Meet our Faculty
Amber Cordell
Director - Instructor - Competition Choreographer
For nearly three decades, Amber has dedicated her life to dance. Not only as a performer, choreographer, coach, and educator, but also as a mentor who believes the most meaningful impact of dance extends far beyond the stage.
Amber’s journey began as a competitive dancer, training extensively in ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, lyrical, modern, and acrobatics. She studied throughout the United States and earned recognition as one of the nation’s top-ranked soloists. During high school, she danced for the Liberty High School Pom team, now known as the Sapphires, and was a member of the first team in the school’s history to compete.
While attending William Jewell College, Amber performed with the college dance team, which placed among the top six teams in the nation for three years during her time there. She also traveled nationally as an instructor for Universal Dance Association (UDA), teaching high school dance teams at summer and private camps across the country. Through this experience, she expanded her expertise in pom and hip-hop while developing the ability to inspire, challenge, and connect with large groups of talented dancers.
Immediately after college, Amber became the coach of the Park Hill South Dance Team. She also taught college camps for National Dance Alliance (NDA) while continuing to teach and choreograph at the studio level. Her professional performance career included being selected as a dancer for Carnival Cruise Lines, performing with KACICO Dance, and participating in a variety of independent professional productions.
As her career grew, Amber began earning recognition for her choreography. She was hired by the Kansas City Royals to choreograph numerous high-profile events, including Opening Day field performances, FanFest events, awards shows, watch parties, and other special productions. She also created dynamic, visually engaging competition routines for high school dance teams throughout the Kansas City area.
These opportunities were exciting and rewarding, but they ultimately helped Amber recognize where her heart truly belonged: teaching children and having the privilege of watching them grow.
She found that working with dancers week after week, getting to know them, encouraging them through challenges, and witnessing their confidence and abilities develop, was more fulfilling than any single performance or professional accomplishment.
In late 2005, Amber founded her own dance program (Stars Unlimited). The studio celebrated its first full recital and sent its inaugural competition team to the stage in 2006. Since then, she has spent decades educating, mentoring, and helping raise generations of dancers. Many studio families have become lifelong friends, and several former students have returned to share their own knowledge and love of dance as members of the faculty.
When time allows, Amber continues to judge dance competitions and teach workshops outside the studio. Today, however, much of her time and heart are devoted to her studio community and to her own daughter and dancer, Taylor.
Throughout her career, Amber has experienced dance from nearly every perspective: student, competitor, collegiate athlete, professional performer, coach, choreographer, judge, studio owner, teacher, and dance parent. Those experiences have shaped a philosophy that continues to guide everything she does:
**Dance is not life, but it teaches you nearly everything you need to know to be successful in it.**
Through dance, children learn discipline, patience, resilience, responsibility, teamwork, confidence, humility, and the courage to keep trying. For Amber, developing strong dancers will always matter—but helping raise capable, compassionate, and confident young people is the true measure of success.
Katelyn Kays
Instructor - Competition Choreographer
Katelyn’s life at Stars began when she was just 18 months old. Over the next 17 years, the studio became her second home—a place where she grew from a tiny dancer taking her first steps into an accomplished performer, choreographer, teacher, and role model for the next generation.
Throughout her student years, Katelyn trained extensively in ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, hip-hop, contemporary, lyrical, musical theatre, and voice. As a competitive dancer, she distinguished herself as a title-winning soloist and received multiple convention scholarships in recognition of her talent, versatility, and dedication.
Katelyn was a member of the Stars Unlimited competition team for more than 13 years. During that time, she contributed to numerous national championship victories and developed the work ethic, resilience, teamwork, and performance quality that continue to define her as both a dancer and an educator.
During high school, Katelyn was a four-year varsity member of the Liberty North Dance Team. She was also selected as an ambassador for Symposium Talent, an organization she continues to represent through her work and assistance at events.
Katelyn’s collegiate dance journey began unexpectedly during a high school clinic, when her talent and potential caught the attention of the University of Missouri–Kansas City dance program. She was offered immediate placement on the UMKC Dance Team and is now in her fourth year as a member of the nationally ranked program. Through collegiate dance, Katelyn continues to strengthen her performance skills, pursue excellence, and inspire those around her.
A remarkably well-rounded dancer, Katelyn teaches tap, jazz, ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, and technique classes. Her broad training allows her to connect with dancers across multiple styles while helping each student build a strong technical foundation, confidence, musicality, and individual artistry.
Katelyn also choreographs solos and group routines for the Stars competitive program. Because she grew up within the studio herself, she understands the competitive experience from the inside—the excitement, pressure, discipline, challenges, and unforgettable relationships that shape a young dancer’s journey. She brings that understanding into every class and rehearsal, offering her students both high expectations and genuine support.
