Sarah Clark Morris
Owner
Sarah began dancing at the age of 2 with ballet and tap. She danced throughout her youth with many different styles, leading to a B.A. in Dance at James Madison University. Active her whole life, she was a cheerleader, gymnast, soccer player, and won a medal at Nationals in roller skating. Her final year of college, she became very ill, and it took seven years to get her first diagnosis of chronic Lyme Disease. Many years of doctors and other chronic illness diagnoses followed, and she found she was at a point where she could barely do yoga. Finally, a friend suggested she take a pole dancing class. Thinking she had nothing to lose at that point, she gave it a shot and has been training hard ever since! She loves performing, but coaching is her favorite part about pole.
Scarlett Phoenix has previously coached cheerleading and gymnastics, and is currently an XPERT certified instructor in Pole Level 1 & Level 2 and Pole Level 3 & 4. She has trained heavily in acrobatics and Russian-style tricks, influenced by her online coach in Los Angeles, Lauren Lukrich. Sarah and her husband Andy are so pleased to open a studio focused on muscle development and strong technique.
Administrator
Amy Hoffman
Amy (stage name Rogue) spent her younger days as a musician, playing the piano and various other instruments throughout her school years. (She does still enjoy playing the piano.) She had wanted to start her pole journey several times as an adult but was never able to until taking an aquatic pole class taught by a friend in 2017. In 2019 she finally jumped onto a pole and hasn't stopped since. She has also done lyra and Aerial sling, and some belly dance, but pole dance and floor work are her loves.
Amy loves helping people and has been enjoying fulfilling her role as studio administrator. When she isn't dancing or working at the studio, she's either running around at work or with her boyfriend and their 3 boys. Pole is definitely her escape, and where she has met some of her closest friends and learned to love herself and be confident in her abilities.
She recently competed for the first time at APC this year and is working towards her Xpert certification in Pole 1&2.
Kate Saylor
Aerials Instructor
Kate has been loving aerial acrobatics for almost 10 years now. Her passion for aerials extended to teaching 7 years ago when she began teaching fabric, and 3 years ago she started teaching lyra as well.
Kate is certified by NECCA for teaching introduction, level 1, and level 2 aerial fabric. She is also certified by CirqFit for Lyra.
In addition to teaching, Kate has a boring ol' desk job, 4 stepkids, 2 cats, a dog, and some grad school classes. So she's never been in a real circus, but she has one of her own!
Alanna Mensing
Aerials Instructor
Alanna's aerial journey began in 2010 when she decided to conquer her fear of heights by learning flying trapeze. With no background in either gymnastics or dance, everything new came as a challenge.
Years later and after two children, her primary apparatus became lyra. Most nights Alanna can be found in her garage playing on her hoop and working on conditioning and flexibility. She also studies silks and static trapeze.
When not flying in the air, Alanna is a homeschool mother, a private music teacher, and an elected official currently serving on the Manassas Park Governing Body.
Alanna is certified in Aerial Hoop by XPERT instructor training.
Gina Huber
Pole Instructor
Gina (stage name Gina Polerina) began pole dance in 2014. After spending seven years as a competitive cheerleader she was excited to explore the world of aerials and acrobatics. She enjoys making creative shapes and teaching tiered variations to make tricks more accessible. She has tried many apparatuses but her specialty is spin pole. Gina is in the process of obtaining her XPERT Certification in Spin Pole and is also looking to soon further expand her knowledge. She's currently working as a video producer and photographer.
Amanda Morighan
Pole Instructor
Amanda has a background in gymnastics, cheerleading, ballet & other various styles of dance. In 2020 she found pole dancing and it was true love. Pole dancing has allowed her to leverage all of her previous training, embrace sensual movement, build confidence, & meet new like minded friends! She enjoys Russian hard style, slow flow, floorwork, acro, and dynamic pole tricks. She is so excited to share her love of all things pole dancing when teaching at Phoenix!
Amanda was also Phoenix's first gold medal winner at the 2021 Atlantic Pole Sport Organization's competition in Level 2 Junior/Senior Exotic and holds another gold medal in Level 3 Dramatic from PSO Virtual.
She is certified by XPERT in Pole Level 1 & 2 and Pole Level 3 & 4.
Nina Angeles
Pole & Choreo Instructor
Nina fell in love with pole dancing while taking an intro class 5 years ago and now has been an aerial instructor since 2018. She has competed in a few events including Exotic Generation USA, which is a world-renowned pole competition originating in Russia.
Although she had no prior dance experience, her teaching style is very technical and precise which derives from other passions and athletic experiences from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and mountain biking to rock climbing.
Versatile in various dance styles and apparatuses from Russian flow to lyra, she is known for and specializes in fluid, slow, and sensual movements. Nina's main objective is for her students to experience and find their own kind of "sexy" while executing choreography or pole tricks with the confidence to make it their own.
Tracie Brittle
Liquid Motion & Pole Instructor
Tracie has been pole dancing and competing for over seven years and has dabbled in lyra and aerial silks. She was introduced introduced to Liquid Motion a few years ago and trained in it regularly before becoming certified in 2019. She is certified in Liquid Motion 1.0, Liquid Motion 2.0, and Liquid Motion Heels.
Kimberly Geipel
Pole, Aerials, & Choreo Instructor
Born and raised in the area, Kimberly Geipel is a Manassas girl through and through. She started dancing at the age of 3, and quickly developed a passion for musical theatre. Tap, jazz, ballet, and theatre rehearsal, filled Kimberly’s nights on a continuous basis. She was accepted into the Woodbridge Performing Arts Program and received a certificate in Dance Performance. Starting her Senior Year, Kimberly began working at Riverside Dinner Theatre, Workhouse Performing Arts Center, and other various small professional Theaters in the Area.
