About the Director
JESSICA MASON has been teaching dance in Denver since 1993 and studying dance for over 20 years. During this time she has studied with some of the best in the industry, including Mia Michaels, Shane Sparks, Dave Scott, Brian Friedman, Michael Chambers and Sarah Schachterle. During high school, Jessica danced for two seasons on her school’s nationally ranked varsity pom team. Following graduation she danced for one season with the Colorado Rapids Cheerleaders and three seasons with the Denver Nuggets Dancers. During her time with the Nuggets, Jessica spent two seasons as the female lead in the Batman Stunt Show. Jessica has been Mrs. Colorado International 2007, Miss Colorado Galaxy 2009 and Ms Planet Beach Midwest 2010. In 2008 she created the community organization “Project 21; After School, For School”. Project 21 takes the Studio 21 message of “2 Parts Drive, 1 Part Dream” into schools and uses dance to teach life skills and goal setting.
Through dance and competition, Jessica found her voice as a role model for today’s youth and wanted to take her message of Integrity and Positive Self Talk into the studio and use dance to teach goal setting. As the studio motto says “2 Parts Drive, 1 Part Dream”, Jessica wanted to give her students the opportunity to succeed through life skill training and character development.
Miss Jessica is the mother of two beautiful children, Devin - age 13 & Nicky - age 6. Both are dancing fools who will surely be seen in the studio! Jessica has a diverse background including dance performance & instruction, pageantry, fitness competition, personal training & choreography, as well as an associates degree in psychology. Studio 21 has been Jessica’s dream since she was a little girl, but it was her children that inspired her to create a studio that not only teaches dance technique, but also positive self image and skills to succeed in life. As a dancer and a mother, she wanted to create a place for young dancers, former dancers and aspiring dancers of all ages. Contact Jessica at: jessica@studio21-dance.com
JESSICA FITZGERALD
Preschool Program Director (formerly Jessica Rose) Email: jrose@studio21-dance.com
Congratulations to Jessica Fitzgerald; the new Head Coach for the Wheat Ridge High School Varsity Poms!
Jessica Rose was born and raised in Colorado. She received her Bachelor's degree in Dance from Mesa State College under the direction of Melonie Buchanan-Murray and Matthew Lindstrom. She has had the privilege of working with renowned artists such as Keith Clifton, Tony Coppola, Susan Hadly, Jennifer Kahl, Holly Lampe, Kim Noffsinger, Stephanie Powell, and Tracy Sanfield. Jessica has also performed in Aspen Dance Connection Company, Chicago: the musical, the Grand Junction Symphony’s Nutcracker, Beyond Boundaries dance Collective and as a Guest Artist in Glacier Ice Arena’s annual production.
At Mesa State, Jessica was the president of the Dance Society with which she directed many shows and fundraisers. Her choreography has been selected to be performed in the main stage dance concerts at Mesa State and numerous times in student productions. She has won many awards including being recognized twice in Who’s Who among American College Students, Dancers Heart Award, Best Performer (2 years), The Moss Performing Arts Scholarship and the Mesa Talent Scholarship. Recently Jessica was granted a full scholarship to the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina.
Jessica loves to teach and is trained in teaching jazz, hip hop, tap, lyrical, musical theater, ballet, and creative movement. Her true passion is showing others the beauty of dancing and is excited to be a part of Studio 21.
Tristin Richardson NEW TO STUDIO 21 DANCE!
Tristin Richardson was born in Laurel, Maryland where she started dancing at the age of three. She moved to Colorado at the age of five and has been enjoying it ever since. Tristin is experienced in all types of dance including ballet, tap, hip hop and jazz and has recently joined Studio 21's Blush Contemporary Burlesque Dance Team. She was accepted into an elite dance team at the age of 15 which she danced and competed with for three years. While on the dance team she participated in numerous competitions including Star Power, Kids Artistic Revue, and IDC. Tristin started as a substitute dance teacher and assistant when she was in 10th grade and is now excited to have many classes of her own. Currently Tristin is attending Metropolitan State College of Denver where she is studying her two main interests psychology and dance. She was also a Girl Scout for 12 years and has helped several Daisy and Brownie troops earn their dance badges. Tristin believes that there is no better way to express yourself than to dance and could not be more thrilled to be a part of Studio 21!
NIELLE McCAMMON
(Bellydance) Nielle McCammon has been belly dancing since 1998 and is officially an addict! She has performed off and on since 2001. Having studied jazz, ballet and modern dance growing up, belly dance is a wonderfully exotic, fun and feminine form of expression and exercise.
