Jaclyn Butterfield has been dancing for over 20 years and has been dancing professionally, instructing and choreographing in the LA, Riverside and Orange County areas for 10 years. She was chosen out of 100,000 dancers to be one of sixty contestants on MTV's "The Wade Robson Project". In addition, she has also danced professionally for Fox Video Countdown on Fox Family, Access Hollywood, Disneyland, Dodgers Stadium and Urban Force Hip Hop Troupe. Her choreography has won numerous awards and has been recognized at both the local and national levels. In addition, Jaclyn is frequently featured as a guest choreographer for the Laguna Beach High School dance program.

While obtaining her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Jaclyn completed an advanced research project proving that dance can be used as therapy in the depressed elderly and is currently making strides towards publication. She also prides herself on continuing her own training in order to deliver the most current styles of dance to her students and staff. She currently trains at master conventions with Marty Kudelka, Mia Michaels, Leslie Scott, Wade Robson, Chris Judd, Dave Scott etc. Her students have gone on to work professionally in stage, music video and the commercial industries.

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Mychelle Perez

Ballet Department Head, Pilates Instructor

Ms. Perez earned her BA and MFA in Dance from UC Irvine and trained with Larry and Sarma Rosenberg, Jillana, El Gabriel, Barbara Plunk, Donald McKayle, Diane Diefenderfer and Dudley Davies. She performed locally and abroad with companies such as Coast Ballet Theatre, Golden State Ballet, Carnival Cruise Lines, and Univision Spanish Television. She has been a guest artist/lecturer for American Ballet Theatre's Summer Intensive, California Riverside Ballet, Kinetic Dance Project, DeFore Dance Center, Saint Joseph Ballet, Bare Dance Company and the American College Dance Festival. She has been on the faculty of Coast Ballet Academy, Fullerton College, GoldenWest College, and Laguna Beach Dance Company, where she was the founding Classical Program Director and also acted as interim Artistic Director. Currently she teaches for Santa Ana College, Cypress College, Capo Valley High School and California Conservatory of the Arts.

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Jessica Pierce

Department Administrative Assistant, Ballet, Combo and Pilates instructor.

Jessica Anne Pierce has been teaching the performing arts to children, young adults, and professionals throughout southern California for the past nine years.  With a degree in Theatre from Illinois State University and her Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of California, Irvine, Jessica’s expertise and experience ranges from performance to teaching and pedagogy to directing and choreography.  Since moving to southern California from central Illinois, Jessica has taught for multiple performing arts institutions and studios, bringing hundreds of shows to the stage, and she has also performed and choreographed for many companies, including Grounding Point Dance, Kairos Dance, and Celestial Opera.  She is also a Certified East Coast Pilates Instructor and is available for private pilates reformer lessons.

Teresa Avina

Jazz, Lyrical and Contemporary Instructor

Bio Coming Soon!

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Arlene Dragon

Ballet and Pilates Instructor

Headshot Coming Soon!

Since the age of three Arlene has been involved in the dance world. She is known as a professional dancer, classical ballet/pointe teacher, choreographer and a pilates/conditioning instructor. Her expertise includes all styles of dance especially ballet, a strong background in gymnastics and experience in ice skating and sychronized swimming.

Ms. Dragon holds a B.F.A. from the University of California Irvine and holds certificates in Cecchetti and RAD styles of classical ballet. Recently she gained certification from Orange Coast College in pilates/dance conditioning for Mat, Reformer, Cadillac and Wonda chair exercises.

Her professional dance career includes many stage and theatre productions both in Los Angeles and throughout the United States.  Her professional career started with a Gene Kelly production called "ClownAround". Her movie credits include "Pennies from Heaven" as a tap dancer with Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters and performing a water ballet scene in the "Great Muppet Caper". She has danced several TV specials, a Doug Henning Magic Special, was featured in a "Celebrity Classic Football" halftime show doing acrobatics and baton twirling and performed in an exciting Disney produced Super bowl halftime show.

For two years she performed as a NFL Rams Cheerleader and for 12 years you could see her dancing as a cancan dancer in Disneyland's Golden Horseshoe Revue and also in Tokoyo Disneyland's Diamond Golden Horseshoe Revue. She did runway Modeling, Industrial shows, appeared in ABT's production of "Sleeping Beauty" and you can even see her in a popular Denise Austin Pilates video.

Her passion for the art of ballet rubs off onto all of her students and has lead her to be a popular, in-demand ballet teacher.

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Audrey Benson

Hip Hop Instructor and Eclipse Choreographer

Audrey is a favorite of many Team OC students. She brings her love of hip hop to all who join her classes. She was raised in Arizona and moved to California to pursue her dream of dancing and choreographing. She is currently represented by DDO Artists Agency and has well-rounded training in Hip Hop, Jazz, Tap, Lyrical and Modern. She currently teaches in both Los Angeles and Costa Mesa. She has been a part of and formed many teams and currently performs with the prestigious Boogiezone online community team Breed and an all girl group named Essence. Audrey is a great teacher and a rare talent and Team OC is very fortunate to have Audrey on Staff.

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Ashley Dragon

Ballet and Combo Instructor

Ashley was introduced to dance at the age of 3 and has studied everything from ballet, jazz, and tap to gymnastics. She received extensive ballet training from private instructors, along with several respected summer intensives, such as Joffrey and ABT. She also attended OCHSA to pursue classical dance. Later she touched base with the commercial world of dance as an Esperanza Songleader for three years.  She went on to work professionally as a dancer with Los Angeles Movement of the Arts, in seasonal productions at the Crystal Cathedral and Knott's Berry Farm. Ashley spent some time at Orange Coast College studying dance and is currently a dance major at California University of Long Beach pursuing her BFA in dance.  Most recently Ashley has begun teaching Gyrotonic. Whether it be teaching, choreographing, or performing, there is no denying Ashley's passion behind dance. 

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Natalie Jameson

Jazz, Contemporary and Eclipse Choreographer

Natalie Jameson has been dancing for over 13 years all over Orange County. She has won many awards including The Intensity Award at Starpower and was honored Outstanding Lyrical Dancer of the Year in 2006 at her OCHSA high school graduation. She majored in dance at Orange Coast College and studied under Linda Sohl-Ellison. She also majored in dance at Chapman University and studied from Nancy Dickson-Lewis, Jenny Backhaus, Leann Alduenda, and many others. Miss Natalie has choreographed award-winning competition groups, solos, duets, and trio pieces since 2007. In 2010 and 2011, Miss Natalie was awarded two Choreography Awards at Spotlight Dance Cup. In 2010 she began participating in independent local dance shows titled under “The Collection”. In 2011 she put together her new dance company called “Cheeky”. Miss Natalie loves teaching and sharing her strive for great technique and amazing performance!

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