OUR INSTRUCTORS
Charlene has been teaching dance and cheer throughout San Diego County since 2006 and began her teaching career teaching for New West Ballet in San Marcos, Coronado Academy of Dance in Coronado, Little Stars Dance Academy in Poway, Dance with Nance in Encinitas, and the City of Fallbrook Recreation. Later, she began her recreational PERFORMING ARTS dance and ENRICHMENT CLASS program, Charlene's Dance N Cheer (CDC) in 2010, so she could share her experience and love of dance and cheer to children. She always strives to give her students the highest quality, studio type classes, that are affordable in an atmosphere that promotes self confidence and FUN!!!
Charlene began dancing at the age of five in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, doing tap, ballet, cheer, and hula. When she moved back to her hometown of San Diego, she focused on classical ballet, studying at New West Ballet under the direction of Eugenia Keefer and taking classes with cassandra and pablo infante (now with ncad). Highlighted roles with New West include the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, the Dew Drop Fairy, Spanish Chocolate, Dancing Doll, and Merliton in the Nutcracker, and Odile, the Black Swan in Swan Lake.
Charlene was a member of the varsity cheerleading team in high school and earned the UCA (United Cheerleader's Association) title "All-Star." In college, she was a member of the California State University San Marcos Women's Dance team. In 2008, Charlene performed at Copley Symphony Hall with California Ballet Company and the San Diego Symphony for their Holiday Pops Concert in the Nutcracker roles of "Chinese Tea," and the "Waltz of the Flowers." Charlene has also danced with Del Mar Ballet in San Diego (now known as Pacific Arts).
Charlene earned her B.A. in Criminology in 2006 and her M.A. in Sociology in 2008 from California State University San Marcos. She has over 16 years of experience working with and teaching infants, children, and adults in both the performing arts setting and preschool setting, with units in Child Development. She also is the mother of two boys, age 13 and 7.
Miss Charlene
Miss ARWEN
Arwen started dancing when she was 10 years old, at North County Dance Arts with Louis Mckay, and immediately fell in love with dance. She graduated from UC Irvine in 2004 with a BA in dance and an Excellence in Choreography award. After living in New York City for two years, performing and on scholarship at Broadway Dance Center, Arwen was in a horrific car accident that left her face shattered and with a prosthetic left eye. After having 20+ extensive reconstructive surgeries over the next decade, she built a dance program at Encinitas Country Day School, for 6 years, including writing her own curriculum for each age group and class level, and then moved on to open her own successful competitive dance studio in 2012 called Arwen Daniels Dance Academy, until January of 2019. Arwen decided to close her studio doors in 2019 in order to pursue other things in life besides her occupation and career, and she started as the JV Contemporary Head Coach at Torrey Pines High School in March of 2019, leaving only due to the Covid 19 Pandemic lock downs and remote learning in schools in mid 2020, and started teaching at North County Dance Arts, where her dance journey began 26 years ago in the beginning of 2019 through the end of summer of 2020, when they too closed their doors because of the Pandemic of 2020. Arwen helped to open the Dance Academy at Del Mar in August of 2020, teaching everything from lyrical and contemporary, to acro and improv, until May of 2021, when she gave birth to her first child, a son, named Elijah Orion. Since then, Arwen has adjusted accordingly, by taking more time to do her favorite thing in dance, which is privately coaching one on one, dancers who want to pursue the art professionally and/or competitively, beyond the realms of most students, and continues to mentor, choreograph, and mold the next generation of professional dancers two to three times a week, while juggling becoming a mom this past year, to now a 7 month old Elijah, who is her number one priority, and absolute pride and joy in life! Arwen’s newest endeavor in the new year of 2022, is getting back into teaching dance in the afternoons for school children, working with Charlene’s Dance and Cheer and the Oceanside School District, to develop a high quality dance and fitness program for ages 2-12, teaching all styles of dance several afternoon and evenings a week, including hip hop, jazz, ballet, gymnastics and tumbling, and Pom and Cheer. She’s excited to jump back into teaching for fun, with a younger age group, and looks forward to working with Charlene and her team of teachers, while still balancing her life of being a Jew wife to husband Chris, and mom to Eli, and private coach to her aspiring pre-PROFESSIONAL TEENAGERS.
