Get to Know Our Amazing Dance Teachers
Tim O’Toole was born and raised in the heart of Memphis, Tennessee, where they began their rigorous, formal dance training with Elizabeth Anne Brown’s Performing Arts of Germantown. Tim began their professional career dancing live for the Miss Tennessee Scholarship Pageant under the direction of Angie Lawrence and Jimmy Exum (2016 - 2019). In 2017, Tim was honored to receive the HSMTA’s Outstanding Featured Dancer award for their performance in 42nd Street: The Musical as Andy Lee. In 2021, they graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) with a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography and a minor in Psychology. During their time at USM, Tim performed in USM Dance’s Repertory Dance Company (2018 - 2021) and engaged in residencies from Chris Grant and Lauren Yalango-Grant, Rosanna Tavarez, Wideman-Davis Dance, MOVE Inclusive Dance, and more. In 2022, Tim moved to St. Louis, Missouri to dance with MADCO for their 47th season and ultimately continue expanding on their research for Dance/Movement Therapy. They are currently looking forward to their third year teaching at MJ Performing Arts Academy as well as their first year teaching at Central Studio! Tim is also pursuing their certification in Tamalpa Expressive Arts Therapy before working toward a graduate degree in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling. Tim is overjoyed to have the opportunity to share their love for community outreach and dance as a way of knowing, healing, and connecting in such a wonderfully inclusive environment.
Rachel Klaus is an aerial silks, lyra, and trapeze instructor.
Marcela Gómez Lugo was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She began her pre-professional ballet training at the age of 14 at Andanza School of Dance. In 2019, she graduated, with the highest academic honors, from Mercyhurst University with a BFA in Dance: with minors in Dance Pedagogy and Psychology. After moving to St Louis, MO, Marcela joined The Big Muddy Dance Company Trainee Program (2019-2020). Currently, Marcela is a 4th season company member with Ballet 314. She is also a guest choreographer and Executive Assistant for Ballet 314. Marcela’s passion for the performing arts, education, and writing has led her to design dance curriculums and be an educational dance consultant. It is her goal to be an accessible guide to the world of ballet.
Monica Sauer is a musician with a vast background in performing arts education. Monica specializes in integrating performing arts with health and wellness, offering a unique perspective to her work. She actively encourages innovative projects that blend music, dance, theater, and visual arts, fostering a holistic approach to creative expression. This interdisciplinary focus not only enriches students' artistic experiences but also enhances their understanding of how different art forms can complement and inspire one another. As a performer, Monica specializes in chamber music. She is a founding member of Notes and nightcaps, and has performed all over the southwest with groups like the Mill Avenue Chamber Players, West Valley Symphony, and Arizona Opera.
Additionally, Monica serves on the Board of Community Arts St. Louis, where she channels her passion for program development to support and inspire emerging creators. Her commitment to integrating performing arts with health and wellness, coupled with her advocacy for cross-disciplinary collaboration, aligns with her dedication to advancing both artistic and educational excellence for all.
Get to know Monica:
1. What is your passion and what keeps you driven to grow in it?
I need to create all the time. It doesn't matter the form, but creating things drives me everyday. My daily creative adventures can include any of the following: cooking, knitting, playing flute, playing piano, painting, doing some random craft. Anything that I can make something out of nothin.
2.What’s one thing that solidified or changed the trajectory of your career?
Strong leaders that show care with their community and commitment to the growth in their community....and commitment to their personal and professional mission.
3.What is a personal healthy routine/ritual you have that helps sustain your always-moving body?
My daily morning walk and yoga session.
Macy Overton teaches youth hip hop and tap.
Tayler Kinner is a freelance dancer in the St. Louis, MO area. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a minor in Advertising and Marketing Communications from Webster University in Saint Louis, Missouri. While studying abroad in Hua Hin, Thailand, she studied classical Thai Khon dance under Pichet Klunchun.
Tayler has performed with Turn of Change Dance Collective, Smashworks Dance Collective, and Karlovsky & Company Dance in St. Louis.
