Meet the Team

Jazz Department

Janalyn Memmott - Director

Janalyn Memmott began her career as a championship baton twirler winning over 60 trophies and many titles. She studied ballet with Jacqueline Colledge and performed with the Utah Regional Ballet. In High School she lettered in debate and was a member of the National Honor Society. She attended Brigham Young University on academic and talent scholarships and performed with BYU Theatre Ballet for six seasons and The Dancers' Company for one as she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Ballet. After receiving her Master's Degree in Dance Performance she performed with Utah Contemporary Dance Theatre (currently Odyssey Dance Theatre), and was featured in the video "Saturday's Warrior" as well as Industrials and T.V. Specials. She was also a dancer for the Utah Jazz and performed in the 1993 All-Star Game. During this time she directed the BYU Theatre Ballet Youth Artist Program for five years and was an instructor in the BYU Ballet Department for 9 years. She also taught jazz and developed the ballet program for The Dance Club in Orem, UT where she was an instructor for 20 years. Janalyn is currently Dance Department Chair at Waterford Private School in Sandy, directs their after school Ballet Academy, and directs the Jazz Program at Center Stage Performing Arts Studios as well as their Junior Company. She is also a freelance teacher and choreographer traveling throughout the United States including Hawaii. She has received numerous choreography awards including two prestigious National Critic's Choice Awards from New York City Dance Alliance. Her choreography is regularly performed by the National Champion Cougarettes as well as Origins, and Odyssey Dance Theatre. She and her husband and their four children reside in Pleasant Grove.

Jill Johnson - (info coming soon)

Ballet Department

Melissa Staheli - Director

Melissa Davis Staheli began her study of ballet at the age of seven at the Jacqueline Colledge School of Ballet. After graduating from High School, she began her professional career dancing with the Sacramento Ballet in California, after which she returned to Utah to perform as a Solo Artist with the Utah Regional Ballet. Melissa continued dancing professionally while attending Utah Valley University on a full academic scholarship. During her career, Melissa performed around the United States as well as in the Austrian Alps Performing Arts Festival. Melissa has performed in various productions including Balanchine's Serenade, Legend of Timpanogos, Coppellia and Don Quixote. She has performed as a Soloist in many productions including Nutcracker, Cinderella, Capriccio Espagnol and Alan Hineline's Sans Souci, and D Major Concerto. Melissa has worked with master teachers including Darla Hoover, Deborah Dobson, David Howard, Alan Hineline, Armando Duarte, Violette Verde, Ron Cunningham, Carinne Binda and Galina Mezentseva. Melissa's first piece of choreography, Rigaudon, won her the Monticello Scholarship for Talented Young Choreographer in the Regional Dance America/Pacific Region. For her second work, Oh, So Suite, she received the Regional Dance America/Pacific Region Outstanding Choreographer Award in Tucson, Arizona. Both awards included full scholarships to the National Performance/Choreography Conferences in Utah and Texas. Melissa was one of four selected from a large group of choreographers across the United States to participate in the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet's Choreoplan 2000, to create a work for the prestigious company. This work was later premiered in Utah by the Utah Regional Ballet. As the Director of the Ballet Department at Center Stage Performing Arts Studio Melissa continues to enjoy sharing her passion for ballet through teaching and choreographing. She has had the thrilling opportunity to attend many teacher workshops including training with Darla Hoover and Marcia Dale Weary at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and most recently with Ashley Wheater, Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet, Chicago. She and her husband Joel, currently reside in Orem, Utah with their three children.

April Paul

April Paul has taught all levels of Ballet at Center Stage Performing Arts. She is currently teaching ballet 6. She also, taught Basic Ballet and Advanced Ballet at Saratoga Performing Arts and Southwest Ballet Academy. While teaching April had the opportunity to stage and Choreograph Paquita, Swan Lake, & Giselle, The Nutcracker and Alice in Wonderland. She has taught Basic Ballet through Advanced Ballet Conservatory levels, created and taught "Beyond Stretching," and created a seven level ballet Conservatory syllabus.

Sarah Porter

Sarah Porter has been dancing since she was six years old. Most of my training took place in Leesburg, Virginia at the Loudoun School of Ballet. I also received training at various ballet summer intensive programs such as the American Academy of Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, the Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington, D.C., and Maryland Youth Ballet. I also competed in the Youth American Grand Prix in Philadelphia two years in a row. I was a member of the Loudoun Ballet Company for five years and a member of Loudoun Ballet Jazz & Co. for five years as well. I also spent the last two years as a part of BYU's Theatre Ballet. I was a member of the National Honors Society in high school and I graduated from high school with an advanced degree. I was also a teaching assistant for the Belmont chapter of the National League of Junior Cotillion for three years. I am currently majoring in dance at BYU and hope to graduate April 2011. I got married to my husband, Jayce, on April 25, 2009 and am excited to continue to live happily ever after!

