OWNER/ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
KATIE CARAMICIU
Katie is an award-winning Rhode Island dance artist and choreographer with over 23 years of teaching, mentoring and performance experience. She knew at a young age she wanted to share her love for dance with the world and began teaching and choreographing right out of high school. Early on she was awarded American Dance Awards Regional Young Choreographer two years in a row which helped blossom her career and allowed her the privilege to begin teaching and choreographing all over New England as one of the most sought after teachers in Rhode Island. Her choreography is continually recognized on the regional and national level at prestigious competitions throughout the country receiving numerous awards and accolades including National Championships, Industry Dance Award nominations for Best Jazz, Best Open and Best Lyrical/Contemporary, Outstanding Choreography, Outstanding Technique and many more. Katie had the opportunity of working with MTV, filming a segment for an episode of the show “Made” and has choreographed for the Providence College Dance Team and Johnson and Wales University. She was a co-choreographer on a Dance For Film project for Curtain Call Costumes’ 2015 costume line, written and directed by William B. Wingfield and Monique Borromeo and lead choreographer Experiments in Theater’s production of High School Musical Jr. The passion, dedication and quality training she provides to her students is evident on stage and is seen in the success of her former students who are now dancing, teaching and choreographing professionally throughout the country and abroad with credits including the Radio City Rockettes, Patriots Cheerleaders, Atlanta Hawks Dancers, Royal Caribbean Cruise lines, Island Moving Company, Providence Ballet, Brickhouse NYC, Dancers Unlimited NYC & Hawaii and Verve just to name a few.
In 2020 Katie launched Konnectivity Contemporary Dance Company, a new professional dance company based out of East Greenwich, RI, and debuted "The Human Narrative" in April 2021. Her second repertoire show, "Self-Conceptions" premiered in summer of 2022 to rave reviews. The company is going into their third season and continues to provide dancers an opportunity to perform while also nurturing and mentoring up and coming, local choreographers.
MEET OUR FACULTY
KATIE KELLEY STAMM
Ballet | Pointe | Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT)
Originally from Cranston, RI, Katie began her classical dance training at the age of five at the Festival Ballet Providence school. She performed as a member of Festival Ballet’s Junior Company under the direction of MaryAnn Mayer and Mihailo Djuric for four years and graduated from the school in 2013. During her time as a student, she performed with Festival Ballet’s professional company in the corps de ballet in Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and multiple productions of The Nutcracker. She has also trained at the Harid Conservatory on full scholarship and danced with Ms. Gelsey Kirkland Ballet in NYC.
In 2013, Katie began an apprenticeship with Part of the Oath Dance Theater under the direction of Dr. Colleen Cavanaugh and Danielle Genest-Konicheva, and continued as a soloist until the company’s final performance in 2016. In 2017 Ms. Katie co-choreographed a new production of The Nutcracker for The Talent Factory in North Kingstown, RI. Her contemporary choreographic debut placed in the Top 12 at the YAGP Boston competition in 2018, and her choreography has also placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd at the W.B.A.C. Grand Prix in 2020. She has coached classical and contemporary dancers to go on and place in the top 10 at YAGP and the CT Classic in 2021 and 2022, as well as 1st and 2nd place winners at Revel, A.D.E, and 5th place winners at Radix.
She is certified to teach Junior, Senior, and Advanced levels of Progressing Ballet Technique © and is certified in the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet curriculum by Marcia Dale Weary.
Katie is excited to continue to nurture and inspire the next generation of dancers.
Felicia Byrd is a dancer, choreographer and instructor who simply loves to perform. She began dancing at a young age, simply learning choreography from music videos by artists such as Aaliyah, Chris Brown, and of course Michael Jackson. Aside from her “at home performances”, she also danced with different teams at her church called Silent Witness (liturgical), .COM (hip hop) and the Tri-Steppers (step). While attending college, Felicia realized her talents and joined teams such as Aesthetic Flo (hip hop), One Sound (step) and eXposure (hip hop, bachata, salsa, pasada and more). Through connections in eXposure, she was introduced to Dancin Spirit Performing Arts when her dance career truly began. Since then, Felicia has taught at multiple studios throughout RI and continues to be a student at Thr3e Live Dance Complex where she was also a principal dancer on the Liv3Lihood dance team. Felicia has performed for the Providence Dominican Festival, Issa Pointer, HGTV, New Kids On The Block at Fenway and most recently, in the upcoming “Hocus Pocus 2” movie. Felicia hopes to continue to teach and mentor young dancers to be able to pursue their dreams, while continuing to pursue hers.