In San Francisco, she has worked with Catherine Liu, RAWdance, Tim Rubel, and Alyssandra Wu, and was a company member of Tim Rubel Human Shakes and Alyssandra Katherine Dance Project.
Paige Walden began dancing at four years old in Cincinnati, OH, and found her love for choreography and performance art at Webster University. In addition to the study of ballet, jazz, modern, tap, classical Thai Dance and improvisation that has taken her around the globe, she choreographed and performed in the dance film, To Cause a Dream, featured at Editions Futura gallery in Paris, produced and choreographed the pieces Embracing Contact and Finite/Infinte in the Saint Louis Fringe Festival, and performed with Karlovsky & Company Dance and Leverage Dance Theater. She is now the founder and executive director of CommUNITY Arts Festival, a festival that sets the stage to communicate, educate and heal the effects of Saint Louis violence.
Morgan Rabe teaches aerial silks
ABBIE HINRICHS is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher who is native to St. Louis, Missouri. She holds a BFA from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance where she was inspired to not only perform professionally but to collaborate and create with other artists. Abigail has the privilege of dancing professionally with Karlovsky & Company Dance, Ballet 314, and Central Studio’s non-profit, Collective Motion. She has been teaching dance for over 10 years; inspired by her youngest students under eight years old and her oldest students over 80 years old, Abigail continues to enjoy the spectrum of movers she encounters! Abigail completed her Pilates certification through the Core Dynamics Teacher Training program, under the mentorship of Mary Ellen Bryan and fell in love with the modality as a way to help clients discover and heal their bodies. She currently serves as Studio Manager in addition to teaching dance and Pilates. Abbie loves that Central Studio is a home for anyone to be inspired by movement no matter where they are on their movement journey. She looks forward to many more years here!
Interview with Abbie
1. What is a personal healthy routine/ritual you have that helps sustain your always-moving body?
Being kind and patient with my body! Movement in itself is healing even if it doesn't feel like a strengthening or stretching exercise.
2. What is the most favorite place you've traveled? Describe one memorable moment from that visit.
Cape Town, South Africa! Karlovsky & Company Dance was working with a company there. I'll never forget the night they took us out to one of their favorite restaurants. We ate and danced the whole night!
3. What do you enjoy about teaching adults? What do you enjoy about teaching children?
I love meeting and working with adults who have decided to try something totally new. Teaching with the CS Academy keeps me energized and on my toes! A teacher must always be ready to improvise with a group of twelve 4 year olds! :)
A native of South Carolina, Robert Poe has enjoyed a professional dancing career of 18 years. He has performed with classical and contemporary dance companies across the Southeast and Midwest. Since coming to Saint Louis in 2011, he has been a founding member of The Big Muddy Dance Company, dancer with the St. Louis Ballet, and performer with Opera Theater St. Louis and The Winter Opera. In February 2019, Robert became co-founder and co-director of Ballet 314 - a ballet company focused on celebrating local talent in Saint Louis. Through this organization, he has re-written the classic story of The Nutcracker to highlight Saint Louis' history in his co-authored children's book, The Nutcracker and the 1904 World's Fair, which has become its own production. He has also choreographed his first full-length ballet, Ragtime the American Experience, inspired by E. L. Doctoro's novel. Robert teaches varying dance styles and choreographs for multiple studios, universities, and dance companies in the Saint Louis area, including Central Studio.
Interview with Robert
Who got you into dancing?
My father took lessons from my town's most prolific dance instructor who happened to be a friend of the family. I started with tap dancing at age four and was hooked from the beginning.
What do you love about ballet?
Ballet has brought many valuable assets to my life including self discipline, physical health, mindfulness, artistry, musical awareness, and nutritional knowledge. What keeps me coming back to ballet is the relationship between expression with the body and responding to music.
Because ballet is so rigorous and demanding on the body, one of my focuses when teaching it is proper alignment and positioning for the body's safety. It's very easy to injure yourself and I take pride in arming my students with knowledge of how to safely use their bodies to express themselves.
What other dance styles influence your teaching?
When I was in my teens I discovered modern dance. I thought it was going to hinder my ballet training at first but I realized that it helped me find a connection with the floor. Ballet is, aesthetically, a very lifted and elevated dance style but to find that, one must have a deep relationship with the ground. Modern dance helped me find that.
