Amy Valerius

Director of Legends Competition Team
Lyrical, Ballet

Amy has been teaching dance for 29 years. Formerly from Minnesota, Amy moved down to Florida in 2004 and has been a part of the Robin Dawn family for the past 20 years. She graduated from the University Of Minnesota with a double major in Dance and Kinesiology. She has worked with competitive dancers for the past 27 years with much success. Amy choreographs and rehearses the Legend competition team. Amy has won numerous choreography awards, while her students have been acknowledged with many high point awards in both regional and national competitions. She has had the pleasure to watch many of her dancers continue on to a professional dance career. While Amy enjoys sharing her love of dance with her students and watching them grow as dancers, she is proud of the amazing human beings they become with the life skills they learn in dance class. Amy is also the dance teacher at North Fort Myers High School. Amy lives in Punta Gorda, and has a 22 year old daughter and an 19 year old son.

Jennifer Pertner

Jazz, Tap, Spotlights Team, Legends Team, Dance Aquarium Instructor

Jennifer was born and raised in Cape Coral, Fl. She began dancing with Robin Dawn when she was 3 years old and has taught with Robin since 1993. She choreographs and instructs the Petite Legends and Spotlights Competition Teams. Jennifer graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education. Jennifer has won numerous choreography awards, while her students have been acknowledged with many high point awards in both regional and national competitions. Jennifer loves sharing her passion of dance with children and watching them grow through dance. Jennifer and her husband, Don, have a son, Derek, born April 2010. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling and finding new adventures with her family.

Sonya Reichenbach

Acro, Aerial, Silks, Dance Aquarium Instructor

Sonya has over 25 years of teaching experience. She has been certified in jazz and acrobatics through Dance Masters of America. Sonya loves traveling to LA and various conventions to keep up with the ever-changing dance styles. Sonya’s main focus as a teacher is to see make sure each child receives proper training and encouraging them to strive to meet their fullest potential.

Charity Molloy

Jazz, Lyrical, Leaps & Turns, Dance Aquarium, Tap Instructor

Charity began her dance training at the age of three. She trained predominately under the direction of Kim Hall and Amy Rhoda-Taylor. Additionally she trained and took classes from dance legends such as Jackie Sleight, Frank Hatchett, Roland Dupree, Joe Tremaine, and Mia Michaels. She has been teaching dance for 26 years in the genres of Tap, Jazz, Musical Theater, Ballet, Lyrical, Contemporary, Acrobatics, and Pre-School combination classes. She has choreographed, as part of a studio as well as free-lance, for individuals for competitions, auditions, performances, and beauty pageants as well as for theater companies, middle school and high school dance teams and show choirs. Charity taught at the Heidelberg School of the

Arts in Germany for three years and was the director of the Tap and Jazz programs there. She also taught at various youth services in Germany throughout Mannheim, Worms, and Heidelberg. Charity taught for Kim Hall’s School of Dance in Brandon, Florida, the studio where she grew up and received her training. There she was the co-director of the competition team, ILLUSIONS, until her move to Fort Myers. Charity danced professionally for Walt Disney World in the theme parks, parades, hotels, and various shows. She also worked for Walt Disney World performing as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel and Snow White. Additionally, Charity danced with the Heidelberg Ballet in Heidelberg, Germany. Charity has choreographed numerous stage shows including Cabaret, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Bye Bye Birdie, Grease, Annie Get Your Gun, Oliver, and Anything Goes. Through her dance career she has been awarded the “Dancer of the Year” award, “Leadership” award, and various choreography awards. Charity is honored to now be a part of the Robin Dawn Academy faculty and is blessed every day that that dance is a part of her life.

Lauren Taylor

Substitute Teacher

Lauren was born and raised in Fort Myers, Fl. She began dancing at Robin Dawn Academy when she was 10 years old. She was a member of the competition team, Legends, for several years. Lauren graduated from Florida State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology. She continued her education at the University of South Florida receiving a Master’s in Medical Science. She currently works for MVP Orthopedics as the Director of Medical Education. During her time at FSU, she was a part of the Florida State University Flying High Circus for 4 years. She was trained in Lyra, Tight Wire, Triple Trapeze, Single Trapeze, Acrobatic Jump Rope, and Web. Lauren has been teaching Acrobatics and Aerial Arts at RDA for 5 years. She enjoys sharing her love for dance and Circus Arts with all of her students.

