Meet the Faculty

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Betsy Denney
BYU Youth Dancesport Program Director

Betsy Denney has a BA in Dance from Brigham Young University. She is certified with the ISTD in licentiate ballroom and latin. She is an adjunct faculty faculty member in the Dance Department at BYU where she teaches technique classes and coaches one of the performing teams. Betsy is a 2–time United States Amateur Smooth Champion, BYU Amateur Ballroom Champion, United States Youth 10–Dance Champion, and United States Youth Ballroom Champion.  She started ballroom dancing on a formation team at the age of 12 and then came to BYU where she had the privilege of touring with the Ballroom Dance Company for 5 years.  As a student, she received the top BYU Student Dance Instructor. During that time, she was able to compete with the team in Blackpool, England 2 times. She and her husband Karson also competed professionally in the American Smooth style where they placed in numerous rising star and open professional finals. Betsy started teaching in the BYU Youth program in 2001.  She has coached teams at the Pre-Teen, Junior, and Youth levels and now enjoys her role overseeing the Youth Dancesport Program.   She loves working with all of the youth and parents in this great program!!!

​Karson Denney
Youth A Team Director​

Karson started ballroom dancing at the age of 10 and it has been a big part of his life ever since. As an amateur competitor, Karson was the 2-time United States 9 Dance and Rhythm Champion, United States American Smooth Champion, and a BYU Amateur Latin Finalist. He had the opportunity to dance on BYU's touring team for 4 years and competed with them in Blackpool, England where they won the British Latin Formation Championship. Karson and his wife Betsy competed professionally in the American smooth style where they placed in numerous rising star and open professional finals. He is licentiate certified in both the latin and ballroom styles with the ISTD. Along with his extensive experience as a dancer, he has a Bachelors Degree in Global Studies and Masters Degree in Mass Communications.  He is an Artist Manager at BYU's Performing Arts Management where he is the Artist Manager for BYU groups including BYU's Ballroom Dance Company.  He has been teaching in the youth program since 2003 and truly enjoys it!

​Brittney Wakefield
Youth B1 Team Director,
​Junior A Team Director

Brittney is originally from Orem, Utah and started ballroom dancing at the age of twelve in the BYU Youth Ballroom Program. She grew up competing on the Youth Teams, as well as competing in ten dance individually. One of her greatest competitive achievements was winning the U.S. Youth National Ten Dance Title in 2002. She danced on the BYU Tour Team in college and toured the South Pacific, Ukraine, Western Europe and Asia. She met her husband, Craig, through ballroom dance and has been happily married for five years.  Brittney and Craig directed the Timpview High School Ballroom Program for two years growing it to more than 250 students including 6 competitive formation teams, several of which placed in the top five in Division I of the National Dancesport Championships. In addition to ballroom, Brittney has coached multiple genres of dance/tumbling for the past twelve years, teaching preschool students through adult. She has a Bachelor's Degree from Brigham Young University in Marriage/Family/Human Development and has taken numerous courses focusing on child psychology and development. Brittney has been teaching in the BYU Youth Program since 2013.

Allie Spinder
​​​​Youth B2 Team Director

Allie has always loved to dance. You could say it runs in her blood, with both her mother and grandmother being dancers. She grew up dancing in the BYU Youth program. It was there she met and developed a crush on Kyle, who years later became her husband.  Allie continued her training in college on the BYU Ballroom Dance Company. She traveled with the touring team to England, Scotland, Thailand, Vietnam and all over the United States. As amateur competitors, Allie and Kyle became 3x BYU 10-dance champions as well as 2x United States American Smooth Champions. In 2012, Allie graduated with a degree in Dance Education and a minor in Health Education.  Soon after Kyle and Allie moved to California to pursue a professional dance career. Together they became 2x United States and 3x World Open Professional Smooth Finalists, United States 9-dance finalists as well as Blackpool Smooth Finalists. They were also proud to be one of 5 couples invited to demonstrate a smooth exhibition at the Blackpool Dance Festival in 2015. Allie is a national level adjudicator with the NDCA having completed all her certification through the USISTD.  Allie is excited to be back in Utah and working with the Youth program!
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Carli Ralph
​​​Junior B Team Director

