Faculty

Elizabeth Rieb | Director

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Elizabeth began dancing at the young age of 8 years old. Throughout her youth she studied ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, and lyrical.

Over the years, she participated in many competitions and master classes all over Alberta. Elizabeth went on to complete jazz and tap examinations with the Associated Dance Arts for Professional Teachers (A.D.A.P.T) and ballet examination through the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD).

After high school Elizabeth enrolled in classes at the Alberta Ballets University of Calgary’s Dance Program to further develop her knowledge of the art. Over the next two years, Elizabeth studied for her Advanced 2 ballet examination, achieving this designation in 2008.

After reaching one of the highest achievements in ballet, Elizabeth continued to immerse herself in to her ballet studies. Enrolling with the Royal Academy of Dance in London, England, she would spend two more years completing her Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies.

With this certificate Elizabeth is a registered teacher, allowing her to put students through RAD examinations. Elizabeth looks forward to working with dancers of all ages where she can showcase her passion for teaching while spreading her love of dance!

Alexandra Woodley | Office Assistant

Alexandra (Alex) Woodley is a multidisciplinary performing artist and proud member of the Devotion Danceworks family since 2019. She began dancing at the age of three and has trained extensively in ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical, modern, and musical theatre. She holds a Certificate in Dance Preparation and a Diploma in Dance Performance from George Brown College and is gearing up to return to university in the fall to obtain her Bachelors in Music: Vocal Performance.

Alex began teaching at 17 and has taught at studios across Alberta, Ontario and BC. She brings a nurturing, inclusive teaching style to every class and is passionate about helping young dancers express themselves with confidence and joy.

Now based in Victoria, BC, Alex is thrilled to remain connected to Devotion Danceworks as the office assistant. Alex is committed to fostering creativity, curiosity, and a sense of belonging—whether she’s helping register students in the right class or teaching in the studio.

Emily Dockrill | Office Assistant

Emily began dancing at the age of three, and promptly fell in love with every aspect of the art. She grew up competing and training in in many styles, such as ballet, jazz, and contemporary. She knew from a young age that she wanted to continue exploring her love of dance by diving into the dance-instructor world, and has since been teaching a variety of styles and ages.

Emily genuinely loves connecting with her students and sharing her passion for dance. She initially began teaching with Devotion Danceworks in 2014, then took a hiatus from teaching dance after completing her B.Ed at Mount Royal University. She currently teaches a Grade One class, and has been working for the CBE for the past 5 years. Even in her school classroom, dance and movement takes a prominent role in her teaching style. While busy teaching full time, Emily loves to continue sharing and exploring her love of dance with her students!

Sadie Rieb | Instructor & Office Assistant

Miss Sadie began dancing at the age of three, and it was after that first little ballet class that her passion for the art started to grow. Her love for dance became all consuming as she trained in every style that she could! From ballet to hip hop, jazz, contemporary, lyrical, tap and musical theatre, Sadie involved herself in every aspect of the dance world that she could manage. She danced competitively on stage for 15 years and travelled from Calgary to Las Vegas all the way to the Edge Performing Arts school in Los Angeles! As her career as a competitive dancer came to an end, she knew her work in the dance world was not yet over and so she began sharing her love of the art with the new generation of dancers through teaching.

With 10 years of experience educating young dancers, her passion for teaching dance has blossomed into a love for teaching the youngest generation. Today Miss Sadie studies at Mount Royal University in the Early Learning and Childcare program with the aspiration of becoming a preschool teacher by day, and a dance teacher by night!

Miss Sadie is a child at heart, and it this that gives her the ability to understand and connect with the youngest generation. Through teaching, Miss Sadie’s goal is to inspire confidence and self love while passing on her love of dance to each pair of tiny toes that dances through the studio doors.

“It is the genuine love for dance and unfiltered joy I see from these little ones that makes this job, easily, the best one in the world!” –

Isabella Tarasoff | Instructor

Isabella Tarasoff is a dancer, choreographer and educator. Born in Edmonton and
raised in Calgary, Alberta. Isabella has had the opportunity to train under various street dance choreographers and mentors from a young age which has impacted her and allowed her to have influences in a variety of styles of street dance and choreography. In the last five years, under the direction of Universesoul Dance Studio, Isabella has had the opportunity to travel across Canada and with the company to train under various well-known choreographers and compete at reputable competitions such as Release Dance Competition & Arists Emerge.

Recently she has developed a passion for creating and exploring movement and has
had the opportunity to share her choreography and artistry with others in the Calgary
dance community with the intention to give back to the community that serves her.

Olivia Carmelo | Instructor

Olivia began dancing at the age of 2 1⁄2 years in The Woodlands, Texas. After her family moved home to Calgary, she continued dancing in Ballet and Jazz. As her love for dance grew, she expanded her training to include Hip Hop, Lyrical, Contemporary/Modern. She has successfully examined in RAD and ADAPT. One of Olivia’s dance highlights was having the opportunity to perform at Disneyland and California Adventure Park in California. This ignited her passion to perform in the form of competitions. She competed for 8 years and loved every minute of being on stage. Her most honoured award was receiving a scholarship from Harbour Dance Studio in Vancouver, BC, which she took full advantage of expanding her training. She now continues learning from other choreographers at DJD, Pulse Studios, and other open classes held locally. Since graduating from high school, Olivia has gained experience volunteering her time working with the dance students at All Saints High School as an alumni member of their dance program and she has also volunteered with the Eastside Dance festival held every year in Calgary. This year she was excited to perform with Pulse at their year end show.