FELICIA BYRD
Hip Hop
SUSAN MESSIER
Tap | Acro
Bio coming soon!
JENNA ROSS
Contemporary | Jazz
Jenna, a Rhode Island native, grew up as a competitive gymnast and began dancing at the age of thirteen. Throughout her time dancing, Jenna trained in a wide variety of styles from various choreographers and teachers, including Artistic Director Katie Caramiciu for three years. While in college at Hofstra University in New York, Jenna was a member of Hofstra’s largest performance club, Danceworks Productions, where she had the opportunity to dance, choreograph, and hold leadership positions – including President from 2019-2020.
In 2020, Jenna became a dancer with Konnectivity Contemporary Dance Company under the direction of Katie Caramiciu, performing in multiple group pieces and solos in the company’s debut performance, “The Human Narrative”, and most recently, “Self-conceptions”. In addition to performing, Jenna is the director of Grooves on West’s contemporary company, 1Motion. In the company’s first year, they earned multiple top ten awards for their group pieces and solos. Jenna is eager to begin teaching at Konnect and work with new dancers on building their contemporary and jazz foundations.
OLIVIA BEAUDOIN
Contemporary
Ms. Liv, originally from Massachusetts, began her dance training at the age of two at Ballet Westside in Rogers, Arkansas and transitioned to All That Dance in Bentonville, Arkansas, where she was a member of their competitive dance team. After her introduction to pointe work in 2013, Ms. Liv realized her love of ballet and a desire to pursue greater technical training. As a result, she began dancing at the Northwest Arkansas Conservatory of Classical Ballet (NWACCB), learning the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) method and participating in their annual production of the Nutcracker. In 2015, Ms. Liv’s family moved to Rhode Island. She continued her dance training at Festival Ballet Providence and Providence Ballet Theatre and then continued her training with Konnect Artistic Director, Katie Caramiciu.
During her time as a competitive dancer, Ms. Liv attended various competitions and conventions where she was awarded numerous scholarships, top 10 high scoring soloist, at both regional and national competitions, Showstopper America Loves to Dance national champion, Outstanding Dancer Runner Up at NYCDA and was also fortunate enough to be invited to perform with her team at the NYCDA Foundation’s Destiny Rising event at the Joyce Theater in NYC. Ms. Liv began teaching and choreographing in 2019 and although she’s a relatively new choreographer, her work is already receiving both regional and national recognition.
Ms. Liv is beyond excited to be teaching at Konnect again this year. She feels the best part of being a teacher is being able to help grow a student’s self confidence and share her love of dance with the next generation.
Timur Khan began his professional training at the A. Seleznev Almaty Choreographic School in Almaty (Kazakhstan) at age 11. His ballet training is based on the Vaganova Method. Besides ballet, he also studied character, contemporary, and traditional folk dances as well. After graduating from the A. Seleznev Almaty Choreographic School where he received Associate of Fine Arts degree in ballet, he also became a member of the Union of Choreographers of Kazakhstan. Timur joined the Abay State Opera & Ballet Theatre in Almaty, where he performed in a variety of classical ballets, such as Don Quixote, Swan Lake, La Bayadere, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Flame of Paris and The Nutcracker. Timur worked as a guest dancer with The Samruk Contemporary Dance Theatre in Almaty (Kazakhstan), Joburg Ballet in Johannesburg (South Africa), Albany Berkshire Ballet in Albany (New York), and currently is with Island Moving Company (IMC) of Newport, Rhode Island. He is a laureate of many international dance competitions and has also had the privilege to work and train with notable teachers and choreographers from all over the world.
TIMUR KAN
Ballet