Raised on a farm in Chelsea, Oklahoma, Cierra has always been active, even starting her own dance group with her friends in 4th grade. After being involved in cheer and sports all through her childhood, she began dancing at her local studio at age 12. She continued dancing and assistant teaching at the studio until she graduated High School. After High School, Cierra went to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, majoring in Dance Performance. Throughout her college education, Cierra choreographed and performed on Pre-Professional and Professional stages but her passion for teaching dance to kids began as a summer job teaching dance, theatre, and music at the YMCA of Greater Tulsa. After graduating in 2020, Cierra moved to San Diego with her family and is excited to share her passion for dance.
Miss Cierra
Summirlyn was introduced to ballet and tap dance at Temecula Dance Company in 2001. She performed her first recital at age 4. Throughout childhood and adolescence, she practiced all styles of dance (her favorite is jazz!), gymnastics, and tumbling. She performed in theater productions, choir, and began vocal training. In high school she was on the drama team and varsity cheer, pom, and dance teams. Summirlyn has worked with children of all ages for upwards of eleven years. She currently works as an event princess for the Storybook Character Company in San Diego, and is a mentor tutor at San Diego Mesa College. In 2021 she graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a B.A. in sociocultural anthropology and a B.A. in the Study of Religion, with an emphasis on South Asian religion. Presently, she is working on her M.A. in anthropology at San Diego State University, studying transnational yoga as a somatic therapy modality for psychological trauma. Her dream is to earn her Ph.D. and become a college professor of anthropology. Finally, Summirlyn has been a registered yoga teacher since 2017 with multiple training certifications and internships in Hatha Yoga and Anusara Yoga; of all she has ever encountered, yoga is her deepest love!
MISS SUMMIRLYN
Cecilia Fridge is a recent grad of University of California, San Diego and is working towards her bachelor's degree in Clinical Psychology. From first to sixth grade, she was involved with musical theater and fell in love with dance! She took hip hop at Neisha's Dance and Music Academy for 2 years then continued her dance journey by joining her high school dance team. Currently, she is entering her 3rd year as an advisor on her college's women's dance team, 4N01! Outside of dance, Cecilia has worked with kids for almost 3 years and has a passion for helping kids grow and discover themselves.
Miss Cecilia
Miss ALEXIS
Ms. Alexis has been teaching for Charlene's Dance and Cheer since 2021 and is known for her high energy and goofy personality! Her experience in the performing arts started in 2002, where she began taking dance, theater, and music lessons at five years old. From middle school up until college she would play double bass in multiple ensembles and participate in the schools' plays and musicals--when time allowed!
Ms. Alexis graduated with her Bachelor's in Linguistics and a minor in Theater and Dance, at the University of California Davis in 2018. In the years following, she began her work teaching the performing arts with various dance, theater, and music programs, as well as being a part time nanny. This is also where she discovered her passion for teaching children and has been committed to serving the youth ever since! Ms. Alexis teaches voice, piano, violin, cheer, hiphop, ballet, and musical theater--musical theater being her favorite! Outside of teaching, she enjoys taking her dogs to the park, learning new languages, and watching the latest episode of RuPaul's Drag Race.
MISS LIA IS studying clinical psychology and nutrition. SHE haS been dancing since THE 4th grade at North County Academy of Dance (NCAD) and continued dancing throughout high school for Prowl Dance Team at Mission Vista. SHE HAS also taken gymnastics and cheer classes sprinkled in there. SHE HAS a passion for working with children and providing a fun and safe space for them to express themselves!
Miss LIA
Kayla is a first year student at Cal State San Marcos. She is planning to earn a degree in marketing. She was a cheerleader all four years of high school, and a coach for seasonal sports all four years as well. Kayla is excited to be teaching cheer/dance and is looking forward to being an instructor at CDC for as long as she can.
