Our Staff
Quality education in dance and the safety of the dancers are paramount to our dance coaches and staff. The tools we’ve acquired through multiple trainings and certifications aid our staff in creating a quality dance education.
Laura Muylaert (Thorp)
Studio Director
Laura brings over 35 years of dance experience and a lifelong passion for movement, performance, and mentorship. She began dancing at the age of 3, training extensively in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Cecchetti, Pointe, Lyrical, Hip Hop, and Pom. Laura is a former member of the Plymouth-Canton Ballet Company and was a four-year member and Captain of the Salem Rockette Dance Team. During her time as a Rockette, she was selected for both the Mid American All-Star Team and the UDA All-Star Team—prestigious honors recognizing her talent and leadership.
After graduation, Laura returned to coach the Salem Rockettes, leading the varsity team to numerous local and national accolades. She also danced and taught professionally with Universal Dance Association, where she led camps, workshops, and judged competitions nationwide.
With over 20 years of teaching experience, Laura has earned multiple awards for her choreography and technical instruction at both local and national levels. She strongly believes in a solid foundation in ballet and technique, and her students reflect that standard—many have gone on to dance with university programs such as Point Park University, Wayne State, Davenport, Western Michigan, and Pure Existence Pre-Professional Dance Company.
Laura’s students have been featured in lead roles in The Nutcracker with the Plymouth-Canton Ballet Company, and have earned placements with elite teams like the Detroit Pistons Automotion, Cincinnati Bengals Dance Team, Davenport University Dance Team, and numerous collegiate dance programs. Many of her graduates have also received scholarships to top-performing arts schools.
As the Owner and Director of Elite Dance Force, Laura is deeply committed to developing strong, confident dancers and leaders. She also proudly mentors her teaching staff, celebrating their creativity, knowledge, and dedication to excellence in dance.
In addition to her dance career, Laura is a licensed paramedic, a proud wife to her husband Ben, and mom to Berkley and Tait. She and her family reside in Canton, Michigan.
Certifications: Licensed Paramedic
Kendall Gessler
Assistant Director
Kendall began her dance journey at Elite Dance Force, where she trained extensively in Jazz, Contemporary, Hip Hop, Modern, Pom, Ballet, Pointe, and Cecchetti. As a dedicated member of both the studio’s competition team and All-Star Pom team, her passion for dance quickly grew into a lifelong commitment.
She continued her training at Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she was a three-year captain of the dance team. During her collegiate career, Kendall became a two-time NDA National Champion, three-time NDA All-American, and earned the prestigious Top Gun Titleholder.
Since 2021, Kendall has been a full-time teacher at Elite Dance Force, bringing over 10 years of choreography experience to dancers across Michigan. She has choreographed for high schools, colleges, and universities throughout the state, and currently serves as the Head Coach of the Brighton Varsity Pom Team, leading them to back-to-back National Championships in 2024 and 2025.
Kendall holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and is thrilled to continue sharing her passion, leadership, and creativity with the next generation of dancers at her home studio.
Certifications: NAIA Official, Ceccheti Levels I-III, CPR / AED / First-Aid Certified by the National CPR Foundation
Tyler Korff
Tyler Korff is a 2021 Western Michigan University alumni with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. While at Western he was given the opportunities of working with Seyong Kim, Whitney Moncrief, Jeremy Blair, and Kelsey Paschich, and performing in Melaine George’s Passage Play, George Balanchine’s The Four Temprements, Mike Esperanza’s Bystander, and Alyssa Boone and Alyssa Brutlag’s Wisteria. Tyler has also attended a Peridance Blueprint Summer Dance Intensive in New York City, as well as a Giordano Dance Chicago Workshop while attending Western. After graduating he moved back to his hometown of Redford, MI and began working with Metro-Detroit companies such as ArtLabJ, Eisenhower Dance Detroit, and Suttle Dance Company. While working with ArtLabJ he has performed at the Detroit Dance City Festival, the Korean American Artists or Detroit Festival, Oakland Dance Festival, and Detroit Dance Race. He’s also traveled overseas with ArtLabJ, to Austria to perform in the A!ko Dance Festival in 2022. He has attended New Dance Fest and was able to work with Stephanie Pizzo, Molly McMullen, NewBrese Dance, Jessica Tomlinson, and Shannon Gillen. Tyler has also been given the opportunity of being cast in Eisenhower Dance Detroit’s youth company Nutcracker as a guest artist, as well as being the Nutcracker for Fenton Ballet Theatre and Rochester School of Dance’s’ rendition of the Nutcracker. Tyler was also a chosen dancer for a Metro-Detroit dance calendar project created by John Sobczak, Stephanie Smith Hall, and Stephen Leonard entitled Dancing For Myself Detroit, that showcased dancers from multiple dance companies in the area. Tyler is excited to be performing with ArtLabJ for his third season and can’t wait to get the season started. He’s also excited to have the opportunity to join the staff at EDF and can’t wait to get back in the studio with everyone!
