Cleveland Dance Project

TOMORROW! 👀
If you’ve been unsure about auditioning for CDP's Season 18 Showcase, we encourage you to go for it! 🎉🎉🎉

Whether you are new to dance, just getting back into it or have been dancing your entire life, we welcome you to audition tomorrow, Sunday, August 30, 2026. Please note that registration is required, so head to the link in our bio or website to do so. (clevelanddanceproject.com/auditions)

📍 Cleveland Dance Project
5505 Valley Belt Rd., Suite B
🚗 Parking available on site

Open to dancers 18+ of all levels.

Showcase: Saturday, November 21
Tech & Dress: November 19 & 20

We can’t wait to see you in the studio! 💃🏻

Audition Eve Eve and we’re almost done introducing our season 18 choreographers - check out this clip of Brittani Elizabeth Balside piece and register for auditions for a chance to dance with her!
Brittany Balside first began dancing at Donna Crean’s DC dancers in Warren at the age of 4 years old studying tap and jazz. Brittany continued to dance off and on throughout her childhood up until her senior year of high school. Brittany finished off her high school years dancing at James Dance and Performing Arts Center joining their competition team adding ballet, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, and musical theater to her dance portfolio. Throughout college Brittany continued to take dance classes as electives. Through her last 4 years of college, Brittany danced and cheered for various northeast ohio semi-pro football organizations adding coaching and choreographing to her resume. In 2017 Brittany exited the semi-pro world to take her talents back to the stage joining the inaugural season of Cleveland Dance Project. Since then, Brittany has been a 18 season veteran member of Cleveland Dance Project participating in their spring and winter showcases as well as choreographing and participating in various smaller events and performances. Through CDP Brittany has had many incredible opportunities such as performing for the Cleveland Cavaliers pregame show and most recently participating in the Cleveland Browns Monday night football halftime show in fall 2022. In 2016, Brittany also began studying ballroom through Fred Astaire gaining knowledge in Latin Rhythm and Smooth dance. Most recently Brittany joined Reverie Movement Collective, a dance and wellness company based in her hometown in the fall of 2023 where she has performed and choreographed for three seasons now. Brittany’s dedication to this adult dance community continues to be one of her deepest passions and is grateful for the opportunities and friends that have become family this organization has provided throughout the years.

Two days to auditions!!! Will you be there trying to gain a spot in Christian Andrew Spates dance??
Christian Spates is a self taught street dancer. He began dancing with a crew of street dancers, and they would dance in public areas entertaining crowds. Christian first joined CDP in season 6 as a dancer, followed by seasons 7 and 8. In season 9 he choreographed Hip Hop for CDP, and he would then choreograph in the following CDP seasons 10, 11, 12, and 13. Christian was selected to choreograph for season 14 while also being selected to join the Cleveland Cavaliers Scream Team for the 24-25 season. Christian would then go on to join the Scream Team again for the 25-26 season and choreographing for CDP’s 16th season.

Eek! Only a few more days until Season 18 Audition today and we are so excited! While we wait, our choreographers have a few tips for you, including what qualities they love to see in their dancers.

Still waiting to grab an audition slot? This is the moment. Register for Cleveland Dance Project Season 18 Auditions now before you miss out on your opportunity.

Auditions are on Sunday, August 30, 2026 at Cleveland Dance Project (5505 Valley Belt Rd, Suite B) with parking on site. Our showcase is on Saturday November 21, 2026 with tech and dress the evenings of 11/19 and 11/20. Auditions are open to dancers of all levels, ages 18+ only. We cannot wait to see you there. 💃🏻

It’s almost audition day but we have one more preview class tomorrow night with KARA 😍 will we see you there??

Kara Richey has been dancing since the age of three, training extensively in ballet, jazz, lyrical, hip hop, and contemporary styles. In middle school, she earned multiple national and world championship titles as a competitive all-star cheerleader before continuing her dance training at the Academy for the Performing Arts, where she competed with the elite company and won several regional and national titles. She later joined the Dance Team at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and performed nationally with the university’s hip hop crew, Physical Grafeeti. Alongside her early career, Kara continued to pursue dance and movement education, traveling to national hip hop workshops, World of Dance events, and training opportunities. She also earned her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Certification through Pavones Yoga Center in Costa Rica and has enjoyed teaching yoga for over a decade. After moving to Cleveland in 2019, Kara immersed herself in the Latin dance community through Viva Dance Studio, specializing in salsa. She joined the competitive Ladies Styling team, Azucar, in 2020, where the team earned third place in the amateur division in the World Salsa Summit, and later joined the partner performance team, Saoco de Mambo, in 2023. With Saoco de Mambo, she earned amateur runner-up honors at the World Salsa Summit and won first place in the amateur teams division at the Paramount Cup in 2026. Today, Kara teaches salsa, Latin fusion styles, hip hop, and yoga classes while continuing to perform and compete.

Come check out Karen Colabianchi preview class tomorrow morning and then register for auditions for a chance to be in her piece!
Karen Colabianchi has been in the dance field for over 50 years. She started dancing professionally at the age of 11 and by the age of 15 she was a member of a New York City dance company. She has performed in famous dance clubs, theatres, stadiums, and syndicated television shows.She was fortunate enough to train under dance legends Alvin Ailey, Debbie Allen, Hinton Battle, Phil Black, Ron Ferella, Frank Hatchet, Betsy Haug, David Howard, Charles Kelley, Henry LeTang, Luigi, JoJo Smith, and of course, Dee Hillier. Along with performing, Karen has worked professionally as a dance instructor, choreographer, designer, and director for over 40 years. In addition, Karen has choreographed modeling and bodybuilding shows, gymnastics and skating productions, musicals, show choirs, dance teams, bands, and winterguards. Some of her choreography has been performed nationwide and internationally. Presently, Karen teaches at her dance studio Uptempo Dance in Middleburg Heights, and she continues to perform and choreograph throughout the Greater Cleveland Area. Karen is honored to be part of Cleveland Dance Project’s Season 18 Showcase.

It’s audition week and we’re so excited to introduce another stellar pair of choreographers 😍 Check them out and then go register for one of our last audition spots for a chance to work with them!
Anaka Herbillon has been dancing since he was 10. he is from France but always has been inspired by america and its variety of super talented dancers. Growing up watching youtube of millenium dance studio he swore one day he would attend a class in this studio. He specicialized in Hiphop & afro dance through classes but mostly on his own reproducing dances online. After highschool he enrolled in a business school program that would allow him to study in the USA. He was part of his school dance crew as well as the school musical, they would perform for any celebrations or contest. After a year of investing all his time to dance, he was named head master of the dance crew and choreographer for the school musical. His two years of school in France was awesome, but then he got accepted in college in Cleveland!!! His first semester of junior year was full of trips and discovering the country, he realised his dream, visited LA and his favourite studio. And during his second semester he discovered this amazing studio called CDP and met amazing dancers.
Lexi Smith has been dancing since she was 2 in all genres of dance. She was born and raised in Ohio, and loves performing. Quickly, realizing the passion she had for hip-hop and jazz, particularly. Growing up she was a competitive dancer. In high school, she was on the Normandy Dazzler’s dance team, getting to travel out of state to perform at Universal Studios. And community performances. Then she branched out, traveling to NYC for dance classes at BDC off and on since 2018. She started taking class with CDP in 2019. she was fortunate to be chosen for a paid dance role to be one of the backup dancers in the Usher & Chris Brown Show. She was also given the incredible opportunity to be chosen separately to dance in the Rythm Section with Usher himself.