Hip-Hop Department

Kandice Smith

Kandice has enjoyed an exciting career as a hip hop dancer. Dancing since the age of 8, instructing hip hop since the age of 15 and having trained, auditioned and performed in Los Angeles as a professional dancer for 5 years, has allowed Kandice to develop into a premier dancer on the hip hop circuit. No matter where she goes, Kandice is always met with new opportunities to work with the top talent in the hip hop field today such as Brian Friedman (Britney Spears), Rino (Gwen Stefani), Kevin Maher (Missy Elliott), Teresa Espinosa (BeatFreaks), and Marty Kudelka (Justin Timberlake). Kandice was given the opportunity to be an apprentice for the Janet Jackson super bowl halftime show, to dance in Carnival, a choreographer's ball, and represent choreographer Brian Friedman at the MVPA (Music Video Production Awards) for his choreography for Britney Spears and R. Kelly. Kandice has been acknowledged as Urban Jamms well rounded dancer of the year and since then has appeared in Dance Sprit and Dancer magazine. She was also acknowledged as a Monster of Hip Hop and was invited to be apart of their year end showcase in Los Angeles, California. Kandice has choreographed for Disney studios feature film Secret Keepers, the BYU Cougarettes, many Utah high school drill teams, dance companies, and dance studios.

Ballroom Department

Chris Williams - Director (info coming soon)

Josh Murillo

Josh started his formal training at the young age of 8, at Center Stage. Having trained in Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop and Ballroom he eventually fell in love with Ballroom and focused extensively in this art form. He was able to train exclusively with some of the best competitors in the world, including Jean-Marc Genereux and France Mousseau, Buddy Schwimmer, Corky and Shirly Ballas, and Louis Van Amstel. During his younger years he was able to travel around the country and England competing in national and world competitions as an amateur. Some of his past projects include dancing in the 2002 Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics, under the direction of Kenny Ortega. He was also an original cast member of Disney's hit movie "High School Musical" where he was cast as a principal dancer. Currently he is attending UVU on a ballroom scholarship with UVU's ballroom Tour team. He has traveled to Black pool, England twice with the team and competed in the World Championships. He was recently a member of the group that represented UVU on ABC's hit reality show "Dancing with the Stars", where they were crowned with the prestigious award of "Dancing with the Stars" College Champions. He is currently directing the Youth Black Ballroom Team.

Amber DelGrosso Doxey

Amber has been dancing for over 25 years. She has traveled all over the world on scholarship with the BYU Ballroom dance team. She has been seen on Dancing with the Stars and has danced with dancers from So You Think You Can Dance. She has owned her own studio and is currently in her 16th year of teaching at the prestigious dance studio Center Stage Performing Arts Studio. She guarantees that your child will not only learn to dance but love to dance. She has a creative way of teaching using imagination to teach the names of the steps. She loves teaching children and is excited for another great year!!

Camille Spence

Camille Spence is a Senior at Utah Valley University, majoring in Movement Studies with an Emphasis in Ballroom Dance. She is been dancing for the past 18 years and has tried a little bit of everything. She loves teaching dance, especially young children. She danced on the UVU Ballroom Tour Team, and was chosen to tour to Blackpool, England to perform on the Standard Team at the World Formation Team Championships, where her team took fourth place. She has been married since 2009 to her best friend, and loves it.

Alayne Wadsworth

Alayne Wadsworth has studied dance and competed for the past 12 years and professionally for 8 years. She studied dance abroad in England and throughout many states in the US. She has focused her time and efforts in completing a major in Movement Studies and emphasizing in Ballroom Dance. She has expanded even further in Latin, Standard, and American Social; also, mastered the status of a ten dancer; which includes: Cha Cha, Rumba, Paso Doble, Samba, Jive, Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Viennese Waltz, and Quick Step. Her deep thoughts and creative mind bring some of the most powerful yet inspiring emotions to life when watching her dance or even her choreography being performed by others. Some of her accomplishments include, winning Dancing With the Stars Season 10 with her UVU college Ballroom Team, competing openly and team dancesport in Blackpool, England. During the team competitions she was able to represent the United States of America. In her studies, she had the opportunity to be invited in presenting one of her written pieces "Determining the Women's Roles through Dance" at both the Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research and National Conference on Undergraduate Research.

