Founder

Elyse, a south Florida native, has been training for over twenty years, since the young age of three, where she has since trained in all areas of study including ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, hip-hop, pointe, modern, and musical theater. She has studied under Victoria Smith, Kim Wolfe, Natalie Trees, Barry Youngblood, Nick Bowman, among others. During this time she made her rounds in the competition and convention circuits, where she studied under Justin Giles' , in his summer intensives affiliated with the company "Soul Escape".

Assistant Director, Tap, Jazz & Musical Theatre

For ten years, Juliana trained and competed in tap, jazz, ballet, musical theatre and contemporary all throughout sunny South Florida. Her passion for performing arts led her to teach other dance forms like Hooping and Ballroom Dancing while attending college. She graduated from University of North Florida with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Graphic Design and Digital Media. Juliana started a career in business management shortly after graduating. New to Savannah, Juliana is ecstatic to share her passions and talents with The STUDIO Savannah working along side long term friend Elyse.

Ballet Instructor

Linzy Flinn was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia where she trained at The Studio and Savannah Arts Academy. During her training, Linzy attended summer programs at The Joffrey Ballet, Orlando Ballet, The Rock School for Dance Education, Gelsey Kirkland Ballet, and Chautauqua Institution. For two years, she attended The Rock School for Dance Education year around program. In May 2017, Linzy graduated from the University of South Carolina, magna cum laude, gaining a Bachelor of Arts in dance performance and a minor in business administration.

Ballet Instructor

Armando Luna began his training in Houston, Texas with Margo Marshall then with Soili Arvola and Leo Ahonen. His professional dance career spans 35 years. He danced professionally with Ballet Austin, BalletMet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and Atlanta Ballet. He toured with Ballet Spectacular, performing with Rudolf Nureyev and Alexander Godunov. Mr. Luna partnered notable Ballerinas Cynthia Gregory in George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15 and Marianna Tcherkassky in Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Great Galloping Gottschalk. Armando was principal teacher of the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education from 1998 to 2019. Many of his students have moved on to dance professionally with Atlanta Ballet, New York City Ballet, Houston Ballet, Alabama Ballet, and Texas Ballet Theatre.

Contemporary, Hip Hop

Story Dae was born in Savannah, GA, but raised in Clarksville, TN. She was a competitive dancer at Acro Dance Express for 12 years under the direction of Deleann Holt. She trained under many other talented instructors like Hannah Easley, Jon Carr, Travis Cooper, Sydney Moss, Tucker Knox, and many more. Story Dae studied contemporary, hip-hop, ballet, jazz, lyrical, improvisation, and choreography. Through her years as a competitive dancer, she was a 6-time solo national champion, 8-time solo title winner, and a Radix Core Performer. While in high school she got the opportunity to attend the Royal Flux Factor, where she trained under Jaci Royal, Audrey Case, and Kristen Russel. After graduating High School, Story Dae moved back to Savannah, GA where she is currently attending Georgia Southern University, teaching, choreographing, and working for Platinum National Dance Competition.

Ballet

Miss Vicki started dance at age 3 learning ballet through the Cecchetti technique. She moved with her family to England and was fortunate to attend the Royal Ballet School learning through their classical RAD technique. At 15 she returned to the USA and was an apprentice with the Montgomery Ballet where she was introduced to the Vaganova Technique. It was here she taught her first dance class at 16 years of age. She had found her passion and continued to teach for 40 years before retiring. She attended Southern Illinois University majoring in Dance and World History. After a brief time as a substitute teacher in Idaho she returned to teaching ballet. She has performed with the Royal Ballet, the Montgomery Ballet, St. Louis Muny Opera and Scope a modern dance Company. She has taught in Alabama, Illinois, Mississippi, California, Idaho, Virginia, Georgia(twice),Panama and England.

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Hip-Hop

Caelen Goudy started dancing at the age of 5 in Chicago, IL, and has trained in a variety of genres ever since. She spent her childhood in the realm of competition dance, but it wasn't until a few years after moving to Nashville, TN in 2015 that her love for hip hop really took off. She has had the opportunity to train under some incredible working professionals, such as Nick Bass at DC Dance Factory, and Jordan Lozoya at both Millennium Dance Complex and now AREA 54. These instructors have worked for artists like Michael and Janet Jackson, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Tyler Hubbard, and much more, allowing Caelen to understand more about life in the entertainment industry, both on stage/set, as well as behind the scenes.

Caelen currently attends the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she is majoring in Graphic Design and training on the Nectar Hip Hop Dance Team. She aspires to become a professional commercial and hiphop dancer first and foremost, but also has big hopes for her side passions of modeling, art direction, and acting.

