Leadership
Lindsay & Matt Gopin | Founders
Meet Lindsay and Matt, founders of Rootz. As parents of five children in the North Shore, they are excited to be able to provide so many opportunities for our children, families, and amazing staff.
Lindsay studied Education and Kinesiology at Indiana University and earned her Master’s degree in Social Work from Loyola University. In addition to Rootz, Lindsay also owns a private therapy practice focusing on children and families. She grew up performing in both Dance and Theater and the performing arts remains strong in her heart. Working with kids and impacting their lives is her greatest joy!
Matt studied business at the University of Iowa. He has spent the last 20+ years working in large corporations and consulting firms. He is also the President of the Board of Education for District 106. If you see him around town, he probably will be coaching a sports team or have a child in his arms. We are thrilled to have his expertise at Rootz.
Lisa Panizo | Executive Director
Lisa brings multiple years of experience to the Rootz administrative team. A native of Deerfield, Lisa has worked with families on the North Shore for many years. Most recently, Lisa was the Executive Director at Starland and also worked as the Early Childhood Director at the Glencoe Park District. Lisa has also worked as a year-round Director at Banner Day Camp.In addition to her administration experience, Lisa was a classroom teacher with children from pre-school through middle school. After attending the University of Texas for her undergraduate degree, Lisa went on to receive her Masters of Arts in Teaching from National-Louis University. Performing is a passion of Lisa’s. A previous board member of the Highland Park Players, Lisa has appeared on stage with multiple theater groups in the area, including Up and Coming Theater, Deerfield Family Theater, North Shore Theater of Wilmette, Center Stage Lake Forest, and many others.
Jordyn Frelk | Dance Director
Jordyn is thrilled to bring Relevé Dance to Rootz! After 10 years at Starland, many spent as the Director of Dance, Jordyn created Relevé. Relevé is a program where dancers rise to their fullest potential in a nurturing and creative way. Jordyn has been teaching dance for 19 years all around Chicago and danced professionally with Core Project and Irreverence Dance. Jordyn is most proud of her role as “mom” to her two boys, Charlie and Blake.
Shameeka Choice | Theater Director
Lauren Archibald | Director of Marketing & Development | Dance Company Co-Manager
Lauren has been involved in the dance world since the age of three. She started competing at age twelve across the United States. She currently holds two titles at Energy Dance and Legacy, for her competitive Hip hop group dance and Lyrical solo. Lauren continued her passions by teaching young dancers to pursue their talents and dreams. Lauren graduated Loyola University Chicago in 2023, with a Major in Business Marketing and Dance from Quinlan School of Business. She stands with Rootz to encourage every student to grow and flourish. With her education in digital marketing and development, she is dedicated to help Rootz grow as she grows too. She also attended and taught master classes throughout her college years to expand her knowledge and grow as a teacher. She has been trained in several genres including Hip Hop, Contemporary, Ballet, and Jazz. She wants to take her knowledge and experience to inspire others. From a master class to a private session, she puts all of her efforts into a positive class.
Rori Soffer | Customer Experience Director
Rori holds a BA in Theater from Florida State University as well as a Masters in Special and General Education from Queens College in New York. Combining her passion for theater and education makes a fun match for teaching theater, dance and enrichment. She has taught for over 10 years in both public and private education before moving to raise her family in Deerfield. She has performed, danced and sang on the stage since she was a little girl and loves getting a chance to watch her daughters do the same!
Amber Giudice | Dance Company Co-Manager
Amber is from Lake Zurich and started dancing at the age of three. She studied dance through high school at Bataille Academie in Barrington and went on to minor in dance at Elmhurst College. While there she was involved with a growing dance program as well as the dance team, but Amber’s involvement doesn’t stop there! She was active with St. Anne Community Theater starting in 2003 until it ended in 2013. The last three years of the program she worked as a choreographer. She has studied ballet, tap, jazz, musical theater dance, and social dance (cha-cha, fox trot, tango, waltz). Aside from dance and musical theater, Amber is also a golfer. She was on both the high school and college golf team where she became the captain senior year. The previous Dance Company Competition Manager at Starland, Amber is excited to bring her dance training and experience to Releve. She is beyond thrilled to be working with so many wonderful kids of all ages. “Live life to the fullest and never look back. There’s always something in the future waiting for you”.
