Julie Paige
Owner/Director
Ballet, Jazz/Contemporary, Hip-Hop, Twinkle Star Dance, Musical Theatre
Julie Paige is both a classically and commercially trained dancer and actress. She began dancing at the age of 5 and immediately fell head over heels in love with dance! At 7 she stumbled upon the world of acting & musical theatre and found a second love. Throughout her childhood Julie called acting her “heart” and dance her “soul.”
In college, Julie went on to study in some exclusive BFA Dance and Acting programs at top college conservatory schools including the University of Arizona, The Boston Conservatory of Music, and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, receiving her degree from NYU.
After college, Julie spent 6 years performing professionally in NYC and Los Angeles. As a Dancer & Actress, she performed in repertory theatre, national tours, music videos, commercials, and as a featured dancer and actress in film and television. Her favorite dance credit was dancing with Britney Spears in a live televised concert on Mtv. She’s also choreographed for both stage and the Warner Brothers CW television network.
After 6 years of performing professionally, Julie experienced a pivotal life moment when her agent called her with an audition for a role on a popular television show. The audition was at the same time as her favorite dance class in NYC. She did not want to miss her dance class for the audition. It was then that she realized that, while she enjoyed performing, her true love was in the classroom. She preferred the challenge of constantly learning new material and working on improving the different aspects of style, technique, and artistry that the classroom provided. Based on this realization, Julie tried her hand at teaching. As soon as she did, she immediately realized that teaching was her soul’s calling!
As a teacher Julie feels like she’s truly being of use in the world in a positive way. Helping to educate and inspire children and teens to reach their dance dreams, while also instilling in them a sense of confidence and self esteem that comes with working hard and setting up disciplined healthy habits to achieve goals, is of the utmost importance to Julie. She loves watching a student’s eyes light up with joy when they finally achieve a move they’ve been working hard to master. She also loves the camaraderie of the classroom and encourages all of her students to support and uplift each other in reaching their goals.
Soon after her first teaching engagement, Julie opened her first studio The Paige Conservatory of Performing Arts in Massachusetts. After several successful years with this studio, Julie’s love for teaching continued to grow, but her soul was missing a more creatively artistic community where she could, not only take her teaching to greater heights, but where she could consistently grow as a dancer, educator, and person. In 2016, Julie made the decision to move back to Los Angeles and create Inspire Dance Studio. She also went back to school to become certified as an ICF (International Coaching Federation) Life Coach. In 2021, Julie welcomed her magical daughter, Vivia Bliss Lille Paige, into the world and her heart was filled to the brim with love & joy.
TODAY, Julie is so thrilled to be living sunny Los Angeles with her daughter and doggie, Vivia & Sky. She is both the owner (and teacher) at Inspire Dance Studio and a PCC & TICC ICF Certified International Life Coach at www.mostinspiredlife.com. She feels so incredibly blessed to have two careers that bring her such meaning, purpose, and joy; to be working with such an elite faculty whom she completely respects and admires; and to have the family of her dreams! She is beyond excited to continue to welcome students and families into the INSPIRE Dance Studio family!
Jahna Frantziskonis
Classical Ballet, Pointe,Variations, Contemporary Ballet, Pas De Deux/Partnering, & Stretch/Strengthening
Jahna Frantziskonis was born in Tucson AZ where she trained with Ballet Tucson. After attending summer programs at Pacific Northwest Ballet, American Ballet Theater (New York), and The School of American Ballet, Jahna returned to Seattle to train full time in the PNB school’s Professional Division, and joined the company in 2012. In 2015 Jahna joined the San Francisco Ballet and was subsequently promoted to soloist in 2017. She has danced principal roles in “Rubies” by George Balanchine, “Hedda Gabler” in “Ibsen’s House” by Val Caniparoli, “New Suite” and “Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” by William Forsythe, “Chamber Symphony” by Alexei Ratmansky, among others. Created principal roles by choreographers Alonzo King, and Myles Thatcher. Created featured roles by Twyla Tharp, Justin Peck, Edwaard Liang, Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa, among others. Did works by Jiri Kylian, Christopher Wheeldon, Mark Morris, Nacho Duato, Crystal Pite, among others. She has not only trained in classical ballet, but also tap, jazz, Fosse, and modern, Alexander Technique, and acting.
