Meet The Staff
Artistic Director, Miranda E. Heitz
Ballet, Pointe, Modern, Lyrical, Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop
Ms. Miranda Heitz started dancing at the age of three and it was love at first step! She started in Dance schools throughout Philadelphia Pennsylvania where her passion, drive, discipline and creativity were inspired from many amazing dance Educators. She moved to Northeastern Indiana when she was about 8 years old and continued with her training.
She was such a devoted student that she was asked to be a student assistant teacher to her Checchetti ballet teacher at the young age of ten, assisting with around 10 classes a week on top of all her other classes! She then moved on to a performance Company at TC Dance Company in her hometown and began her RAD training. She obtained her Royal Academy of Dance certificate and was awarded “Highly Commended” on all her ballet exams! She also won national grand Champion awards for her Modern, Ballet, Jazz and Tap competition team dances. During that time, she was also attending The Fort Wayne Ballet, and the Fort Wayne Dance Collective for additional classical ballet and Modern training and summer intensives. She was an active member of her Show Choir “Knight Rhythms” with Mr. Matt and soon sought out dance instructor jobs and was hired at the young age of sixteen to teach a full schedule of all dance genres while continuing her own dance education at different studios.
She was then accepted into Columbia College Chicago, and Ball State University for dance! After choosing to attend Ball State, she focused on Ballet, Modern, choreography, pedagogy, kinesiology, dance history, and Musical Theater. Her favorite classes were her Limon, Horton and Graham modern classes. She even got to personally work with Modern Dance Master Bill Evans and many more!
After college she took on a Competition dance company where her dancers received the highest point awards and specialty choreography awards at both the regional and National levels. During that time, she was a choreography judge for Show Choir Competitions, choreographed and set stage Musicals, Marching band Drum lines, and High School Dance teams. Shortly after her son Ezra was born in 2005, her family decided to get out of freezing Indiana and find some new dance opportunities in sunny Florida!
In 2007 The Heitz family moved to the Tampa bay area where Ms. Miranda found herself as a founding member of the Tampa Bay Ballet Theater Company where she performed such roles as “The Queen of Hearts” in Alice in Wonderland, “Carabosse” in The Sleeping Beauty, and “The Rat King” in the Nutcracker to name a few. She also set many unique Modern pieces on adult working professionals in the area to perform for local dance festivals. She has taught summer intensives and performed as a guest artist as the “Evil Stepmother” in Brandon Ballet’s Hansel and Gretel, as well as teaching Modern for Florida West Ballet Company in St. Petersburg. From 2010 to 2016 she was training dancers and aerialists at Dance and Circus Arts of Tampa Bay, instructing and growing the dance program, learning aerial arts and even became a Stilt walker through Busch Gardens trainers!
In the last 10 years of being in Florida, Ms. Miranda has loved helping local studios accomplish their goals and taking classes and conventions in all genres for herself when she can, as she believes in being a well-rounded dancer and that community comes before competition. You may have even spotted her dancing in a couple music videos including her favorite band Hanson! It is now time for here to shine on her own and pass down all the love and knowledge she has to future generations. Ms. Miranda has an undying real passion for dance, and an even bigger love for teaching and choreographing! That is her true calling and she is so excited to share all of her experience to prepare and inspire dancers to become contributors to this amazing Classical Dance community.
Instructor: Mary Susan Sinclair-Kuenning
Cyr Wheel, Limon Modern, Middle Eastern Belly Dancing
Click the link to watch Mary Susan on her Cyr wheel:
Instructor: Meka Taulbee
Acro Instructor
Meka has been dancing since age 5. She started
with ballet and moved on to add jazz and contemporary. She has been teaching
dance since she was 16, starting as a choreographer for a summer musical
production group. In college she studied modern and contemporary and performed
with SanKofa, an African Drum and Dance ensemble, for 4 years. Meka has a love
for all movement and feels it’s an important piece to balance mind and body.
She went on to become a personal trainer and has been professionally training clients since 2000
through her company that focuses on sailing & fitness. She has trained
everyone from pre/post natal moms and weekend warriors to Olympic Sailors and
even Paralympic Sailors. Some of her clients have even won Olympic medals. She
has been the fitness trainer for the University Of South Florida Sailing Team
and the United States National Optimist Team. Meka has also trained personally
for fitness competitions and completed many half and full marathons. Her
passion is working with children and since age 13 she has done so by running
several children’s groups, being a nanny, teaching, counseling and currently
running a homeschool cooperative and having her own Holistic Health practice,
specializing in family wellness. Meka is not often seen without her children
who introduced her to acroyoga which has become a huge passion of hers. She
feels it’s the perfect blend of dance, fitness, flexibility and fun. She
actively trains acroyoga, is an avid runner, loves a good weight session, a
yogi and anything where she can challenge the limits of her body. Meka can
often be found training or teaching circus arts with her children who also
practice various circus arts such as aerials, acro and fire juggling.. She
believes a strong community, laughter and movement are the best foundation.