Melissa Gross
Melissa graduated from Western Michigan University with a Bachelors of Arts in Dance and has an Associates Degree in Childhood Development. Melissa was a Varsity Salem Rockette for four years and a Mid-American and Universal Dance Association All-Star. During her college years, she studied dance and was a member of Hip Hop ConnXion. Melissa was also a member of the Western Michigan University Dance Team. Many performances included the WMU Winter Gala Dance Concert, Orchesis Dance Concert, Texas Bowl, and Regional and National Dance Competitions. After college, she thrived to share her love and passion for the arts and became an instructor. She enjoys working with dancers of all ages, levels, and different genres in hopes to develop the same passion she's always had for dance.
Kaitlin Koselansky
Kaitlin Koselansky has been teaching dance for over 10 years. She grew up dancing and competing in Macomb, MI from the age of 3 years old and was a part of her high school’s dance team. Kaitlin’s strength is tap and she has been part of multiple professional tap companies including Rhythm Tap Ensemble at University of Michigan and Detroit Tap Repertory. During the day, Kaitlin works in sales for a management company. She can't wait to see the dancers’ passion for dance come alive onstage.
Emily Harris
Emily has been helping coach tumbling at Elite Dance Force since 2016. She has a background in gymnastics from an early age, up through high school where she competed on the high school gymnastics team. Emily has been coaching/teaching gymnastics since 1999. She was a teacher through Canton Community Ed gymnastics program, and also the assistant coach for the Plymouth High School Gymnastics team for 4 years where she was also the strength and conditioning coach. Both Emily’s daughters dance at EDF and have been a part of the EDF family since 2015. Emily is grateful to be able to share her love of gymnastics with the EDF dancers!
Kristen Kubert
Kristen began developing her foundation in dance starting at age 3 where she studied various styles including ballet, pointe, jazz, modern, musical theatre and tap.
She is a former member of the Plymouth Canton Ballet company playing various roles with their annual performances of “The Nutcracker”. She was also honored to have a role in “Mid Summer’s Night Dream” at the Detroit Opera House with the Metropolitan Ballet Company.
In high school, Kristen was a four year Salem Varsity Rockette, and was chosen as an UDA All-Star. After graduating, she continued dancing for two years on the Central Michigan University Dance team. She graduated from CMU with a degree in Health Fitness and Rehabilitation Programs where she worked as a clinical exercise physiologist at Beaumont/Corewell Health for 16 years!
In 2021, Kristen felt a calling to focus more time and energy around her passion for health and fitness by becoming a trainer at Burn Boot Camp. Here, she not only trains and supports members of the community through group fitness, but she continues to challenge her own fitness goals in the process. As a bonus, she loves leading the Kid's Camp sessions to inspire our youth to feel their best, too.
Kristen is excited to merge her passions of dance and fitness as the strength coach at EDF. She loves the challenge in finding fun and creative ways for the dancers to improve their fitness level. She hopes to be an inspiration and positive role model not only for the dancers she trains, but especially her three daughters who all attend EDF.
Certifications: Cecchetti Grades I-III, ACSM CEP, BLS/ACLS
Grace Kukla
Grace Kukla is an Elite Dance Force alumni, recent graduate of Davenport University, and a 3-year member of their Dance Team. While on the dance team she received back-to-back national championships in the Division II team routine category and was nominated as captain her senior year. Grace is excited to continue on her career with dance at a place that holds such a special spot in her heart.
