Bunker Faculty
Kenady began her dance career training at Bunker Dance Center under the artistic direction of her mother, Kathy Bunker. Kenady holds a BA in Elementary Education as well as a Modern Dance minor from Brigham Young University. While at BYU she performed with the Tap Dance Company and taught tap several semesters. After college, Kenady took her teaching talents to India where she taught leprosy-affected children through the humanitarian organization “Rising Star Outreach.” Kenady has worked as a teacher and choreographer at several of the top studios in the west including The Dance Club (Utah) and Dance Connection (Scottsdale). She has trained and teaches all styles of dance and believes the well-rounded dancer is the best dancer!
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As Kathy’s oldest child, Blake quite literally grew up in and around the studio. He even competed in hip hop with BDC’s original company team, and had the pleasure of training with Napolean and Tabitha Dumo! After working for years as a licensed mental health therapist in Southern Nevada, Blake has changed career paths, and returned to the family business. He joined the studio in January 2017 as Director of Studio Relations, which includes overseeing front desk operations, fielding all customer concerns, and completing whatever other tasks his mother, and boss, happens to give him. Blake’s hobbies include reading and writing fantasy fiction, watching hockey with his wife Laurel, and raising his spirited 6 year old daughter, Aurora.
Giana Onofre is a Las Vegas based performer, choreographer, and movement educator. She grew up training as a multifaceted artist in Las Vegas, Nevada at Bunker Dance Center and Las Vegas Academy of the Arts under the direction of Kathy Bunker and Jeneane Huggins. Following graduation, she relocated to Los Angeles to further her education at California Institute of the Arts. While training at CalArts, Giana worked with artists such as Micaela Taylor, Mike Tyus, Luca Renzi, Donald Byrd, Spenser Theberge, Joe Davis, Rosanna Tavarez, Cheryl Mann and many others. Whilst completing a Bachelor’s degree in fine arts and a minor in science and math studies (with an emphasis on Anatomical Studies), she traveled the country on the weekends as a professional assistant in all genres, teacher, and judge with Amplified Productions. Artists she assists regularly include Peter Chu, Chelsea Thedinga, Jenn Freeman, Ivan Koumev, Kiki Nymcheck, Koko Iwasaki, Nick Bass and all other faculty affiliated with Amplified. In her professional career following undergrad, Giana has trained and performed internationally in Italy with staibdance under the direction of George Staib. She has performed in the Capezio Ace Awards, ChuThis performances, SALT’s ‘LINK’ dance intensive in Brandon Alley’s work, various works in Downtown Los Angeles, and others.
As a choreographer and educator, Giana aims to create a space that is challenging and reassuring, making room for every level in the room and encouraging the fun and inspiration that led us to the craft. With exceeding experience in so many genres, the style that Giana choreographs is closest to the contemporary genre, with excessive musicality and jazz elements. Giana has recently begun implementing strengthening, floorwork, and inversion training in her class. In 2023, Giana’s work was presented in Open Doors North America in Orlando, Florida. Within the years of 2020-2025, her work has been seen at California Institute of the Arts, Downtown Los Angeles, and Sorrento, Italy. Most recently, Giana has joined Kagami Art Collective in Las Vegas under the direction of Jeneane Huggins, where she is a principal dancer, head of creative marketing, and administrative management for the collective.
Las Vegas is her current home base, where she enjoys training artists and teaching at Las Vegas Academy as a guest artist on the weekdays, and most recently on a weekly basis at Bunker Dance Center as their company contemporary teacher, as well as their Assistant Company Director. On the weekends, you can find her in a city near you dancing, teaching, or judging for Adrenaline Dance or Revive Dance Conventions.