Instructor: Dana Mininson
Improv Contemporary
Dana Mininson has been dancing since the age of three and has trained in Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, Modern, Contemporary, Tap and Lyrical in South Florida. In 2003-2006 Dana competed and won various awards at regional and national dance competitions with Dance Academy of North Lauderdale. At the age of 18, Dana took a Dance Improvisation course at the University of South Florida and in that class learned how to utilize space and movement without choreography. For the first time ever, she fell in love with freestyling! From that point on, Dana utilized this knowledge and continued to pursue the art of improvisation on her YouTube and livestream channels and in her personal dance training. She taught and choreographed for the Northside Christian High School Winter Guard teams from 2009-2010. Dana is incredibly motivated and excited to share the love of honest movement and freestyle to children and teens. Her goal is to create a safe space for students to experience open-minded, expressive and emotional dancing without hesitation, fear or discomfort. Students will practice contact improv with props, walking patterns, self-expression and unoccupied space in her class. We are excited to offer this unique class that is a wonderful addition to any dancer’s training.
Instructor: Amanda Ciotuszynski
Hula Hoop
Amanda has been studying dance for over 22 years with 8+ years of experience as a professional ballet dancer and 11+ years of experience instructing and training students (both pre-professional and recreational students). She has performed all over the Tampa Bay Area including at Ruth Eckerd Hall, The Palladium, The Central Park Performing Center, and many more. She has studied and performed in many ballet, jazz, contemporary, and modern dance techniques. Other notable accomplishments include intensive training at Orlando Ballet, dance training at the University of South Florida, and competing in the prestigious Youth America Grand Prix ballet competition. She has also volunteered to perform to raise support for charitable causes such as The New Seeds Festival for women’s rights, Gold Star Ceremony for fallen soldiers, and at the Aveda Hair Show for cancer research. Amanda is a student at heart and began studying and performing hoop dance in 2017 under Kailey Snayd. She fell in love with the hoop as a prop and enjoys incorporating her classical dance training with the flow and tricks of hoop dance.
Instructor: Devan Kozak
Aerial Arts
Let’s give a warm welcome to our beautiful Aerial Arts Instructor Miss Devan Kozak!!! She will be teaching Aerial Silks, Lyra Hoop and Trapeze to our dancers. Devan has a real passion for Dance and Circus. She has trained on all apparatuses in Circus Arts since she could walk and trained with Miss Miranda in dance from the age of 11. She now has taken that knowledge and is stepping into a career of performing and teaching professionally. Devan hopes to better herself and everyone she teaches!
Tumbling Coach: Kelsey Morgan
Kelsey absolutely loves movement and has had various experiences with it throughout her life! Through her experience she has developed quite the skill set for understanding the importance of technique, strength, precision, resilience, and patience. Growing up she was a gymnast until the age of 14, winning various state and national championships. She also loved dance! The studio she was involved in did fun recitals within the community and as a teenager she was on her high school dance team. At 14 Kelsey entered the world of competitive cheerleading with her teams winning nationals and going to worlds in high school. She carried on her love for cheer throughout college where she competed for her university and internationally. Kelsey’s junior year of college her teams won nationals and placed top 10 at worlds. As of late, Kelsey has discovered the acro yoga community and is over the moon to be back in her own movement practice of physically challenging the body in this way while having fun!
Kelsey is also a certified Somatic Activated Healer! Taking movement to a whole new level energetically and emotionally. This practice combines the healing modalities of meditation, breathwork, somatic movement, mantras, and ecstatic dance. Each class taps into the body through movement to help people release the emotional baggage that has been stuck inside!
Owner Operator: Matthew Heitz
Mr. Matt brings a diverse background of leadership, management, and performing arts experience. Matthew started his early years on the stage performing lead roles in Theater productions under the direction of Craig Munk in Kendallville Indiana. Matthew was a dance captain in his High School Show Choir “Knight Rhythms” along with Ms. Miranda where he won best performer awards at competitions throughout the Midwest. He attended Show Choir Camps of America each summer of High School where he gained a deeper knowledge of stage performance and production. He attended Taylor University in Upland Indiana from 1996-2000. During that time, he was in a group called “Choosen” which was a traveling skit troupe. He was also the professional Sound Tech for all Taylor University’s theater productions! After college, Matthew spent 6 years creating and running diverse youth programs and directing a teen worship band in his hometown. He was the Chairman of the Board for “The Wreck”, where he ran sound and lights and volunteered his expertise for their live performance venue. After moving to Florida in 2007 he worked as a Youth Director for Seminole Heights UMC. He also has worked for over 8 years managing customer service operations for high level retailers. And is currently working in the financial investment industry. Matthew’s love and experience of the performing arts, working in leadership roles for children and his extensive management experience have lead him to this unique opportunity! He strives to give our dancers the best atmosphere, education and experience possible. He is a loving supportive Husband and Father and is a great mentor for children.