JAAMI WAALI-VILLALOBOS

Jaami Waali-Villalobos, originally from Washington State, has been dancing for over 27 years, beginning with jazz and ballet. She began studying hip hop at the age of 14, and soon organized a school dance team at her high school. After she graduated, she joined AmeriCorps National Service and founded an after school hip hop dance program for teens, to help address the rising teen crime rate. She then moved to San Diego specifically to dance in the San Diego State University dance program. Wanting to dance more, she began teaching hip hop at local gyms and dance studios throughout San Diego. In 2002, she founded Kruciaal Element Hip Hop Dance Company where she directs, choreographs, and organizes numerous performances in San Diego and Los Angeles County including events like Monster Bash and Mardi Gras, sponsored by the Gaslamp Association. Kruciaal Element Dance Company is now parent company to the following businesses: Kruciaal Element Amateur and Foundation Teams, Groove Basics, Visual Stimulus Events, Dancers Who Donate, Jade Dance Competition, Bite Dance Company, KiK Dance Company, KE Casting, StyleMatix Crew, Nucleus Youth Hip Hop, and Catalyst Dance Ensemble. She has danced with Fusion Force Dance Company, Urban FX Dance Company, and Funkanometry San Diego. She has been represented by Dorothy Day Otis Dance Agency and Bloc Agency. Mrs. Waali has a Bachelor degree in both Fine Arts and Dance from San Diego State University, and her Masters of Arts in Dance from California State University Long Beach. She is also certified in Level I Pilates Mat Training. She has performed with vocal artists Anisha Nicole, La Rain, Jason Brown, Tawny Heath, Juice, whose hit song was featured on the soundtrack for the motion picture Stomp the Yard, and Abrina, who has a new song with recording artist Mims. Mrs. Waali’s TV credits include Fox 5 News, Channel 6 News, KUSI News, NBC News, San Diego “Rock N’ Roll Marathon,” “Salute to Teachers,” “San Diego Living,” and “LA Special” to name a few. Mrs. Waali was also a featured dancer at “Kel and Friends Afterschool Summer Jam,” “Pandamonium Dance” for DreamWorks’ movie Kung Fu Panda, and has judged events such as the Poway High School Air Band Competition, FilAmFest, Armageddon Dance Battle, and Art Official Dance Competition.

Mrs. Waali has been teaching for over 22 years; some of her teaching includes: Coronado School of the Arts, Cathedral Catholic High School, San Diego Tech Center, Mesa Community College, and Southwestern Community College, Los Willows Resort, The Neutral Zone and Scriber Lake High School in Washington State through AmeriCorps National Service, Culture Shock Dance Center, University of San Diego, San Diego Dance Center, Boogiezone at Focus Dance Center, Malashock Dance School, Pasadena Dance Festival, Jean Isaac’s San Diego Dance Center, Lakeside Farms Elementary, Being Fit Fitness Centers, 4 Women Only Fitness Center, K.Y.D.S Inc., Frog’s Club One, Mind Body & Soul Dance Studio, Pure Fitness, Montessori Shir Hashirim Preschool, A Time to Dance Dance Studio, Pacific Arts Dance Studio, Heartlight Aerobics, LA Fitness Center, 24 Hour Fitness Center, Escondido Recreation Department, UTC Ice Town, Lil’ Arts, Cheek 2 Cheek, Champion Ballroom, Ballet Center West, Rubio’s Dance Studio, Royal Dance Academy, Step by Step Dance Studio, Academy of Performing Arts, Dance Consultant for Actresses, Private Lessons, Weddings, Bat Mitzvahs, Birthday Parties, including Quinceñeras (Modern, Hip Hop, Jazz and Salsa), Versant Venture, Aztec Recreation Center at San Diego State University, San Pasqual Academy, All Star Gymnastics, Arts for Learning, Bayfront Charter High School, and Camp Get Away. Her current classes are at Southwestern College, MiraCosta College, Coronado High School, and Helix High School, and she also runs her own dance studio in downtown San Diego, The Dancehouse. Her choreography includes works for Kruciaal Element, San Diego Civic Dance Association, Candy Inc., X-Force Dance Company, Coronado School of the Arts, Los Willows Resort, Fall and Spring concerts for Mesa and Southwestern Community College, A Fundamental Change Musical, Generation F, and for vocal artists such as Abrina, who opened up for Bow Wow, Paul Wall, and Lil’ Rob, La Rain, Jacqueline Grace, Tawny Heath, who opened for Sean Kingston and Baby Bash, and Jason Brown, who performed with Stevie Wonder and John Legend. Aside from dancing, Mrs. Waali has over 10 years experience in social services where she has worked with youths from 2-18, adults with both physical and developmental disabilities, and seniors. Mrs. Waali is incredibly grateful for her wonderfully unique family and friends who have always loved and supported her; they have taught her optimism and laughter. Her belief and faith in God has allowed her to stay focused on her purpose in life: “inspire.” She hopes to spread her love for God, life, and dance to as many people as she can! You may contact her directly at (619) 322-1015 or by email at Contact@JaamiWaali.com Click here Facebook Twitter Instagram Snapchat Meetup Youtube Linkedin Yelp Pinterest Enter your email address to subscribe. * Dancehouse Logo [Transparent]

