Faculty
Paula Kessinger
Owner/Artistic Director
Paula has been a renowned choreographer, dance instructor, and personal manager for more than 40 years. She holds a Degree in Theater Arts and has studied all genres of dance in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York. Paula performed on stage, as an actress, dancer, and ice skater for many years.
Along with her dancers receiving high achievements at dance competitions and conventions, many are eventually signed with talent agencies. Several of her students have gone on to pursue careers as professional dancers in the industry. They have performed on Broadway in productions of “Billy Elliot”, “Hairspray,” “42nd Street”, “Wicked” and the “Lion King,” to name a few. Students of Paula’s have also performed and competed on “So You Think You Can Dance”, Star Search, and have toured with Taylor Swift. They have also been featured as dancers in movies such as “La La Land” and “Vice”.
She has also proudly seen many of her dancers be accepted into some of the country’s most competitive colleges as dance majors – Julliard, UCLA, USC, Chapman University, Pace University, and NYU. Paula has hosted dancers from China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand at her studio and continues to do so virtually.
Along with dance, Paula was a choreographer for both national and international competing figure skaters. She has also choreographed for members of the U.S. Gymnastics Team. Paula has received top choreography awards at many dance competitions in the U.S, Canada, Europe, and Australia.
Danielle Dodds Stewart
Director of Dance Club & Childrens Program
John Barclay
John is currently teaching at West Coast School of The Arts in Costa Mesa, CA, and Urban Edge Dance Company in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. In addition to dedicating his life to the competitive world of dance, he also furthered his dance education and graduated from the University of California, Irvine. John received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Dance Choreography in June of 2019.
Dawn Costello
dance training at her hometown studio, where she also began teaching at the age of 16. She continued
her training in New York City at the Broadway Dance Center and Steps, where she has trained with many
legends in the industry.
Dawn began dancing professionally at the age of 19, initially at dinner theatre in Queens, New York,
before accepting contracts to perform for several major cruise lines. Dawn’s cruise line contracts
included Holland America and Royal Viking. In between cruise line performances, Dawn enjoyed
substantial theatre work in Puerto Rico before moving to Las Vegas to continue her career.
Once in Las Vegas, Dawn began an impressive run of appearances in over 7 well-known production
shows including The Folies Bergere, Jubillee, Abracadabra, Enter the Night, and Siegfried And Roy,
spanning a period of 20 years.
While Dawn is an accomplished professional dancer, her love of dance and desire to inspire others is
unmatched. This is most evident when recognizing that throughout her career, Dawn continued to teach
during the day while dancing professionally at night. Her dedication to dance instruction, particularly to
the youngest aspiring dancers, shines through to this very day.
Aika Doone
In addition to training and performing, Aika is on faculty as a teacher and choreographer at her home studio. Her latest teaching endeavor includes a position as Mentorship Coordinator for the IAF Mentorship Program in Los Angeles. She looks forward to showcasing the knowledge she has accumulated throughout her years of experience and will continue sharing her love for movement to audiences around the world.
Leslie Duner
Upon graduation Leslie moved to New York City where she became founding member and rehearsal director of DAMAGEDANCE. She has worked in different genres with different artists including Noah Cyrus, Fiona Grey and Athena Reich. Leslie has had the pleasure to work for various choreographers including Sean Greene, Jessica Taylor, Kyle Rostan, and Jimmy Burgio and Chad Michael Hall. She is currently performing with Charlotte Katherine and Co. Leslie is teaching and choreographing in the LA/OC area. Not only is Leslie a dancer and dance educator, but she also has her Pilates certification and has been voted one of NYC top 11 trending fitness instructors.
Rebecca Hamrock
In 2003 and 2004 Rebecca staged full length La Bayadere and Cinderella for China’s Guangzhou Ballet. She has also set and assisted for several of Robert Sund’s (Emmy winner) Ballets. Since retiring, she has worked at a variety of schools and companies including Concordia University where she developed their first ballet program. She has coached NY YAGP Grand Prix and Princess Grace winners and even set 2nd Act Swan Lake for the 2008 China Olympic Tour. While working for Garrett Smith, she set and assisted for companies such as New York City Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet West Utah, and National Choreographers Initiative among others.
Many of Rebecca’s students continue to train and/or perform in schools and companies such as Juilliard, NY Tisch, Houston Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theater, ABT, Royal Ballet London, and many more. Over the past several years, Rebecca choreographed and reimagined a full length Don Q for Long Beach Ballet and helped create in David Wilcox’s new elaborate Cinderella. After a 15 year hiatus from the stage, Miss Hamrock was able flex her performance muscle again as the Evil Step Mother in said performances. Now, she hopes to continue teaching throughout Southern CA as well as collaborating with other talented performing arts professionals.
Beatrice Horner
Jia Huang
She is a seasoned judge, having judged competitions such as World of Dance, USA High School Dance Nationals, UDA College Dance Nationals, Japan Dance Nationals and Dance Worlds. She is also a faculty member at the prestigious Orange County School of the Arts, but spends most of her time teaching and choreography for high school teams and studios in California. She has taught master classes in places such as Canada, Australia, Norway, China, Mexico, Japan and continues to teach all over the US.
Marcus Jackson
Alex Kessinger
Currently, she is signed with MSA Talent Agency. Some of her achievements have been dancing with Jojo Siwa, assisting on national commercials with Michael Rooney, television shows such as the newest hit tv show “GLOW” with Marguerite Derricks, a digital backup dancer in Paula Abdul’s tour “Straight Up Paula”, and dancing in and choreographing for music videos. Alex’s most recent dance achievement is becoming a full time faculty member on The Dance Xperience Convention, all while still pursuing the “starving artist’s” dream!
Clarice Ordaz
Clarice has worked with choreographers of Broadway shows like Hamilton (Andy Blakenbeuhler) and Head Over Heels (Spencer Liff). She was associate choreographer to Liff and dance captain of McCoy Rigby Entertainment’s highly successful Singin’ In The Rain with which received them an Ovation award for their choreography. Her own choreography is featured in the first two seasons of the Netflix Show One Day at a Time.
She continues to dance commercially as well as teaches dance to children ages 5-18. Clarice loves getting the opportunity to take all that she learned growing up as a dancer, and give back to today’s generation of talented dancers.
Vickie Roan
Since graduation, she is excited to have also joined Entity Contemporary Dance, direct by Marissa Osato-Moreno & Will Johnston, as a company member. Vickie strives to use dance as a vehicle to contribute to the world around her and ultimately, encourage others to do the same. She is thrilled to continue exploring her voice as a professional dancer, teacher, choreographer and creative while remaining a forever student along the way!
Heather Smith
Jazelle Torre
In addition to teaching at West Coast School of the Arts, she is also an instructor and choreographer for various studios and high schools in Orange and Riverside Counties. Jazelle is in the process of pursuing her Pilates Certification and BA in Dance Education.
Theresa Turner
After several years as a gymnastics coach, she began a career in law enforcement, but her love of gymnastics brought her back to teaching again. For more than 35 years, she has taught many dancers to tumble and has a driving force in competition teams performing in the jazz and acro category. Winning numerous platinum titles and all-around awards including most entertaining and original choreography at Showstoppers, Hall of Fame and Star Power Dance competitions.
Theresa finds that the most rewarding part of her coaching is watching her students grow and achieve their personal goals by mastering tumbling skills. She continues to stay current in all the new forms of acrobatic dance and training, even teaching virtual classes and privates online.
Staff

Leanne Baca
Office Manager
Bio coming soon…