Miss KAYLA
Talia is a fourth year student at UC San Diego where she is pursuing her BA in Communications and minoring in Theater and Film. She started performing at a very young age through CYT Riverside, where she gained musical theater experience and found her passion for dance and performance. She continued dancing as she grew up, training in tap and jazz. She then cheered for three years in high school, where she was captain of her team. After graduating, Talia went on to choreograph and teach classes for CYT, focusing on tap and jazz instruction. She also worked as a musical theater summer camp counselor, where she discovered her love of teaching! In the past year Talia worked as a dance instructor at the Julia Lee Performing Arts Academy, where she taught all styles of dance to grades K-7, and also worked as an assistant coach for a local cheer team. Talia is very passionate about performance, dance, and cheer, and is so excited to be sharing that passion through teaching!
Miss TALIA
coach MARY
A San Diego native, Mary graduated from Our Lady of Peach High School and then earned her Bachelor’s Degree in English from San Diego State University where she was the captain of the cheer squad and team choreographer.
While in college, she taught tap, jazz, and hip hop with San Diego Civic Dance Arts for 7 years, where she was also a student from the age of 3. She has taught all levels and all age groups. In fact, one of her most memorable students was a gentleman of 80 years taking tap for the very first time when she taught at Southwestern College, a nearby community college in Chula Vista, CA.
Additionally, Mary was an Instructor with Championship Cheerleading for three years, while also coaching gymnastics at the Mira Mesa Recreation Center where she later became Program Director.
After 7 years of teaching and coaching, Mary made the decision to join the 9-5:00 workforce and became an Executive Assistant, a career she enjoyed for 20 years.
It was during the pandemic that she started dancing again, and the more she danced, the more she realized how much she missed it, and missed teaching. On a whim, she wrote an email to a local dance studio who happened to be looking for a sub hip hop teacher with special needs experience. With a sister with Down’s Syndrome, Mary took that as a sign and felt if it worked out, it was meant to be. Sure enough, she started subbing there that very next day, and hasn’t looked back since.
Mary now splits her time coaching gymnastics and teaching hip hop, tap, ballet, and cheerleading six days a week. “I am excited about creating something good through healthy activities that make fitness fun!”
In her spare time, Mary enjoys neighborhood runs with her chocolate lab Willy, trying new recipes in the kitchen, and baking sweet desserts from scratch. When not in the kitchen, she enjoys cartooning, card making, sewing, and painting with watercolors.
MISS VERONICA
Veronica was born in Tijuana, Baja California Mexico in 1983. A natural born dancer, Veronica started dancing before she could walk. A passion for dance erupted early in her life and after moving to San Diego she was able to begin classical training. It was in San Diego that Veronica, at the age of 14, received the opportunity to choose dance class instead of running to receive PE credit in high school. Her first dance love was Jazz. It was in Jazz that Veronica felt free to express herself on the dance floor. Since her beginning Jazz class, Veronica’s passion for dance has grown tremendously. One of her biggest inspirations was her high school dance instructor, Gail Mitchell. Ms. Mitchell taught Veronica to work hard in what she loved, to believe in herself and to never give up. It was during these formative years that Veronica learned it was useless to ever say the words “I can’t,” but instead to keep working and eventually you can master any style. She danced and cheered throughout high school and earned the “Best Dancer” title in her class. It was also during her Senior year that she earned the right to dance a solo and choreograph her first show piece. After graduating, Veronica attended California State University, Long Beach and continued receiving an education in Dance. She continued to choreograph and it was during this time that she solidified her goal to teach dance. Throughout the subsequent years, Veronica has received the opportunity to dance with various dance companies throughout California, such as Heart and Soul Dance Company and the Culture Shock San Diego Dance Troupe-Afta Shock. She has received training in several dance styles including, but not limited to, Jazz, Hip Hop, Ballet, Contemporary, Modern, Tap and Ballroom. Veronica has performed in several student and staff choreography dance shows at SWC and Mesa College, and worked with and continues to learn from incredible dancers, instructors and choreographers that have shown her the real soul and essence of dance. Veronica enjoys being a guest artist in many dance workshops throughout California and absolutely loves being part of the San Diego Dance Community. Her biggest joy is to share her sincere passion for dance and to be an inspiration to other dancers on their journey to continue doing what they love.
