St. Joseph dance teacher choreographs national promo

May 24—While many spent their spring break heading to the beach to relax, a local dance instructor went to the beach, too, but not to get a tan. She was busy choreographing a promotional video for a resort across the country.

Marla Heeler, an instructor at the Dance Arts Center, left for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to help create the promo for the new Holiday Inn Club Vacations.

Marla Heeler's dance career spans further than just the St. Joseph fine arts scene. While this was Heeler's first time choreographing for a televised video, she has experience performing for commercial work as a younger dancer.

"Now that I'm a little bit older, it was really fun to not have the pressure of having to perform," Heeler said. "Just to be able to create and then watch these awesome young and super talented kids ... just even the smallest details just look so perfect."

Her influence is also spread throughout several dance competitions, organizations and numerous musical theater performances with local groups. Heeler choreographed a number of performances for the Western Playhouse with the then-professor and director Dallas Henry.

Henry first reached out to Heeler knowing her skills in choreography through their time together at Western Playhouse. Together, the pair reviewed resumes and video auditions submitted by over 200 dancers. In the end, Heeler and Henry chose dancers Anna Mischio of Los Angeles and Michael Dikegoros of New York to perform in the commercial.

But choreographing the promo for Myrtle Beach while running a dance studio in St. Joseph is no easy task, so Heeler had to get creative in her process.

"I even went to our local Holiday Inn and borrowed their luggage cart because there's a moment that they do a little bit on the luggage cart and I needed to have it all figured out before I got there," Heeler said. "I only had two days to set all the choreography and then we had three days to film. So it all moves very fast in the commercial world."

But those who have seen the promo, including Heeler herself, would probably agree it was worth the hard work.

"Just the angles of the cameras and the cool lights and all the extra on top of these two really phenomenal and humble dancers just was like, that was so cool," Heeler said. "You're kind of amazed that you're like, 'I kind of had a part in that.'"

To watch the full promotional video, visit Holiday Inn Club Vacation's Youtube page.