Andrea Shekhter | Cheer/Tumble Manager
Andrea was born and raised in Deerfield, IL. Growing up, Andrea always had a competitive nature involved in many athletic events, however quickly fell in love with gymnastics and cheerleading. While studying at Illinois State University majoring in Kinesiology and Recreation, Andrea decided to go a different athletic route and joined Rugby all while continuing her love of cheerleading as a choreographer for the surrounding schools of Bloomington, Illinois. Upon Andrea’s homecoming, she had tried several different career paths involving her degree and found in her heart of hearts her passion lies with coaching. Andrea has worked with several different athletic facilities including Starland, however she decided to take a backseat to become a mother of now four children! While loving every minute of motherhood she is eager to get back into teaching and is beyond thrilled to join the Rootz family!
Instructors
Amanda Van Eck
Amanda is so excited to return to Rootz! Full time, she is a Technology Learning Coach at a middle school. She graduated from Illinois State University with a degree in elementary education and she also has her Master’s in technology. Amanda has directed countless amounts of children’s shows and loves working at Rootz!
Amber Giudice
Amber is from Lake Zurich and started dancing at the age of three. She studied dance through high school at Bataille Academie in Barrington and went on to minor in dance at Elmhurst College. While there she was involved with a growing dance program as well as the dance team, but Amber’s involvement doesn’t stop there! She was active with St. Anne Community Theater starting in 2003 until it ended in 2013. The last three years of the program she worked as a choreographer. She has studied ballet, tap, jazz, musical theater dance, and social dance (cha-cha, fox trot, tango, waltz). Aside from dance and musical theater, Amber is also a golfer. She was on both the high school and college golf team where she became the captain senior year. The previous Dance Company Competition Manager at Starland, Amber is excited to bring her dance training and experience to Releve. She is beyond thrilled to be working with so many wonderful kids of all ages. “Live life to the fullest and never look back. There’s always something in the future waiting for you”.
Andrea Shekhter
Andrea was born and raised in Deerfield, IL. Growing up, Andrea always had a competitive nature involved in many athletic events, however quickly fell in love with gymnastics and cheerleading. While studying at Illinois State University majoring in Kinesiology and Recreation, Andrea decided to go a different athletic route and joined Rugby all while continuing her love of cheerleading as a choreographer for the surrounding schools of Bloomington, Illinois. Upon Andrea’s homecoming, she had tried several different career paths involving her degree and found in her heart of hearts her passion lies with coaching. Andrea has worked with several different athletic facilities including Starland, however she decided to take a backseat to become a mother of now four children! While loving every minute of motherhood she is eager to get back into teaching and is beyond thrilled to join the Rootz family!
Annika Brown
Annika demonstrated a love for dance early on and has been in immersive dance training since she was five years old. She’s been technically trained in ballet, modern, jazz, tap, hip hop and theater! She trained mostly at Dance Center Evanston, Evanston School of Ballet and Gus Giordano Dance School. She still actively trains and is always striving to improve her craft, with a huge love for tap and ballet. She has many future dance and theater goals. Annika loves the continuous learning process and loves being able to share her energy with her students and watch them grow. She appreciates being able to help each and every one of her students find their unique creativity and spark!
Bailey Gibrick
Christine Bennie
Christine is a physical therapist and, former competitive gymnast, gymnastics coach, and loving wife and mother to four young children. With a Masters degree in physical therapy and ten years of hands on experience, Christine will surely enjoy using her skills to captivate your children. As a former level ten USGF national qualifying gymnast, Christine will definitely keep your children on the move. Christine also has two years experience in coaching recreational gymnastics with children ages five through 14. Christine is very excited to join Rootz and help develop your child’s love for movement and gymnastics.
