Meet our Directors
Photo by Dave Burgess.
Tess Sinke
Artistic Director & Resident Choreographer
Tess Sinke grew up training at the Grand Rapids Ballet and later attended Mercyhurst University, where she graduated with a BA in Dance Choreography and Religious Studies. Tess founded Deos Contemporary Ballet in 2018 and has led the company through its exponential growth over the last six years. She has helped grow the company from a summer-only performance company to year-round operations, with six salaried professional dancers in residence. She has created over 300 hours of choreography for Deos Ballet as well as engaged guest choreographers from around the U.S. to set original work on the company. Tess served as the Resident Choreographer and head pre-professional instructor at Turning Pointe School of Dance for seven years before joining Michigan Ballet Academy as faculty and the Recreation Division Coordinator.
When Tess isn’t working, she can be found at home spending quality time with her husband, two young kids, and their two dogs.
Photo by Dave Burgess.
Andrew Hoekstra
Executive Director
Andrew is definitely not a dancer unless you count his few weeks of adult ballet class! He is an engineer by trade and a regional expert in business model innovation. He began his career at Bosch developing autonomous vehicles, reporting technology trends to the C-suite, and consulting with internal startups. Today, he works as an independent consultant in artificial intelligence and machine learning. In his free time, he enjoys training service dogs for Paws With A Cause, trying new fermented foods and drinks, and staying in shape through competitive sports.
Meet our Staff
Photo by Dave Burgess.
Isabelle Ramey
Marketing & Communications Manager
Isabelle joined Deos Ballet as both a company dancer and marketing/communications manager in July of 2022. Isabelle earned her BFA Dance Performance and BS Mathematics from Butler University. While attending Butler, she was awarded with the Eileen Poston Dance Scholarship for outstanding performance as well as the Amos Carpenter Memorial Award for excellence in mathematics. Upon graduation, Isabelle rose through the ranks from Research Intern to Chief External Affairs Officer at the Dance Data Project, a research organization dedicated to the study and correction of gender inequality in dance leadership and opportunity. While at DDP, Isabelle honed her skills as a strategic thinker and universal communicator. Since joining Deos, Isabelle has enjoyed growing the company’s brand recognition, strategic partnerships, and media coverage while staying authentic to the heart of the organization.
Grace Sinke
Artistic Coordinator
Ms. Sinke started her training here in Michigan. She has trained and performed with The Grand Rapids Ballet School under Patricia Barker, Turning Pointe School of Dance under Debra Burr, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet under Desmond Richardson and Dwight Roden. She continued her training with The Mercyhurst Dancers under C. Noelle Partusch. She has appeared with The Mercyhurst Dancers, Deos Contemporary Ballet and SoMar Dance works. She has performed classical works including The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Giselle, and has appeared in over 20 contemporary dance works. Grace attended Mercyhurst University on both academic and dance scholarships and graduated with a B.F.A. in dance and a minor in Psychology. She has experience teaching ballet, jazz, contemporary, and creative movement from Mercyhurst University and Turning Pointe School of Dance.
Photo by Melissa Dooley.
Christine Settembrino
COLLIDE Rehearsal Director
Christine Settembrino is an alumna of Princeton Ballet School’s Professional Training Program and the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). During her ten-year performance career, she danced with Dayton Ballet, Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance, Albany Berkshire Ballet, Birmingham Ballet, Missouri Contemporary Ballet (now Mareck Dance), and Deos Contemporary Ballet.
Ms. Settembrino’s performances highlights include Kitri in Don Quixote, Lilac Fairy and Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty, Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Fouetté Girl in Graduation Ball, Salvatore Aiello’s Afternoon of a Faun, and works by Dwight Rhoden, Thang Dao, Ben Needham-Wood, Anthony Krutzkamp, Tess Sinke, and Steve Rooks.
Ms. Settembrino is currently the Assistant Rehearsal Director for St. Louis Ballet under the leadership of Artistic and Executive Director Gen Horiuchi, where she is also the Children’s Cast Director for The Nutcracker and has choreographed three works for the company’s New & Next series. She is also the Rehearsal Director for Deos Contemporary Ballet’s summer season, where she has often restaged the works of the Artistic Director, Tess Sinke.
Photo by Dave Burgess.
Madison Massara-Leister
Rehearsal Director
Madison was born in Royal Oak, Michigan. She began dancing at eight years old and has trained with Nikoloz Makhateli, Jody Skye Schissler, and Alisher Saburov.