Kimberly Suskind

Director of Gypsy Playhouse
Acting, Broadway Kids & Teens

Kimberly Suskind is thrilled to call Sunny Southwest Florida her new home, after having recently made the move from Greater Philadelphia. An accomplished, award-winning performer of stage and screen, Kimberly earned her BFA in musical theatre from the prestigious Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she had the honor of studying rhythm tap with the great Aaron Tolson, her favorite style of tap to teach and perform. Kimberly has always possessed a passion to teach others and was a tap tutor for her peers throughout her four years at The Boston Conservatory. As a result, she was awarded the prestigious Sue Ronson Levy tap scholarship toward her BFA. While at The Boston Conservatory, she was a member and soloist of the Hoofers Tap Ensemble, which performed all over the greater Boston area. Prior to college, Kimberly’s love of tap was fostered by studying with several notable names in the tap world such as Dianne Walker, Lane Alexander, Sam Weber & Tim Hickey.

Kimberly has worked as an EMC actress at many professional regional theatres across the country, including; Walnut Street Theatre (PA), Cape May Stage (NJ), Delaware Theatre Company (DE), The Theatre Barn (NY), Eagle Theatre (NJ), Bucks County Playhouse (PA), Nightcap Cabaret (PA), Metro Stage Company (MA), Village Theatre & Civic Light Opera (WA). A few past favorite credits include; Ragtime (Mother), Little Women (Jo March), John & Jen (Jen), & Anything Goes (Reno). Kimberly can currently be heard on the demo cast recording of Brilliant, a new musical, where she originated the lead role of Sarah. In addition to performing, she is currently a voice teacher, audition prep and acting coach.

Instructor/Arts Educator, Kimberly has worked for a plethora of institutions and was most recently the Director of Education for Eagle Theatre’s Conservatory, where she developed programming, taught masterclasses and directed multiple award-winning youth productions. In addition, Kimberly taught tap, voice lessons and musical theatre classes for Rising Stars Performing Arts Academy in New Jersey, where she won several choreographer’s awards for her original tap choreography. She was also invited to lead many tap, acting and musical theatre masterclasses at various New Jersey studios.

Kimberly is ecstatic to be a new staff member at RDA and thanks Robin for the exciting opportunity! For more information about Kimberly, feel free to visit: www.KimberlySuskind.com

Jason Metivia

Cheer Director

Jason has been involved in various forms of cheerleading for 16 years. From being a college cheerleader at Northern Michigan University to coaching competitive teams in Michigan, coaching high school teams in Fort Myers and teaching tumbling and acro-gymnastics at local dance studios, he has a well-rounded background to help athletes achieve their goals. His goal is to develop and cultivate a successful program that focuses on positivity, athleticism, an atmosphere that embraces challenge and is always pushing athletes to find “what’s next”.
He is certified with the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors (AACCA). He is also a certified coach through the NFHS, the National Federation of High Schools and has passed multiple courses with the United States All-Star Federation.

Brooke Whatley

Cheer Coach

Brooke was born and raised in Southwest Florida. She started dance at the age of 3 at her mother’s dance studio, Robin Dawn. Brooke studied dance for number of years and then became interested in cheerleading. She jumped right in to high school and all-star cheerleading where she excelled in tumbling and attended UCA camps and competitions. The time at her mom’s studio along with this expansion in to cheer gave her the perfect opportunity to become more involved and share her enthusiasm for the RDA family and cheerleading with other young athletes. Brooke is a member of the USASF and has completed many courses with the organization. Her goal is to instill confidence in each athlete, promote positivity and camaraderie.

Mariah Rees

Cheer Coach

Mariah is from Toms River, NJ, and moved to the sunny state of Florida when she was 2 years old. Mariah started Pop Warner Cheer when she was 8 years old and fell in love with the sport. She continued her cheer journey into high school, making Varsity freshman year and becoming captain her senior year. Mariah started coaching in 2017 growing more passionate about the sport bringing me here today! Currently, she teaches 1-year-old at Wellington Academy and is a current student at FSW to become a teacher. Some of my hobbies include going to the beach and playing with my golden retriever puppy (Jackson).