Daniel Aguirre
Daniel has been dancing hip hop since the age of five and dancing professionally since the age of 18. Daniel has classical training, but hip hop is his passion. Under the leadership of Marchello Lee, Daniel was able to backup dance for acts like Drew Sidora, Jennifer Hudson, Ludacris, and Wacka Flocka Flame. He has taught master class workshops, conventions, competition pieces, as well as recreational classes. Daniel is well versed in classic hip hop styles such as popping, breaking, and waving, but his main style is animation. With 12 years of experience, Daniel has realized that his path is that of a teacher.
Daniel Baccera
Daniel has been dancing for the past 8 years since the beginning of high school. During his high school dance career, he was apart of two dance clubs called Auroris Dance Company and YND Dance Club (Y Not Dance?) Auroris was a great dance program where he built and honed my skills. Daniel was Vice President of YND and we taught people who wanted to be in Auroris, how to dance ! In Auroris he choreographed a State recognized hip hop piece. Daniel also used to dance out of Supreme dance studio and In 2018 he joined my first professional hip hop compete team there, where we competed at World of Dance and Prelude Midwest!
Daniel Nach
Daniel graduated from ISU this past spring, where he received a bachelor’s degree in music. This is his first official job working in the music industry as well as the teaching industry.
Daniel has been playing piano for 12 years, singing for 9 years, playing ukulele for 2 years, and he just picked up bass guitar!
Emily Neumann
Emily has been involved in the dance world since the age of three. She started competing at 9 years old with Relevè Dance Company. She has danced in many styles including jazz, hip hop, ballet, modern, lyrical, and contemporary. Emily specializes in contemporary, competing solos and duets. Emily loves teaching, performing, and most importantly dancing. She stands with Rootz to encourage every student to grow and flourish. Emily wants to inspire others to follow their dreams and passions as well.
Hannah Pfau
Hannah has been dancing since she was two years old, and has been in the competitive dance world since she was nine. She has been training under the guidance of Ms. Jordyn since 2013. She has danced in the styles of lyrical, jazz, hip hop, contemporary, ballet, tap, and modern, and specializes in contemporary. Hannah loves performing, choreographing, and teaching dance. She is currently a member of the Relevé Elite Team, and she balances her own rehearsals and competitions with teaching and choreographing for her students. She is passionate about sharing her love of dance.
Jahne Jones
Jahne been cheering since 7th grade at Jackson Middle up until her senior year participating in both competitive / basketball season and football season on junior varsity and varsity at Willowbrook High School! Along with that she has been in child care services starting at the age of 14 years old with family friends and then progressing to a full time professional level! Jahne is so excited to start this journey with Rootz. She cannot wait to start the fun and work with the talented children!
Jordyn Frelk
Jordyn has been teaching dance for 19 years all around Chicago and danced professionally with Core Project and Irreverence Dance. Prior to joining Rootz, Jordyn spent ten years teaching dance and directing the dance program at Starland. Jordyn is most proud of her role as “mom” to her two boys, Charlie and Blake.
Julia Levenshteyn
Julia is so excited to begin working at Rootz with all of her dancers! Julia is a full time student at Lake Forest College during the day, pursuing a degree in neuroscience and biology with a minor in dance. Julia graduated from Stevenson High School in 2023 as a part of the National Dance Arts Honor Society. She has been dancing since the age of 3 and all throughout high school! Julia has a passion and gift for working with children. This past summer she worked at Apachi Day Camp as a program coordinator, organizing and planning activities for kids ages 3-12. She cannot wait to begin working with your kids to foster a love for movement and music in a tight-knit dance class setting.
Katie Phillips
A theater girl at heart, Katie has performed in, taught, and directed shows for over 20 years. Katie caught the theater bug when she entered high school at New Trier, having already spent countless hours dancing and singing around her house as a kid – anything from Disney to Sinatra Katie eventually took her love for being onstage to making the productions happen backstage. Later in high school and at the University of Illinois, Katie began to discover her love of directing and choreographing. She has since served as the camp and theater director for the Wilmette Park District’s Broadway Bound Camp, director and choreographer for multiple Edgewood Middle School musicals, and teacher/director/choreographer at Starland Kids for over five years. In addition to the stage, Katie’s other passion is kids! In 2009 she received her K-9 Master of Education from DePaul University.
