Not many dance teachers can say they’ve had four students accepted at Juilliard in just the last 15 years — especially in southeast Michigan — but Liz Schmidt, owner and artistic director of Spotlight Dance Works in Chesterfield, can. In her 25 years as director of the youth dance studio, it has become a hotbed of future professional concert dancers. Every year, several of her students graduating from high school leave to attend prestigious college dance programs and conservatories across the country — and the world.
Schmidt has been building this incubator since she took over as artistic director at age 19. She’d grown up dancing at the studio, then called Shelley’s Spotlight School of Dance, and when she was a senior in high school, the owner, Shelley Amato, asked her to take the reins. After talking it over, Schmidt and her mom, Linda, decided to try it out as partners with Amato while Schmidt attended the University of Michigan’s dance program, but by the following year, 2000, Amato had bowed out entirely and left Schmidt in charge of the artistic operations. She soon transferred to Wayne State University to shorten her commute.
Despite never having had any dreams of owning a studio, Schmidt found teaching more fulfilling than performing herself. While she danced professionally with local companies, her students always came first. “I just always felt so committed and so excited about the prospect of these kids,” she says.
Over the years, she has refined the programs she offers, both competitive and recreational, and brought in top instructors and choreographers to work with her students, from a former principal at the Joffrey Ballet to a Tony Award winner.
It’s those opportunities along with Schmidt’s high expectations and expertise that have led her dancers to notable dance programs and then professional companies including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Ballet BC in Vancouver, LA Contemporary Dance Co., several companies in Germany, and many more. They also won her the national Dance Teacher Award from Dance Teacher magazine in 2012.
Her mentorship is what many of her students find most valuable.
For Alex Soulliere, who graduated from The Juilliard School in 2018 and has spent much of the time since with the Rambert dance company in London, Spotlight was a haven during his teen years and Schmidt was, in his words, “the mother that a lot of us just never really had.”
“She fostered such an open environment where people weren’t afraid to take risks and try new things and fail,” he says. “A lot of us found solace in being around her. We felt safe. … And [we could] just be ourselves.”
Celebrating dancers’ individuality and unique artistry is a key part of Schmidt’s teaching philosophy.
“I fully believe as a dancer and a teacher that giving a child their own voice and tools to express themselves and an environment where they can learn to trust and believe in themselves, especially young women, is the most important and special thing about a dance studio,” she says.
Spotlight instructor Kate Martin, an industry veteran, says Schmidt gives that same attention and care to all her students, no matter their aspirations. “She doesn’t leave anyone behind,” Soulliere agrees.
Juilliard graduate and Spotlight alum Mackenzie Meldrum, who started working with Schmidt at 9 years old, describes Schmidt as “tough but nurturing”; she never let Meldrum limit herself in any way.
“Spotlight gave me all of the necessary tools to become a professional dancer — not only as a dancer but as a human,” says Meldrum, a former dancer for Staatstheater Nürnberg in Germany and current member of Bruce Wood Dance Dallas.
To prepare her students for professional life, Schmidt provides consistent education on what the daily practice of a professional dancer looks like, from proper warm-up and injury recovery to class etiquette and readiness. She also strives to pace her young dancers’ training appropriately to follow natural development and tailors her class plans to her students’ professional goals.
When it comes time for the high school seniors to apply for college, Schmidt guides them through the entire process and connects them with studio alumni who’ve attended the programs they’re auditioning for. The moral support she gives is as important as the practical guidance, according to Carlee Alicea, who finished her first year at Juilliard this spring.
Schmidt’s support stretches beyond just the dancers who pass through her studio.
Adam McGaw, now a dancer with GöteborgsOperans Danskompani in Sweden, met Schmidt when he was a teenager and training independently. She soon took him under her wing.
“She really became a mentor for me,” McGaw says. “She trusted me and believed in what I had to say as an artist, even when I wasn’t very good.”
Ever since then, he’s returned annually to Spotlight to choreograph new pieces on the students — for 13 years and counting.
He says Schmidt “leads with kindness, which, if you can believe it, is extremely rare in this profession,” and is “second to none as far as dance teachers go. And that naturally bleeds into the culture of the studio.”
Schmidt still teaches five days a week and serves as the primary mentor for students age 11 and older, which includes running their rehearsals and choreographing most of their contemporary dances. And she still makes time to teach the little ones twice per week; her specialty is ballet for the 5-to-7-year-olds. “You kind of have to be part clown, part ballet teacher, and I love it,” she says.
Her responsibilities encompass far more, however. In mid-March, Schmidt is preparing for the preprofessional students’ midseason evaluations, planning the studio’s summer programs, and gearing up for this year’s June recital, which will complete her 25th season.
The milestone hasn’t fully sunk in yet, Schmidt says. Nevertheless, “It’s been a very rewarding career and experience. I’ve gotten to meet so many wonderful, smart, unique kids and watch them turn into adults.
She makes sure to emphasize the team she’s had behind her — not just her teachers and office staff but also her mother, who ran the business side of the studio for more than 20 years.
“They are such a big part of the success,” she says. “I certainly do not do it alone.
“It’s been a long time, and I’m really proud of everything that we’ve accomplished together, all of us.”
This story originally appeared in the June 2025 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
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