Meet the board.

Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance and performance (‘92)

Cary Twomey received her BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography. Following graduation, she moved to NYC where she and fellow UNL Dance Alum Mark Jarecke started The Mark Jarecke Dance Company. Their company performed, taught, and toured internationally over the course of its existence. During her years in NYC Cary danced and performed with various companies and continued her studies of movement, anatomy, and healing modalities. She was an apprentice to the founder of the Pilates Method Alliance and went on to open her own Pilates Studio, NoHo Pilates Studio in NYC, where it still exists today. Cary was a faculty member of the Joffrey Ballet/New School BFA program, where she taught Anatomy, Kinesiology, and Pilates for dancers.

In 2001, Cary and her husband Lee Willet returned to Lincoln, Nebraska, and opened Haymarket Pilates & Yoga Center. Cary joined the Dance faculty at UNL, teaching Modern Dance and Kinesiology.

In 2018, Cary and Lee founded Midwest Dharma Wheel, Contemplative & Healing Arts, a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization. Cary is a Jungian Psychoanalyst and a practitioner of Ayurvedic Medicine. She teaches Meditation, Pilates, and Yoga as well as rehabilitative and functional movement modalities. She counsels, mentors, and teaches around the country.

You can read more about her current work at Midwest Dharma Wheel.

Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance and performance (’93)

A Nebraska-native, Cindy Harms’ dance degree prepared her to teach all levels of dance as well as to perform in the San Francisco Bay area. She has studied different dance styles, body movement and healing models including bharatanatyam, flamenco, Argentine tango, feldenkrais and reiki. She is a  reiki master practitioner who has provided her services to Seattle Children’s Hospital and at The Caring Place in Las Vegas.

While living in northern California, Cindy performed flamenco dance at Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center and the Flamenco Arts Dance Studio in Santa Rosa. She has volunteered with the San Francisco Ballet and at the War Memorial Opera House during Nutcracker performances.   

The UNL dance program helped Cindy develop a strong work ethic, push her body beyond what she thought was possible, and learn to accept people who are different from her. The program taught her how to accept rejection by not taking it personally and the importance of persevering.

Cindy lives in Southern California, and enjoys wine tasting, pilates and yoga. She volunteers on a local and national level with Tri Sigma sorority and is honored to be a member of the UNL dance alumni endowment fund board.

Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance (’93)

Kari Neth grew up in Lincoln, taking her first dance class at age 5. Today, she owns and operates CK Dance Academy — a boutique dance studio located in south Lincoln where she adores teaching the 5-year-olds how to plié, tap and attempt jazz squares.

Dancing at the university broadened her view of dance by exposing her to the styles of modern and improvisation.  “I remember creating a dance about being a fish and getting caught on a hook.  It was hilarious and I quickly realized that choreography wasn’t my strong suit,” Kari muses.

Kari has performed in numerous character roles at Disneyland, her favorites were Pluto and Eeyore. She opened her dance studio in 1995 under the name Club Kicks, where she delights in teaching dance and passing her knowledge and expertise along to the next generation of dancers. She gives back to her community in partnership with Family Services, bringing dance classes into Lincoln’s Title 1 schools.

She is married to fellow Husker, Abraham (David) Neth (’04), and they have two children.

Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance and choreography (’92)

Mark Jarecke was born and raised in Sarpy County, Nebraska. After graduating from UNL he moved to New York City to continue his studies in dance and movement modalities. Most notably, he studied on scholarship at Merce Cunningham Studio and attended the certificate program at the Laban Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies. His choreography has been commissioned by the American Dance Festival, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, and the 92nd Street Y among others, and has been performed throughout the United States and internationally in Italy, China, Japan, and Denmark. Mark is a trained yoga teacher and applies his years of movement inquiry to his yoga practice.

Mark is the New York managing director of AREA 17, a brand and digital product agency located in Paris and Brooklyn. He lives outside of the city with his husband and two children.

Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance and education (’93)

Shelley Fritz was born and raised on a small farm west of Lincoln, and taught her first dance class in 1984 at Fred Astaire Dance Studio. She is now in her 37th year of teaching dance as a career and enjoys the many opportunities that she has been afforded from the education she received at the university.

She competed in Midwest dance competitions for 10 years and founded the UNL Ballroom Dance Club and the Concordia Jivers Dance Club while teaching as adjunct faculty at UNL. She owned and operated the Brackhan Dance Directive for seven years.

Today Shelley enjoys being a guest artist in the public schools and is in her 20th year of owning and operating The DelRay Ballroom in Lincoln’s Historic Haymarket.  

When not teaching, Shelley can be found mentoring young ladies through the Royal Family Kids program, serving on the children’s leadership team of Bible Study Fellowship, having sleepovers for the grand-nieces and nephews, digging in her garden, and cooking for her husband, Stan.