Misty Frisbey, Super Steppers Director

Misty has loved dance from the moment she could move and has received 24 years of training in jazz, ballet, modern dance, ballroom and hip hop. Misty was a member of the Dixie State Dance Company for three years and a scholarship student. While at Dixie she received her BA degree in Computer Information Technology with an emphasis in Visual Technologies. She began teaching in 1999 at Southern Utah Performing Arts School and has continued to teach and choreograph for local studios and schools in Southern Utah. Misty is the Director and Owner of Super Steppers and Premier Dance Center and the founder and producer of the inspirational show “God’s Messengers.” Misty is ecstatic to be a part of DSC Dance Department faculty for the opportunity to extend her passion and teaching at DSC. Misty wants to extend here appreciation to her Studio Director Wendi and her amazing, supportive husband Rex.

 

 

Wendi Smith, Instructor and Choreographer

Wendi Smith has been dancing for 17 years. While growing up she took classes at many studios throughout Northern Utah where she studied jazz and ballet and was a member of  top award winning competition teams. After moving to St. George, she continued her study and in high school was on Drill Team for two years and was the Dance Sterling Scholar. She also received All-Region and All-State Dance Team awards. While attending college, Wendi spent a great amount of time studying modern dance,  some ballroom, folk, and ethnic dance, and continued her study of jazz and ballet. She was on the Dixie State College Dance Company for two and a half years, and loved performing and choreographing both group and solo pieces while on the company. Prior to receiving her AA degree at DSC in 2006, Wendi was awarded several dance and academic scholarships, including a scholarship from the Celebrity Concert Series Guild. She also attended Weber State University where she received academic and dance scholarships while studying in the dance program. She continues to study dance and take advantage of opportunities to perform herself. Wendi has taught dance for other studios throughout the community and state, and is thrilled to be a part of PDC. She is eager to share her knowledge and love of dance with her students, and to continue dancing herself.

 

 

Stephanie Hawker, Office Manager

 

Stephanie has over 8 years of Customer Service experience and started working for PDC over the summer of 2011. Her daughters started dancing at the studio last year and jumped at the opportunity to become part of our staff. As a young girl, she danced on a competitive Jazz team and couldn't be happier than working in the office for all the 100+ dancers and their parents.

 

 

 

 

Katherine Call, Instructor and Inventory Manager

Katherine Call began dancing in her home town, Salt Lake City, at the Children's Ballet Theatre. Here she had opportunities to perform in New York City and study under various professionals. After high school, Katherine moved to Cedar City to study dance at Southern Utah University where she was the recipient of many rewards and scholarships. Moving farther south, Katherine came to St. George to teach ballet and modern dance at Dixie State College and at Southwest Contemporary Dance Theatre. The following year she chose to serve a mission and was called to the Oklahoma, Oklahoma City Mission. Here she met her husband and they were married this past October. Katherine is again a member of Dixie State College's faculty, and is currently teaching at and working for Premiere Dance Center.

 

Brooklyn Pulley, Instructor, Choreographer and Media Manager

Brooklyn has been dancing for 7 years. In 7 years she has studied Ballet, Jazz, and Modern. She made her high school Drill Team her sophomore year and continued drill her junior year. After drill Brooklyn became a member of the high school Dance Company where she was dance captain. Brooklyn is her schools runner up sterling scholar for dance and a member of Gods Messengers. Now she is very excited to be dancing for Dixie State Colleges Dance Company in the fall and to be sharing her passion for dance with Premier Dance Center and Super Steppers. 

 

 

Jessica Staheli, Instructor

Jessica started dancing at the age of seven. Her training was solely in Ballet until the age of 10 when she started taking Jazz and Lyrical classes  She had the opportunity to be on a competition team at the age of 13 and travel to New York City where she was able to take classes from Mia Michaels. During her Freshman year, she started dancing on the school dance company and then as a Sophomore joined the drill team where she was able to compete in National Competitions. Jessica came to Dixie State College in 2002 and was able to dance on the Dance Company after being awarded a full dance scholarship. In her second year at Dixie she also had the opportunity to be on Rebelettes. She received her Associate of Science degree with an emphasis in dance. Jessica has been married for 6 years to the love of her life, and she has a 3 year old daughter. She is thrilled to be a part of Premier Dance Center and with Super Steppers!