Carli Treu Ralph began her dancing career at the age of three and trained in multiple dance styles including; Jazz, Ballet, Tap, Hip Hop, Modern, Contemporary.  She started ballroom competitive dancing in the PeeWee Division at age five.  Carli continued her ballroom dance training and began competing in the Open Divisions of International Latin and Ballroom and American Rhythm and Smooth styles and has placed in numerous amateur finals.  She joined the BYU Youth Ballroom program dancing on the Jr. and Youth Formation Teams.  From there, Carli has been dancing with the BYU Dance program in both contemporary and ballroom styles and even met her husband, Ben Ralph while dancing in a ballroom class. Carli and Ben have had the privilege of touring with the Ballroom Company for four wonderful years and served as company presidents for one of those years. During that time, she was blessed with the opportunity to compete two times with the ballroom tour team at the British Championships in Blackpool, England – winning first place in the Latin Formation Division. Dancing with the touring team has allowed her to perform around the world in several countries including the US, China, England, Scotland, Wales, Chile, Argentina, France, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium. As a student, Carli received the Top BYU Student Dance Instructor award for 2019 and has taught a total of four years in the Social Dance Program. Carli will graduate from BYU this December 2019 with a BA in Dance Education.  She is thrilled to have the opportunity to teach with the BYU Youth DanceSport Program where she began her ballroom dancing career! 

Hannah Gasinski
​Junior 7th Grade Director

Hannah began dancing at the early age of 2, training in ballet, jazz and contemporary. Looking for something new and challenging, she started ballroom dancing when she was 11 years old.  As a junior and youth, she and her partners became national ballroom and latin finalists and as an amateur competitor she and her partner are currently United States Amateur Smooth finalists. Hannah attended Brigham Young University for her undergraduate degree where she majored in Global Studies and minored in International Development, Global Women’s Studies and Ballroom Dance. Hannah was a member of the Ballroom Dance Touring Company at BYU
for 4 wonderful years where she competed 2 times with the team at the British Championships in Blackpool, England—winning first place. Dancing with the touring company allowed her to perform abroad in several countries including England, Scotland, Wales, Chile, Argentina, France, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium. Hannah has a passion for teaching dance, creating, connecting and learning from her students. Hannah has been teaching in studios in Washington and Utah since 2011 and she is now thrilled to be a part of the BYU Youth Dancesport Program!

​Julie Peterson
Pre-Teen A Team Director

Julie began her ballroom dance career at BYU and toured with the Ballroom Dance Company for two years which included competing at the British Formation Championships in Blackpool, England.  She was a four-time undefeated Amateur Standard Champion at BYU and also a two-time United States standard finalist. While at BYU, she served as the company’s president and also received the highest Gold Bar Standard Medal’s Exam score earned at the University.  She and her partner then went on to be placed in the top-twelve in the Professional Rising Star Standard Division.  She and her husband owned a dance studio where their teams earned multiple National titles. In their last, year they prepared 11 medleys to compete at United States National competition.  She is thrilled to be a part of the BYU Youth Dancesport Program.

Kimberly Friess
​​​Pre-Teen B Team Director

Kimberly is a Utah native who loved participating in sports, but when she discovered ballroom as a sophomore in high school, there was no looking back. She quickly found her place on the BYU Tour team traveling to Ukraine, China, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and England, where she helped her team win the British Ballroom Formation Championship. Her love for people led to a mission in Italy where she taught some of the very same people she had performed for years earlier. Upon her return, she danced one more year on the BYU Tour Team where she met her husband and finished their final tour to Thailand and Vietnam. Kimberly’s individual competitive accomplishments were placing 2 nd in the BYU Amateur Ballroom Finals and 2 nd in the U.S. Nationals Amateur Smooth Finals. Kimberly graduated from BYU as valedictorian in Social Work with a minor in Ballroom Dance. She continued on at BYU, completing her Master of Social Work. While attending BYU, she taught ballroom dance classes and was awarded Top BYU
Student Dance Instructor. Since graduation, she has coached multiple formation teams and couples. Her love of dance, people, and teamwork makes being a part of the BYU Youth program an exciting opportunity!

Laurel Hornberger
​BYU Youth Dancesport
​Program Administrator

Laurel Hornberger works in Conferences and Workshops at
BYU as an Assistant Program Administrator.
She, and various student planners, help the director with the
​logistics of the Youth Dancesport program.  ​