Owner/ Lead Instructor

Kelsey Crane Deklerk is a 4 time United States champion from West Jordan, UT. She has been dancing and competing for 20 years and has won over 200 competitions and championships. She has placed in many prestigious competitions throughout Canada, the U.S., Ireland, and Scotland, including placing 3rd in the World, and championship titles including; her 4 National titles, 5 Northwest Regional championships, The Rocky Mountain Championship, 3 North American Championships, and trophy wins throughout the world. 

Kelsey trained in Highland Dance at the Heather Glen School of Dance under the instruction of Heather Overright. Kelsey keeps a close relationship with Heather and has had the pleasure of teaching along side her as well. She also has received training by many of the top instructors and judges throughout the world.

In 2006, Kelsey passed her member teachers exam in highland and has been instructing students since that time. She also received her member certificate in National dances. In 2009 she instructed dancers in Logan, UT. Since then she has relocated to Taylorsville where she is now instructing dancers from around the Salt Lake Valley.

Kelsey is a member of SOBHD, BATD, Scotdance USA, and MWHDA

Kelsey graduated from Utah State University in 2011 with her Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Development, then from the University of Utah in 2016 with her Masters in Education in Culture and Language. She is currently working on her Doctorate degree from Indiana University in Language, Culture and Literacy Education. Outside of dance, she works as a Second Grade Teacher in West Valley City. She enjoys spending her free time with her husband Jake, their dog Cooper and their baby girl Quinn.

Substitute Instructor

Carolyn Alder is a Scottish and Irish dancer living in Cottonwood Heights, UT. Carolyn competed as a Highland dancer for 15 years and an Irish dancer for 21 years, 13 of those years spent as an open championship dancer. As a highland dancer, she qualified for U.S. Championships 3 times, and traveled the West Coast competing and winning many prestigious competitions. In Irish dance, she won the Eastern regional Oireachtas and regularly placed in the top 5 in the Western regional Oireachtas. She competed and placed in the nationals and the world championships multiple times.

Carolyn started Highland dance because the studio where she took fiddle lessons offered Highland dance classes. With her strong Irish heritage, she wanted to start a new type of dance so she could tap into her Scottish heritage also. She loves the traditional aspect of Highland dance — that anyone from all over the world can join in a fling together. She also loves the camaraderie of dance schools and the whole Highland dance community. Dancers even from other schools are supportive of each other. 

Carolyn earned her Associates teaching license to instruct Highland Dancers and is currently working towards her full member license. Though she is no longer competing, she continues to enjoy teaching and performance opportunities in both the Scottish and Irish dance worlds.

Carolyn received her Bachelors of Communication and Anthropology from the University of Utah, and works as a reporter for the Park City newspaper, the Park Record, as well as being a freelance writer for outdoor publications. Outside of dance she loves being outdoors with her husband and their husky puppy. She enjoys hiking, rock climbing, running, snowboarding and kayaking.

Instructor Aides

Heather McLean is a competitive highland dancer from North Salt Lake. She has also trained in social ballroom and taken adult ballet from Ballet West.

Heather earned her Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics with an emphasis in education and a minor in disability studies from the University of Utah. She is currently working to take her member teachers exam as well, and has taken teacher training courses at the Ohio Scottish Arts School. Outside of dance she works as a middle school math teacher in Woods Cross and is head of the school’s math department. She also runs an after school Highland Dance program. In her free time, she enjoys sewing, baking, reading and watching movies.

Kit Spencer is a competitive highland dancer from Salt Lake city, UT. She began dancing at 31 years old and has competed across the western states and Scotland, winning overall trophies in every competitive level of dance.

Kit earned her Bachelor’s of Arts in Culture and Environment with a minor in Anthropology from Westminster College. She has taken teacher training at the Ohio Scottish Arts School. She is also pursuing fluency in Scottish Gaelic. She works as a case manager and attorney assistant in Salt Lake. Kit enjoys costuming and hopes to eventually be able to costume for our local dancers. She enjoys reading, learning, hiking, and spending time with her boyfriend, their dog, and their two foster cats.