Whitley Setrakian
Founder

Whitley Setrakian (MA) directed People Dancing/Whitley Setrakian and Dancers for fourteen years. Setrakian has taught extensively and served as guest artist in universities across the country, including Michigan State and Eastern Michigan Universities.Setrakian's choreography has won numerous awards across the state of Michigan. Setrakian has taught composition and modern dance at Dance Gallery Studio and at the Milligan School of Ballet.
Multi-talented Setrakian is currently enjoying a successful musical career; focusing on songwriting and performing in Whit Hill and the Postcards

Kathryn Larson has been a board member of People Dancing since 2008. 
She first became involved with the company through her daughters, Alayna and Walker, who dance with Arts in Motion and People Dancing.  Though she is not a dancer, Kathryn has enjoyed costuming and working backstage in both theater and dance since high school.  Originally from Seattle, Kathryn has lived in Ann Arbor since 1998 and works at the University of Michigan. 

John L. Etter received his B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Michigan, and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.  After 3½ years in the Army Judge Advocate Corps, and 2 years as an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Ann Arbor, he entered private practice in Ann Arbor as a co-founder of the firm of Reading & Etter, now known as Reading, Etter & Lillich.  The firm has a general practice, specializing in municipal law and represents several townships and villages in the area.  John specializes in real estate, estate planning and probate matters.

Janet Vincze, Board Secretary, was raised in Southern California. Her exposure to
the arts started at birth as her parents were both piano performance majors in college.
Her father was the Director of the Center for the Performing Arts for the Claremont
Colleges. Janet received her B.A. in American Studies from Scripps College (The
Claremont College). While at Scripps, she was a student of modern dance, being
exposed to Martha Graham and Jose Limon dance techniques. As a Senior, she had
an arts management internship with the Bella Lewitsky Dance Company. After
graduation, she obtained her California Teaching Certificate and M.A. in Education from
the Claremont Graduate University. She taught primary grades in California before
moving to Michigan where she now raises her son, Curtis, and is a substitute teacher
through the Ann Arbor Public School system. She has also been a Homebound
Teacher with the District working with young students fighting cancer and high school
students with traumatic brain injuries. Janet resides in Ann Arbor with her husband,
Captain James Vincze, a pilot with Delta Airlines, and their son , Curtis.

Christina Sears Etter is a choreographer, dancer and educator. An alumna of the University of Michigan Dance Department, class of 1991, Ms. Etter earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1999 from State University of NY- College at Brockport. Ms. Etter’s choreography has been presented in New York, Chicago, Baltimore, DC, and internationally, at the prestigious Glastonbury Festival in England (1992) at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. (2003)  In 1997, she and a colleague traveled to Poland, to complete a choreographic exchange with Eksperymentalne Studio Tanca of Krakow.

Yma A. Johnson has been a Board Member since 2001.  She is a free-lance journalist with works published in English and Spanish.  She is also a contributing writing for Michigan Today, and the Ann Arbor Observer.  Ms. Johnson does voice-over work with the company and has worked as a consultant on special projects.

We wish to pay tribute to our dear friend and colleague, Gay Delanghe.  Our community will forever be in gratitude for the guidance and inspiration that Gay has shared so generously.  We extend our heartfelt sympathy to those who have been touched by Gay's creative energy; here in Ann Arbor and throughout the world.

We will continue to be moved by her leadership, love and dedication to dance.

Gay Delanghe, M.A., joined the faculty at the University of Michigan after having worked as a professional teacher, performer and choreographer in New York City. She has been on the ballet and modern dance faculties of Barnard College, the Interlochen Arts Camp and the University of Quebec in Montreal, American Dance Festival and Centre Formation Professional de Danse in France. Ms. Delanghe was a member of the Yvonne Rainer Dance Co. and a principal dancer with the Lucas Hoving Dance Company.

She has received grant support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michigan Council for the Arts, and the Arts Foundation of Michigan. She continues to choreograph for the Ann Arbor Dance Works and the University Dance Company and has recently had her creative work funded by the UM Musuem of Art, UM Rackham School of Graduate Studies, and the School of Music Faculty Research Fund. She has also received funding from the University of Michigan's Office of the Vice President for Research for her creative work.

LISA LAMARRE is dedicated to strong dance technique, style diversity, and self inspired movement. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in dance from Western Michigan University. There Lisa was chosen as the WMU Department of Dance Presidential Scholar, received two WMU Dalton Exceptional Dance Major Scholarships, and was awarded an Undergraduate Entrepreneurial Program Grant to study dance in New York City. Lisa is currently choreographing and dancing with Detroit Dance Collective (www.detroitdancecollective.org). She serves as the company's Education Director; outreaching to bring the art of dance to schools and students of all ages. Lisa also dances for stbdance, where back in April ‘09 her and director Shawn T Bible co-choreographed a duet titled Day 4. Her other company work includes projects for Patterson Rhythm Pace, People Dancing, and Michigan Dance Project. Recently, Lisa began using dance as a form of therapy and enjoyment for emotionally impaired, autistic, physically impaired, and otherwise impaired youth and teens through VSA of Michigan, an organization dedicated to bringing the arts into the lives of those with disabilities. In June she will travel to Washington DC to do a presentation at the 2010 International VSA arts Festival (www.vsarts.org). 
Outside of her company work, she conducts master classes and workshops throughout Michigan and Ohio, directs the Dance Academy of Bloomfield Hills (DABH) student dance company, and presently teaches at Dance Academy of Bloomfield Hills and Detroit Country Day School. She is a member of the National Dance Education Organization and Michigan Dance Council.

Lisa Reifert has been involved with People Dancing for 3 years.  “I’m not artistically talented but I sure admire people who can express themselves using movement.”
Lisa is an Ann Arbor native who has a degree in Finance from Louisiana State Univ.
and a MBA from Eastern Michigan.  Currently she works at Flagstar Bank.