Melissa Dominguez

Dance Aquarium Instructor

Melissa Dominguez was born in New Jersey in 1982 and moved to the Miami area in 1988. She moved to the Cape Coral area in 2010 with her husband and began working at Cape Coral High School. She began studying dance at a very young age at private studios and continued her studies through college. She graduated from Florida International University with a Bachelor’s degree in Dance Education in 2005 and a Masters in Special Education in 2016.

Her talent in nearly all forms of dance has earned her the opportunity to perform at several distinguished events. Her proudest accomplishments include a performance with the Universal Dance Association at the 1999 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, four annual charity performances for the Children’s Resource Fund, a Univision-aired performance with Latin music artist Carlos Ponce, several football and basketball games as an officer for the Florida International University Dance Team, and a one-year multi-city tour with dance music artist Eyra Gail, who topped music charts with her hit song “Heaven.” Melissa has also performed on the sidelines and halftime shows of University of Miami Hurricane football home and away games with the University of Miami Hurricanettes.

Melissa currently teaches Dance and Life Skills at Cape Coral High School. She created The Hawkettes Dance Team in 2011 and continues to see it grow. Currently, the Hawkettes can be seen performing on the field and on the sidelines at football games with the Cape Coral High School Marching Band, as well as community performances and school performances. She has been a part of the Cape Coral High Drama department as their dance choreographer for their school musicals, “Little Shop of Horrors”, “Zombie Prom” , “All Night Strut” and “Sweeney Todd”.

 

Jordan Hahn

Hip Hop, Jazz & Lyrical.

Jordan has been a part of the Robin Dawn dance family since the age of 3. She then attended Troy University as a dance major and is now back home to further her choreography and teaching career under Robin Dawn. She was also a part of the competition team at Robin Dawn and has won numerous awards. Jordan has been a back up dancer in 2 music videos with Elliot Divorin and a backup dancer for a German pop singer. Jordan has also worked with many well known choreographers such as Marinda Davis, Mandy Moore, Mia Micheals, Nijawwon Matthews, and many more. Jordan has choreographed multiple musicals in the area. Jordan just returned to RDA after spending the last 5 months training in New York City at the Broadway Dance Center’s Professional Semester program

Jessica Colina

Ballet

Jessica started dancing at the age of 4 with Michelle Lucibello in Nîmes, France, then continuing her studies at the Conservatory of Nîmes.

At 13 she continued her ballet training with The Studio Ballet, Colette Armand, in Marseille. Three years later, while still attending school, she was hired by Le Ballet National de Marseille Roland Petit to dance two productions and Opera de Toulon to dance Swan Lake with Marie Claude Pietragalla, Star of Paris Opera Ballet and Jose Martinez, current Artistic Director of Paris Opera Ballet.

In 1995 when she was 17, she danced at The Bolshoi Theater, Moscow, during Prix de Lausanne semifinals. Twomonths later she joined Ballet National de Nancy et de Lorraine, France, under the artistic direction of Pierre Lacotte where she danced from the most classical ballets like Giselle, Swan Lake, Marco Spada, La Sylphide, Les Sylphides to Balanchine’sTheme and Variations, Episodes and The Four Temperamentsamong others, to the most avant-garde contemporary works by world renown choreographers. During her tenure in Ballet National de Nancy et de Lorraine she danced in the most important European theaters and festivals in France, Italy and Sicily, Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Finland, andnon-European cities like Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing, China.In 1997 she returned to The Bolshoi Theater, Moscow, dancing La Sylphide, Chor. Pierre Lacotte, alongside Elizabeth Platel current Director of Paris Opera Ballet School and Manuel Legris, current Artistic Director of La Scalla Theater Ballet, Milan, Italy.

In 2001 she continued her artistic career with Ballet Florida, West Palm Beach, where she danced for a season before joining Miami City Ballet mostly dancing Balanchine works such as Them and Variations, The 4 Temperaments, Slaughter on 10th Avenue, Jewels, The Nutcracker, Symphony iin C, Ballet Imperial, Agon, Stars and Stripes, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Symphony in Three Movements to mention a few, as well as,other works of Miami City Ballet then Artistic Director, Edward Villella.

In 2006 she joined Ballet Gamonet under the artistic direction of Jimmy Gamonet de Los Heros, dancing Prokofiev, D Symphony, Partita, Carmen, Grand Pas Classique, Paquita amongst others.

Two years later, after her retirement as a dancer in 2009, she started teaching ballet full-time as well as coaching students in contemporary and jazz works for competitions.

