Brie Schell- Artistic Director
Miss Brie has been dancing for 27 years. She began her dance career in Detroit Michigan with Suzette’s Masters of Dance. Miss Brie began competing at the age of 5. Soon after, she moved to Florida and danced with several local studios. At 16, Miss Brie started teaching classes and choreographing competition routines. Competitive dancing became a major part of life in college. She attended New World School of the Arts in Miami Florida on scholarship and received lessons from world renowned choreographers. These include Steven Boyd, Frank Hatchett, Kacy Combs, Pamela Boling, Al Gilbert, Chris Judd, Sheila Barker, and Mike Mignery. During her junior year in college, Miss Brie began A Time To Dance. Miss Brie now has a bachelors degree in finance and marketing from the University of West Florida.
Jessica Sarli – First Call Director; Mini Company Director
Jessica began dancing at the age of three in Stafford, VA. She grew up attending local and national dance competitions where she earned numerous awards, scholarships and titles. Jessica’s love for dance continued to grow which led her to earn a B.F.A. in dance with a concentration in ballet from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. During her college career she trained under Kiesha Lalama-White, Jay Kirk and Susan Stowe, as well as performed faculty works by Ron Tassone and Nicolas Petrov. After graduation, Jessica had the amazing opportunity to dance with Cirque du Soleil for a fundraising gala in Washington, DC. Jessica also performed professionally for Princess Cruises onboard the Sun Princess with a homeport of Sydney, Australia. Jessica has been teaching in the Pensacola area for the past 4 years. Jessica has gained experience teaching children of all ages and has had the opportunity to choreograph jazz and tap numbers that have gone on to win awards at local dance competitions. Jessica is passionate about sharing her love for dance with all of her students and hopes to help build a strong foundation for young dancers.
Jana Arevalo – Dance Instructor
Jana Arevalo was born and raised in Fort Worth, TX where she studied dance for fifteen years. She was trained in all styles including ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, modern, hip-hop, and contemporary. Jana danced competitively since she was eight and won many national solo titles. After high school, Jana moved to Los Angeles to train and teach. She trained with Dee Caspary, Mandy Moore, Doug Caldwell, Wade Robson, Ray Leeper and many others. She also assisted choreographers John Crutchman and Alan Sherfield and traveled with West Coast Dance Explosion conventions and competition for four years. She has taught at many studios around the country and has choreographed many top winning competitive level dances of all ages. Jana started teaching at A Time to Dance in January 2013 and has enjoyed getting to spread her love of dance to all the dancers at this wonderful studio.
Jana Arevalo holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in Social Studies form Chaminade University and a Master’s of Education in Health and Kinesiology from The University of Texas at Tyler. She is married to an Army soldier and they have three children.
Patsy Hill – Dance Instructor
Patsy Hill became director of the Montgomery Civic Ballet after attending Auburn University. She was the founder of the Florence Ballet Company, a performing member of the Southeastern Regional Ballet Association. Ms. Hill was appointed to the Alabama Council of Arts and Humanities and has served on various dance panels, committees, and as counselor at Ballet Aspen. Specializing in ballet technique and costume design, Ms. Hill served as one of the artistic directors of Kaleidoscope/Ballet Pensacola from 1985 until her retirement in 2003. She received the 1995 Elvie DeMarko Dance Achievement Award from the Arts Council of Northwest Florida for her work as Artistic Director for Pensacola’s Nutcracker.
Merisa Valk – Dance Instructor
Merisa also served as a company dancer for Russian Ballet of Orlando and danced as various characters in ballet performances such as Cinderella, Snow White, and annual holiday productions of The Nutcracker. Many of these productions featured dancers such as American Ballet Theater’s Irina Devorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky. Her highlight performances included a production of Romeo and Juliet with the Kiev Symphony Orchestra and performing in a Gala Celebration with Joseph Gatti and Adiarys Almeida (Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon), Elena Fillipieva and Sergei Sidorsky (National Theater of Ukraine) and many other accomplished dancers from around the world. Merisa is currently a student at Pensacola State College studying Physical Therapy.
Nick Wilson – Dance Instructor
Dance has always been a part of Nick Wilson’s life. Growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, Nick counts Michael Jackson, Turbo and Ozone among his biggest inspirations. When the feature film You Got Served hit theatres in 2004, Nick knew he wanted dance to be his life. By the end of that year he had packed up and moved to Los Angeles, which he looks back on as the best decision he’s ever made. Without a moment’s hesitation he began training intensively and embarked on a career dancing professionally that has lasted for the past five years. Within a few years, dancing naturally progressed into choreographing, and the two continue to allow Nick the opportunity to learn from others as well as teach and inspire future generations of dancers. Dance now consumes Nick’s life and he wouldn’t have it any other way! Many of the same people that inspired him to start his career he now has the pleasure of working alongside. Years of hard work and training have brought Nick together with such artists as Mariah Carey, Marques Houston, and Jessica Simpson. You may also have seen him performing with Mike Myers in the 2008 MTV Movie Awards. In addition, Nick has worked on commercials for Pepsi, K-Swiss and Nike, and is a member and choreographer of one of the hottest up-and-coming crews today, the D.O.C. (Disciples of Creativity). “I am truly blessed and can’t wait to use dance to change the world for the better!” Nick says.