Brandis Miller
Owner/Instructor/Choreographer (Tap & Jazz Classes)
Brandis has been happily dancing for the past 18 years. She began dancing in 1993 as a student of the Dance Conservatory of Southern Minnesota (out of Mankato) at one of their satellite studio's in Waterville, Minnesota. There she studied tap, jazz, and ballet dancing. In 1999, she made the transition from performance dancer to competitive dancer. She competed in both jazz dancing and tap dancing. During the 1999-2000 season she was honored to compete at a national competition in Chicago, Illinois, helping her teams to bring home two platinum medals and one gold medal. Brandis was also an assistant instructor for the Dance Conservatory of Southern Minnesota from 1996 to 2000 helping with classes ranging from preschool to sixth grade.
Brandis attended Waterville-Elysian-Morristown High School and participated on their non-competitive high-kick dance team during the 1997-1998 season. During that time, the team was invited to perform at the Faribault High School Dance Team Invitational. Brandis also participated in FCCLA, performing dance routines in three FCCLA regional talent competitions. Two of the three years, Brandis won first place and was invited to perform at the state meeting. Also during her time in high school, Brandis choreographed and performed in the fall musicals from 1999-2001, and was invited back after graduation to choreograph the 2002 fall musical as well. Shows included Grease, Once Upon a Mattress, A Christmas Carol, and Your A Good Man Charlie Brown. Brandis also performed in two of these four shows, most notably as "Cha Cha" in Grease. Brandis also choreographed for the W.E.M. Echo Swing Choir during the 1999-2000 season.
Also in 1999, Brandis participated in the Miss Teen Minnesota pageant where she performed a solo tap dance as part of the talent competition. Brandis was honored winning the First Runner Up award for the talent competition. Interestingly enough, she lost to an extremely talented opera singer who went on to win the talent competition for the Miss Teen America pageant.
Currently, Brandis holds the position of Head Coach for several teams at W.E.M. High School. She coaches football cheerleading (2009-present), wrestling cheerleading (2009-present), varsity dance team (2008-present), and junior varsity dance team (2010 to present). During her time with these teams, the numbers have grown dramatically. Growth has been such that splitting the dance team into a varsity and junior varsity team has been a necessary change. The dance team has also seen scores higher than ever before in the team's competitive history. An accomplishment Brandis is very proud of.
Brandis is a recent graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato with her B.S. in Family Consumer Science-Dietetics. She is currently working as a Dietetic Technician for United and Children's Hospitals in St. Paul before beginning an internship on her way to becoming a Registered Dietitian.
Noami Langsjoen
Instructor/Choreographer (Mommy & Me and Belly Dancing Classes)
Bio coming soon!!!
John Miller
Instructor (Ballroom Dance Classes)
John is a senior at Minnesota State University, Mankato in a double major in Physical Education and Health. As part of his curriculum, John has taken Ballroom Dance classes and has learned several techniques on how to break these dances down and teach them in a fun, efficient way. John has experience in several styles of Ballroom Dance including the two-step, waltz, salsa, swing, and fox trot.
Katrina Hiller
Assistant Instructor/Choreographer
Katrina is a senior at Waterville-Elysian-Morristown High School. She has been dancing for the past 15 years. She also began as a student of the Dance conservatory of Southern Minnesota at their satellite studio in Waterville, Minnesota as a student of their preschool class. She danced in the performance classes at this studio for 7 years.
Katrina has been dancing on the W.E.M. competitive dance team since 2006 when she began dancing on the varsity dance team as a seventh grader. Katrina has held the title of co-captain for the last three seasons and the title of co-choreographer for the last three seasons as well. Katrina won the Most Valuable Dancer award for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons.
Katrina plans to study dance as part of her curriculum when she attends college at Bemiji State University after graduating high school.
