Jenna Jones – Owner/Director – Ballet, Jazz, Tap , Contemporary, Pilates
Jenna received her Masters of Fine Arts in Dance with an emphasis in performance and choreography at Mills College, where she was the 2014 recipient of the E. L. Wiegand Foundation Dance Innovator Award for exceptional originality in performance and choreography. With over ten years of teaching experience, she teaches a variety of styles at Just Dance Academy, with previous teaching experience at Mills College, Hamilton Elementary School, and several summer programs throughout Marin County. She has performed works by Sonya Delwaide-Nichols, Yukie Fujimoto, Janice Garrett & Charles Moulton, Wanjiru Kamuyu, Sharonjean Leeds, and Wax Poets, and was a company member of Anna and the Annadroids frrom 2015-2018. She is fully certified in STOTT Pilates on all equipment and teaches at Pilates of Marin. Jenna grew up dancing at Just Dance Academy, under the instruction of Miss Deanna, for ten years.
Alyssa Carnahan- Upper Division Artistic Ballet Director – Ballet, Contemporary, Modern, Jazz
Alyssa is a dancer, dance teacher, and choreographer originally from Sonoma County, California. She earned a B.A. from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and an M.F.A. from Mills College in Oakland. Alyssa fell in love with ballet at age four, and trained at Redwood Empire Ballet and Ballet Califia, under David McNaughton and Shelley Scott, both former dancers of San Francisco Ballet and New York City Ballet. She later studied modern dance, jazz, and choreography at SRHS ArtQuest Dance Company, and continued her dance education in college and graduate school. She has performed with Ballet Califia Company, O’brien Center of the Arts, Mills RepCo, Orchesis Dance Company, Walt Disney Parks Entertainment, and Lauren Baines Dance/Theatre. In addition to teaching at Just Dance Academy, Alyssa has taught at the Dance Center of Santa Rosa, Roustabout Theater Company, Cross & Crown School, Mills College, Ballet Califia, Tiburon-Belvedere Rec Center, and Presidio Dance Theatre. She is currently on the faculty at San Domenico School in San Anselmo.
Sierra Serban – Contemporary, Ballet, Jazz
Born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Sierra began her dance career at New American Youth Ballet in 2007. She joined the school’s Conservatory program in 2010, where she studied academics and pre-professional ballet for ten years. No stranger to principal roles, Sierra performed as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Dew Drop, and Arabian Soloist in NAYB’s The Nutcracker, along with featured roles in George Balanchine’s Valse-Fantaisie and Serenade, Gerald Arpino’s Birthday Variations, Eddy Ocampo’s …there, within, and Jimmy Orrante’s Communal, among others. While at NAYB, Sierra joined Pulse Performing Arts Center, where she competed in jazz, hip hop, contemporary, and lyrical styles. She began teaching dance at the age of 15 at Pure Dance Works in Fort Wayne; her teaching styles include ballet, contemporary, jazz, pointe, and improvisation. In 2013, Sierra studied at Indiana University’s prestigious summer intensive, and in 2014 and 2015, she spent six weeks studying on scholarship in the highest level of Milwaukee Ballet’s summer program. Sierra is now a dance major and a film minor at Dominican University of California, where she studies contemporary ballet with Alonzo King LINES Ballet in San Francisco while also earning her BFA degree at Dominican.
Maddie Sager – Ballet, Modern, Contemporary, Tap, Hip Hop
Maddie Sager began her training at Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre in Missoula Montana at the age of 4. Under the Artistic Director Charlene Campbell Carey, Maddie trained in ballet, contemporary, modern, tap and hip hop at RMBT until graduating high school. Throughout the years she trained during the summers at Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle and internationally in both Portugal and Austria. She also traveled with Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre’s company to perform in countries such as Italy and China. Maddie moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2019 to study at the LINES Ballet BFA Program and as a business minor at Dominican University. She has taught ballet and contemporary at RMBT and has choreographed for the company starting her senior year of high school and has continued when home from college. Recently Maddie has started the process of becoming a certified GYROTONIC ® instructor with Master Trainer Debra Rose and is currently an apprentice. Currently, Maddie dances for choreographer Kathryn Roszak, Artistic Director of Danse Lumière
Lily Hurtubise- Jazz, Pom, Hip Hop, Lyrical
Lily began competitive dancing in Park City, Utah. She later moved to Orange County, California and joined the San Clemente High School Dance Team, helping them win 4 first-place titles at USA Nationals and dancing as a solo finalist.
After graduating from high school, Lily embarked on a new chapter by joining the UCSB Dance Team. Lily assumed the role of captain during her junior and senior years. Additionally, she took on the responsibility of self-coaching the team. Notably, the team made a return to the UDA nationals after a seven-year hiatus and achieved a 4th place finish in the D1 Pom Division.
During her college years, Lily also worked three summers on USA Dance Staff and as an educator at SB Dance Arts. Currently, Lily has embarked on an exciting path as an NBA Dancer for the Golden State Warriors organization.
Athena Miros- Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, Hip Hop
Athena Miros grew up dancing and training at Just Dance Academy. She attended San Francisco School of the Arts in high school for dance. She attended Emory University in Atlanta, GA and trained at Xcel Dance Studios and Talent Agency for hip hop and other dance styles. While at Emory, she danced, choreographed and was on the executive board of the largest student run dance group on campus. The past few years she has spent dancing and training in New York City at Mark Morris Dance Center and PMT Dance Studio. She recently put out a dance visual album called Sea Dreams which is a cohesive collection of dance pieces inspired by music albums. You can check out a selection of her work at her YouTube Channel.
Deanna Masgay – Founder/Administration – Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Contemporary, Lyrical
Ms. Deanna began the Just Dance program in Marin county in 1993. Her training includes intensive training in ballet (R.A.D, I.S.T.D) , tap, jazz and lyrical from the age of 5 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Ms. Deanna became a professional dancer at the age of 18 performing with companies in Canada, the U.S., South America and Japan. Ms. Deanna graduated Cum Laude from Sonoma State University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in teaching. Ms. Deanna strives to achieve a dance program which promotes technically sound dance instruction with an emphasis on allowing students to experience the joy in the process of learning to dance as well as the joy of performance. The Just Dance Academy accommodates the recreational dancer as well as dancers seeking intensive dance training.