Vocal Department

Brandy Brinkerhoff - Director

Brandy grew up studying at the Center Stage Performing Arts Studios. She is trained in the performing arts, which includes: Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical Jazz, Hip- Hop Tap, Acting and Vocal. She has personal and extensive training in vocals from some of the finest coaches in the country. In addition, she has performed with Onstage Productions where she sang and danced professionally in Nagoya, Japan for Suzuka Circuit and NASCAR. She attended Brigham Young University, where she was selected and received a scholarship for Music, Dance, and Theatre. She has filmed numerous TV commercials in the United States including shoots for Zions Bank, Lagoon Amusement Park, Kaplan Colleges. She has also performed in industrials for Usana, Novell, Franklin Covey, Stampin' up, Waterford, and several others. Brandy was the dance co-captain of the Blitzz dancers for the Utah Blitzz professional soccer team. Brandy was also Miss Springville/Mapleton 2000 where she was able to compete in the Miss Utah pageant. Brandy is currently the vocal and dance director at Center Stage Performing Arts in Orem, Utah. Of her many accomplishments as a Director, her vocal companies were selected as the "Best of Utah" in a statewide contest.

Natassia Clark

Natassia Clark has been with Center Stage as a student since the age of 3. She has had the wonderful opportunity to train in many forms of dance, acting, and voice. She literally grew up under the tutelage of the greatest directors and instructors Utah has to offer. Because of her great training Natassia has had many opportunities acting in commercials and movies as well as theater productions including lead roles in Bye Bye Birdie, Seussical the Musical, and The Sound of Music just to name a few. She has performed on stage with many talented recording artists and has also recorded her own music in Salt Lake City, Nashville, and L.A. She is also accomplished in dance and ballroom and enjoys choreographing, which she does currently, as well as passing on her invaluable experience to her students in vocal performance.

Nicole Ridinghead

Nicole holds a BFA in Music-Dance-Theatre from BYU. While there, she toured with the BYU Young Ambassadors around the United States and South East Asia. Her professional credits include the Broadway National Tour of Les Miserables (Eponine), Joseph…Dreamcoat (Narrator), Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida (Amneris), and West Side Story (Anita). Nicole is very happy to return to Center Stage.

Jamie Emmons

Jamie's performing career officially began at Center Stage as a dancer/singer touring to Disneyland, Disneyworld, and Hawaii. She has been teaching dance and performing groups for 8 years. Her most recent stage appearances were Beauty and the Beast at the Hale Center Theater and a guest appearance in R.R.R.ED: Redhead Musical Manifesto in Las Angeles. She currently does various pop-song recordings for Saifam Group, a song remix company based out of Italy. And while she secretly dreams of being a parade performer at Disneyland, she is content teaching sixth grade at Noah Webster Academy and the young performing groups at Center Stage.

Brandalee Streeter

Brandalee Streeter will be working with our vocal groups and teaching private voice. She has trained in Speech Level singing and performed with BYU Young Ambassadors. She is excited to be a part of the Vocal program.

Acting Department

Anne Sward Hansen - Director

Anne has been an actress and entertainer for over 30 years and has worked professionally in theatre, broadcast television and film in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Utah markets. Notably, she played “Lyla “ on CBS “As the World Turns” for 13 years and performed in over 2,000 episodes. While in Utah, she has performed in several episodes of “Touched By An Angel’, “Promised Land”, “Everwood”, Disney productions, films and movies of the week. Ms. Sward Hansen has been an officer of the Screen Actors Guild Utah Branch for over12 years and is serving on the S.A.G. National Board. She works with SAG INDE promoting independent filmmaking. She has been a leading advocate for professional actors and for the motion picture incentive legislation in Utah for almost 8 years.

Ms. Sward Hansen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Theatre Arts & Speech from Emerson College in Boston and Masters of Art degree from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.  She won the acclaimed Irene Ryan Award for best actress at the American College Theatre Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  When not performing, Ms. Sward Hansen has become one of Utah’s leading professional acting coaches and has taught classes in NYC, Miami and throughout the country with SAG Indie. She was an acting coach for Warner Brothers “Everwood” and has taught at U. of Miami, FL, Cypress College in CA., UVU in Orem and is currently the film acting instructor at Brigham Young University in Provo. Anne offers a unique technique designed to concentrate on the individual actor’s camera work.

Yoga Department

Marynika Miche

Marynika started dancing at the age of 6. She joined Center Stage shortly after and loved being part of the competing companies, and during the Christmas seasons would dance in Jacqueline College's Nutcracker at BYU. Marynika went to the University of Utah, graduating in Consumer Community Science and taking Ballet and Jazz throughout her 4 years at the University. She danced with Premier Dance Company professionally for 2 years. During her studies Marynika started studying Pilates and Yoga to strengthen her core. After graduation in 2005 she went to the Yandara Yoga Institute, an intense month long training on the beaches of Cabo, Mexico, where she studied to become a yoga instructor without any interruptions from the outside world. She has also trained at the Baron Baptiste Studio in Boston, MA. She has been teaching yoga at Center Stage ever since. Marynika has also taught several yoga and Pilates women's retreats at the Sundance Resort.