Meagan Van Deren
Ballet, Pointe, Variations, Stretch & Strengthening
Meagan Van Deren was born and raised in Denver, CO and began dancing at three years old at Parker Dance Academy. She enjoyed all forms of dance but discovered a natural affinity for ballet. She began serious training at the National Ballet Academy of Denver at age twelve where she focused on Vaganova style ballet. During this time she supplemented her training with several scholarships to Pacific Northwest Ballet intensives. Entering into full-time training, she moved to Manhattan, New York where she began performing and receiving advanced training at the Vassiliev Academy of Classical Ballet. In 2009, she was awarded fourth place at the Denver Ballet Guild competition. Meagan’s repertoire includes variations as the Lilac Fairy from Sleeping Beauty, the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcraker, Paquita Principle Variation and Raymonda Principle Variation. Her repertoire also includes Grand Pas De Quatre, Paquita Corps, and Sleeping Beauty Corps.
Meagan began her professional career in Los Angeles, CA with Pacific Ballet Dance Theatre in 2019 where she has performed in Carmen, as well as excerpts from Gayane, Swan Lake, and Masquerade. She has also danced alongside the Atomos String Quartet and the Burbank Quartet.
In addition to training and performing, at the age of 16, Meagan began to share her love and passion for ballet by teaching at several studios in Colorado and Los Angeles.
Eli Dewitz
Hip-Hop, Commercial Jazz, Tap, Contemporary, Twinkle Star Dance
Eli Dewitz, was born and raised in Kansas City, KS and started performing at the age of five. Growing up in the competition circuit she has been trained by and assisted some of the industries top choreographers such as Sonya Tayeh, Talia Favia and Mia Michaels. She booked her first professional choreography job as well as dance job at the age of fifteen and has continued pursuing dance professionally ever since. Although she is trained in many styles and came from a very technical background, her love for dance goes far beyond. The passion that she has for self expression and story telling inspires the way she both dances and teaches. It is very important to Eli as an educator to help guide her students in finding who they are as individuals and celebrate that.
Cassi Mihalovich
Modern/Contemporary, Jazz, Tap, Hip-Hop, Twinkle Star Dance
Cassi Mihalovich is from Scottsdale, Arizona. She began her training at seven years old when she joined the competition team at Plumb Performing Arts Center. She trained in all genres and was on the Furious Styles hip hop crew for five years. At the age of 12, Cassi performed in her first professional Show, Alex in Wonderland, directed by Debbie Allen. That summer she also performed on the finale of So You Think You Can Dance with Nigel Lythgoe. She attended several summer training programs including The Rock School Summer Intensive, MODAS Dance Summer Intensive and The Juilliard Summer Intensive. This training led her to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance at Chapman University. Cassi graduated from Chapman University and has since moved to Los Angeles to continue pursuing her dreams. Cassi has worked with professional choreographers like Dana Wilson, Denise Wall, Travis Wall, Joe Lanteri, Andy Pellick, Joey Dowling, Suzi Taylor, Jason Parsons and many more.
Julia Haynes
Hip-Hop, Acro, Twinkle Star Dance
Julia Haynes has had the opportunity to be exposed to many different facets of performing. She is adept in many dance styles and has studied at an elite training level for 19 years. This AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy) graduate has been immersed in professional film, stage, television, and music videos where she exhibits her dance, acting, and vocal abilities. From filming with TV streaming service Dame Dash Studios to touring/performing on Broadway in Alaska (The Little Mermaid), Julia is eager to bring her talents to Inspire Dance Studio. Alongside her talents, Julia is the Co-Owner of JSF Productions LLC founded by JSTYLZ and is also the Studio Director at Dynamic Movement LA. Julia is currently signed with Go2 Talent Agency in Los Angeles and is excited to have been given this opportunity to share her artistry with her Inspire Dance students!
RyLee Altenburg
Twinkle Star Dance, Ballet, Theatre Dance/Broadway Jazz, Contemporary, Commercial Jazz, & Tap
RyLee Altenburg started dancing in 2005 in Port Orchard, WA at the Academy of Dance. She danced there till she was 18 years old and started teaching by the age of 15. There she trained in styles such as jazz, tap, lyrical, ballet and pointe. Following her days at the academy she moved to Los Angeles and attended AMDA (The American Musical and Dramatic Academy) where she received her Bachelors Degree in Dance Theatre. There she furthered her training and also added to her repertoire hip hop, modern, broadway and contemporary. After graduating in October of 2020 she has been performing and training with Geometry Dance Company, an all female professional contemporary company in LA. Along with her extensive dance background she also has been in theatre programs and acting class since 2015 and after graduating from college she signed with Stewart Talent Agency’s Commercial acting department. RyLee’s goal and hopes for getting back into teaching is to demonstrate that dance and acting are one in the same and they can come together to create an all around experience for both the dancer and the audience members!
