Gretchen Becker is a Certified Licentiate Ballet Teacher Member of the Cecchetti Council of America (CCA), with completion of students’ and teachers’ exams I-VI. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan with a focus on child development and dance technique. Gretchen trains students and teachers into professional level and sponsors student and teacher candidates for certification through CCA.

Gretchen began her dance training in the Cecchetti Method of classical ballet and later added Graham Technique, tap, jazz, musical theater, swing, voice, liturgical, and floor barre. She continued her training an additional two years in New York at Steps on Broadway and Broadway Dance Center with Finis Jhung, Madame Darvash, Frank Hatchett, Sheila Barker, Gil Stroming, and Mia Michaels. She has also completed many courses in quality of movement, arts education and equity, inclusion, mindfulness, formative assessment, trauma and resiliency, and the art of student discussion through CCA, Juilliard Creative Classroom, Lincoln Center Activate and Rhythm Works Integrative Dance.

Gretchen was a member of the Lansing Ballet Company II performing in Sleeping Beauty and La Fille Mal Garde. Later, she performed in Martha Graham’s Panorama with the University of Michigan, Scrooge with Shawnee Playhouse in Pennsylvania, and West Side Story with Grosse Point Theatre in Michigan. She choreographed Tale of Beethoven’s Bookworms and Broadway History 1891 – 1999 for Calhoun School (NYC, NY), Footloose the Musical and White Christmas the Musical for Three Rivers High School (Three Rivers, MI).

Gretchen has adjudicated for the Michigan State University Dance Team, the Children’s Ballet Company of Lansing, and several studio competition teams throughout Michigan. She was also a recurring guest teacher for the Macomb Arts Festival, PUCC and KCC Christian retreats, and the WMCCA Ballet Day scholarship classes. Gretchen was a Certified Dance Educator of Dance Masters of Michigan (DMM) and Dance Masters of America (DMA) (2001 – 2010).

As a dance educator Gretchen has worked for over 25 years in private and public schools. Currently, Gretchen is a Dance Teaching Artist with Education for the Arts (EFA), Kalamazoo RESA. She teaches and develops dance residencies for K-12 programs including Aesthetic Education (AE), PACE Program, and Alternative Arts Initiative (AAI). Gretchen also develops video classroom lessons for AE, PACE, and EFA Presents with topics including music/dance connections, social emotional learning, work of art discovery, and performance readiness. She is the Western Michigan CCA Chair and WMCCA Registrar and is the owner of both Becker’s Dance Arts and of Ballet Arts School of Dance.

Gretchen and her husband Jay live in Portage and have two adult sons.