Klaudia Jaimes
Klaudia has just returned from Los Angeles, California from chasing her dreams as a professional dancer and model. Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Klaudia was a part of the Chicago Bulls dance team and performed on court at the United Center for five years! During this time she was selected and sent to São Paulo, Brazil, to represent the Chicago Bulls during the 2019 NBA finals and featured throughout the Chicago 2020 NBA All-Star games. Klaudia has performed alongside artists such as Coolio, Armin Van Buuren T-Pain, and Lil Wayne. She recently performed in Medellín, Colombia, where she danced on tour with Nicky Jam!
Klaudia completed her Bachelor’s in Education with a minor in English as a Second Language from Depaul University. She is certified to teach kindergarten through sixth grade. Klaudia has also been teaching dance to kids ages 3 to 16 for the past six years.
Additionally, Klaudia was raised in a multilingual household and is trilingual. Having this multicultural background motivated her to get certified in teaching bilingual students. She became inspired to teach at a young age and her goal is to create a safe and welcoming learning environment, regardless of any outside factors children might experience.
Lauren Archibald
Lauren has been involved in the dance world since the age of three. She started competing at age twelve across the United States. She currently holds two titles at Energy Dance and Legacy, for her competitive Hip hop group dance and Lyrical solo. Lauren continued her passions by teaching young dancers to pursue their talents and dreams. Lauren graduated Loyola University Chicago in 2023, with a Major in Business Marketing and Dance from Quinlan School of Business. She stands with Rootz to encourage every student to grow and flourish. With her education in digital marketing and development, she is dedicated to help Rootz grow as she grows too. She also attended and taught master classes throughout her college years to expand her knowledge and grow as a teacher. She has been trained in several genres including Hip Hop, Contemporary, Ballet, and Jazz. She wants to take her knowledge and experience to inspire others. From a master class to a private session, she puts all of her efforts into a positive class.
Marchello "Chello" Lee
Chello is an accomplished professional dancer and master instructor who attended Columbia College and Northeastern Illinois University. He has performed across the world where his fusion of Hip Hop styles, break dance, house, jazz, and ballroom were spotlighted. His passion and versatility has led him to many lead roles as an actor and dancer. He has worked with renowned artists across the world including choreography featured in music videos, dance teams/ studio, and Winner of 2005 Chris Brown dance down. Chello formerly was an instructor at Starland and continued his dance teaching with Relevé starting in January 2017.
Mia Vaananen
Mia is a singer, actress, and dedicated musical theatre professional with a lifetime of experience in the industry both on and off the stage. Born and raised in Deerfield herself, she is happy to be back in the town where she found her “roots” and sharing her expertise with young stars in the making! Mia received her BFA in Musical Theatre Performance from Columbia College in 2019. Since graduating, Mia has worked in the educational system at multiple elementary schools throughout the North Shore as both an administrative and teacher’s assistant while also volunteering for Special Gifts Theatre in her spare time. Most recently, Mia spent her summer music directing for the School of Performing Arts at the Metropolis Theater in Arlington Heights, where she lended her skills to two fully staged youth productions.
In addition to directing, Mia also teaches private voice. She grew up singing with her musician of a father, Bill Vaananen, accompanying her on piano. Mia performs a wide variety of jazz standards and pop favorites at various dining venues across the northern suburbs. Mia manifests her love for theatre through teaching and inspiring within students the same fervor for the stage she once found.
Michelle Goldstein
Michelle has been involved in dance in one way or another since she was 6 years old. She attended Marcia’s Dance Studio for 10 years and took classes in ballet, jazz, acrobatics, and many more, and years later became a dance teacher at the studio. She went on to be a member of the Buffalo Grove High School Dance Team for 4 years and then joined a dance troupe at the University of Illinois called 3 Spot. She graduated from University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign with a degree in Community Health Education and Administration and then went on to get a Masters Degree from Depaul University in School Counseling. Since she was 18 years old, Michelle has worked for Personalities, Inc. as a dancer and emcee, and she has had some private choreography jobs. Maybe you have even seen Michelle at a Bar Mitzvah or a birthday party! She had an 11 year career as a School Counselor, but is now taking a step back and working other jobs in order to raise her twin 1 year old little girls! She is so excited to come to Rootz to teach parent/child dance classes! With all her dance experience and recent experience as a toddler mom, she can’t wait to have fun with all the little ones!
