Our Teachers
At Encore we believe our teachers are what make us stand out in the dance community. Each of them is an integral part of creating a personalized experience for our dancers.
Shaelan Davis
Miss Shae is entering her fifth-year teaching! Before becoming an instructor, she was a competitive dancer and had the opportunity to grow as a student right here at Encore. Her favorite styles to teach are musical theatre, jazz, and hip hop. She enjoys teaching dancers of all ages and levels from our tiniest tots to our mid-level dancers as well as a few or our competitive classes. She is grateful to be a part of the Encore family and is excited to continue helping dancers grow both in and out of the studio!
Heidi Butler
Ms. Heidi has been teaching for over 20 years. She started her dance journey at the Cloverdale School of Dance at just a few years old herself. Over the years she has taught everything from intro levels through advanced ballet, tap, jazz and musical theatre. She has even taught a few of our current teachers over her time teaching! She has 2 daughters who enjoy cheer, dance and other sports throughout the year and stays very busy with all of their activities! You can find Heidi camping with her family and friends on most free weekends they have.
Alysia Rameriz Allegra
Ms. Alysia has been dancing since she was a small child taking all styles of dance. She has also been an instructor for many years teaching littles all the way to advanced dancers. Her favorite style is hip hop and loves teaching all the different styles and cultures within the hip hop world. She also enjoys homeschooling her four daughters!
Catherine Nicholson
Ms. Catherine began her tap dance education in 1986. In 1990 she expanded her dance experience to include jazz, ballet, and hip hop. Through her teen years she was a member of a performing company and participated in community performances, dance convention and competitions. She began teaching dance in 1995 and taught both recreational classes and directed a competition team. In her professional performance career, she has worked on tap instructional videos and has been in professional dance performances for the NFL, Stanford Basketball, and for the Hip Hop Theaterfest in New York City. Catherine is excited to be able to share her love for tap dance and is thrilled to be part of the Encore Dance family!
Maria Duna
Ms. Maria is looking forward to returning to Encore this year. She lives in Cloverdale with her family and works full time for the Cloverdale Unified School District as a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP). While going to school to become an SLP, Maria earned a minor in Dance from the University of Oregon. This included a history of dance, kinesiology, improv, and dance cultures along with ballet, modern, tap, and jazz classes. When she’s not in Cloverdale, you can most likely find her at Lake Almanor visiting her parents. She loves cruising on the lake in the summer and has come to enjoy snowshoeing in the winter!
Caroline Koch
Miss Caroline grew up dancing starting at age three! She is so excited to get back in the studio and share her love of dance with the next generation. Outside of dance she is continuing her education at SRJC majoring in nursing and recently completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training. She is also a new mom to a sweet baby boy! She is passionate about creating a fun, encouraging environment where students will be able to build confidence, express themselves and develop their own love for dance!
Lauren Johnson
Ms. Lauren started dancing as a child and has never stopped! She’s been teaching dance to kids in Cloverdale for 12 years, working with all ages and every style of dance, but musical theatre has a special place in her heart. She has lived in Sonoma County her whole life and is a mom to two beautiful kids. In her free time, she enjoys baking for friends and family. She is also the Director of our Encore Dance Company competitive tea and looks forward to a wonderful season!
Kira Mowery
Miss Kira has been dancing in Cloverdale since she was 7 years old! This is her second-year teaching, but her 10th year taking classes and her 5th year competing with our Encore Dance Company team. Ms. Kira has taken classes in many styles of dance including ballet, jazz, musical theatre, hip hop and tap. Outside of the dance studio you can find her with the Cloverdale FFA, competing and taking care of animals. Kira is a Senior this year at Cloverdale High School. She is grateful to be able to share the world of dance with her brother, friends, and all the amazing students at Encore!
Sofia Cornejo Mojica
Miss Sophia has been dancing for 4 years training in multiple dance styles including ballet, jazz, hip hop and contemporary! She also competed with our Encore Dance Company and then was a teacher for our team last year. Throughout high school Ms. Sofia was also a cheerleader and trained in tumbling with her cheer team. She is currently in college studying to become an RDA. Outside of school, teaching and work she enjoys going on hikes and swimming. The thing she loves about teaching is getting to see the growth in the dancers and watching them build their confidence!
Behind every dancer that believes in themselves,
is a teacher who believed in them first.
KC and Ray Sychowski
We have always been huge fans of dance; KC has been going to the local dance recital to watch her best friend since grade school dance and now our daughter has been dancing for the past 10 years, and our son is in his second year. Owning a dance studio wasn’t something we ever thought we would do, but when the opportunity came up, we took it. Being able to do this as a true family business with our oldest daughter helping with behind the scenes work such as selling recital tickets, our middle daughter teaching and taking classes and our son also taking classes is more than we could have hoped for. We wanted to ensure we could keep the same small town dance studio charm our community has always known and loved while also being able to provide new opportunities. We both grew up in Cloverdale and want to keep investing back into the youth and community. Being able to create new classes that facilitate an environment that is open to all abilities, and levels of dance is one of our goals and we are meeting that with our new classes. We are so proud of what we were able to do in our first year as owners and are looking forward to all that is to come this year!