In Phoenix AZ, Nielle studied with Samia, Ava Fleming, Helena Vlahos, Morgianna and Jazille of Domba as well as taken intensive workshops with Ansuya, Suhaila Salimpour, Suzanna Del Vecchio, Jasmin Jahal, Jillina, Moria Chappell and Rachel Brice of the Bellydance Superstars. She was an original member of Ava Fleming's Black Opal troupe, which won 1st place at the Shake and Bake troupe competition in New Mexico (2003), as well as performing at places such as Lollapalooza, Rakkasah, private celebrity parties and more. She also had the privilege of dancing with Samia's Art of Bellydancing on the Fox 10 Morning Show.
In Colorado, Nielle has taken extensively with Kaya and Sadie and some with Suzanna Del Vecchio. She's now ready to teach what she's learned and share her love of the art-form with others and cultivate friendships and community in the process.
BRIGITTE VENISSE
(Adult Jazz/Hip Hop) Brigitte fell in love with dance at the young age of 7 when she started tap, jazz and ballet classes. In High School Brigitte attended the Academy of Performing Arts in Prescott, AZ where she studied tap, jazz, ballet, hip hop, broadway and lyrical. In 2006 she attended Arizona State University where she studied modern dance for 2 years and received her Bachelors in Parks and Recreation Management. While attending Arizona State, she was also a member of the school hip hop dance team known as Hip Hop Coalition. Through college Brigitte instructed at the Flipzone where she choreographed for competition teams and assisted in directing the studio’s performing teams. Brigitte has received awards for choreography at Phoenix competitions such as: top choreography, best precision and most original choreography. In 2010 she moved to Denver and became a professional dancer for the Denver Mammoth Wild Bunch dance team. Her performing experience includes: Phoenix Suns Half Time Shows, President Barrack Obama at ASU Commencement, Monsters of Hip Hop (Phoenix), Canival a Choreographer’s Ball (Los Angelos). She has been teaching for the past 5 years and enjoys sharing her passion with others. Brigitte recently made the Denver Nuggets Dance Team and will be performing at the 2011-2012 season at the Pepsi Center!
RACHAEL BROWN
(Theater Director) Rachael Brown is a recent graduate for the University of Colorado. Although her degree is in business marketing, her love is theater. She grew up singing and dancing and loved to shine on stage. In high school she began to teach theater classes, and worked as a stage manager at Heritage High School and the Younger Generation Players Theater. She has taken numerous workshops in both musical theater, and teaching.
She loves to work with children, and help them foster creativity and have their inner star shine. She has produced a number of shows including award winning one-acts, and full scale productions. Her favorite shows include: South Pacific and Annie Get Your Gun. She can’t wait to start working with Studio 21.
Fate GWT
Fate a professional Bboy (breakdancing) instructor since 1999, offers a unique style and arrangement of teaching techniques, Four Element HipHop Programs, school programs, choreography, bboy cardio, and bboy master classes. Fate programs have been in places such as the Denver School of the Arts, Denver Juvenile Probation and Family Integrated T.A.S.C. Project, Youth Workshops for Denver Indian Health, The Cole Beacons Programs, Horace Mann Middle School, Bruce Randolph School, Schenk Elementary School, Epworth United Methodist Church, Motion Underground, Artistic Fusion Dance Academy, and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. Four element programs with The 'Spot'/Urban Peak, bboy troops for the No 'MOE' Violence Cultural Dance Group and DanceTech. In addition, he is the Executive Director and Owner for the educational and entertainment HipHop programs under Colorado HIPHOP Elements. He currently contracts programs for the Mayor's Office for Education and Children.
Kim Matthews (school liason and Preschool Instructor) email: schools@studio21-dance.com
Christina Junk (Party Planner and Special Event Coordinator) email: parties@studio21-dance.com
Aileen Gieck (office Administrator) email: admin@studio21-dance.com
About Us
Our Mission
Studio 21 strives to provide technical dance instruction and personal development in a fun and engaging environment. Classes are enriched with lessons on Integrity, Responsibility, Courage and Team Work. Students are taught how to use positive self talk and optimism to assist in learning new skills.
Classes & Performances
Studio 21 provides technique based classes enriched with character development. Skills will be broken down to basic movement to give students a strong dance foundation in technique from the fundamentals to the cutting edge.
Studio 21 is committed to age appropriate costumes, choreography and music. Routines will be challenging enough to drive technical development, yet compact enough to develop skill mastery- not just comprehension. Each student will be given the opportunity and tools to succeed in class, and the inspiration to succeed in life.
Studio 21 events are produced by:
Studio 21 Dance, LLC
(720) 435-6689
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