About Us
Our History
Established in 1991, the original "Dance Gallery" was founded by Ms. Amy White who has produced decades of high quality dancers in the Chicagoland area. After nearly 40 years, Louise Boyd has stepped into Ms. Amy's role of director and owner of our newly renamed Munster Dance Gallery, and looks forward to continuing on with the same values & high standards to a new generation of dancers.
Louise Boyd - Director/ Owner
Born in Paisley, Scotland, Louise started dancing at age five. She trained at Scottish Ballet Junior Associates, The Dance School of Scotland, and graduated from Laine Theatre Arts in London, with the highest education in Ballet (R.A.D-Solo Seal) Jazz, Contemporary, Tap & a teachers diploma through ISTD.
Louise was trained both in the French style of ballet under ballet master Fabrice Maufrais (Paris Opera Ballet) & the English style through The Royal Academy of Dance. At 16 Louise was a founding member of the ‘Jazz Art UK’ dance company, a resident dancer at the Kings Theatre, in Glasgow, 1995-2000 and danced with Carnival Cruise Lines from 2000-2006.
She has performed all over Europe with various touring productions, made TV appearances, & worked with many choreographers from both Broadway & Vegas, including Sheridan Nicol (Bob Fosse), Joan Palethorpe (Liza Minnelli) & George Reich (Moulin Rouge).
Louise launched the "NWI Dance for Parkinson's" group in Highland 2017, for which she received her training at The Julliard School, NY. In 2019 she was awarded the Stanley J. Wertheimer Fellowship by the Mark Morris Dance Company, NY.
Louise established “The Highland Dance Academy” in 2022 & continues her own professional development through annual teacher trainings with The Royal Ballet School & ISTD in London.
Amy White Hanas - Assistant Director
Founder and director of The Dance Gallery 1991-2026, Ms. Amy began her dance training as a child locally on the advice of a physician to strengthen pronated feet and look where it led!
She continued her education as a dance major at Indiana University, where she performed with the Indiana University Dance Theatre. She also served as an assistant director and substitute teacher while there.
Amy continued her dance education in Chicago with Joseph Holmes. She then continued learning from Birute Barodicaite, Warren Conover, Claire Bataille, Ginger Farley, Laura Wade and many other renowned instructors. Amy continued to dance and learn well into her 50's.
In order to understand movement in many forms, Amy also went on to be certified in mat Pilates and yoga. She continues to practice and teach both.
Ms. Amy is very happy to continue to teach young dancers.
Julianne Rice - Lyrical/ Aerialist
Julianne began her dance training at The Dance Gallery in Munster, IN under the direction of Amy White Hanas. She furthered her dance training at Indiana University where she received a BFA in contemporary dance. Upon graduation, Julianne moved to Chicago to become a founding member of Common Conservatory under the direction of Terence Marling. She later joined Aerial Dance Chicago, under the direction of Chloe Jenson, where she has had the opportunity to perform at Navy Pier, The Auditorium
Theatre, and even modeled for Gatorade.
Julianne has been on scholarship at summer intensives including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Paul Taylor Dance Company.
Julianne is currently a student at Northwestern University in Evanston where she is earning her Masters of Mental Health Counseling.
Outside of the studio, you can catch Julianne reading, running or taking guitar lessons at The Old Town School of Folk Music.
Katarina Ivanovic - Ballet, Lyrical
Kat began her formal dance training in ballet, lyrical, and jazz techniques at The Dance Gallery in Munster, Indiana under the direction of Amy White Hanas. During these formative years, she also attended classes at the Joffrey Ballet Academy and participated in Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s summer intensive where she was exposed to various ballet and contemporary techniques. She decided to continue her study of movement at Loyola University Chicago where she achieved education in dance kinesiology, pedagogy, choreography, and performance, and also attended workshops with artists such as Bobbi Jene Smith, Julie Nakagawa, Summer Lee Rhatigan, Oscar Ramos, Kevin Shannon, and Ben Wardell, to name a few. As a member of the Loyola Dance Company, she had the opportunity to originate roles and perform the works of leading choreographers such as Mark Morris, Martha Graham, Isadora Duncan, Charles Weidman, Derrick Agnoletti, Randall Newsom, and Sarah Cullen Fuller, among others. Katarina’s undergraduate career allowed her to travel abroad to Rome where she studied contemporary and improvisational techniques with the Mandala Dance Company. In 2018 she was awarded a scholarship to attend the Martha Graham Dance Company’s summer intensive in New York. Upon graduating from Loyola University in 2018 with a BA in Dance, Katarina decided to switch life paths and pursue her longterm goal of becoming an optometrist at the Illinois College of Optometry. She graduated in May 2023 as a Doctor of Optometry, and has since greatly enjoyed serving her community.
Alexandra Marich - HipHop
Alex is a former graduate of The Dance Gallery. She started dancing a very young age and has taught hiphop since 2013. After having her first child, she stopped teaching for three years and now dance has called her back! She has two beautiful children who keep her on her toes along with working on her masters degree in Psychology. She's excited to be back and ready to share her love of dance that has never stopped!
Elena Van Wieren - Ballet
Elena began dancing with The Dance Gallery at the age of four. She continued dancing there until she graduated from her homeschool group, Classical Conversations, in 2025. Throughout her high school years, she has enjoyed dancing the roles of Fauna (the green fairy) in Sleeping Beauty, Wendy in Peter Pan, Elsa in Frozen, and Alice in Alice in Wonderland. She is currently continuing her dance education with Indiana Ballet Theater (IBT) and has enjoyed being a part of their nineteen Nutcracker performances over the past two years. During the past two years,
she has danced a combination of the roles: Toy Soldier, Maid, Pink Angel, Russian, and her favorite, understudy of a Waltz Flower. Elena is a recently certified Newborn Care Specialist (NCS) and hopes to soon become a newborn nanny. In any free time Elena has, you can find her spending time with family, going to Bible study, or doing various crafts, such as knitting. She loves teaching and is thrilled to come back to her roots and teach at Munster Dance Gallery!
Ivory Gong - Ballet, Jazz
Ivory started dancing when she was 4 and began her training at the Dance Gallery when she was 7. She is currently a senior in Munster High School and her plans for next year are to go to Indiana University and study Clinical Psychology, in hopes of becoming a pediatric psychologist one day. My favorite style of dance is lyrical. Outside of school and dance, she loves to spend time outside, volunteer, and scrapbook.