Lacie Houghton was born and raised in Utah and just moved to Las Vegas in the Summer of 2023. Lacie has been dancing since age four and teaching since age fifteen. She has extensive training in Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Tap, Hip Hop, Modern, and Pointe. Lacie danced competitively beginning at age seven, as both a soloist and group dancer, presenting many opportunities for her. She received a full scholarship to attend JUMP Nationals in NYC 2006 where she performed in an off-Broadway show, under the direction of Ray Leeper, Mandy Moore, and Tabitha and Napolean Dumo. She also competed in a VIP solo competition while in NYC. Lacie spent two summers dancing with Ballet West Academy in their 5-week summer intensive program and also participated in their production of the Nutcracker as a Page. In high school, Lacie was a 3-year member of the West Jordan High Dance Company. She served as Vice President her junior year, and President her graduating year of 2008. This is where most of her teaching and choreography began. Lacie has also returned as a guest choreographer, tryout judge, and Sterling Scholar judge for West Jordan since 2015.
As an instructor, Lacie has taught for many dance studios, high school dance companies, and drill teams all over Utah. One of her favorite things to do is guest teach, guest choreograph, judge tryouts, and sub all over to get to experience all the amazing talented dancers in the state. Most recently, she taught at Dancers Edge Studios in Tooele, Utah and also works as the Digital Content Creator and Social Media Manager. Continued training is so important to Lacie, not only as an instructor but as a dancer, too. She takes classes whenever she can and has attended the yearly Dance Teacher Web Conference in Las Vegas for the past 2 summers.
As a 33-year-old wife and mom of four crazy, beautiful kids, Lacie is able to live out her passions of family and dance every day. She is looking forward to a new adventure and dance home here in Las Vegas, and especially here at Bunker Dance Center.
Kaylee Purtell is a professional dancer, choreographer, and educator. She began dancing at the age of three, developing a strong foundation in all styles of dance. Her performance credits include dancing for global superstar Katy Perry in her Las Vegas residency Play, as well as touring internationally with Jolin Tsai on the Ugly Beauty World Tour.
Kaylee has also worked with renowned artists such as J Balvin, Marc Anthony, and Peso Pluma, and has appeared on prestigious stages including the Grammy Awards, NBC’s World of Dance, the Emmy’s Governors Ball, iHeartRadio’s Can’t Cancel Pride, and CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live.
In addition to her performance career, Kaylee is passionate about dance education. She currently teaches for Elevate Dance Convention and travels across the country teaching and mentoring young dancers. With a commitment to inspiring the next generation, she continues to share her knowledge, experience, and love for the art of dance.
Naomi is grateful to have spent the last three years working with Ballet BC in Vancouver Canada, first as Rehearsal Director and then as Artistic Producer. During this time she loved creating world-class creative teams, teaching brilliant artists, and producing two new important branches for the company; 44 Summer Intensive and Ballet BC Annex.
Before joining Ballet BC, Naomi was the Physical Performance Coach for Céline Dion and responsible for all demands pertaining to her physical performance in Las Vegas and on tour. She is a guest teacher for NUVO as well as world-renowned schools and companies including Ballet BC, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Juilliard, Arts Umbrella, and Canada’s National Ballet School. As a former host for the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland, Naomi’s favorite place is in the studio scouting new talent and helping young artists take flight.
A graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School, Naomi earned international recognition
Thrilled to call Las Vegas home again, Naomi will continue producing Ballet BC’s intensives and looks forward to teaching at Bunker Dance Center at every opportunity!
Raven grew up the daughter of a successful dance studio owner in Michigan and was at her first recital at one day old. She trained in the subjects of ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical, contemporary, musical theater, hip hop, acrobatics/gymnastics, and Hawaiian/Tahitian for many years as a student, and was a member of the regional and national award winning team at Encore Dance Academy for 14 years. As a student, she had the privilege of performing in Dracula and The Nutcracker with various ballet companies, including the Moscow Ballet Company. She also had the pleasure of performing in numerous festivals, benefits, and at Walt Disney World. In 2004, Raven participated in the Guinness Book of World Records “Longest Kick Line” in Times Square, which aired on Good Morning America. Additionally in 2008, she received the prestigious award of 1st runner-up to Michigan’s Junior Miss (now called Distinguished Young Women of America). Raven has spent the last 15 years teaching and choreographing for many dance studios across the country, and has received numerous regional and national choreography awards in the subjects of contemporary, lyrical, jazz, hip hop, and tap. Her students have won countless scholarships, titles, and overalls, and many can be seen assisting on the convention circuit as well as pursuing professional careers. Raven dedicates herself to building the confidence of each young dancer she works with, and strives to set them up with the skills to thrive whether in dance or any other goals they pursue. While teaching dance, Raven has received a B.S. in Biology and more recently a B.S. in Nursing from UNLV. However, as much as she loves science and working in the ER, dance will always be her first passion.
