 |
            
          
OUR STAFF
 Shannon Lowrie: Owner/Director
Shannon began her dance training in Santa Maria under the instruction of Thelma Cline and Nancy Ann Dance Studio. After numerous years on stage she became eager to explore as many ways possible to perform. As a child she would put on neighborhood musicals and spent most of her school years singing, writing, playing guitar, and choreographing. Shannon was very involved in her high school Advanced Choir and became the lead singer in a rock band her senior year of high school. She got back to her dance roots in college and began auditioning for as many shows as she could. Shannon performed with Pacific Light Opera Theater and Chameleon Productions spending as much time behind the scenes as on the stage. Soon enough she was assistant directing, building sets, costuming, and choreographing. Shannon was the original choreographer for P.L.O.T.’s children’s troupe, The Rising Stars. She went on to work a summer with The Great American Melodrama, Assistant Directed and choreographed for Chameleon Productions, and began teaching at The Studio of Performing Arts then owned by Zellda Markham. She always felt a connection to The Studio and knew that it had special potential. Although she had big dreams of Broadway, she decided to settle down in Arroyo Grande and help others create, enhance, and fulfill their dreams of the stage what ever that might be. Shannon bought The Studio from Zellda in 2000 and has produced many productions such as Cats, A Chorus Line, Jesus Christ Superstar, and many many more. She is the director and choreographer for The Studio’s company dancers as well as several other groups, and has placed first, second, and third in several dance competitions for her choreography.
Shannon is married and has three children. Her entire family is involved in The Studio and she looks forward to watching them all grow up here and dedicates her life to making the most of The Studio of Performing Arts!
 Carrie Yamate
Carrie was raised in Huntington Beach, California before she made the move to Arroyo Grande in 2000. She taught for several different dance studios in the area including Cal Poly before she decided to make SOPA her home.
Having studied dance for more than twenty years, she is versed in ballet, tap, jazz and musical theater. For six years she danced with a regional ballet company in Southern California. As a principle dancer, she was fortunate to perform in ballets such as Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppelia and of course The Nutcracker. She began teaching at the age of sixteen and hasn’t stopped since.
In her spare time she studied voice for fifteen years and performed in and choreographed numerous musical theater productions. When she’s not teaching, she works as the Human Resources manager for San Luis Sports Therapy in SLO.
Carrie believes dance is for everyone to enjoy, from the participant to the spectator. Dance is a great way to stay in shape, create lifelong memories and establish lasting relationships with others that share your passion. A few of her dance teachers were very inspirational role models in her life. She hopes to inspire each of her students in the same way. Carrie is the director of SOPA’s holiday program “A Night Before Christmas” and is honored to work with such a great staff and talented students. Carrie became Shannon Lowrie’s partner at the studio in September of 2007.
Jake McGuire: Artistic Director for The Studio Players
jmcguire@thestudioofperformingarts.com
Jake was here when the doors opened to The Studio in 1993. He was involved in the drama department for 10 years. He was also involved with The Studio Players for almost all productions. Jake worked as an assistant director to Shannon Lowrie up until 2003 when he moved to New York to pursue his dreams. He was hired on at The Irish Repertory Theater where he worked for three years. He also worked for MTV as a production assistant. We are very pleased to announce that Jake returned to The Studio this October and will be the artistic director for The Studio Players.
 Randyn Spear
Randyn began dancing at a very young age and went on to dance competitively for 6 years. She has studied ballet, tap, jazz and modern. Her senior year she received a Dance Scholarship award. Randyn decided to stay on the Central Coast following her graduation in 2004. She is now 20 years old and a student at Allan Hancock College. She is currently working on her Associates Degree in dance. She attends Allan Hancock College and performs regularly with the Alan Hancock Dance Program. During the summer of 2006, Randyn was accepted to the South Street Ballet Summer Intensive Program in Santa Barbara. She hopes to attend UC Irvine in the fall of 2007 as a dance major. SOPA is very excited that she will be joining our staff this October and sharing her talents with our current students.
 Stephanie Ericcson
Stephanie grew up in the Bay Area dancing at The San Juan School of Dance studying Ballet through the Royal Academy of Dance. She has been dancing for 17 years doing ballet, tap and jazz. While dancing at San Juan she competed on the Dance Team for 5 years attending numerous dance competitions including Nationals in New York, LA, and Las Vegas. In 2000 she began dancing with Keith Banks at Studio 10 in San Jose and continues to enjoy classes there when in town! Stephanie has been in many Musical Theater productions starting at age 8. In 2005 she played her favorite role as Peggy Sawyer in 42nd Street at Sunnyvale Community Players.
Within the last 6 years she has become increasingly passionate about modern dance and choreography. Stephanie has been on the Orchesis Dance Company for two
years and is currently working on choreography for that show. She likes to challenge students to rise to their fullest potential through hard work and their love for dance. She loves dancing as a form of self expression and hopes to encourage her students to do the same.
 Kati Schell
Kati Schell has been dancing since she was seven years old and absolutely loves performing. She studies ballet, tap, jazz, modern, hip-hop, musical theater and acting at SOPA and really enjoys teaching her own classes. She is currently a student at Alan Hancock College and plans to pursue a career in performing arts and then later go into physical therapy. This past summer Kati was first runner up in the Miss California Mid-State Fair Pageant. Kati has found in herself a passion for dance and a love for the stage which she strives to pass on to all of her students. This year she is directing the Shooting Starz performing group.
