Teachers & Staff

Alissa Deutsch

Alissa Deutsch is the founder and owner of Studio18, home of FUSION Dance Company. She has been involved in the dance industry since 1997. Alissa has trained at many prestigious dance studios in the Chicagoland area including; Gus Giordano, Joel Hall, and Lou Conte Dance Studios. She has also trained in Los Angeles, California, at Millennium Dance Complex and Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio. Over the past 20 years, Alissa has taught dance in the north shore of Chicago at private dance studios and had guest residencies at area High Schools. She has also travels and set choreography at many studios and schools in and around the Midwest. In 2001, Alissa founded FUSION Dance Company, a competitive hip hop dance company for kids ages 7 through 18. Throughout her many years teaching dance, she also worked with kids each summer at a day camp for the past 20 years, ensuring each child’s day was filled with fun, smiles, and memories to last a lifetime. Her love and passion for dance coupled with her ability to bond with kids of various ages has lead her to her success in teaching.

Sydney Zusman

Sydney Zusman is a former member of FUSION Dance Company who has gone on to earn her Bachelors of Science degree from New York University where she majored in Applied Psychology and Minored in Dance. Sydney also has her M.A. in Educational Psychology and her Ed. M. in Applied Developmental and Learning Psychology: School Psychology from Columbia University in New York.

Throughout her time living on the east coast, Sydney taught and choreographed for Gen6 Dance, Liberate Artists, Pulse Dance Project, and Vole Ballet Company.

Sydney is excited to be back in Chicago and share her talents with all of the dancers at Studio18!

Juliana Dragisic

Juliana Dragisic started dancing at the age of 4, taking ballet and jazz classes. From that age on, she studied in most styles of dance consisting of ballet, jazz, hiphop, contemporary, pointe, & modern. At the age of 16, Juliana auditioned for a professional, adult contemporary company; Meraki Dance Company. She was one of the founding members of Meraki and the youngest on the company. After her first year of working with Meraki Dance Company, she got the news that she was accepted into AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts! She traveled to New York City and enrolled into a 2-week summer program at AMDA, and was able to study all forms of dance. She learned and trained with LaQuet Pringle. Juliana then graduated in the class of 2020 at AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, with her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts (BFA). She has worked with a variety of dance instructors; Donyelle Jones, Fresh Redding, Mackenzie Martin, Stephanie Landwehr, Louis Jones, Jason Gorman, Nancy Owen, Tracy Silver, Misha Lee, Sergio Lopez, and many others. Juliana performed in Fresh Redding’s choreographer’s Carnival piece in Los Angeles. She is currently working as a choreographer and dance instructor in the Chicagoland area, and also creating kinetic films including choreography and editing.

Kelly Anderson

Kelly Anderson, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a recent graduate of Western Michigan University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a minor in Social Psychology. During her time at WMU, Kelly had the privilege of performing professional works by Aszure Barton, Kyle Abraham, Brian Enos, and Rennie Harris. Kelly was a member of the WMU dance touring ensemble Western Dance Project under the direction of Whitney Moncrief in which she toured the Midwest performing and engaging in outreach. She has performed works by faculty members Jeremy Blair and Carolyn Pavlik while also being involved in Monique Haley’s graduate thesis Encounter and 2017 National Choreography Competition winner Brendan Duggan’s work HAUNT. Kelly has attended ADF’s New York Winter Intensive, DanceWorks Chicago’s DanceForce and ChoreoLab, and Houston METdance’s Professional Summer Intensive. She served as the President of Orchesis Dance Society – a student organization within the Department of Dance at WMU – and was a part of Movement Exchange in which she shared dance with local children in preschools and after-school programs as well as internationally in Panamá at orphanages and underserved schools. Kelly believes in the powerful ability dance has to bring people together and loves sharing this with her students!

Felecia Hubbard

Felecia Hubbard is a mover, creator, and educator based in the Chicagoland area. Felecia started training in high school in competitive studios. From there she started taking classes and intensives, training in all different styles of hip hop and urban movement. Felicia has also worked with companies such as The Puzzle League and Coda, gaining more competitive and performance experience. Through these endeavors, Felecia found her passion for working with kids. She has been teaching and choreographing for the past 5 years, working with all ages. Felecia loves to share her craft with the next generation. She currently teaches full time while maintaining her training making sure she brings nothing but the best to her students.

Zoey Dickenson

Zoey Dickenson is a graduate of Indiana University where she received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts. She recently moved to Chicago to dance professionally for Inaside Chicago Dance. Teaching and choreographing since a very young age, Zoey most recently studied with Visceral Dance Studio, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and CNADM Ballet Forum.

As a dance educator, Zoey’s overall goal is to support her students in a way in any way that she can to help them achieve their own distinct goals and help them understand that as individuals, they are each capable of success in their own capacity. She believes that inspiring advancement and growth in a classroom or studio setting must come from a place of genuine belief in each students’ potential. Zoey is strongly committed to molding her approach to fit what each of her students need in order to maximize their capabilities.