Megan is a San Diego-based freelance dancer, choreographer, collaborator, and teacher. Originally from San Jose, CA, Megan began her dance training at the age of two and has studied extensively in the styles of ballet, jazz, hip-hop, contemporary, and modern throughout her career. In 2016, she received a B.F.A. in Dance from San Diego State University, and was a member of the SDSU Dance Company where she continued to perform and adapt her personal movement aesthetic. She has attended programs including the American Dance Festival six-week school, ADF Winter Intensive 2015 and the San Diego Dance Theater Summer Workshop. Most recently, Megan made the cross-country move from California to New York to further pursue her dance career and expand her network of dance collaborators and fellow movement inventors. After a year dancing in New York, she is back in her favorite place, San Diego, to continue teaching and creating.
MISS megan
Natalie fell in love with dance in preschool and immediately enrolled in a dance studio. At the age of 6 she entered the competitive dance world. She continued training and competing with Empire Dance Productions in Lake Elsinore, CA in the genres of ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip hop, and tap. Natalie was also part of her high school’s varsity dance competition team for 4 years. Throughout her competitive years with her teams and as a soloist she has won numerous awards, including the title of “Miss Showbiz” in 2014. Natalie’s teaching experience began with preschool and beginner ballet at Empire Dance Productions. In 2016 she took a break from dance to attend UC San Diego in pursuit of a Bachelor’s degree in marine biology. Now having finished her degree, Natalie is super excited to be teaching with Charlene’s Dance & Cheer and working with children all over San Diego!
MISS natalie
Born and raised in San Diego County, Kait Coviello started dancing at the age of three. She started dancing with Polynesian, tap, and ballet, and performing at local festivals and fairs. By the age of seven, Kait was competing in styles of hip hop, lyrical, ballet, tap and jazz all along the West Coast as a top competitor.
When Kait was 11 years old, she broke her L4 vertebrae, and had to stop dancing for a few years. During that time, she started doing more theatre and music, and once high school rolled back around, was able to participate in dance team and studio competition again. Still pursuing theatre and music, Kait started teaching dance at local studios at the age of 16 in all styles, including acrobatics.
During Kait's college career at SaddLeback College, she studied dance of all genres, as well as music theory and film and TV acting. With her choreography debuted on the McKinney Theatre stage, Kait studied the up and coming dance style trends in commercial dancing. Now, her goal is to inspire and nurture all age groups and all levels in the art of music and dance while growing an inclusive community of creative minds.
miss KAIT
Sydney has always had a passion and love for the arts! At the age of 2 Sydney started singing and dancing and by 4, she was taking classes at rec centers! Starting with ballet, polynesian and musical theater, she instantly fell in love! Sydney then moved to a studio and began dancing focusing on hip-hop and jazz. She then began taking a range of classes such as ballet, jazz, hip-hop and contemporary. Sydney started dancing with the show choir at her high school and was dance captain for 2 years! All throughout high school Sydney kept up with her love for dance and music by taking voice lessons and dancing for groups at her high school. She has been classically trained and trained in pop vocally, as well as singing for her church for almost 13 years! Besides show choir, Sydney also danced in Nani Girls which was the Hula/Tahitian group at her high school. While on her break from dancing at her studio she missed being able to dance and decided to get back into it. So after high school Sydney wanted to do more with the arts and began teaching at her studio as a sub instructor and became a vocal coach! Sydney was also the choreographer for her show choir after she graduated and loved being able to share her talents and time. She is currently still working at her studio and loves being able to teach, and share her love for dance. Miss Sydney is looking forward to continuing her journey teaching and doing what she loves, dancing and singing her heart out!
miss SYDNEY
miss CASEY
BIO COMING SOON
miss TATER
BIO COMING SOON
mISS GABBY
mISS CHARISMA
mISS NYDIA
mISS JENNA