Originally from Dallas, Texas, Kara Willingham trained in ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, and hip hop at KJ Dance Designs. Upon graduating high school, Kara relocated to Los Angeles where she began her professional career performing with Unrestricted Element Dance Company, Ray Entertainment, and LA’s Metro Theater Company. Other credits include Good Day LA, P&G, Nioxin, Wella, Paul Mitchell, and Inspire Magazine.
She has taught and choreographed recreational and competitive dance for children and
adults at Los Angeles schools and private studios for 20 years. As Head Coach of Los Angeles City School’s Polytechnic High School Drill/Dance Team, Kara produced five 1st Place National Championship teams, as well as winning 1st Place at Paramount Studios Talent Showcase for all Southern California schools.
She is currently a returning judge for Spotlight Dance Cup. Kara hopes to spread her love of the arts with every student she has the pleasure of training.
Danielle Hunt is a front desk associate at Bunker Dance Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Here, she utilizes her organizational, customer service, and communication skills to ensure smooth daily operations. With a passion for the arts, Danielle creates a welcoming environment for all dancers and families in the Bunker community!
A recent graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, with a Bachelor’s degree in Musical Theatre, Danielle is also a devoted Musical Theatre actress and educator. As Las Vegas native, she has been involved with Colabo Youth Theatre since the age of nine and is committed to inspiring others through her enthusiasm and teaching. Whether on stage or behind the desk, Danielle brings energy, professionalism, and a love for the arts to everything she does.
Originally from Las Vegas, Natalie always had a primitive love for moving. A Bunker Dance Center and Las Vegas Academy of the Arts alumni, she has been able to work with many influential dance teachers in the Vegas area. Natalie graduated from Wayne State University where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a Minor in English. Artists such as Marc Spaulding, Monique Haley, Wanjiru Kamuyu and Meg Paul inspired her to constantly desire and crave more of what dance has the potential to become. She concentrated her studies towards performance and choreography, and upon graduating has enjoyed exploring the professional dance scene and all it has to offer. Natalie is excited to continue her dance journey as a teacher and mentor for students and help everyone find what dance can mean for them.
Lauren is a dancer from Las Vegas, NV. She attended Bunker Dance Center and danced as a member of Company under the direction of Kathy Bunker. Lauren is very versatile and has trained in many styles including ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, contemporary, ballroom, modern and more. She graduated from Point Park University in the Spring of 2021 and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance with a concentration in Modern Dance. After graduating she did two contracts as a featured showgirl with Royal Caribbean Productions preforming, “Showgirl! Past. Present. Future.” and “The Effectors”. Currently she is back in Las Vegas preforming and teaching at Bunker Dance Center.
Heather Kennedy Allen a native of Las Vegas, grew up dancing at different studios and was a Rebel Girl at UNLV during her freshman year. During that time she started teaching and working front desk at Bunker Dance Center. She graduated from UNLV with a B.S. in Dance Education, and her Masters in Secondary Education with an emphasis in Social Studies. While working at Bunker, she also works for the Clark County School District teaching U.S.History at Spring Valley High School. Over the course of her teaching career she worked with cheer leading teams and dance teams. Heather has worked at Bunker Dance off and on since 1996 only taking a break to have her 2 beautiful children. We’re so glad to have Heather heading up our costume department.
Monique was born and raised in Las Vegas and grew up dancing at Bunker Dance Center. In high school, she danced for her high school dance team and at Nevada Ballet Theatre.
Monique then continued her education at the University of Utah. She received an Honors Bachelors of Science in Business and a minor in Modern Dance. During college, Monique performed in several concerts with the School of Dance, and she also danced at the Tabernacle Choir’s Christmas Concert. Since graduating, Monique taught and choreographed modern dance for two years in Fallon, Nevada.
Monique is excited to be back in Vegas with her husband and toddler, and even more excited to be teaching at the studio that made her fall in love with dance.