Mary Eccles
Mary Eccles is a highly accomplished dance educator and choreographer with over two decades of experience teaching ballet, modern, jazz, and Pilates. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the University at Buffalo.
Mary is a certified Cecchetti Ballet teacher and a Stott Pilates Certified Instructor with specialized training in matwork, reformer, cadillac, chair, and barrel techniques. Her extensive training includes work with renowned artists such as Gay Delanghe, Bill De Young, Peter Sparling, Sandra Torijano, Judy Rice, and many others.
Throughout her career, Mary has served as faculty at the University of Michigan, Marygrove College, the University of Toledo, and the University of Michigan–Flint, where she taught courses in ballet, modern, jazz, improvisation, dance theory, and Pilates. She has also contributed choreography to numerous college and studio performances.
Her studio teaching experience spans respected programs across Michigan and New York.
In addition to her academic and studio work, Mary has pursued supplementary training at prestigious summer intensives and workshops such as the Limon Summer Dance Intensive, Paul Taylor Company Workshop, and the American College Dance Festival. She has also studied yoga extensively, incorporating its philosophies and practices into her teaching approach.
Mary’s passion lies in nurturing dancers of all levels, blending technical precision with artistry, while instilling discipline, creativity, and confidence both in and out of the studio.
Ben Muylaert
Ben has been coaching tumbling at Elite Dance Force since 2009. He has a background in gymnastics from an early age, and competed on the Eastern Michigan Club gymnastics team for two years. While at Eastern Michigan he also received his degree in Technology and Design Education with a minor in psychology. Ben has been coaching/teaching gymnastics since 2000; in the past coaching under John Cunningham at Canton High School and at Michigan Academy of Gymnastics where he ran the boys’ recreational program and was one of the competition team coaches. Ben is thankful to be able to pass his knowledge and love of gymnastics on to the students at Elite Dance Force!
Lexi Weber
Lexi has been dancing since the age of three and is a proud native of the Plymouth-Canton area. She grew up training at a local studio, where she competed at numerous competitions and attended conventions to further her dance education. Throughout her competitive career, Lexi earned numerous titles at both the regional and national levels. In addition to dance, she was also a dedicated cheerleader, spending three years as a member of the Canton Varsity Cheer Team.
Outside of the studio, Lexi is a licensed Esthetician and state board certified. She is incredibly passionate about working with children and is thrilled to share her love of dance with the next generation of dancers in EDF’s recreational program.
Hilari Vanbynen
Hilari has been dancing since the age of two with extensive training in ballet, pointe, jazz, lyrical and hip hop. She has performed in many lead roles with the Plymouth-Canton Ballet Company/Plymouth Symphony, such as Clara, Dew Drop Fairy, and Snow Princess, along with others. She is now one of the Artistic Directors of the Plymouth Canton Ballet Company, and is proud to be passing on the Nutracker experience to a new generation. Hilari attended multiple summer ballet intensive programs with the Cecchetti Council of America at Hope college. She also performed at the Detroit Opera House in the Metropolitan Ballet Company's 'Mid Summer's Night Dream' as the lead child role, the Indian Boy. After growing up in the studio, as her whole family taught or still teaches dance, Hilari believes she has found her true calling as a teacher and choreographer! She has been teaching dance since 1998, with students winning awards in both technique and choreography, along with both regional and national overall high scores. She has had many students go on to college dance programs, dance companies, theater companies/performances, and Disney. Hilari has passed her teachers Cecchetti Grade I through Intermediate, Grade VI, exams with high honors. She is also a member in good standing of the Cecchetti Council of America. Hilari also sits on the board as a Director with Great Lakes Regional Dance Masters, and is a member in good standing with Dance Masters of America. She lives with her husband Nate and 2 sons, Landon & Brayden along with their NewFoundland Bruce Wayne. Hilari is so proud to be the owner of Grosse Ile Academy of dance.
Certifications: Ceccheti Levels I-XI