BRITTNEY ANDERSON is from the Port Charlotte area and a proud graduate of Port Charlotte High School class of 2005 and the University of Central Florida class of 2008. She has been dancing and training for over 20 years with almost 10 years of teaching experience. Brittney has studied and performed with several institutions including Universal Dance Academy, University Performing Arts Centre, University of Central Florida, NYC Broadway Dance Center, and Santa Fe Community College. Some of Brittney's performance experience includes both the S.E.E.D and Moscow productions of the Nutcracker, the Orange Bowl halftime show, Santa Fe Summer Dance Institute, Orlando Surf Expo, Street Stylez Convention, University of Central Florida Dance Concert as a student choreographer and a returning alumni, on MTV with Rukus the UCF hip hop team, Dancing with the Charlotte Stars, along with many regional and national competitions. Brittney is looking forward to being part of the Elite team and sharing her love of dance and contemporary movement.

ANGENETTA BETTS started her dancing career at the young age of 3. She has danced at many dance studios in Charlotte County and spent her last 5 years at Elite Fine Arts Academy. During her last 2 years at Elite she was an class assistant and a student teacher. Angenetta has been on many dance companies for a number of years and a competition team for 1 year. Throughout her years she has been able to perform at venues like Universal Studios, Disney World, and varies other places. Now she is a first year student at Florida Gulf Coast University perusing a major in forensic science. She continues to peruse her love for dance by becoming a member of the Elite faculty.

ALEXIA BIGORD has been dancing for around 14 years! Starting when she was 4 years old and then joined Elite Fine Arts Academy when she was 7. She trained in all dance styles at Elite and was a part of the Elite Prestige and E-crew teams for 2 years. She did Ballet, Jazz, Acro, Latin, HipHop, Circus, and Contemporary throughout her 10 years at the studio. She has also been an assistant in HipHop, Ballet, Latin, and Acro and for the past two years, she was a substitute/secondary teacher for both Circus classes.

SAVANNAH BRADY, a classically trained violinist, was noted as a “musical prodigy” by the North Port Sun. She recently graduated with honors from State College of Florida summa cum laude with an associate in arts degree and now currently studies with the University of Central Florida, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in International and global studies. Savannah also studied with Berklee Online, earning 12 credit hours worth of vocal training, songwriting, guitar, and piano credits. She had the honor of playing for three consecutive years with the Suncoast Super Strings under the direction of Itzhak Perlman. She was a member of the Gamble Creek band led by Kim Betts (daughter of the legendary Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers Band), where she and the band had the opportunity to open for Blue Oyster Cult, Wynonna Judd, Marshall Tucker, and Lonestar. Currently, she is the lead singer for the Tropical Avenue band. Savannah is excited to be teaching here as she was a student at Elite when she was younger!

ELYSSA CLEMENT started dancing at the age of two at Steppin’ Out Dance Academy of Kingston, NH, where she studied ballet, tap, jazz, musical theatre, and hip hop. In 2003-04 during her junior year of high school, Elyssa took part in a year long pre-professional certification program through S.O.D.A. In 2005, she attended the DanzJam Teacher Certification and Training in New York City. Elyssa has been teaching all styles of dance since 2007. In 2017, she was excited to start teaching for Anthony LoCascio’s pre-professional tap company #TapLifeToo. She is excited to continue her dancing career in the sunshine state!

MEGAN COLLINS was born and raised right here in Port Charlotte and has been dancing since the young age of 4 years old. She received training in multiple genres including tap, jazz, musical theater, and her favorite; hip hop. She is a class of 2013 Port Charlotte High School graduate and attended Southwest Florida College where she received a certificate in Medical Assisting, which she utilized today working alongside physicians in a doctor's office. Her goal as a hip-hop instructor is to bring her dancers out of their shell and to turn them into the best most confident dancers they can be.

AUDRIANA “ELLA” DULL is so excited to be apart of the Elite crew! She is 19 years old and has been dancing since she was 4 and started competing at the tiny age of 5. She started cheering a little over a year and a half ago and just finished her first Nationals as a coach! She has trained with amazing teachers at Dance conventions such as NYCDA, Tremaine, WCDE, Radix and Turn it around! Her favorite styles of dance are Jazz and Lyrical. She can’t wait for the 2022-2023 season and watching everyone blossom into a beautiful dancers!