From beginning her own dance education at 18 months old to returning as a valued member of the faculty, Katelyn represents the full-circle legacy of Stars. She is living proof of what can happen when talent is nurtured, hard work becomes a habit, and a dancer is given a place to grow up doing what she loves.
Mackenzie Ryan
Photo coming soon
Instructor - Competition Choreographer
Mackenzie trained at Stars for more than 10 years, growing from a young student into a standout competitive dancer known for her dynamic performance quality, natural musicality, and exceptional strength in hip-hop. Throughout her years at the studio, she trained extensively in tap, jazz, ballet, hip-hop, and contemporary.
As a member of the Stars performance troupe, Mackenzie performed at numerous special events for the Kansas City Royals, including FanFest celebrations, watch parties, and the unforgettable World Series Rally. For the rally, Mackenzie and her teammates learned their routine the night before taking the stage to perform in front of an estimated 800,000 people, an experience that demanded focus, professionalism, and the ability to deliver under extraordinary pressure.
Mackenzie also spent multiple years training with PULSE and Camp PULSE, where she had the opportunity to learn from leading industry choreographers whose professional credits included Nickelodeon and Disney. These experiences broadened her understanding of commercial dance and further developed the powerful performance style that made her stand out onstage.
However, some of Mackenzie’s most valuable lessons came during the most challenging chapter of her training.
After suffering a serious knee injury, Mackenzie underwent surgery and committed herself to rehabilitation, only to experience another injury and a second knee surgery soon afterward. These setbacks changed the final years of her experience as a student, but they did not end her relationship with dance.
Rather than stepping away from the studio and the dance family she loved, Mackenzie found new ways to contribute. She became an invaluable presence backstage, helping younger dancers navigate quick changes, complicated costumes, props, and the controlled chaos that comes with every performance. When she could not participate in the same way physically, she began studying dance with a different kind of focus.
She watched closely.
Mackenzie used that time to deepen her understanding of technique, choreography, classroom structure, and teaching styles. Her careful eye for detail became one of her greatest strengths and helped shape the thoughtful, observant instructor she is today.
Mackenzie first joined the Stars faculty as a preschool teacher, a role she continues to love. Her warmth, patience, and ability to make young dancers feel safe and successful allow her to build a strong foundation during a child’s earliest years in the studio. It also quickly became clear that her talents reached far beyond the preschool classroom. Mackenzie possesses a natural instinct for choreography and an ability to create engaging, memorable work for dancers of all ages.
Her journey has given her a perspective that cannot be taught through technique alone. Mackenzie understands what it means to persevere when the path changes. She knows that loving dance is not limited to performing onstage and that a person’s gifts can evolve into new forms of purpose.
Her experiences have also given her a profound appreciation for what a healthy body allows a dancer to do. She encourages students to be grateful for their abilities, work hard while those opportunities are available, and develop the strength and awareness needed to protect their bodies.
Mackenzie’s story is one of resilience, adaptability, and genuine love for dance. She reminds her students that an unexpected change does not have to be the end of the journey. Sometimes, it reveals an entirely new way to make an impact.
Lindsey Bahr
Instructor
Bio Coming Soon!
Danielle Perry
*Photo coming soon
Acro - Tumbling
Bio Coming Soon!
Whitney Huell
Ballet Specialist
Whitney Huell trained at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities under the tutelage of Stanislav Issaev and Robert Barnett. She attended Indiana University earning a B.S. in Ballet and Psychology before joining Ballet West. With Ballet West, Huell performed featured roles in Paquita, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Petite Mort, and Jewels. In January 2011, she was one of Dance Magazine’s Top 25 to Watch and was also featured in Pointe Magazine‘s September 2012 issue. With Kansas City Ballet, she has performed works by Amy Seiwert, Adam Hougland, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Monique Meunier, Stanton Welch, Edwaard Liang, Val Caniparoli, Helen Pickett, Septime Webre, Mark Morris, Jirí Kylián and Jerome Robbins. She has been featured as The Lead Woman in James Kudelka’s The Man in Black, Jeté Woman in Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, Dark Angel in Balanchine’s Serenade, Myrtha in Devon Carney’s Giselle, Tiger Lily in Devon Carney’s Peter Pan, the Solo Woman in Balanchine’s Rubies and Mercedes in Anna-Marie Holmes’ Don Quixote. In 2018, she was featured as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Devon Carney’s production of The Nutcracker becoming the first African American in Kansas City Ballet history to perform the role. In 2024, Huell participated in Pathways to Performance: Exercises in Reframing the Narrative performing at The Kennedy Center and Jacob’s Pillow. She is also a 2024 Arts/Entertainment honoree on the Monument to Freedom, Justice & Courage in Jackson County, MO.