How do you hope to influence the dance community here?
Concert dance has a lot of preconceived notions about it, especially classical ballet. It has not been a welcoming or inclusive art form from the beginning and it is only just now taking baby steps to recognize that fact. With my teaching and my ballet company, Ballet 314, I am working to redefine what ballet is, what it means, and how it treats its participants. Students of any age or level deserve to have excellent training regardless of their physical abilities. Dancers of any style or body type deserve to be seen for their gifts and passion and deserve respect, period.
Megan Reed is the CSA director of the Webster Groves and Central West End location.
Jordan Woods teaches aerial silks and lyra
CWE Academy Team
Tim O’Toole - Kinderdance, Tap
Kellyn Mana - Kinderdance
Robert Poe - Ballet, Contemporary, Jazz
Ren Hood - Ballet, Pointe
Marcela Gómez-Lugo - Ballet, Pointe
Rachel Klaus and Jordan Wood - Aerial Silks
Paige Walden - Kinders in Motion, Kinderdance, Ballet, Tap
Tayler Kinner - Kinderdance, Contemporary, Performance Techniques, Hip Hop
WEBSTER GROVES Academy Team
Megan Reed - Aerial Silks, Hip Hop
Macy Overton - Hip Hop, Tap
Rachel Klaus - Aerial Silks
Morgan Rabe - Aerial Silks
Monica Sauer - Special Needs Music & Movement
Tim O’Toole - Kinders in Motion, Kinderdance, Tap, Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary
Meet Our Administrative Team
MARY ELLEN BRYAN | Owner
Mary Ellen Bryan's movement career began in 1987 studying ballet under the Royal Academy of Dance technique, which led her to a professional dance and choreographic career. In 1999, under the study of master teachers Michele Larson and Virginia Nicholas, she earned a Pilates Certification through Core Dynamics Pilates. Mary Ellen has trained with many great teachers who have played a part in building her unique and accessible teaching style which spans several movement modalities. Having always lived with a great passion for people and holistic health, she pursued a BFA in Dance at Arizona State and Athletic Training at Lindenwood University, as well as Thai Bodywork and GYROTONIC® licensing. With access to various movement modalities, Mary Ellen has facilitated many clients with a wide variety of physical conditions from surgery rehabilitation to professional athletes to obtain strength and healing. Inspired by the desire to reach people in all walks of life, Mary Ellen opened Central Studio in October of 2012 and continues to develop programming with passion and purpose. Supported by the love of her husband, four amazing children, her parents, six siblings, and the wisdom of incredible teachers and many long-standing clients and friends, the journey continues together.
Interview with Mary Ellen
1. What is your personal philosophy about your business' success and what keeps you driven to maintain it?
Doing for others and loving unconditionally is the first thing that comes to mind regarding my business philosophy. Maintaining consistency and curiosity is also key to continued growth both personally and professionally.
Our outlet and modality at Central Studio is movement. I believe movement heals, it brings joy, it's an outlet for every emotion under the sun, it grounds you and allows for space to fly.
Walking with people through varying life experiences keeps me driven. Through the simultaneous joys and pains of life, I have witnessed firsthand the true gift movement is to one's life. Every hour is new and fresh when working with clients because every hour brings new energy, new challenges, and a new focus. Every day goes by quickly, is varied, and is actually very rewarding and fun!
2. Who is one of your inspirational role models and why?
I have so many role models who have inspired and guided me over the years. So many teachers, friends, personal connections, and famous people have lit up my path.
My mother is my number one role model. She is overflowing with wisdom and grace and embodies the essence of unconditional love and doing for others. She provided a true example of how to love others through work and how to find joy in the process. What a gift!
A famous role model would be Maya Angelou who also embodies wisdom. Maya Angelou's impactful poetry, songs, films, and writings demonstrated the right for strength and dignity for all people. One of my favorite calls to action Maya encouraged for us all is to "be a rainbow in someone else's clouds." She has inspired me to keep that concept front and center throughout my decision-making and action-taking.