JILIAN FULLER (Prestige choreographer) is from the North Port area and is a proud graduate of Pine View School class of 2020. She is currently studying at Florida Gulf Coast University for her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She has been dancing for 16 years. She has competed in the Miss Florida Teen USA pageant twice and has had the opportunity to be on the FGCU Dancing E’Gals team, where she was Rookie of the Year in 2020. She has competed on the Elite ‘Prestige’ team for 5 years and has performed at Disney Springs and Universal Studios. She is excited to join the Elite faculty and continue to share her passion for dance!

LINDA GIANCASPRO - GUEST TEACHER - travels nationwide as a master teacher and adjudicator for Dance Educators of America, Dance Masters of America, the National Association of Dance & Affiliated Artists, Dance America/Dance Olympus, Danza Intensive and Magic City’s Dance World of Miami Beach! She has been honored with an invitation to teach for the Cecchetti Council of America in Washington, D.C. and has taught for prestigious locations such as Broadway Dance Center, Carnegie Hall Studios, City Center Studios, Peri Dance, the New Dance Group and 20 year staff member of St. John’s University. Giancaspro is currently Ballet Mistress of the New England Ballet Company of Bridgeport, CT and is Director of Artistic Dance…Raising the Barre Workshop & Competition, a one day event inspiring dancers to crave classical ballet. Giancaspro began her dance training with the famed Istvan Rabovsky and Nora Kovach of the Bolshoi Ballet. Her background includes extensive work in the Russian Syllabus of Ballet with the Delaware Regional Ballet, Rabovsky Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre School. Giancaspro is the 1995 New York State Award of Excellence recipient for her work as a ballet dancer and teacher; featured performer on eHow.com in a 10 part series called Ballet Tips; and is prominently listed in the 2011-2012 Registry of the Cambridge Who’s Who.

In 2012 Giancaspro trademarked BALLET BUSTER™; a program that blends yoga, Pilates and classical ballet in a way that will develop stretch and strength while enhancing a love of artistic expression. The class has a fluid flow with a motivating pace. Core control and body line are expertly defined so that each participant will feel an immediate, positive response to their need for a beautiful body. On the competition/workshop circuit BALLET BUSTER™ is applauded for pinpointing Junior, Senior and Teacher rooms with specific tools of improvement.

STEPHANIE GOERL is a native of Charlotte County and a graduate of Port Charlotte High School. After graduation Stephanie moved to the Tampa area and studied dance at Hillsborough Community College focusing on ballet and modern. While attending school, she worked as the head dance instructor for Mosaic Dance Studio in Brandon and developed their ballet, tap and lyrical curriculum. In late 2004, Stephanie partnered up with Extreme Youth Sports and became their dance director. She developed classes for ages 2 and up to teach in local venues all around Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas Counties. Shortly after she opened “To the Point Academy of Dance” in Carollwood with Extreme’s director. A few years later Charlotte County called Stephanie and her husband back to follow his dream of being a police officer and becoming parents to their daughter Rebekah and son Alex. Shortly thereafter, Stephanie received her Bachelors degree from Florida Gulf Coast University. For the last 13 years Stephanie has taught locally at area studios and gyms teaching ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical, Zumba and barre.

CAMRYN MONTALBANO was born and raised in North Port, Florida where she began dancing at the age of 5. She has danced at many studios in the area but was mainly trained at Universal Performing Arts Center. She has received intense training in a variety of styles including tap, jazz, ballet, lyrical, and contemporary. She graduated from North Port High School in 2018 and is currently studying nursing at Rasmussen University. Besides being a student Camryn is also a Certified Pharmacy Technician at Publix Supermarkets. Camryn is excited to return to the studio where she can share her love of dance with the Elite family.