 

 

Wyatt, Instructor

Bio Coming Soon

 

Katie Reed, Instructor and Choreographer

 

Katie Reed has been dancing since she was three years old; first in her mother's dance school, and then onto competitive dance when she reached 7th grade at Luv2Dance in Kaysville. She was on her high school drill team for three years, then she continued dancing into college where she was a member of the Dixie State College Rebelettes for two years and the Dixie State Dance Company for the next three semesters.

 

 

Scott Wakefield Instructor

Bio Coming Soon

 

Amelia Kirchhausen

Amelia began her dance training at age eleven in St. George, Utah.  Since that time, she has been trained in jazz, modern, hip hop, ballet and ballroom dance.  Amelia danced for two years at Dixie State College while on scholarship.  Following her time at DSC she moved to Idaho where she earned her B.S. degree in University Studies with an emphasis in Dance from BYU-Idaho in 2011.  Since returning to St. George, Amelia has been teaching and choreographing dance. She is happy to be a part of the staff at Premier Dance Center where she is able to share her love for the arts with her students.

 

Megan Johnson Instructor

Megan Cool has been dancing since she was 4 under the direction of Gretchen Rowe at Ballet Arts of Southern Utah, Sheila Bailey at West Side Studio, and has now been a member of the DSC Dance Co. for the past three years under the direction of Dr. Li Lei. This is her second semester teaching here at PDC and she loves every minute of it. She teaches the beginning ballet classes and hopes to continue on with the studio to see her girls grow into the beautiful ballerinas she knows they can be.

 

 

Makayla Hawker, Staff Member

Bio Coming Soon 

 

Alexis Smith, Instructor

Alexis Smith, originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, began dancing at the age of 3 and never stopped.  Her training started at Christine's School of Dance.  After moving to Utah, Alexis continued her training at Westside Studio for the Performing Arts and Tuacahn High School for the Performing Arts.  Upon graduation, Alexis attended and graduated from Southern Utah University with a B.S. in Dance Performance.  She is trained in almost every style of dance, ballet, tap, jazz, pointe, modern, hip hop, contemporary, ballroom, stepping, and her list is still growing!  Not only does she enjoy sharing her love of movement with her students but also with audiences. Alexis has had the opportunity to perform several seasons with Tuacahn Center for the Arts doing shows like Footloose, CATS, Tarzan, and Crazy For You.  Her favorite performance, however, was this past summer in China where she was in the original cast of The Dream of Helen with the Hubei Provincial Opera and Dance Drama Theater.  Alexis has taught and choreographed for several years now at studios and schools throughout the state of Utah and is so excited to have the opportunity to work with Premier!

 

Stefanie Bassett, Instructor

Stefanie Bassett has danced all of her life. She trained at several studios in West Valley City, UT where she grew up. She danced three years on Hunter High's drill team and two years on Utah Valley University's dance team. She studied dance and vocals with OnStage Studios in Salt Lake, with which she traveled to Japan and other places to perform. She has taught dance at many different studios beginning at age 15 and spanning from West Valley to Provo to St. George. She performed with the theatrical company Strictly Business in Salt Lake in 2004. Now she is very excited to be teaching for Showmanship. She loves the girls so much and loves seeing all their smiling faces each week!

 

 

