During her 22 years of training Jana has studied jazz, tap, hip hop, Afro – Haitian, Dunham technique, and choreography. Jana has been most influenced by Janel Tomblin – Brown, Ehud and Daynee Krauss, Susan Whipp, Alicia Pierce, and Kimberly Iniguez. In May of 2002 she completed her Bachelor’s degree in dance at San Francisco State University.

 

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

Carlos is Jana’s husband and Co-Director of Small Fry Dance Club and Principal Creative & Performing Arts. Carlos has a background in Multimedia and Marketing and helps run the day to day office duties for both programs.

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 eventually taught classes at Cañada College in Redwood City.

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

Sarah Artha started dancing at the age of 4, studying at Dance Pros and Verona Ballet School in New Jersey for 10 years. She spent her younger years at multiple dance classes each week — learning ballet, jazz & pointe but also assisting beginner level classes. As a teen & adult, she continued to explore different styles of dance and performing arts including musical theater, ballroom, hip hop and contemporary.

 Sarah earned a Bachelor of Science in Business/Marketing from Northeastern University in 2009 and is a full time corporate meetings and event planner. In 2017-2018, she began teaching ballet part time at DanceFIT Studio in Natick, Massachusetts. Having lived in the Bay Area from 2010-2015, she recently relocated from the East Coast back to the Peninsula with her family in 2019.

As a mother to two young children, Sarah is thrilled to be part of the Small Fry Dance Club & PCPA company and share her love of dance with young students.

 

Christa’s love for dance started at the age of three when her Mom enrolled her in tap class and she never looked back. She kept dancing adding ballet, and jazz to her dance forms as well as performing in the Davis Jazz Choir and her local musical theater company (DMTC). She studied tap at the Davis Art Center under Jere and Julie Curry, Bill Strickland and Lee Harry for 8 years. While attending Palomar College she studied tap under Valerie Clark for 2 years. In 2009, She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts with an emphasis in child development from Sonoma State. Christa has a great combination of dance training, teaching experience, and early childhood education exposure! Her teaching experience includes Echale (Stanford University), Davis Art Center, and Gretchen Higgins Elementary School. Her favorite dance styles are tap and musical theater. Christa is passionate about teaching young dancers. Combining her love for music, dance, teaching and children is a dream come true. Christa is one of our Small Fry parents. Her daughter has been taking classes for 2 years now and her younger son also started dancing with us in 2014.

Today she is both one of our wonderful Small Fry teachers, and also the head of our Musical Theatre Department for Principal Creative & Performing Arts.

Kirsten has been dancing since she was four years old. Her favorite styles are ballet, contemporary, and lyrical. While she was a student at Notre Dame High School, Kirsten was a part of the advanced dance program and acted as a student teacher for the beginning dance classes. After graduating college with her degree in Journalism, she returned to the Bay Area to teach dance classes at Notre Dame High School.

 Kirsten is passionate about dance and loves teaching young dancers. She is excited to be part of the Small Fry and PCPA family and make a difference in dancers’ lives. 

Amy has been dancing since she was 2 years old. Her favorite styles are contemporary, lyrical, jazz, ballet, and tap. At Sequoia High School in Redwood City Amy was a part of the advanced dance program and the dance team. After graduating high school, she earned her Bachelor’s in mathematics with a minor in dance at San Jose State University. While studying at SJSU Amy was also a part of the Spartan Competitive Dance Team. Dance has always been a huge part of Amy’s life, and she is very excited to be a part of the Small Fry and PCPA family.

Karen Luu is a contemporary hip hop dancer from Southern California who has moved to the San Francisco to broaden her dance styles in Modern, Jazz, and Ballet. She has danced competitively in her High Schools hip hop dance team and has been under the instruction of all San Francisco State University’s dance faculty for the past five years. Karen has choreographed for the SFSU collegiate showcase for two years in a row which allowed her pieces to be showcased at Stanford University’s Bay Area Dance Exchange. Karen has a passion for educating arts and has experience in teaching dance to children with special needs, she hopes to one day become a physical therapist for dancers. She’s currently performing with University Dance Theatre’s company and is expecting to graduate this spring with two bachelor’s degrees of Dance and Kinesiology.

Sara Rosenbloom fell in love with dance at 3 years old. Living in Los Angeles she had incredible opportunities to study under the best in the business. She studied at the Performing Arts Center, Millenium, and The Edge. By age 10 she was dancing 23 hours a week, studying Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop, Modern, and Contemporary. She studied voice under Lis Lewis, Monte Ralstin(Old Deuteronomy, Cats), Marsha Bagwell(Big Momma, Chicago). She moved on to get her BFA in Musical Theater from the University of Arizona in 2007. She has performed for theater companies in Arizona and California and still does. Her other passion in life is teaching children. Having the opportunity to convey the passion and dedication she has through dance to the next generation is a dream come true. She taught her first hip hop class in 2000, and directed her first musical in 2004. She worked in Marin teaching Ballet, Hip Hop, Contemporary, Jazz, Tap, Lyrical, Musical Theater, and several competition teams for the last 8 years.  Having recently moved to San Mateo, Sara is very excited to be a part of a studio that cares as much about the students themselves as well as their training. Whether they will turn this love of dance into a career, or use these tools to learn a hard work ethic and dedication, she is happy to share in this part of their lives.

Vicktoriea “Torie” Carroll was born in Sherwood, AR.  She began dancing at the age of 2 at North Little Rock School of Dance.  Torie began competing at the age of 5 and began teaching as a Junior in High School at the age of 16.  She was awarded her first choreography award at the age of 17 and has since won numerous choreography awards at both the Regional and National level in Tap, Jazz, Lyrical and Hip Hop.  Torie is a graduate of Davidson College in North Carolina where she was Captain of the Dance Team.  While at Davidson, she founded a Non-Profit Organization entitled Forever Pressing Forward in which she seeks to use dance and other art forms to address racism, domestic violence, police brutality and other social issues.  After graduating from Davidson, with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Minor in Dance, Torie decided to move to San Jose to pursue her love for dance and for teaching.  As a teacher, it is her desire to inspire and encourage children to foster their love for dance as both an athletic sport and an expressive form of art.

Vicktoriea “Torie” Carroll was born in Sherwood, AR.  She began dancing at the age of 2 at North Little Rock School of Dance.  Torie began competing at the age of 5 and began teaching as a Junior in High School at the age of 16.  She was awarded her first choreography award at the age of 17 and has since won numerous choreography awards at both the Regional and National level in Tap, Jazz, Lyrical and Hip Hop.  Torie is a graduate of Davidson College in North Carolina where she was Captain of the Dance Team.  While at Davidson, she founded a Non-Profit Organization entitled Forever Pressing Forward in which she seeks to use dance and other art forms to address racism, domestic violence, police brutality and other social issues.  After graduating from Davidson, with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Minor in Dance, Torie decided to move to San Jose to pursue her love for dance and for teaching.  As a teacher, it is her desire to inspire and encourage children to foster their love for dance as both an athletic sport and an expressive form of art.