Dance Faculty
Ashley Hunker is excited to be a part of Toledo School for the Arts. She hopes to inspire her students to explore movement without limitation. Her twenty years of acrobatic dance experience has provided her with a vision of dance as a limitless movement form in which one can bend the laws of gravity. In other words, Ms. Hunker hopes to provide her students with encouragement to not allow themselves to be confined to always being upright. She wants to encourage her students to become comfortable with moving upside down, right side up, in the air, on their heads, and so on…
Ms. Hunker is originally from a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, where she studied tap, jazz, ballet, and acrobatics for fifteen years. She came to Bowling Green, Ohio in 2004 to pursue higher education. While at Bowling Green State University, Ms. Hunker was part of the university’s pre-professional dance company. While in the company, she studied Balinese, modern, and Korean dance, as well as stilting. During her time at BGSU, Ms. Hunker also had her first “song and dance” experience when she was a Kit Kat Girl in the BGSU Theatre Department’s production of “Cabaret”. Ms. Hunker graduated from Bowling Green State University in 2008 with a BA in History and a minor in Dance.
In addition to her time spent a Toledo School for the Arts, Ms. Hunker also directs a competitive acrobatic-dance company she started this year comprised of a small group of elite dancers/acrobats. She is also a proud member of the Wood County Humane Society team, where she spends time working with animals.
Alison Reny is a recent graduate from Wright State University with a BFA in dance. She has studied under many top dancers and choreographers from around the world. She has also choreographed and taught at numerous studios and programs throughout Ohio and Michigan. Last year her choreographic work “Grief into Grace” was selected to be performed at the Cystic Fibrosis Benefit in Dayton, Ohio. She has performed in many musicals as well as dance concerts. Most recently she was dance captain for West Side Story at Wright State University.
Alison’s classes are non-stop and always full of energy. She creates an environment where her dancers not only become stronger technically and physically, but grow as individual artists. She plans to integrate all forms of dance including jazz, tap, ballet, hip-hop and contemporary. Her goal is to train her students to be prepared for anything and everything that may lie ahead in the world of dance!
Talina Tolson is a choreographer and dancer who holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies of Dance from the University of Toledo. She is the founder, director and choreographer of H.A.J.E.R.A. Dance Collective, and the University of Toledo Afro-Caribbean Ensemble. She is currently teaching Modern and Ethnic dance classes for the Toledo School for the Arts, and is the director of the Modern Dance Department for the Dance FX Academy of the Arts, Toledo, Ohio.
Ms. Tolson desires to teach dance classes that focus on the interaction between physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual aspects of each student. She also encourages the development of creativity, self-esteem, coordination, sociability, and self-expression through the medium of dance.
Ms. Tolson has completed many rigorous dance programs in Africa, Indonesia, and Hawai’i. It is through these studies that Ms. Tolson seeks to increase the opportunities for all people to participate in, and understand dance through a world perspective. She continues to explore dance as a living history, and a common language that unites people of all communities, in a shared moment that represents the lessons of life past, present, and future.
Bethany Urbanski is the first TSA alumna to join our staff! Bethany earned her Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Point Park University (Pittsburgh, PA) and has a wide background in theatre and dance. She has toured with Hoctor's Dance Caravan as a choreographer and Caravan Kid Coordinator, and has also assisted at Co. Dance conventions. Bethany is an exciting addition to our dance faculty. She also serves in the Development Department as our Outreach Coordinator and takes care of booking our numerous ensembles for community performances.
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Kerri Wilde is a long time dancer and choreographer. She holds a Bachelors of Education with the emphasis in Dance from the University of Toledo. She also has a Master in Dance Therapy from Columbia College in Chicago. Mrs. Wilde is classically trained in ballet, modern and jazz. Studying with Zoll Ballet, Gus Giordano and Elaine Valois. She has performed throughout Europe with Extraordinary Students of America. Mrs. Wilde has taught at the University of Toledo, Toledo Ballet and Owens Community College. She created the dance program and developed the arts and humanities curriculum at Ft. Meigs YMCA in Perrysburg, Ohio. She continues her love of teaching dance with the students at Toledo School for the Arts in expanding their desire to become the best.
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Mr. Mark Cramer began his karate-do training in 1971 while he was a student at Kent State University. After he graduated from KSU in 1973, he began a thirty-five year teaching career in Toledo Public Schools where he taught history. During these thirty-five years, Mr. Cramer also taught traditional Japanese karate-do in several local schools. He taught karate-do at the St. John’s Jesuit Karate Club from the mid to the late 1970s, and founded the highly successful karate clubs at Rogers H. S. and Start H. S. in the 1980s and 1990s. Since 2003, he has been the chief instructor for the community education karate program in Bedford Public Schools. In the spring of 2011, Mr. Cramer joined the teaching faculty of TSA.
Mr. Cramer is a sixth degree black belt (roku-dan) in Goju Ryu Karate-Do. This is one of the four styles of traditional karate which is recognized by the International Olympic Committee. He has won 19 national medals including 6 national championships while competing for the U.S. Olympic Committee’s National Governing Body for Sport Karate. (This is presently the USA National Karatedo Federation www.usankf.org ) Mr. Cramer has also won more than 200 other medals at local, state, and regional competitions.
Mr. Cramer’s karate class stresses traditional instruction in Japanese karate kata (forms), kumite (sparring), and kobudo (old style weapons).