ILENE HACKER, FOUNDER OF SUPER STEPPERS

Ilene Hacker founded Super Steppers Junior Drill Team on January 2, 1980. She was born in Provo, Utah and has lived most of her life in St. George, Utah. She was head cheerleader at Woodward Junior High School and a JV Cheerleader at Dixie High School. She was a member and  officer on Dixie High's Jetettes Drill Team during her Junior and Senior Year. She is a graduate of Dixie College and attended Utah State University where she was one of the first students to major in Dance Education, with a minor in Health. She was an instructor for United Spirit Association Cheerleading and Drill Team Camps. Ilene and her husband were owners of Spirit International Association where she directed dance and cheerleading summer camps for highs school students. They also founded the Miss Drill Team-Southern Utah Pageant. She was a member of the Washington County Fair Queen Pageant Committee for many years and served on the Dixie  College Alumni Board. Ilene was an aerobics instructor for over 20 years and has been an instructor on cruise ships and in Japan. Ilene and her daughter, Kasi conducted many summer jazz dance camps in Gifu, Japan. Ilene has received dance instruction at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Broadway Dance Center in New York City. Instructors include Frank Hatchett, Bev Brown, Sue Samuels, Andrea Brown and many other instructors from New York City, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Japan, Thailand and China.

After 27 years of directing Super Steppers and Prime Time Performers, Ilene decided to "retire", and in March of 2007 she announced that Carolyn Phillips was the new director.

Following her retirement, Ilene made plans to begin a new import business with friends in China. After teaching several dance classes during a trip to China to make arrangements to set up the import business, her friends convinced her to bring her precision jazz dance style to students in China. Ilene's love of learning about other cultures took her to Hangzhou, China, listed as the "Most beautiful city in China" where she now co-owns and operates IPS Dance Academy. IPS Dance Academy offers former Super Steppers the opportunity to teach dance in China for 2 month contracts.

Ilene is married to Michael Hacker; the President of RS Tours, he is an avid golfer, who has won many amateur tournaments. They are the parents of three daughters, Kasi, Mik'L and Maren and "son", Satoshi, from Kobe, Japan.

Ilene enjoys lapidary and is an accomplished silversmith who has her original sterling silver jewelry in boutiques in New York, Park City, Snowbird, the St. George Art Museum and many expos. She loves life and sincerely loves being a grandmother. One of Ilene's favorite quotes: Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another. - John Dewey

Carolyn Phillips, FORMER OWNER OF SUPER STEPPERS

Carolyn has been dancing for 20 years and loves to share her passion and gift with others.

Carolyn was born in Flagstaff, Arizona and moved to St. George, Utah with her family when she was 8 years old and began her ballet and dance training with Ballet Arts of Southern Utah under the direction of Gretchen Rowe. She has since had the opportunity of dancing and training from a variety of local teachers as well as teachers from New York City and Portland including: Deana Whatcott, Diane Hafen, Sheila Bailey, Melinda Larson, Michelle Jackman, Scott Watts, Cindy Metcalf, Stephanie Maag, Frank Hatchett, Mic Thompson, Rick Braimes, Sheila Barker, Mike Minery, Carlos Rosas, Debbie Rosas, and other various teachers at Broadway Dance Center in NY and Steps on Broadway NY.

As well as being trained in Classical and Russian Ballet, Gus Giordano Jazz, Luigi Jazz, Horton Technique Modern, Carolyn has certifications such as: AFPA Pilates, AFAA Group Fitness Instructor, Balletone, Nia the technique White Belt Certified and Licensed Instructor, Power Pilates, and Various fitness and dance fitness trainings through Red Mountain Spa that include: BOSU, Gliding Discs, Chi Ball and Yoga.

Carolyn also currently teaches Pilates and Nia at the Summit Athletic Club, and has in the recent past had the opportunity to work with Scott Watts at his studio 2 One Productions where she introduced and taught an innovative creative movement class “Joy of Movement” which is a unique style of dance based on the Nia technique, combining movement forms from Dancing Arts ( Modern Dance, Duncan Dance, and Jazz) Healing Arts ( Yoga, Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais) and Martial Arts (Aikido, Tea Kwon Do and Tai Chi). These classes were tailored to give each student the ability to explore “The Body’s Way”, all with the intention of healing the body to gain strength, flexibly, and agility.

She began teaching dance in 1998 at Diamond Talent where she was responsible for teaching age’s 3-12 combo classes including Ballet, Jazz, Modern and Tap, and basic tumbling. She also choreographed a number of recital pieces in the 7 years teaching Beginning – Intermediate dance technique. She also gained a love of children and teaching that has fueled her drive to dedicate herself to teaching her students a love of dance and the way their own bodies can find the joy in dance.