Reagan Argaez
Reagan is a current Chicagoland real estate broker and former competitive gymnast/dancer. Reagan has 12 years of experience in the dance industry and is still an avid member of the Chicago dance community. Reagan is so excited to be back at Rootz after a few year hiatus to spread her love and knowledge for the art!
Robin Taxman
Robin taught special education for 10 years before becoming a mother of two and deciding to teach at her daughter’s pre-school. Her love of yoga inspired her to bring the practice to children of a young age. After realizing that she could combine her passion for yoga with her love of children, Robin became a certified children’s yoga instructor through Mini Yogi’s, and continues to grow with every yoga class she teaches. A previous teacher at Starland, she continues her yoga practice with The Movement Junkies.
Rori Soffer
Rori holds a BA in Theater from Florida State University as well as a Masters in Special and General Education from Queens College in New York. Combining her passion for theater and education makes a fun match for teaching theater, dance and enrichment. She has taught for over 10 years in both public and private education before moving to raise her family in Deerfield. She has performed, danced and sang on the stage since she was a little girl and loves getting a chance to watch her daughters do the same!
Samantha Eisenberg
Sara Dolins
Shameeka Choice
Shellie Kerzner
Shellie began dancing early on and trained at various dance studios in Northwest Indiana. She moved to Chicago in 2007, and attended Northeastern Illinois University where she ultimately decided to major in dance. She successfully graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2011 with a BA in Dance Performance and Teaching. In addition to previously teaching at Northeastern Illinois University’s community program, Shellie has also had the pleasure of learning as a work/study at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Youth Program. Since then, she has taught dance technique and gymnastic skills to students of all ages. As well as teaching, she dances with Reveries In Motion Dance Company, a non-profit organization that donates a portion of concert proceeds to a charitable cause. Shellie previously taught at Starland and continued her dance teaching with Rootz starting in January 2017.
Sydnee Barnickel
Sydnee has three years of coaching experience and 10 years of experience cheerleading myself. She has participated in community cheer, high school cheer, and all star! In May 2023 Sydnee competed with her university at the NCAA cheerleading nationals in Daytona Beach! Being able to celebrate growth and new skills with the kids is one of her favorite things! She also loves being able to share her love for cheerleading with the kids she coaches.
Tova Holleb | Customer Experience
Tova holds a BA in Communications and a specialty in the arts from The University of Illinois. She is originally from Buffalo Grove and now lives with her family in Deerfield. Tova also works as an executive assistant for an advertising agency in Chicago. Combining her passion for the arts, logistics, and family, she quickly wanted to become part of the Rootz team. Tova cannot wait to see her two daughters flourish at Rootz and help members of the community along the way.
Teaching Partners
Midwest Academy of Taekwondo
Beth Pieti | Stretch-N-Grow
“Coach” Beth has been teaching Stretch-n-Grow around the North Shore for the past 5 years. Beth’s passion for children and fitness led her to her career in leading Stretch-n-Grow’s EXERCITING movement sessions. Throughout her classes Coach Beth’s goal is to teach children the joy of living a healthy lifestyle and developing good habits to last a lifetime.
Taylor Ioannou | Ciao Bella Sewing
Taylor is a twenty something from Chicago and founder of Ciao Bella Sewing. Taylor’s extensive background in fashion design and construction, from the School of the Art Institute and DePaul University, prompted her to pursue her passion and do what she loves. Taylor has a true passion for fashion; she loves being creative and original. Taylor and the Ciao Bella Sewing team have been teaching on the North Shore for the past couple of years. The team of expert sewers and designers love working together and teaching students of all ages.