 

Abby Moore

Cheer Coach

 

Kayci Suskind

Broadway Bound, Gypsy Playhouse

As a rising Junior at Florida Gulf Coast University studying Theatre, Kayci has been involved in many local theatres in the area including Florida Repertory Theatre, Gypsy Playhouse, Fort Myers Theatre, and others. A few of her favorite shows she has done are Newsies (Featured Dancer), Matilda (Ms. Wormwood) and Seussical (Sour Kangaroo). Kayci loves her RDA family and is so excited to continue to spread her love of theatre to others.

 

Kai Barbosa

Ballet

Kai has had an illustrious career in the world of ballet, performing with renowned companies such as Russian Ballet Orlando, São Paulo Dance Company, Theater Municipal of Rio de Janeiro, Balletarrj School of Dance, and Roosevelt Pimenta Ballet School. As a guest dancer, Kai has graced the stages of Theater Ballet of Saint Petersburg Russia, Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, Sanctuary of the Arts Miami, Gulfshore Ballet, and Central Florida Ballet Orlando.

Kai’s talent and dedication to ballet have been recognized with numerous accolades, including gold medals at the Youth America Grand Prix in New York (2014), World Ballet Competition in Orlando (2015/16), and Tanzolymp in Berlin (2015/16).

In addition to a successful performance career, Kai has also made significant contributions as an educator, teaching at Russian Ballet Orlando, Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, Sanctuary of the Arts Miami, and various schools & summer courses throughout Brazil.

Kaylen Engle

Dance Aquarium Instructor

Kaylen was born and raised in Cape Coral, FL. She danced at Robin Dawn Academy for 12 years and was on the Legends competition team. Kaylen graduated from Florida Southern College and earned a Bachelors degree in elementary education with a minor in dance. After 8 years in Lakeland, she has moved back south to Estero. Kaylen is also a kindergarten teacher at Pinewoods Elementary for her 5th year of teaching. She has a passion for teaching kindness and creativity to young children both in school and in the studio. Kaylen is so excited to reunite with the RDA family as an instructor!

 

Avonlea Keedy

Acro, Ballet

Miss Avonlea is a Southwest Pennsylvania native, living in Florida for 4 years now with her husband and puppy. She is a Pediatric and Perinatal Chiropractor in the Cape Coral and Fort Myers areas. Avonlea started her dance career when she was 3 years old, taking acro and jazz. Dance became her one true love instantly, and she quickly added classes to her schedule, spending most of her days at the dance studio. Throughout her years of dancing, she studied acro, jazz, ballet, tap, lyrical, hip-hop, aerial, pointe, and technique. Additionally, she became the youngest student helper at the age of 9. When she wasn’t attending classes or student helping, she was hopping into other classes just for fun. Her studio competed in many competitions throughout the years and performed in the Orange Bowl when she was a senior in high school. She was a cheerleader since age 5 and continued cheering throughout elementary, middle, and high school, earning her spot as an All-American Cheerleader for several years. Miss Avonlea continued her dance career throughout her time in undergraduate studies and performed in the Spring Dance Concerts on campus. She taught at two dance studios during this time where her love for dance continued through teaching. She then attended Chiropractic school in Port Orange, FL., where she had to put dance on the back burner. Miss Avonlea is over the moon excited to be a part of a dance studio family again and continue her dance journey with you all!

 

Sarah Sinclair

Dance Aquarium Instructor

Sarah Sinclair is from Cape Coral, Florida and recently graduated from Troy University with her BFA in Dance. Sarah has worked with numerous choreographers and artists around the world such as James Boyd, Adrienne Hicks, Dominque Angel, Kelsey Metz, Take Ueyama, Chalvar Monteiro, Alexis Capareda, Jenni Gordon, and Natasha Adorlee. She has been apart of many performances from Troy University, around the country, and abroad. She has attended various festivals and intensives such as the DAP Festival in Pietrasanta, Italy, Limón Intensive in New York City, LINK Festival with Salt Contemporary Dance in Salt Lake City, Utah, MOVE Intensive with WhirlWind Dance in Columbus, Ohio, and Houston Contemporary Dance Company Workshop in Houston, Texas! This past year Sarah was given the role of Dance Captain for Troy University’s Department of Theatre and Dance show Chaos! This past summer, she worked as a camp counselor and dance instructor at American Dance Training Camps in Illinois and Texas. Sarah can not wait to join RDA this year!