not only to dance with the incredible Cohesion community, but also to work along side her dancing mentors.
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.
Lainey Taylor
Bookkeeper
Lainey is from Boston where she lived until 33 (and still often misses the anonymity of the city and ability to listen to live jazz!). She then moved to Newport, RI to work on boats and lived on the water there for 8 years. Lainey has now been in Montana for 25 years. She got a late start but tries to take advantage of the beauty and landscape by hiking and backpacking whenever possible. Thanks to NOTR, Lainey was able to start dancing at age 60! She dearly loves her Cohesion family and looks forward to staying involved for many years to come.
Jessica Eller
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.
Sarah Erb
Studio Instructor
Sarah joined the Cohesion staff this past fall as our Ballet Basics instructor. She grew up training locally in classical ballet and modern and has performed in several community-based performances with Cohesion. As a full-time college student, Sarah still finds time to share her joy of dance with her students and her young family.
Laura Brown
Studio Instructor
Laura has been dancing with Cohesion since our first Nutcracker on the Rocks in 2014. She has been teaching with Cohesion the past several years in our Creative Movement and Youth Modern technique classes and has performed in numerous Cohesion productions over the years.
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.