Leah Davies - Owner and Studio Director

Ms. Leah has been involved in the Competitive Dance scene for 26 years. Teaching at numerous studios in the Pacific Northwest over the past 17 years, Leah has been recognized for her enthusiastic teaching styles and choreography. Specializing in ballet, hip hop, contemporary, jazz, lyrical, and tap she brings innovative and competitive choreography and training techniques to her everyday instruction. While on the dance team at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX Leah was awarded as a Collegiate All-American. She is currently working with local High School Dance Teams, and helping train her dances for College Dance Teams. She regularly works with Skyline High School Dance Team in collaboration with their coaching staff.  Leah was certified as a Dance Masters of America Teacher and is currently employed by 3 National Dance Competitions as a judge for multiple locations. Working for Showbiz National Talent, Kids Artistic Revue, and Rainbow Dance Competitions has been an eye opening experience allowing Leah to have a broad view of dance techniques and style through out the United States.
 

During her earlier years as a dancer, she was recognized at both regional and national levels, earnings overall awards,  titles, and  positions in many well known dance competition. Being awarded Miss Teen Washington and receiving a gold medal for Team USA at the World Championships of Performing Arts were some of her most memorable experiences. Leah has also earned numerous scholarships and jobs as touring assistants to dance conventions, and been awarded summer program internships to perform in New York City under the direction of Sheila Barker. The energy from working with young talent fuels this teacher in every way and brings excitement and energy to her life.

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Lauren Asmussen

Lauren is a second-year student at the University of Washington. She danced competitively in high school and is trained in ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, tap and musical theater. After graduating from high school, Lauren spent the first year of her college education at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, where she trained with the United Movement hip hop team as a dancer, teacher, featured choreographer and historian.  She is excited to share her love for dance with students at RDF.

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Brittnay Baldwin

Brittnay Baldwin started her training in Seattle, WA at the age of 4 and went on to graduate Cum Laude from Chapman University in Orange, CA with her Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Communication Studies. Following her graduation, Brittnay danced for Holland America Line where she performed on the seas of the Mediterranean, Baltic and Caribbean. During her career, she has been featured a soloist in the Capezio A.C.E. Fashion Shows, on the prestigious stages of Irvine’s Barclay Theater and New York’s Miller Theater in Sarah Mann’s award winning “P-noki (Puppet Edit)”, Max’t Out under the direction of Jonni Homsey and numerous Chapman University performances, including the 27th Annual American Celebration. An experienced teacher, award-winning choreographer and masterclass instructor, Brittnay brings her passion and love for dance to all ages and styles.

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Natalie Bothwell

Natalie is originally from San Clemente, California, where she began dancing at the age of three and started competition dance at the age of six. She has been trained in classical vaganova ballet, lyrical, jazz, contemporary, musical theatre, and hip-hop. Along the way, she has worked with many talented choreographers, including Mandy Moore, Ade Obayomi, Travis Wall, Dennis Caspary, and Derrick Schrader, and worked with Dee Caspary on his opening routine for Countdown's National Competition. While competing with her studio as a junior dancer, she appeared on the nationally televised show Dance Moms. During this time, she also received a wide variety of scholarships from various conventions, including Tremaine Dance, and was a scholarship finalist for WestCoast Dance Convention. She also earned a Countdown Dance Competition scholarship as a teen soloist. Natalie was a member of her high school dance team, where she was chosen to represent her team as a soloist and team captain. Natalie helped lead her team to nine national championships. Currently, Natalie is a 3rd-year student at the University of Washington and a member of the UW Dance Team, where she enjoys being part of a team and cheering on her fellow athletes.

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Tijanna Dupont

Tijanna (Tija) grew up in Montana, where she started dancing at On Center Performing Arts at the age of 2. After years of training in tap and Broadway-style jazz, at age 9, she auditioned for OCPA’s performance division company, only to be told a couple of months after making the company that she and her family would be moving to Seattle. When she moved to Seattle, Tija decided she wanted to have more training in ballet, contemporary, and modern. Tija has since trained at companies such as All That Dance, Cornish Preparatory Dance, Evergreen City Ballet, and Ensemble Ballet Theater. Tija has trained under many professionals, such as Deborah Hadley, Lindsi Dec, Karel Cruz, Sarah Pasch, James Moore, Noelani Pantastico, Joey Doucette, Jack Faila, Francis Roach, Josh Grant, Aaron Orza, and more.

 

In 2019, Tija was one of 60 people in the world to be accepted into Joffrey Ballet Chicago’s 4-week advanced intensive and received instruction under Keesha Beckford, Karin Ellis-Wentz, Raymond Rodrigues, and Kyle Seguin.

 

Tija is currently teaching ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, contemporary, modern, and conditioning all over the PNW, as well as pursuing her career as a professional dancer.

 

When Tija is not in the studio, she is taking her dog, Winnie, on hikes, working as a preschool teacher, and currently working on getting her bachelors in early childhood education.

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Madie Gruhn

Madie is starting her Sophmore year at the University of Washington. She is a proud member of the UW dance team and a very hands on leader in the local High School Dance team world. She has been competing in pom, hip hop, jazz and lyrical genres, and been active in multiple genres of dance including years of ballet training. She is most excited to get started with her teaching career and looks forward to sharing her love of dance with the generation to come. 