Currently, Olivia is in her third year attending the University of Calgary and working towards her degree majoring in Dance in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program. She has had the opportunity to dance in the university’s showcase productions. She is very excited to share the knowledge she has gained from her education by creating a safe space for young dancers to be creative and explore movement in dance.

When not in a studio, Olivia’s favourite thing to do is travel, especially cruising. Travel gives her the opportunity to meet new people from all over the world and to learn about their cultures. Spending time with her friends catching up over coffee, Checking out new reads at the bookstore or library, and listening to music is also high on her list of things to do.

Makaylah Ryan-Mackay | Instructor

Miss Makaylah first began dancing at the age of five, immediately she fell in love with dance, and since then her passion for it has only grown. Eventually she started assisting younger classes, and quickly learnt that teaching and inspiring upcoming generations of dancers has become her biggest passion. Most recently, her desire to encourage and inspire those taking their first steps into the dance world, lead her to receive her Ready Set Dance certification.

Makaylah has trained, competed, and choreographed in various styles of dance such as tap, jazz, contemporary, ballet, hip hop, lyrical, pointe and musical theatre. She has mainly focused on her training with the Royal Academy of Dance ballet syllabus and ADAPT jazz and tap syllabus.

As a teacher, Miss Makaylah strives for students to create and explore music and movement in a fun and safe environment while also learning about proper alignment, technique and creativity. As a teacher, Miss Makaylah’s favourite aspect of teaching is seeing her students become more comfortable with exploring and trying new things, well finding their passion for dance.

Emma Rees | Teacher

Miss Emma started her dance journey when she was three years old. Her love for dance grew drastically after enrolling in a competitive program for the first time at the age of seven. After 11 years of competing in styles such as Ballet, Lyrical, and Contemporary dance, Emma found that she had more than just the love to dance but also the love of sharing her passion by teaching others. Emma began assisting classes when she was in her early teens and quickly upgraded to teaching her own competitive classes after she graduated high school. She enjoyed traveling to many new and exciting competition venues and being her students biggest fan. Miss Emma has taught all ages from 2-17 and has recently found a love for teaching Ballet to the younger age groups of 2-5.

After finding her passion for teaching and guiding the youngest students, Emma enrolled at MountRoyal University in the Early Learning and Education program and is hoping to pursue a masters in Occupational Therapy in Paediatrics after her undergrad.

Following the development of her students and creating engaging lessons that inspire and guide students to success is the most important thing to Miss Emma when teaching!

Keira Purdy | Teacher

Keira began dancing at age four in her hometown Rocky Mountain House. Over the years she trained in a variety of styles including ballet, pointe, jazz, lyrical and contemporary. Through many years of private lessons Keira has familiarized herself and become confident with the RAD syllabus. She first began working as an assistant for younger ballet classes, where she discovered her love for teaching. By the age of 16, she began teaching beginner ballet and jazz combo classes and independently conducted a level one competitive ballet class. Since graduating high school, she has embraced multiple choreography opportunities, including contemporary solos and group dances for performers aged 10-17, and this past summer, she planned and facilitated summer dance camps for dancers of all levels and ages.

Over the years, Keira has trained with various artists and performed in shows such as the Maddox Contemporary Dance Collective, Movement Research Festival out of UofC, and most recently, Bare Dance Contemporary Performance.

Keira is currently working towards obtaining her undergraduate as an English Language Learners Educator with hopes to gain a masters in Speech Language Pathology. Keira is thrilled to inspire and pass on a passion and love for dance to all her future students!

Sarah Strilchuk | Instructor

Sarah Strilchuk is a dancer, actor, and artist from Calgary, Alberta. She trained competitively for over 14 years in all styles, earning numerous awards and scholarships along the way. Sarah grew up dancing under the direction of Elizabeth Rieb, her longtime ballet teacher and mentor, and is now proud to teach alongside her at Devotion Danceworks, where she has been on faculty for the past three years.

Sarah’s performance background includes five seasons with Alberta Dance Theatre and roles with Jeunesse Classique Ballet in Calgary and Edmonton. At 15, she was accepted into Central Memorial’s Performing and Visual Arts Program, earning a Fine Arts Certificate and the “Excellence in Dance” award.

She later moved to Vancouver to train with Harbour Dance Centre’s Intensive Training Program and Quill Collective. Her credits include web series, national commercials, and live performances at the Calgary Stampede, Lumière Festival, Vancouver Convention Centre, and a private event for a popular designer brand.

Sarah is certified in ADAPT and Progressing Ballet Technique and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Education at Mount Royal University. She is passionate about inspiring the next generation of dancers and is thrilled to share her experience, creativity, and love for the art form with the students of Devotion Danceworks!

Rylin Samson | Instructor

Rylin Samson is a competitive dancer and educator originally from Vancouver, British Columbia. She has trained since the age of two across a wide range of styles including RAD ballet, jazz, musical theatre, contemporary, acro, lyrical, hip hop, and POM, and has competed at a high level since the age of six.

Throughout her competitive career, Rylin has trained and performed with various competitive dance teams and companies, developing strong technical versatility and performance quality. She has trained in the pre-professional Contemporary and Jazz program at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City, represented Team Canada Dance internationally in Germany twice, and assisted on a U.S.-based dance convention tour, working closely with faculty and supporting classes for dancers of different ages and levels.

Alongside her performance and competitive background, Rylin has developed a strong passion for teaching, with experience coaching dancers to support technical growth, performance execution, and confidence. As an IDTS Teacher Course Certified instructor, she values creating a disciplined, positive, and encouraging environment for young dancers.

Rylin is currently working towards her undergraduate degree in Dance and Education and is excited to continue developing as both an educator and artist while sharing her experience and passion with students.