Hayley Reeder

Hayley Reeder grew up in the Midwest where she began dancing at an early age. Gene Kelly and Shirley Temple were huge role models to her. She trained in ballet, tap, jazz, modern, Irish, contemporary, swing, clogging, hiphop, and modern. Having completed 4 Cecchetti ballet exams receiving Superiors and multiple dance competition awards.  Her training began under Debbie Moore, Ashley Paige, Laura Hawkins, Colleen Klein, Kim Raymond, and Steve Rooks. Growing up with dance her whole life she decided she didn’t want to just make dance a hobby but wanted to pursue it further so she went to Missouri State University and got her BFA in dance with a minor in Music. This decision opened up great opportunities and she participated in each Spring and Fall production. Her choreography “Straight Lines” was chosen to take to the American Dance Association Conference 2019 to represent the department. Hayley has been teaching at multiple studios for over 11 years and loves it with a passion. When she is not dancing you will see her painting, at the beach, rock climbing, roller skating, composing on the piano, and spending time with her friends and family.

Robyn Barrett

Robyn Barrett began her training in Upstate New York at age 4. She trained in jazz, tap and ballet (Vaganova; RAD methods). Robyn began teaching ballet at the age of 18. After moving to San Diego, she continued her dance education with California Ballet School, City Ballet, Del Mar Ballet, School of Ballet Arts, Balletiquette, and Ballet Center West. Robyn has been teaching ballet for toddlers through adults all over San Diego county for over 15 years. Robyn has performed in many ballet productions including Les Sylphides, Raymonda, Paquita, The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty and others. She continues to train and perform often. For Robyn, teaching is a vehicle for spreading her love of ballet and dance education to others, with the goal of instilling grace, self- confidence and health.

Carlito Peralta Jr.

Carlito Peralta Jr has been dancing for over 20 years. Having started in ballroom at a very young age, he’s added many different styles of dance in his repertoire including hip-hop, musical theatre, ballet, jazz, jazz funk, contemporary/modern, and even fitness disciplines like cardio hip-hop, martial arts and self defense.  Realizing his passion for hip-hop dance, he received most of his dance training by dancing for professional dance teams and organizations like Culture Shock SD, Funkanometry SD, and Urban FX. Branching out of the dance team world, he danced professionally under DDO Talent Artist Agency, where he was able to be a background dancer and choreographer to various singers/musicians as well as music videos like The Black Eyed Peas – “Pump It”. In addition to being a dancer, Carlito has taken his skill and knowledge to teach various forms of dance, with hip-hop being his forte.

Miguel Ceron

Miguel is an impassioned social & cultural activist, community builder, dancer, and arts advocate. Miguel is a San Diego native but began his 14-year dance career in New York City, training, performing, and choreographing in Salsa, Bachata, Mexican Ballet Folklorico, Fusion, and more. His global presence and experience include renowned venues like the New York International Salsa Congress, the Apollo Theater, Madison Square Garden, and Rockefeller Center as well as international stages in Peru, Puerto Rico the Dominican Republic, and Turkey. 

 
Beyond the spotlight, Miguel has extended his passion for community and arts into teaching- sharing his expertise with adults and children across diverse settings, including studio, corporate, theatrical, and community environments, and by supporting youth arts organizations through curriculum building, budget management, arts showcase production, and mentorship. He takes immense pride in collaborative achievements, so whether it is showcasing rhythm and style with various dance teams at festivals, or delivering captivating stories and cultural history as a member of a theatrical dance company, Miguel is backed by a vast network of collaborators who aim to infuse every setting with energy, skill, and a genuine love for community building through the arts.

