About
Kelly Cannone has been an arts educator for more than 25 years. Throughout the last two decades she served on The Arts Advocate of RI, Dance Teachers Club of Connecticut, Dance Masters of America, The Arts Advocate of Rhode Island, and was a Board Member of the Warwick Consortium of the Arts & Humanities. In 1981 she founded Dance Artistry, Inc. in Warwick, RI and became owner of the studio Dancer Magazine called “One of the four most successful studios in America.” She started her own dance company the Dance Artistry Dancers, a non-profit organization, for ages seven to twenty, who performed across the United States. They also performed internationally in a cultural exchange program visiting Copenhagen, Denmark, Minsk and Moscow, Russia. To expand her teaching opportunities to the martial arts, she earned her black belt in American Kenpo Karate. She used her martial arts experience to organize self-defense workshops for high school students. Outside the realm of teaching, Kelly has numerous career highlights, these include choreographing numerous corporate events, commercials, and music videos including the Miss Rhode Island pageant, Koch Eye Associates Promotional Video, Market America’s Regional Convention and many more.
Kelly has appeared in several television commercials and theater productions. She has been on staff with Dance Olympus and Candance conventions. Kelly was a special awards judge and guest faculty member at various performing arts competitions. She presents special awards recognizing unique talents in young performers and motivating them to continue achieving their goals. She was the jazz adjudicator for prestigious World Tap and Jazz Dance Championships to select a team to represent the United States.
Additionally, she established early education arts curriculums in more than fifteen preschools in Rhode Island. Kelly instructed elementary students at local public schools and established programs for private institutions. She gained special needs experience when she coordinated “Dancing Feat” in conjunction with the Warwick Chamber of Commerce at the Trudeau Center, to teach disabled individuals’ physical mobility and endurance. She has volunteered her time and expertise to many events in the Warwick Public School system such as “Peace Day,” and “National Dance Week.” She has supported local private schools at “Women in Sports Day,” and “Cultural Awareness Day.”
To give back to her community she founded “Shades of Grey,” an educational program, where her students performed a dance piece for the Warwick School department warning students about the danger of drug and alcohol abuse. Other charitable contributions include providing choreography and fundraising for Dancers Responding to AIDS and participating in the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. Kelly and her students fundraised for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, Rhode Island Station Fire Fund, March of Dimes, UNICEF, Rhode Island Paralyzed Veterans Association, Smithfield Lyons Club, and D.A.R.E. As a Board of Director for “The Weber Foundation of Helping Hands, Inc.” Kelly presented a charity dance show “Better than Broadway” for a number of years where New England studios shared their talent to raise money for families and children in dire need.
Kelly has written motivational articles for children. Her work has been published in Dancer Magazine, The Gold Rush and Cheerleading Dance and Drill Magazine. Currently you can find Kelly traveling around the country teaching dancers and dance teachers how to set goals in her Aspiring Dreamz Workshops.She is working on a new elite challenge titled “Reach for the Starz”.
In addition, she is focusing on completing her Aspiring Dreamz Online Academy. Kelly is also very excited about her upcoming children’s book series.
My studio “Dance Artistry Inc.” was featured in Dancer Magazine as one of the four most successful studios in America “Making a Vision Come to Life.”