ANA ORTEGA is an active dancer and college student from Cape Coral, Florida. She began dancing as a young child. Ana began her training in the Cecchetti Method of Ballet under the instruction of Cecchetti Council of America member, Sheli Thompson-Gauthier. She has successfully completed her student grades one through four, her Elementary and Intermediate Student Professional Grades, and is currently working on the Advanced syllabus and CCA teacher training, under the instruction of CCA Certified Licentiate Theresa Siller and CCA examiner, Leslie Wood. She just recently completed her first teacher certification under CCA.  After high school, Ana began her pre-professional ballet work with Gulfshore Ballet under the direction of former Miami City Principal ballet dancers, Illiana Lopez and Franklin Gamero training in; Vaganova style, Russian style, Bournonville method, Balanchine style and many more. She has attended summer intensives to receive training under various members of Miami City Ballet principal dancers along with teachers from ballet companies all over the world. She has performed in various productions, including The Nutcracker, and has, since a very young age, regularly danced in competitions and local performances. Along with ballet training, Ana has danced extensively in Lyrical, Contemporary, Jazz, Tap and other styles, she also has competed in competitions like Starpower and Bravo!. She has been an Assistant Instructor to Sheli Thompson-Gauthier for six years and continues teaching in other studios. She is currently a senior at Florida Gulf Coast university majoring in English Literature studies with a minor in Music. She plans on applying for grad school in the winter.  

REBECCA OSTROFF has studied at the Martha Graham Center in NYC. As a young modern dancer in NYC she apprenticed with Arnie Zane/Bill T Jones, she danced with David Parsons and was in the original cast of " The Envelope", she danced with many small dance companies in the city and choreographed and performed her own work until one day doing a backhandspring she broke her foot,as a result all she could do was play on a trapeze, swim and do handstands. All that trapeze paid off, on a whim she went to New Hampshire to dance in a circus and discovered that you could do trapeze for a career ! the rest is history, she ran away and joined the circus. "The Enchanting Miss Rebecca" or Becky as she is known to her friends and family performed her single trapeze act for 31 years. Her signature finale stunt is iron jaw. The iron jaw got her the job as iron jaw/aerialist in the movie "Water for Elephants" and a chance to perform on Steve Harvey's Little Big Shots Forever Young ! Becky has performed in Circus all over the world, ice shows, festivals, night clubs anywhere the people need a trapeze act. Her other aerial skills are silks, Spanish web, Roman Rings and Lyra. She is excited to share her love of aerial to dancers and non dancers, hanging upside down and conquering anything!

KERI SHEETS has been dancing for over 30 years studying Ballet, Tap, Jazz, and Modern. After performing in and around the Chicagoland area and graduating from Columbia College Chicago with a BA in Sports/Performing Arts Management with a minor in Dance in 2006, she fell in love with the rewarding experience of teaching. She has performed works by Margie Cole, Jan Eckert, Emily Stein, Krenley Guzman and others in the Chicago-land area. Keri's favorite part about teaching is embracing a close-knit community within the studio and watching her students' artistry and expression blossom. Connecting with students and sharing her knowledge and love of dance with others is why she loves teaching. She also works at Ameriprise Financial, but teaching dance is her passion and looks forward to teaching after work.

AMBER SLAY - GUEST TEACHER - has been dancing for 14 years. She has trained in many styles including Ballet, Pointe, Modern, Jazz, Tap, Hip-hop, and Acro. She is currently attending Jacksonville University where she will earn my Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance.

SHELI THOMPSON-GAUTHIER - was an instructor at Pine Island Dance for 25 years, owning the studio for seven of those years. Sheli’s teaching experience includes; ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, acrobatics, liturgical dance and she holds an advanced fitness instruction certification. Sheli has studied the Cecchetti Method of Ballet for 22 years, coached by Pirkko Lawlor of “The Ballet Conservatory” in Winter Haven. She holds her Elementary Professional Level Teaching Certification and is currently working on the intermediate material. Sheli held the elected office of Tegistrar for the Florida Committee of the Cecchetti Council of America for 4 years, and was the recipient of the committee’s Teacher Scholarship to Cecchetti International Summer School at Hope College in Michigan. She has attended the week-long seminar 3 times. She has been a guest instructor many times at the Florida Cecchetti Liaison Workshop, where she will serve as adjudicator for the young students’ scholarship audition this fall. Sheli continues to teach and advance students and teachers at her home studio.

THERESA CORBLEY SILLER (MISS TERRI) WALSH has been a lifelong dancer in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Acro and Musical Theatre. She has danced and sung professionally in the Washington, DC area, at the Kennedy Center and West End Dinner Theatre. Theresa graduated from George Mason University with her BSEd. In Education, and has taught Kindergarten, 4th grade and high school. Theresa holds her Cecchetti Advanced Professional Certification, and is a CCA Fellow. Theresa also published 5 books, including the Young Adult Fiction story, What Happened at Soaring High Dance Academy? God Happened. Theresa is honored to be at Studio Elite!