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Ileana Gutierrez

Ileana is a senior in high school at Liberty High School. She has danced since she was 3, starting out with recreational dance and moving on to competitive dance teams. She has also danced pre-professionally at Evergreen City Ballet under the direction of Bennyroyce Royon. Ileana is trained in ballet, pointe, lyrical, contemporary, and jazz. She joined RDF in her sophomore year of high school and has spent her junior and senior years dancing for the company. 

 

After graduation, Ileana plans on attending a four-year university and majoring in either nursing or biomedical sciences. She hopes to continue dancing in her free time. 

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Brooke Renderos - office admin

Hi, my name is Brooke. I am so excited to join the RDF team. I live in Sammamish with my husband and my daughters Brylee and Aleecia. I have been working with children of all ages since 2001, it is one of my biggest passions. My daughter Brylee has been dancing at RDF since she was 5 years old. In my spare time I enjoy shopping and spending time with family and friends. I am looking forward to meeting everyone and helping with anything you need.

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Angela Robinson

Angela started ballet at the age of eight with the San Francisco Ballet School and studied under the instruction of her teachers Irena Jacobson, Lola De Avila, Pascale Leroy, Larisa Sklyanskaya, George Esquivel, Ricardo Bustamante alongside ongoing private lessons with Edward Ellison (former Soloist of SFB & master teacher of Ellison Ballet). For nine 

years, she performed in the SFB Nutcracker and SFBS Student Spring Showcase. Active in high school dance/singing/theater programs, Angela attended various summer ballet intensives in addition to SFBS summer intensive, including Victoria Morgan Ballet Workshop, Boston Ballet School Summer Intensive program and Berkeley Ballet Theatre. She then continued her ballet studies with Professional Ballet School and performed with 

Peninsula Ballet Theatre.

 

While studying to be a pharmacy technician, she took advantage of college and broadened her dance vocabulary with choreography and dance history courses. She has performed locally with Emerald Ballet Theatre, Ballet Bellevue, Inception Dance Theater, Dry Bones Collective, Katy Hagelin Dance Project and the touring cast of the Land of Sweets 

Burlesque Nutcracker. At the height of the pandemic Angela starred and choreographed for her first production of a featured dance film “Concord”. Angela is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum and has additionally attended training intensives for levels 6, 7 & Partnering. Angela is also a proud Project Plié Master Class Instructor & 

partners with her local Boys & Girls Clubs. Some of her skills include intermediate/advanced ballet instruction, pre-pointe – intermediate pointe instruction, choreography, and is a Certified Make-Up Artist with specializing in long lasting anti-aging stage make-up. Angela has instructed ballet at Emerald Ballet Theatre, Dance Premier, Stanza Performing Arts, Ignite Yoga and Dance, Vibe Dance Studio, ARC School of Ballet, Issaquah Dance Theater, Auburn Dance Academy, Momentum Dance Academy & Evergreen City Ballet. Outside of the dance studio, she has worked as a model, Pharmacy Technician, owns a cannabis edibles brand, and is a breeder/handler in AKC confirmation with her French Bulldogs and Bulldogs.

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Macy Scott

Macy started dancing at 4 years old and competing at 8, training extensively in a diverse range of styles including ballet, pointe, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, and hip hop. She won numerous scholarships, awards, and titles during her competition years, including multiple scholarships to the Joffrey West LA Summer Intensive and the title of National Teen Solo Champion at Encore Nationals in 2016. She danced on the Skyline High School Dance Team for 2 years, where she was co-captain her senior year and helped lead the team to their first ever state championship victory in the Dance category in 2019.

After graduating from Skyline that same year, Macy continued her dance journey at Vanderbilt University, where she earned a degree in Biomedical Engineering. Her four years as a member of the Vanderbilt Dance Team included performances at SEC football, basketball, soccer, and baseball games, as well as a 4th place finish in the Spirit Rally division at NDA Nationals in 2023 – which was also the program’s first appearance at college nationals. Macy was named to the E. Lynn Harris All-SEC Spirit Team her senior year, along with being voted Veteran of the Year and Best All Around by her teammates. Aside from dance team, she danced backup for Dustin Lynch at the 2022 Stadium Series hockey game held at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, TN.

Currently, Macy is working as a dance educator and choreographer in the Issaquah/Sammamish area for both studios and high school dance teams. Simultaneously, she is a rookie member of the Seahawks Dancers and is excited to continue to perform at NFL football games and community events all season long. 

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Maya Tizon

Hello, my name is Maya! I have been training in hip hop choreography and foundations since I was 10 years old with PG Fam and KreativMndz in Mukilteo, WA. I have been grateful for the opportunities to compete in Hip Hop International, World of Dance, and perform at We Day Seattle. More recently, I was part of UW’s Hip Hop Student Association where I got the opportunity to choreograph performances and teach classes. My goal for this class is to create a safe and supportive environment to explore hip hop styles, foundations, choreography, and freestyle.

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Emily Vargas

Ms. Emily has been a competitive dancer for 16 years and been training in multiple genres the whole time.  She is trained in ballet, contemporary, hip hop, lyrical, jazz and tap. Emily  has trained at a variety of studios, companies, and programs across the state, like Emerald City Ballet Academy which she did an intensive program for 4 years. She has been to competitions all around the country where she has been recognized at both regional and national levels and has earned overall awards and titles in many of those well known competitions. This is her second year teaching at RDF and she is beyond excited to share her passion and love for dance with her students. Emily's goal is to provide a fun, safe, and comfortable learning environment where students feel confident and supported.

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