 Jessica Wittman
Like many aspiring dancers Jessica began dancing around the house at a young age. To the studio she went and the rest is history. Well not entirely. Jessica trained in jazz, ballet, hip hop and modern at various studios both here in San Luis County and also in British Columbia, Canada ( Jessica's other home base) Jessica started teaching dance and choreography in high school and also danced with a traveling youth company called DanceStreams. After graduating, Jessica moved to the city of Vancouver where she attended Main Dance Projects Society, a two year, 40 hour per week performance school focusing on modern and ballet styles. Amazing teachers came from Canada, USA and Europe to bring cutting edge knowledge and repertoire. Some of these teachers included Margie Gillis, Joe Laughlin, Gisa Cole, Sarah Brewer, Angeline Wolf, Katherine Labelle, Chick Snipper and Peter Bingham just to name a few. It was an expierence of a lifetime. It was at Main dance that Jessica also studied Tai Chi, yoga, contact improvisation, anatomy and drumming.
Jessica danced profesionally in Vancouver for several years. Since moving back to SLO county, Jessica has continued teaching various styles of dance and movement and has furthered her studies of yoga and pilates.She has performed with Variable Velocity Performance group on several occasions. The exploration of dance and movement is endless and Jessica will always find inspiration in this. Jess recently tried >something called water dance. Fascinating!
 Taylor Murphy-Sinclair – (student teacher)
Taylor has been working with S.O.P.A. for almost 9 years now. She currently takes 4 classes here a week and teaches her very own drama class :) Taylor is very involved in Studio productions and has enjoyed a variety of roles over the course of her career including: Dodger in Oliver!, Anita in West Side Story, Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, Golde in Fiddler On the Roof, and most recently as Cinderella in Into the Woods. She would like to say "hi" to her absolutely incredible students, they are wonderful and they make it all worthwhile, "I love ya!" Taylor is a 16 year old junior at Arroyo Grande High School and participates avidly in the speech and debate program. She is an accomplished actor, vocalist and dancer and hopes to pursue a career in the performing arts following graduation.
 Danya Nunley
Danya Conn Nunley previously danced with the Roanoke Ballet Theater, the Southwest Virginia Ballet, and later UJIMA Dance Company. She also traveled and performed semi-professionally during college with The New Virginians and the John Howell Singers. She has instructed dance through numerous studios and venues, most notably The Post School of Ballet and the Center of Dance in VA, where she was also commissioned to choreograph for the resident companies.
She completed her B.S. in Family and Child Development from Virginia Tech (with an emphasis on Gerontology), her M.A. in Exercise Physiology from UNC Chapel Hill and her M.A. in teaching from Chapman University. She worked as an Exercise Physiologist and later as an elementary school teacher before she stopped to raise her two daughters, Eliana and Liora. She has instructed dance (since she was 12) and fitness classes from the age of 17 on (including a couple years of Kung Fu) at numerous gyms and other facilities across 3 states and holds certifications in personal training (NSCA), group fitness (ACE), Yogafit, The Pilates Coach, BODY PUMP, BODY COMBAT, BODY FLOW, BODY JAM, BODY VIVE, Precision Cycling, Cycle Reebok, BOSU, and Gravity. In 1997 she became a national trainer for Les Mills International in both BODY JAM and BODY VIVE.
Currently she is teaching dance and group fitness at Pismo Beach Athletic Club and Kennedy Club Fitness. She also started and directed 5th/6th grade performance dance troupes at both Grover Beach and Ocean View Elementary Schools, although she is currently taking a break from it. Danya teaches master and specialty classes at SOPA whenever she can.
 Kendra Pearson
Kendra is a dance major at Alan Hancock College. She has been dancing for many years studying ballet, jazz, modern and now tap. Last year Kendra was accepted to the State Street Ballet Summer Program. Kendra teaches ballet and pre-school classes. This year she is playing the lead roles of an Icicle and Mrs. Claus in “A Night Before Christmas.” She is very passionate about dance plans to continue dancing and performing herself for as long as possible.
 Maggie O’Brien
Maggie has been involved in the performing arts for, well...a long time! She has studied and performed many forms of dance, including ballet, modern, jazz, tap and middle eastern.
During the 1970's and 80's, Maggie was a member of the South Coast Contemporary Dance Theater, taught jazz at Allan Hancock College, acted in numerous theater productions, choreographed musicals for Cabrillo High School, and owned and operated her own performing arts studio. She also earned a B.A. degree from UCSB in History, with a minor in Theater Arts.
Most recently, Maggie has been a performance coach and choreographer of freestyle dressage (horse and rider performing to music).
We are thrilled to have Maggie on our team and to be hosting her original performance workshop series, "DIG DEEP - The Performer Within".
 Madi Murphy-Sinclair - (student teacher)
Madi has been dancing and performing at the studio since she was 5 years old. She has been in Company and Syncopators since she was in the 6th grade. She has studied Jazz, Drama, Tap, Hip Hop and more. Madi also studies voice and has several lead roles in various musical theater productions at the studio. She is currently enjoying her first year as a student teacher and the co-director of the Rising Stars.
 Nikki Pena
Nikki has been dancing for 4 years and loves it more than anything. She studies ballet, tap, jazz, modern, hip hop and her personal favorite, lyrical. She is currently attending Allan Hancock College studying to be dance major. Nikki has the biggest love and passion for dance and hopes to do something big with it one day. She loves teaching because she gets the chance to inspiring kids and share her love for dance and theres nothing in the world like seeing your students succeed. :)
 Evelyn Kroeker
Evelyn Kroeker has been dancing since she could walk and before she could count to "...5, 6, 7, 8." Her passion for dance developed into teaching and choreography, and with over twelve years of experience teaching professionally, Evelyn is pleased to join the staff of The Studio of Performing Arts. Accolades include coaching a boy's hip hop group featuring crowd favorites "Lose Yourself," and "Yeah!" as well as award winning ballet/ lyrical pieces "Just For Now" and DCSR's "It Was a Very Good Year."
 |
|
 |