Meet the Teachers

Naomi began learning Ballet at age 5. Because her father was in the  military she went to a number of different dance schools.  Her primary source of training was in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Dance Theatre Studio(where Shields and Yarnell were trained in dance) and in Hampton, Virginia at the Betty Smith School of Dance.  Naomi majored in dance at Western Michigan University. After graduating, she moved to Alaska and taught ballet, tap, and jazz at Molloy and Co. where she was also was a member of their Performance team.  Naomi teaches Fairy Tale Ballet, Jazz and Tap at Aspire. 

Brandyn recently moved to Sequim with her family from Ohio.  She has a degree in Elementary Education and extensive training in dance.  Her training includes classical ballet techinque through pointe, choreography, and pas de deux.  She has trained at the Northern Virginia Dance Academy, The Washington School of Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre.   Brandyn will be teaching both Classical Jazz and Ballet at Aspire.

  Joe began piano studies in Sequim at age 8 and by his teenage years was organizing bands and producing recordings of original songs with other musicians.  With an understanding and passion for music he quickly learned guitar, bass, mandolin and drums.  At Western Washington University he studied composition, graduating in 1999. 

     Based out of Massachusetts, Joe performed music and taught Montessori school for 3 years.  During that time he witnessed the magic of music in early childhood and went on to teach music at daycares, preschools and elementary schools.  He has been teaching guitar, piano, drums, mandolin, ukulele, autoharp, songwriting and a rock band classes for students of all ages for the past two years at a large nonprofit music center in Portland, Oregon. 

Christine began her dancing career at age 3 at a community college in Dallas, Texas.  At age 10 she was accepted onto the Amy Peel Dance Team in DesMoines, Iowa.  When she was 12 Christine was asked to teach and she continued teaching and competing at Amy Peel Dance Team until she graduated from high school.  She moved to Sequim a few years ago and has taught Hip Hop at SARC and at the Juan de Fuca Festival.  She was a member of the Peninsula College Dance Team in 2005 and 2006 and was the team captain in 2006.  She loves to both take dance classes and to teach them!

Morgan started dancing at the age of 3 at Christine’s Dance Studio in Orange, CA. Attending mainly ballet classes she also enjoyed tap and jazz. In junior high she started as a teacher’s assistant and often filled in for other teacher’s classes. Morgan attended summer intensives and trained with Ballet Pacifica, Nevada Ballet Theater and Joffrey Ballet. At 13 she auditioned for and was accepted into the Classical Contemporary Dance Department and the Commercial Dance Department at the Orange County High School of the Arts. She chose Classical ballet as it has always been her love and passion. There she studied classical ballet, modern and pointe under many well known teachers and choreographers.  Her sophomore year of high school she suffered a hip injury that prevented her from dancing for years. After finding an awesome doctor and healing from the injury her love of dance has brought her here to Aspire Academy to jump back into the dancing world and share her love of dance with young and excited students. She plans to receive her Bachelor of Arts in Dance.

Morgan moved to Port Angeles, WA a year and half ago from Orange County, CA with her husband Kyle who is in the United States Coast Guard.

Gretchen has recently moved back to Port Angeles where she can entertain two of her greatest passions: teaching music to children and enjoying the great outdoors. Her love for music started at age 3 with violin lessons and continued throughout high school and college, where she performed in a wide variety of instrumental and choral ensembles.  She has also performed as an oboist with the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra.  Gretchen received her bachelor’s in Music Education in 2002 and recently completed her Master’s in Education.  Her experience as a classroom music teacher and private instructor, coupled with a deep love for music, makes learning an exciting enterprise for young students as they play, sing, compose and create music as part of a fun and interactive process.

                                                                                          
Laurel has a Bachelor's Degree in Dance and a Master's in Health.  Laurel danced with the Wichita State Dance Company and the Wichita Ballet.  After college she continued to study dance and danced with the Metropolitan Ballet of Topeka, Kansas.  She also studied Modern Dance with a teacher who had studied with Martha Graham, the "mother" of Modern Dance.  Laurel loves dance, especially Ballet.

Laurel has been doing Pilates since 1980 and has been teaching Pilates to dancers for 13 years.  She had her own dance and fitness studio in Topeka where she taught Ballet to students ages 4 to Adult.  She has developed her own blend of  Yoga and Pilates that she calls Yogalates.  She is also a certified Zumba Gold instructor and teaches Body Sculpting to strengthen and tone major muscle groups. 

Robin is a licensed Kindermusik and Simply Music educator. She has been teaching Kindermusik in Sequim since 1995 and Simply Music since early 2004. She also is a Certified Zumba Instructor.  Robin studied Suzuki Violin in elementary school and began piano studies at age ten. She studied piano for eleven years through the completion of college and taught traditional piano lessons for 5 years before she found Simply Music.  She and her husband have four children.

Kim King will be our new Cheerdance Instructor at Aspire beginning in September, 2010.

Kim's career and passion of cheerleading began at the age of 4, when she joined youth cheer and her love of dance started when she enrolled in dance productions in high school. Kim coached her 1st youth cheer squad at the age of 14 and has been coaching ever since. 21 years later Kim is currently coaching the Sequim HS JV cheer squad and teaching yoga at SARC. Kim has also coached the Sequim Wolfpup's Youth Varsity cheer team for the past 3 years. Kim is WSCCA/WIAA Stunt 1 & 2 Certified and a member of the WA State Cheer Coaches Association as well as being certified in CPR/AED for Professional Rescuers. Kim and her husband, Joshua, are the proud parents of 3 beautiful children.

Yvette Lantz is a dance instructor with almost 30 years of experience teaching, performing and choreographing Ballet, Jazz and Modern Dance.  Her early training was in Southern California at many private studios as well as Long Beach City College, Cal State University Long Beach and she majored in Dance at the University of Irvine.

     Moving to Southern Oregon she taught Jazz for 10 years at Rogue Community College and Jazz and Ballet at a private studio.  During this period Yvette continued to study dance at seminars and workshops with Bill Evans and Kitty Daniels, Eugene Ballet, Oakland Ballet, Rosella Hightower Institute in Cannes, France, Repertory Dance Theatre of Utah as well as ongoing classes with Richard Jessup, Penney King and many others.

     Yvette has been on the Olympic Peninsula for the past 2 years and has studied with Ling Hui and performed in her 2006 concert.  Yvette is a Registered Nurse and she feels this contributes to her expertise in teaching.  She especially enjoys encouraging musicality and progress in dance at any age.