Meet Our Team

Danika Steinmetz, BFA

Dance Coordinator/Adjunct Faculty- Dance

Department: Music, Worship & Performing Arts

Office Location: Lancaster

Danika Steinmetz holds a BFA in Dance Performance from the Purchase Dance Conservatory in NY. Raised in Bellevue Washington, she attended the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and performed multiple times with the PNB Company in Seattle, WA. In 2007 she moved with her family to the East Coast where she studied at Lancaster School of Ballet and Susquehanna Dance Center. Throughout high school she performed principal roles with Ballet Theater of Lancaster and COBALT Dance Company, and participated in Mark Morris Dance Group workshops in Brooklyn, NY. Danika has taught dance in South America, co-directed dance clinics for The Greens at Greenwich CT retirement community, and taught ballet and musical theater dance courses for Lancaster Bible College. In 2017 she launched the Durang Dance Collective, which serves to educate and entertain local audiences through exposure to world-class dance by emerging choreographers. In 2017, Danika also reunited with Adam, her Pas de Deux partner from COBALT’s 2012 “The Nutcracker”. They immediately fell in love and were married within the year. From 2018-2020, Danika freelanced as a dancer and choreographer in NYC, while continuing to teach dance and fitness at studios throughout NJ and PA. Danika has performed as a featured dancer at both the Fulton Theater (“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat”, “The Wizard of Oz”, and “Fulton Follies”), and PRiMA Theater (“Chess”, “West Side Story”, and “Evita”).

Education:

BFA Dance Performance (Class of 2017) – Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase, Purchase, NY

Advice:

“To me, a class session wasn’t successful if we didn’t all laugh together at least once. Life can be difficult. School can be difficult. If we don’t acknowledge and appreciate the joyful and humorous moments, then we are racing through life too quickly.” – Mrs. Steinmetz

Verse:

“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” – Psalm 43:5