Krizia Carroll

Krizia is a Chula Vista native, who spent her childhood and teenage years crossing back and forth from San Diego and Tijuana. During her childhood she acquired training in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Irish and Hip-Hop at local community centers around the county. Krizia also took intensive training courses during her summers in Tijuana at the Academia de Danza Irma Araico, where she also learned the basics of Folklorico. During her early teens she had the opportunity to spend some time in Honolulu, Hawaii where she was introduced to the practice of Hula and fell in love with it. Upon returning to the mainland, she decided to join Napua Ilima O Kehaulani, under the direction of Kehaulani Wilson. During her senior year of High School, she was granted her first dance internship at the International Dance Company under the direction of Daisy Adato. In 2006, she was cast as a Parade Performer at the Disneyland Resort and performed in many shows including, Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams, Christmas Fantasy Parade, High School Musical Pep Rally, Disney’s Electrical Parade and Fantasmic. In 2012, she was cast as a flash mob performer on the CW show The Hart of Dixie. Krizia has worked as a dance instructor at several dance studios, community centers and schools around the county, including the Chula Vista Dance Academy, Parkway Community Center, Norman Park Senior Center, Chula Vista Woman’s Club, Heritage Community Center, National City Casa de Salud, Chula Vista Learning Community Charter School, and Woman’s Fitness World. She earned an Associates Degree in Dance Arts at Southwestern Community College and is also a Certified Personal Trainer by the American Counsel on Exercise, Group Exercise Instructor by the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America, Licensed Zumba Instructor and Certified Level 1 YogaFit Instructor by YogaFit Worldwide. In recent years, she has been perfecting her folklorico skills with the Grupo de Danza Folklorica Wa-Kushma in Chula Vista under the direction of Anel Alvarez.

Amanda Ginella

Amanda Ginella is a dance teacher from San Diego County with experience in ballet, pointe,
contemporary, lyrical, jazz, tap, hip hop, musical theater, modern, and acro. She began as a
teachers assistant in middle school and high school and danced competitively for seven years,
in addition to being on her high school’s varsity dance team. She earned Associate’s Degrees in
Dance, Kinesiology, and Global Leadership from Santa Barbara City College, where she trained
and toured with the SBCC Dance Company, and assisted the modern and jazz dance classes.
Amanda began teaching her own dance classes in 2021 at studios and after school programs in
Santa Barbara and Goleta. Amanda recently moved back to San Diego and now teaches both in
person at local studios and virtually to some of her former students from Santa Barbara. She
loves working with dancers of all ages, especially kids, and is passionate about helping students
build confidence and enjoy dance.

Jacquelyn Jones

Jacquelyn was born and raised in California. She started dancing at local schools and recreation park centers at a very young age. She performed Folklorico and Jazz at the Pomona County Fair. After countless talent shows and school dance recitals, her love for dance was fully rekindled in high school joining the dance team representing Grossmont High School and receiving her letter in Dance. Most of her training has been under Marta Jicoletti, Ed Hollingsworth her Drama teacher, and Lori who prepared her for competitions. As an adult, she has had the honor of training under Joanne Lovejoy in Hula, Broadway, Tap, and Jazz. participated in adult hip hop competition at Showstoppers, danced at the senior homes during the holidays, the San Diego County Fair, and other local venues in San Diego. 

As a dance teacher she strives to provide a safe environment,  to help build confidence and encourage dancers to grow individually through teamwork and structure. 

With her years of experience in performance, competition, choreography, and dancing with and teaching people of all ages, she is able to give her gift of dance to the next dancer. Her passion is mainly Jazz dance but she also loves teaching Hip Hop, Musical Theater, Hula, Modern and Contemporary, even Salsa! 

Michael v simpson

Learning his sense of rhythm and freestyle from the streets of Chicago, Michael has been performing since the age of 7. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a degree in History. While attending the university, Michael trained in a variety of dance styles, including Ballet, Ballroom, and traditional African dance. He also traveled and performed with the Wisconsin Singers, a musical variety show based in Madison.

After moving to San Diego in 2014, Michael joined Culture Shock San Diego and performed with the company from 2015 to 2018 and again from 2023 to 2024. In addition to his time with Culture Shock, Michael has performed with several other groups, including the DREAMers Project, ThaMost Dance Crew, NuEra Dance Crew, and Thae.

Michael’s teaching credentials include The Facility, the DanceHouse, and private lessons. Michael has collaborated with numerous San Diego artists and participated in performances across the city. Notable appearances include San Diego Pride Festival, the San Diego County Fair,

ArtWalk, The Dancehouse, and San Diego Ballet, among others.

As an instructor, Michael’s main goal is simple: for everyone to have fun. “Dance has brought so much meaning to my life,” he says, “and I want others to feel the same.”