RMDT Artists, Faculty and Staff

Elizabeth Fernandez

RMDT Founder and Executive Director, choreographer, and instructor

Elizabeth Fernandez has been teaching for over 31 years. She graduated with honors from the University of Northern Colorado where she received degrees in Dance Teaching/Movement Analysis and Dance Kinesiology. While at UNC, Elizabeth was a member of the University of Northern Colorado Dance Theatre and Colorado Dance Theatre. With these companies, she performed in many ballets and was ballet mistress for both these companies. While at UNC in 1996 and 1997; Elizabeth received the Department of Dance Award because of her involvement and contribution to the department.

After graduating, she moved back to Cody, Wyoming where she co-founded Rocky Mountain School of the Arts in 1997 and non-profit Rocky Mountain Dance Theatre in 1998 in Cody, Wyoming, with her mother Cynthia Kaelberer.

Under Elizabeth’s direction, RMSA and RMDT trains students of all ages in the art of dance and theatre, focusing on building dancers with a strong and diversified foundation, emphasizing technical training and performing. The cornerstone of RMSA is the significance placed on each dancer’s individuality, and how each person’s distinctive contributions build alliance with others, self-confidence, perspective, and discipline.  RMSA dancers have gone on to train with the Joffrey School of Ballet, Houston Ballet School, Texas Ballet Theater, Steps on Broadway, Broadway Dance Center, and Rhapsody James.

Elizabeth is an experienced choreographer who has choreographed and produced several short works in ballet, contemporary, and musical theatre genres. For over twenty-two years she has produced RMDT’s annual Nutcracker Ballet, which has become a yearly holiday tradition for the area. In 2008, she choreographed the musical Once on This Island for The University of West Florida.  In 2016, she brought her own original musical Wild West Spectacular to stage, which attracts tourists from all over the world during the summer season in Cody, Wyoming. In 2019, she was one of four guest choreographers hired to set a piece for the University of West Florida Theatre Department's end of year UWF Dance Ensemble performance.

Throughout the years, Elizabeth has received dance training from such names as Jeffrey Rockland, Sandra Minton, Robert Barnett, Christina Monroe, Cherie Noble, Katherine Kramer, and David Taylor. Elizabeth attended The Russian American Foundation’s Bolshoi’s Ballet Teachers Certification program. In the summer of 2018, she graduated from their highest level, and received her teacher certification from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in New York.

In 2019, Elizabeth was featured as one of the Women in Wyoming: Portraits & Interviews of women who shape the West. This project was exhibited at Buffalo Bill’s Center for the West in Cody, Wyoming in 2019 & 2020. In September 2023, Women in Wyoming will make its National Debut at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Still performing, Elizabeth continues to take classes in New York at Broadway Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, Alvin Ailey, and master classes throughout the United States.

Casey Kearns

Technical Director and Prop Design

Casey has proudly been a part of RMDT’s Nutcracker since 2003, serving as the Technical Director, as well as coordinating the scenic and properties designs.  In 2019, Casey started the process of designing RMDT's very own Nutcracker backdrops and rebuilding new sets. He shares his expertise working on RMDT's Nutcracker, RMSA/RMDT’s Masterpieces of Ballet, RMSA/RMDT Spring Productions, and serving as the Technical Director and Scenic Designer for RMDT’s Wild West Spectacular the Musical!

Casey resides in his hometown; Chadron, NE and is a freelance scenic designer. He currently has scenic designs in progress in Illinois, North Carolina, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Formerly Casey served as the Production Manager and Head of Undergraduate Design and Production at University of Houston (UH) School of Theatre and Dance. Prior to UH, Casey served as an Associate Professor of Scenic Design and Resident Scenic Designer at the University of Wyoming (UW), the University of Indianapolis, the University of Northern Colorado and the Ohio State University–Lima.  www.caseykearns.com

Charles Houghton

Lighting Design Director

Charles has been with Rocky Mountain Dance Theatre since the beginning. He designed the lighting for our first Nutcracker performance in 1997, and continues to bring professional lighting to the show every year. He has been lighting RMSA/RMDT’s Spring Production and Masterpieces of Ballet for over 20 years, and now designs the lighting for our summer Wild West Spectacular the Musical.

Charles is currently a Lecturer at the South East Technological University in Carlow, Ireland, teaching design for stage and screen. Prior to moving to Ireland, Charles was on the faculty of the University of West Florida, teaching lighting and scenic design as well as a variety of technology courses. In addition to teaching, Charles designed the lighting for a variety of theatre companies around the Florida panhandle and beyond. Recent designs include Lucia Di Lammermore, Die Fledermaus, and La Boheme, for Pensacola Opera, Carmen, and Tosca for Mobile Opera, The Last Five Years for Emerald Coast Theatre Company, and Arsenic and Old Lace, Lincoln, and The Addams Family Musical for RMDT’s The Cody Theatre Company. And of course, he will be back for spring and Wild West this next year!