Jessica Salomon a recent graduate from New York University, where she studied arts education and storytelling through movement. As a dancer with a focus in Broadway jazz, contemporary, and post-modern techniques, she has trained at prestigious New York City cultural institutions like Gibney Dance, Movement Research, Steps on Broadway, and Broadway Dance Center, and performed at venues such as the Citigroup Theater at Alvin Ailey, Culture Hub at La MaMa, The Jerry H. Labowitz Theater, and the Highline Ballroom. As a choreographer and director, she has had the privilege of directing NYU’s Dancers/Choreographer’s Alliance and served as a performing arts producer for NYC’s Gallatin Arts Festival, a seven-day interdisciplinary celebration of both visual and performing arts. She’s worked for MCC Theater, Playbill, and Danspace Project, in addition to spending her time in classrooms developing art and dance curriculum for Kidville, a nationally franchised early childhood enrichment center. When she is not dancing, she spends her time teaching a wonderful group of bilingual students in HISD. As an alumna of In-Step Dance, she is thrilled to be back teaching in a community that gave her so much.
Amber Thorton has been a choreographer, instructor, and dancer for over 25 years. She has studied and performed with Delia Stewart Jazz Dance Company, Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Company, Clear Lake Metropolitan Ballet (now Bay Area Houston Ballet & Theatre) and Euroasia Ballet. She has also studied with Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Houston Ballet Academy, Lou Conte of Hubbard Street, Broadway Dance Center and Steps in NYC.Amber performed in the 1988 Sammy Awards with Jaime Rogers and Ben Vereen and has appeared as a guest artist for various companies including Dance Explosion, in Vail, Colorado. Amber was the 1998 recipient of the Monticello Scholarship for her choreographed work, Unzipped Entropy, at the Regional Dance America Festival, where her works have been performed many times. Her choreographed work, Portraying Picasso, was selected for the National Choreographic Plan, which is supported by the National Endowment of the Arts, at RDA/SW Gala, 2002. She has been named artistic director of MECKKA DANCE CO 2018 and has been choreographing several award winning pieces. Amber has been a guest instructor and choreographer for In-Step Dance Center for the past 7 years and we are very excited to have her join the staff of In-Step Dance Center.