Keely Uchida
Ballet, Stretch & Strengthening, Contemporary, Theatre Dance/ Broadway Jazz, Leaps & Turns
Keely Uchida is a dancer and movement director who received her BFA in dance at the California Institute of the Arts in 2022 where she studied under the direction of deans Dimitri Chamblas and Rosanna Gamson. She has performed work by Sidra Bell, Trisha Brown, Danielle Agami, Spenser Theberge, Silas Reiner and Rashaun Mitchell, among others. Along with having her movement direction work published in magazines such as Man About Town UK, RollaCoaster Magazine, & Flaunt.
Nia MacKenzie Scoval
Nutcracker Co-Choreographer 2023
Nia MacKenzie Scovel is a recently graduated multifaceted dancer and model. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, she studied dance at Westlake School for the Performing Arts from age 4 to 18 (2014-2018).
Heavily trained in ballet, contemporary, modern, improvisation, jazz, hip hop, and hula Tahitian dance, she performed productions such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, La Bayadere, and Don Quixote . She also competed at competitions like YAGP, NYCDA, Heiva Kauaii, and Bridge NorCal. As her passion and craving for a future in the dance industry grew, she decided to continue dance throughout her college career, attending California Institute of the Arts as a dancer major.
After having moved to LA and attending CalArts, she has performed work from Trisha Brown’s “Solo Olos” as a freshman for both the CalArts seasonal dance productions as well as at The MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House. She has also worked with and performed work by Danielle Agami, director of Ate9, a contemporary dance company here in LA that is based off of Gaga technique (2019), Stephanie Zalatel, director of Szalt Dance (2021)Company, Spencer Myles, former William Forsythe Company member and CalArts faculty (2020), and lastly Sidra Bell, director of Sidra Bell Dance Company in New York (2022).
Outside of CalArts and the Dance world, Nia began professionally modeling in 2021, and has worked with companies such as Nike, Adidas, Calvin Klein, Vans, The Weekend, Camilla Cabello, and Becky G, and smaller e-Commerce clothing brands.She is now signed to a modeling agency branched by Ford Models. In the hopes to mesh for her extensive dance training and passion and knack for modeling to intertwine as one, she is paving her own path for a self-curated future.
As a first generation College student and artist, now with a completed BFA (℅ 23’), Nia hopes to be part of the new generation that can inspire the future of the dance and model industry.
Sophia McLoughlin
(Summer Teacher) Twinkle Star Dance, Jazz, Hip-Hop
Sophia McLoughlin grew up in La Canada and began her dance training at age three at VHC, and then started dancing at Pasadena Civic Ballet at age 11. She continued dancing there through the end of high school, training primarily in ballet, including pointe, as well as in tap, jazz, character, and various styles of modern and contemporary dance. One of her favorite roles was dancing the role of the “Tin Girl” in PCB’s production of the Wizard of Oz. In addition, while at Flintridge Sacred Heart for high school, she was a member of their dance company, training in contemporary dance styles, performing in their annual dance concert, and serving as the Vice President and “Ballet Master” of the company during her senior year. She is currently an undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara pursuing a double major in Environmental Studies and Dance. She is so grateful for the opportunity to continue to grow in her technique, artistry, and choreographic skills, as well as in her knowledge of dance history and is ecstatic to share her passion for all things dance with the next generation of bright-minded, enthusiastic dancers.
Courtney Briggs
Inspire's Remote Office Manager & Dance Educator
Courtney Briggs’ journey with dance began at a young age having deep passion and a clear view of her future plans within the art of dance. She trained under a variety of instructors in Los Angeles, California, Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin. She was a member of Resilience, a pre-professional dance company, under the direction of Joey Hernandez. She trained extensively in a variety of styles of dance and learned the business side of the industry. Courtney also found a love for choreographing and seeing her work performed by other dancers, not just herself. Along side her teaching, Courtney currently is the Assistant Director with Dupree Dance Convention and the Remote Office Manager for Inspire Dance Studio. In Courtney’s view, teaching and choreographing are art forms that require passion, guidance and an openness in order to get desired results. She continues to train and expand her talent as a performer, teacher and choreographer so she can guide and support her own dancers and promote her love for dance through all the work she does.
Caroline Larson
Inspire's Parent Liaison (& Thursday Front Desk Assistant)
Caroline Larson has been an Inspire dance parent since 2017 where currently, she has two daughters that continue to dance at the studio. A former dancer herself, Caroline has performed at Walt Disney World, on countless stages, and alongside numerous Broadway performers. She has taken classes in a variety of styles and loves to take the adult classes that Inspire has to offer. Caroline's experience as a clinical social worker and teacher has taught her the importance of positive and uplifting influences in a child's life. She strongly believes in Inspire's message and program and is looking forward to assisting families in a variety of ways! She is here to help new and old families alike navigate questions anywhere from scheduling to recital preparation and everything in between.