3. What is one of your personal values in life and why?
Keeping Curiosity Alive. Curiosity encourages me to be a perpetual student of life. Curiosity keeps an internal spark alive towards fascinating pursuits but also helps guide me towards loving deeply and tenderly and really seeking to know someone, respect someone, and truly value who another is and where they come from which elevates our community recognizing that together we are better.
ABBIE HINRICHS | Studio Manager
Abbie Hinrichs is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher who is native to St. Louis, Missouri. She holds a BFA from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance where she was inspired to not only perform professionally but to collaborate and create with other artists. Abigail has the privilege of dancing professionally with Karlovsky & Company Dance, Ballet 314, and Central Studio’s non-profit, Collective Motion. She has been teaching dance for over 10 years; inspired by her youngest students under eight years old and her oldest students over 80 years old, Abigail continues to enjoy the spectrum of movers she encounters! Abigail completed her Pilates certification through the Core Dynamics Teacher Training program, under the mentorship of Mary Ellen Bryan and fell in love with the modality as a way to help clients discover and heal their bodies. She currently serves as Studio Manager in addition to teaching dance and Pilates. Abbie loves that Central Studio is a home for anyone to be inspired by movement no matter where they are on their movement journey. She looks forward to many more years here!
Interview with Abbie
1. What is a personal healthy routine/ritual you have that helps sustain your always-moving body?
Being kind and patient with my body! Movement in itself is healing even if it doesn't feel like a strengthening or stretching exercise.
2. What is the most favorite place you've traveled? Describe one memorable moment from that visit.
Cape Town, South Africa! Karlovsky & Company Dance was working with a company there. I'll never forget the night they took us out to one of their favorite restaurants. We ate and danced the whole night!
3. What do you enjoy about teaching adults? What do you enjoy about teaching children?
I love meeting and working with adults who have decided to try something totally new. Teaching with the CS Academy keeps me energized and on my toes! A teacher must always be ready to improvise with a group of twelve 4 year olds! :)
NICHOLE HUNTER | Hospitality
Nichole has worked at Central Studio in hospitality since 2016 and has been around since its founding in 2012! Stemming from a family of performing artists, she spent her early years watching her mom, the studio owner, teach Ballet and Pilates classes all day at her in-home studio, which fostered her interest in dance. She danced in the studio’s youth program through high school and continued to stay connected through college; now, clients often see her at the front desk checking people in for classes or answering the phone. She also assists in the growth of new programming, marketing, and studio expansions. One of her favorite roles at the studio is putting together studio productions for backstage crew and stage management. Nichole has been involved in the production of Scarlett's Journey Home (the trilogy), Somewhere In a Crowded Room, In Courageous Form, Rays of Resilience, and In Loving Form. She is currently pursuing a degree in Social Work at Saint Louis University in hopes to work with fostered and homeless youth someday. She is passionate about music and dance and loves the intersection of social work and the arts.
1. Who is one of your role models and why?
A role model of mine is my mother. She has always pursued her dreams and I have been able to watch them come to life. She is authentically herself and I hope to have the drive she displays every day.
2. What are two big goals for your life (one personal, one professional)? Can you go into a bit of detail about them?
A goal of mine is to travel to all 7 continents. I love traveling and learning about different cultures. I am amazed at the diversity our world has to offer and would love to experience as much as I can. I want to visit as many countries as possible, but if I can at least experience the 7 continents (or 6, since Antarctica might not be much fun) I would have traveled the world!
A big professional goal of mine is to give a Ted Talk. I am not sure what it will be about, or how I will have the courage to give a public speech, but I am always inspired by Ted Talks and love what people bring to the table. I hope to become an expert in whatever field I end up in and will be able to bring something novel enough to give a Ted Talk.
3. What is one thing you're passionate about?
I am passionate about community. It seems like a broad term, but I truly believe in the power of community and what it can do for everyone. I believe community is a place where people find themselves, get empowerment, and empower each other. My wish is for everyone to have a strong place to go when they need help and to help others. I am committed to my community and have loved the way I have grown through that. I hope to empower others to have their communities strengthened through social work.
MEGAN REED | CS Academy Director