Faculty
AIM Family is Forever Family!
The AIM Faculty is more than a staff of dance instructors, it's a family. Many of us have been together for 28 years! We begin training our staff as teenagers, allowing them to assist the younger dancers. This staff of individuals is amazing in every way and your dancer will love and adore each and every one of them.
AIM STAFF
Tricia Trimble/ Owner – Director: Tricia began dancing at the age of 4 in Clinton, IL. She began teaching at the age of 16, moved to Southern California in 1989 and danced/taught for 2 years at Just Plain Dancin’ before moving back to IL & opening AIM in 1991. Tricia is known for her energy & passion for teaching. She has engineered AIM for 27 years into the studio it is today. AIM is recognized nationally for its’ strong technique and creative choreography. She is thankful and blessed to have such a strong foundation in which AIM is built and for so many AIMazing people along this journey. Chad & Tricia are blessed to have their two daughters, Skylee & Symphony, grow up in the studio and take part in the many demands that AIM requires. When not teaching, managing & planning DANCE, she enjoys reading, jogging, writing, and watching HGTV.
Chad Trimble/ Owner – Director: Chad began his dancing as early back as Kindergarten, taking classes to enhance his sports abilities. Growing up in a family of athletes, he enthusiastically dove back into dance when he met Tricia at age 17. He graduated from ISU in 1993 with a BA in Special Education and taught at Jefferson Middle School in Champaign for 10 years. He currently teaches hip hop, jazz, fitness and technique classes at AIM as well as manages the studio & fitness. Chad has won numerous choreography awards throughout the last 27years and occasionally judges dance competitions across the nation. Chad enjoys fishing, playing cards, and planning the DAD DANCE!
Skylee Trimble: Skylee has been dancing at AIM before she could walk! This is her 12th year teaching and choreographing. Skylee graduated from the University of Illinois in May, 2016 with high honors. She received a BFA in Dance while on a student talent scholarship all four years. She loves teaching all styles of dance but her passion is contemporary, lyrical and modern. Choreography is her greatest passion and she choreographs most of the company groups, duet/trios and solos each year. She is also sought after from studios across the Midwest for choreography. Her work is shown at the University of Illinois and several dance competitions around the country. She has won numerous choreography awards at competitions/conventions, including “Choreographer of the Year” at Starpower Nationals in Branson, MO in July of 2014, 2015 & 2017, the “Cutting Edge” choreography award in Orlando, FL, the choreography award this past summer in Branson, among many others. One of Skylee’s pieces was chosen to perform in Studio Dance II at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. She also received the Office of Undergraduate Research Travel Grant during her time at the University of IL. When not teaching, you can find Skylee listening to music, watching movies, reading, or shopping. She also loves to spend her down time with family and friends!
Barb Smith: Barb has been the office manager for AIM for 27 years. She is the mother of Miss Tricia. She put Tricia in dance at the age of 4 years old and the dance world has encompassed her ever since. She took jazz, ballet and tap classes for nine years and even competed in the adult division! Miss Barb devotes a great deal of her time to Alzheimer’s awareness, as she recently lost her husband to early onset Alzheimers. She is blessed to have so many wonderful, caring parents and children here at AIM to support her! She enjoys reading Christian Historical Romance novels, working in the yard, crafts and listening to Christian music and of course, Celine Dion and Enya! Her little blessing of 6.5 lbs. is her Toy Rat Terrier, Jorgie Griffin.
Kristin Rees: Kristin began her dancing career at AIM when she was just 7 years old. She is one of AIM’s original students, beginning in 1991! She graduated from Parkland College, then attended ISU and Millikin. She also works full time for State Farm in Bloomington. Kristin is a very popular AIM teacher & is known for her energy, enthusiasm and sense of humor! She enjoys spending time with family and friends and playing with her lab, Lily, and traveling.
Emily Chapman: Emily is a graduate of ISU in Bloomington and a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher at the Mahomet-Seymour High School. She has a strong background in dance, as she took lessons for many years at Dance Arts Studio in Springfield, IL. In college she was a member of the Illinois State Dance Theater Company. This is her 5rd year on the AIM teaching staff. She has a passion for teaching the little dancers! In Miss Emily’s free time, she loves reading books and going for bike rides as well as spending time with her family and friends. Emily is enjoying her new little boy, Landon, born on leap day this past February!
Natalia Moreno
Natalia was born in Buenos Aires , Argentina. She started her classical training at the age of 6 under the tutelage of Josefina Serrano. At the age of ten she was encouraged to audition to the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colon and after auditioning with other 300 kids her age, she was accepted. This school produces some of the finest dancers of our time, many of them are currently principal dancers in major companies around the world like the Royal Ballet (Marianela Nunez), American Ballet Theater (Paloma Herrera, Julio Bocca, Herman Cornejo) Paris Opera Ballet(Ludmila Pagliero , Etoile and winner of Benois de la dance) and more. During that time she toured to some Argentinean provinces with the Maximiliano Guerra ballet company. After the intensive eight year program she graduated, at the age of eighteen, and being the youngest in her category, won the gold medal at III Certamen International de Ballet y Danza held in Buenos Aires. This competition ignited her career and the following year she was hired as soloist for the Ballet Municipal de Asuncion in Paraguay were she danced leading roles in Le Corsarie, Paquita among others. She also taught in various dance studios of the Asuncion area. After that she moved to Chile were she danced for several ballet companies such as Ballet de Camara, Ballet Raices. She also joined the prestigious Compania Ballet de Santiago where she danced all times classics like Swan Lake, Nutcracker, among others. In her mid twenties she moved to the US and danced for the USA Ballet for several years, where she performed leading roles in classical and neoclassical works and toured all across the country with repertoire like Les Sylphides, Don Quixote, Giselle and Sleeping Beauty. For the past ten years she has been teaching in the Bloomington /Peoria area. Her teaching philosophy is to inspire and show her passion to the younger generations. She is currently teaching various levels of ballet including pre professionals, pointe, variations, coaching for YAGP , and private lessons.
Alyssa Trelz: Alyssa graduated from Charleston High School in May, 2016 and will be attending the University of IL as a junior this year. She danced at AIM for 4 years and was in the Competition Company for 4 years. She will be studying Dance & Psychology in college. In her free time, Alyssa spends time with friends, watches movies and listens to music.
Lauren McClure: Lauren McClure grew up dancing and at 16 she joined AIM. After graduating from Urbana High School, she went to Lincoln College where she was a member of the dance company for 2 years. She Graduated from Lincoln and moved on to Southern Illinois University where she was President of the Southern Illinois Dance Company. Lauren graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Art and moved to Los Angeles where she lived for 8 years. She attended dance intensives with Diavolo, workshops with Sonya Tayeh and Doriana Sanchez of SYTYCD and started training in aerial circus. She trained and taught Aerial Silks, Lyra and Trapeze for 6 years at various studios in LA and Orange County before moving back to Champaign in the summer of 2017. She looks forward to sharing her love for the arts on the ground and hopefully someday in the air!
Lucas Anderson : Lucas began dancing at the age of four. He danced for 22 years, including 12 years of teaching tap in Iowa and Alaska, before going to graduate school at the University of Illinois. He stopped dancing for a while, during which time he earned a Master’s degree in Philosophy and began working at the University’s teaching center, where he now oversees the teaching training and pedagogical development of graduate students. Taking his daughter to dance at AIM for the past few years inspired him to get back into practice and he is very excited to be teaching tap again. AIM is grateful to have Lucas teaching this season & excited to have him share his tap knowledge with the dancers! We welcome him to our AIM FAM!