Jana loves working with beginning level students and preschool dancers. She is most motivated to help students discover dance and movement. Jana has been teaching through out the Bay Area since 1998. Some of her previous performance and Choreography highlights include Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Group, Anything Goes, It’s a Wrap with Guggenheim Entertainment, Speaking of Dance and He Said She Said with Visual Rhythm Dance Company, Rocky Horror Show with City Lights Theatre Company, Wholeness with Bliss Dance Company, and Paramount Great America’s Celebration Parade.

In 2007 Jana founded Small Fry Dance Club. Jana has since focused on growing SFDC. Jana hopes to bring the same drive and passion to Principal Creative & Performing Arts. Her goal is to mold and develop amazing dancers through both programs.

chapetonj@smallfrydanceclub.com

Before he joined Jana with Small Fry Dance Club on a full time basis, Carlos worked as a web/graphic designer, a video game artist, and he was a faculty member at Cañada College in Redwood City where he taught a variety of classes.

Carlos is in charge of our website, branding, and marketing efforts. He is also in charge of our sales and expanding our reach to new schools in the Bay Area and beyond. If you have any questions about marketing, partnerships, or bringing our dance classes to your school, please contact Carlos via email.

chapetonc@smallfrydanceclub.com

Sierra Don is a choreographer, dancer, and educator established in San Francisco and emerging in Los Angeles. Sierra’s choreography infuses Acrobatics, Contemporary, and Modern while her teaching practices focus on athletic conditioning, collaborative creation, somatic healing, and artist agency. Her training began as a gymnast shifting into musical theatre then developing in dance with a Modern floorwork focus. Recipient of the Teaching Assistant Award, she earned her MFA in Choreography and Teaching Pedagogy at Mills College in Oakland, CA, previously earning her Bachelor’s in Theatre Arts – Dance with a minor in Child Development at California State University, Fresno.

While a company member of CSUF’s Contemporary Dance Ensemble, Sierra performed under Michael Nickerson-Rossi, Seda Aybay, Rogelio Lopez, among others. Sierra’s choreography was chosen to represent Mills College and as an adjudicator with CSU, Fresno at the American College Dance Festival. While at Mills, Sierra performed works by internationally renowned choreographer Jose Limon and many more. After earning her degree she went on to obtain a professional training certificate as an apprentice in the Limon Dance Co. ProLaunch program. Sierra has trained with Robert Moses’ Kin, James Wilton, Trisha Brown Co., CONTRA TIEMPO, and more. Sierra gained 3+ years of training in Afro Latin technique, Orisha Dances/Maracatu, Salsa, Samba, CoCo, and Forro during her time with Movement Exchange in Rio De Janeiro and the Futuro program with CONTRA TIEMPO. After graduating she became a professor of Jazz and Contemporary dance at the Hussian College of Commercial Arts, Site Director at American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA), and Assistant Program Manager for Kidstock Inc. She teaches at her home studio, Principal Creative and Performing Arts and offers private lessons.

Apart from being a teacher in our Small Fry program, she also heads up our Musical Theatre Department. She can’t wait to meet you and your dancer!

Kelli O’Dair is a lifelong dancer. Beginning at age eight, she thrived in ballet and modern techniques. As a teen assisting with studio teaching, she decided to pursue dance education for her career. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Dance in 2012 from Brigham Young University-Idaho where she expanded her experience with world dance, ballroom, clogging and kinesiology. She performed on national and international tours with BYU-I’s Dance Alliance. Kelli has been most influenced by Rachel Murphy, Wendy Bone, Jennifer Wadsworth and Gary Larsen. 

Lainie Pennington grew up in Portland, OR where she received her formative ballet training at Oregon Ballet Theatre School under the direction of Damara Bennett, Anthony Jones, and Katarina Svetlova. There she performed both children’s and professional roles in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker and Walpurgisnacht, as well as classical works such as Don Quixote. She then studied contemporary dance at NW Dance project under the direction of Sarah Slipper, performing works by Franco Nieto, Andrea Parson, Rebecca Margolick, and James Gregg. Lainie received a BFA in Dance from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. After graduation, she moved to San Francisco and began working with Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Throughout this time Lainie has taught ballet, lyrical, contemporary, and gymnastics to children of all ages. When not dancing or teaching, you can find her riding her bike in Marin, cooking for friends, or hanging out with her cat Winnie.