She joined Grand Rapids Ballet as a trainee in 2017 and was promoted to apprentice after her first performance of Sugar Plum Fairy, and danced with the company until 2022. She has performed featured roles such as Trio in Trey McIntyre’s Wild Sweet Love, Hermia in Christopher Stoll’s Midsummer Nights Dream, Val Caniparoli’s Sugar Plum Fairy, Princess in Yuri Possokov’s Firebird, and Rebecca West in Val Caniparoli’s Ibsen’s House. Madison has also attended Jacob’s Pillow working with innovative female choreographers Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and Amy Seiwert in the summer of 2021. She joined Deos Contemporary Ballet in the fall of 2022 for their 22/2023 season. She began working as a Rehearsal Director with Deos in the summer of 2025.
Photo by Dave Burgess.
Ericka Goss
Company Class Faculty
Ms. Goss began dancing at Bohaty’s School of Dance in Michigan and was also a member of the Children’s Ballet Theatre of Michigan. She later became a member of the senior trainee division of the Grand Rapids Ballet through high school, working under Laura Schwenk-Berman and Gordon Pierce-Schmidt. Accepted into Pacific Northwest, Boston Ballet, and Joffrey Midwest summer intensives, she attended Joffrey on full scholarship. After four years in Grand Rapids, Ericka was accepted into Atlanta Ballet’s Pre-Professional Division on full scholarship. Promoted to the company as a Fellowship dancer, she danced as a Fellowship for two years under Sharon Story and John McFall. In the summer of 2011 she attended the LINES Ballet Summer Intensive in San Francisco under full scholarship. After 3 seasons with The Atlanta Ballet, Ericka was hired into the Saint Louis Ballet in St. Louis, MO. She danced with SLB for 7 seasons performing soloist roles and had the opportunity to work with choreographers such as Christopher D'Amboise, Emery LeCrone, Twyla Tharp repeteur Matthew Dibble, Francis Patrelle, Kevin Jenkins, Pam Tanowitz, Gregory Dolbashian, and Michael Uthoff. She danced roles in Balanchine's Western Symphony, Serenade, and was a tall girl in Who Cares? as well as performing soloist roles in Gen Horiuchi's The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and Giselle. She is also a founding member of Deos Contemporary Ballet in Grand Rapids, MI.
Ericka is PBT and Pointe Safe certified and has been teaching for 16 years, both with Atlanta Ballet and Saint Louis Ballet School, as well as at the Belleville School of Ballet, Academy of Performing Arts, and Turning Pointe School of Dance.
Stephen Sanford
Company Class Faculty
Stephen started his training at Southold dance theater in South Bend, Indiana. He then went on to North Carolina School of the Arts where he trained under Melissa Hayden, Duncan Noble, and Warren Conover he later went to Ballet Chicago Studio Company and was mentored by Dan Duell and Patricia Blair. Stephen has attended numerous summer courses including School of American Ballet, Houston Ballet, and Hartford Ballet. Stephen has had a strong performing career with the Grand Rapids Ballet Company. He joined in 2001 and has been the lead man in many productions. As principal dancer, he has had the opportunity to work with famous choreographers from all over the world such as Mario Radacovsky, Kirk Peterson, and Oliver Wevers to name a few. Stephen has performed as a guest artist for the New York Theater Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, St. Louis Ballet, Chicago Ballet, Geiger Ballet, Southold Dance Theater, and Ohio Theater Ballet. He has been teaching ballet since 2000. He was a professor at Grand Valley State University and also taught at Grand Rapids Ballet School. Stephen is a family man with five children Julia, Andrew, Elaina, Nathan, Lucy and wife, Jennifer.
Kathleen Lewis
Production Manager & Dramaturg
Kathleen embraced a love for the performing arts from a young age as a student at the Grand Rapids Ballet School, however she quickly learned that her love was best expressed elsewhere. As an active member of school and community theater, Kathleen fostered her zeal for the arts as a member of casts and crews. Eventually studying theater at the college level.
Kathleen has worked as a stage and production manager for ballet schools around West Michigan, including Turning Pointe School of Dance and Michigan Ballet Academy. She enjoys the unique challenges presented by dance as a performance medium and relishes having found her niche in this community. Kathleen has been a member of the Deos production team since its first season and hopes to be a part of it until its last.