Intro 1 + 2 Ballet | Tap

Summer Fuller has been dancing for nearly 23 years, starting at the age of 4 years old. Growing up in Wilmington, North Carolina, she studied many dance styles such as ballet, tap, jazz, clogging, hip hop, acrobatics, musical theater, lyrical, and contemporary. Summer competed throughout the state in North Carolina, as well as Georgia, and South Carolina. During college at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, she was a part of a hip hop dance performance crew called Physical Graffeeti and traveled and competed with the team. Post graduation, Summer continued her love of dance by teaching students of all ages. She has always utilized dance as not only a way to stay physically active, but as a coping outlet and passion. Summer is a RecreationTherapist by day and utilizes dance and movement as well as other leisure outlets to teach people different coping skills. Summer is excited for another year of teaching dance at The Studio in order to share her passion with kids who love to dance!ion goes here

Description goes hereA Savannah native, Angela Lukas has been classically trained in ballet since the age of three. She studied under the direction of Veronica Moretti Niebuhr at the Studio until graduation from Savannah Arts Academy, where she majored in Ballet. Along with her Studio training, Angela has studied with Complexions Contemporary Ballet Company, The Rock School for Dance Education, Atlanta Ballet, and Virginia School of the Arts. She has worked with instructors such as, Finis Jhung, Adam Sage, Dominique Angel, Ivan Pulinkala, Lauri Stallings, and Reiko Kimura. To continue her dance education, Angela attended Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia, where she received her Bachelor of the Arts degree concentrated in Ballet, alongside her minor in the French Language. Together, she uses the French speaking language and ballet terminology to educate dancers for a well-rounded experience, as well as ballet conditioning for strength training. Angela has been teaching the dancers at Coastal Performing Arts Academy for a year and is excited to be teaching again for her second year in a row!

Olivia was born & raised in a small town outside of Charlotte, NC. Olivia has 20 years of dance experience performing and competing in various styles. She has spent recent years as a choreographer for high school & college dance teams. Olivia graduated from East Carolina University in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. While obtaining her degree, Olivia also spent her college years as a member of the ECU Dance Team, specializing in jazz, hip hop, and competing nationally in pom. Olivia is a 2x NDA All American Dancer and served as Gameday Captain her senior year. In 2021, she moved to Savannah, GA alongside her husband. Olivia currently works full time as a Labor & Delivery Nurse, but her love for dance remains strong.

Olivia has a passion for teaching, choreography, and creativity. She is thrilled to return to The STUDIO as an instructor again this season.

K’La Cruz began dancing at the age for four in New York. She has since moved to Georgia and continues her dance career. She has made her rounds in competitions and conventions since the age of 6 and has won various awards and received many dance opportunities over the years. She has trained in all areas of study including Ballet, Contemporary, Jazz, Hip-hop, Tap, musical theater, etc. She obtained her official Acrobatic Arts Certificate in 2020 and has been accepted to be a Pro Reveler for Revel Inc. as well as a Collide Dance Experience Ambassador. She has started assisting with The Studio Savannah at the age of 12 and at 14 she started teaching our Intro 2 Acro/Jazz class. She has progressed to Ballet,Acro, Tap, and Jazz from ages 3-9. She has experienced other instruction including color guard dance. She currently attends Savannah Technical College to obtain her LPN and is working her way towards a professional dance career.

Acro/Jazz/Tap Instructor

A Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native starting dancing at the age of two. She studied ballet, tap, jazz, musical theatre , Hiphop, acting, singing and performed professionally with Pittsburgh Musical Theatre. She then attended and graduated from The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. After graduating she performed in various professional performances around the country and began teaching in between productions. Mindy has choreographed musicals in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She also has won numerous Choreography and high placement awards while working in Nashville. Mindy is thrilled to be in Savannah and to encourage the passion, drive and joy she has for the arts into its next generation of performers.

Ballet Instructor

Karen Burns trained at The Washington Ballet, Joffrey School of Dance and The Ballet Intensive from Moscow. She danced with the Washington Ballet, The Scapino Ballet of Amsterdam, The Tampa Ballet , The Colorado Ballet and The Nashville Ballet, as well as guesting with many regional ballet companies and opera companies. She has been teaching and choreographing for over 30 years.

Intro 2 Ballet/Tap & Acro/Jazz

Native of Kennesaw, Georgia, Suzannah Forbes moved to the Savannah area in 2018. Forbes received a Bachelor of Science degree with a minor in dance from Berry College located in Rome, Georgia. She has been a dance instructor and choreographer for five years in the greater Atlanta area and has worked as the dance coach for the Atlanta Braves minor league baseball cheer team. She found her love for choreography through the Berry College Dance Troupe in which she received the Adjudicators Choice Best Choreographer Award for three consecutive years. Forbes also enjoyed dancing for halftime shows for the Berry College dance team known as the Vikettes, in which she was captain her junior and senior year. She loves to teach dance because of the creative outlet it provides, the strength it instills, and the community it creates. She is currently the Director of Dance at Calvary Day School and can't wait to re-introduce herself to our studio team!