Her teaching journey started 7 years ago with Pied Piper Theatre in Manassas where she taught various dance, acting, and improvisation classes as well as choreographing multiple main stage shows for the organization. A little over a year ago when theatres shut down, she stumbled upon Aerial Silks, Lyra, and Pole. Kimberly absolutely fell in love with the unique form of art. The power and beauty each apparatus brings to a piece of movement, brought so much joy and happiness to her life. She is very excited to bring all her training and experience in various forms of dance to Pole choreography, to create a fun and different type of movement as well as floor acrobatics.
Hayley Rollins
Choreo & Pole Instructor
Hayley discovered pole dancing in 2017 after coming across a famous dancer on the Instagram Discover page. She was blown away by the athleticism and high flying tricks of pole and the expression of sensuous movement. With a competitive gymnastics background and a passion for music and dance, Hayley was looking for a way to incorporate her experience into a new activity. She took a few classes and later returned in 2019 and hasn’t stopped since! Her favorite styles are old school, twerk, Russian Hardstyle, and low flow/floorwork. She loves to learn new tricks and choreography. Hayley wants to share her love of pole dance with others as she believes it has the ability to change lives. She felt called to teaching by seeing happiness and the increase in self confidence it has brought to those around her.
She certified in XPERT Pole Level 1 & 2. Outside of pole dancing, Hayley loves to weightlift, take spin classes, go to concerts and music festivals, play computer games, and spend time with her friends and family.
Jade Rudd
Belly Dance Instructor
Jade started her dance background in early childhood with mixed forms of dance, and went through a period of focusing on being a vocalist and musician as a creative outlet before falling in love with bellydance all over again as an adult.
After 3 years as a belly dancer, she is thrilled to bring this beautiful art form to her new family at Phoenix, and especially loves to branch out into different, unique genres of music to bring bellydance to anyone looking to begin their journey!
She has also done lyra and has fallen in love with pole - No apparatus is left out, she wants to try them all!
When she isn’t dancing, Jade loves to play the violin, ride horses, and going to the shooting range, along with spending time with her beloved pet dog and snake.
Debora Greer
Choreo & Pole Instructor
Debora Greer (pole name Morgana Moon) started her pole and sensual movement journey in 2018 at Studio Golds and has been living upside down on and off since then. She started teaching floor work, lyrical pole and beginner pole in 2020.
Morgana believes that pole is as much of a healing art as any other dance form and she hopes to inspire her students to unapologetically believe in themselves in and out of class.
Fun fact: she is also a ballet dancer and teacher, a tarot reader and a herbalist student.
Rachel Kempf
Aerials Instructor
Rachel began taking aerials classes in 2018 and was immediately hooked. She has a particular love for the aerial hoop (lyra) and enjoys exploring new shapes, transitions, dynamic movement and choreography, but also dabbles in aerial silks and sling, pole, and pretty much any other gravity defying apparatus. She lives in Woodbridge with her partner Michael and retired racing greyhound Nixie. During the day she works for a public health vector control program monitoring mosquito and tick borne illnesses, and when she’s not in the air she spends her time photographing, scuba diving, and looking after her two massive Clydesdale horses.
Kai Levy
Aerials Instructor
Kai is new to aerial arts but has loved it since the minute they started. They have a background in dance and theater, and try to use those experiences in both lyra and silks.
As a non-binary person, they believe that aerial arts is for everyone and want to help others like them feel safe when learning. They’re excited to start teaching and can’t wait to continue improving in the air.
Sherrie Trabue
Flexibility & Aerials Instructor
Sherrie started her love of aerials and flexibility with pole dancing classes. Soon after starting pole , she competed and placed in PSO competitions in the Exotic category. To gain the flexibility required for advanced pole tricks, she started training contortion and fell in love with the intense but rewarding practice. From that training she branched out into performing on multiple apparatuses, including chains, flying pole, Lyra, straps, and Lollipop Lyra.
Jenn Parrara
Pole Instructor
Jenn (stage name Belladonna) started her pole journey in 2019 after being interested but very scared for a few years. She fell in love and it quickly became an obsession, not having stopped since. After seeing the positive changes in herself, both mentally and physically, watching her own confidence grow, she knew she wanted to teach and pass on that feeling to other humans.
Growing up and loving to dance, pole let her find brand new loves, from being able to incorporate her own creepy style during a choreo, learning to dance with a chair, and all new types of aerial art, but first and foremost she is a self identified ‘trick b*tch’ enjoying working on spin pole combinations and strength based moves and tricks on the pole and off.
She just opened her own boutique nail salon, and is an artist at heart. When she is not in the studio you can find her crocheting, making spirit catchers or having fun doing photo shoots.
Peggy Quezada
Choreo Instructor
Peggy did gymnastics until the age of 18 and was a co-ed cheerleader in college. She discovered pole in 2018 and fell in love! She enjoys various styles and learning new ways to move. Her favorite style is Russian, especially hard style.
She is currently working on a perinatal fitness certification, works as an RN specializing in postpartum and labor and delivery as well as a board certified lactation consultant. Peggy lives with her two children and two dogs in Northern VA.
Courtney
Aerials Instructor
Courtney (stage name Cora) has been training aerial silks since 2014. She has trained primarily in the Northern Virginia and Philadelphia areas. She has also trained at NECCA in Vermont and travel to Russia, Greece, Scotland, Los Angeles and Kentucky for additional training. In 2020, she completed the Born to Fly level 1 teacher training for aerial silks. Courtney is excited to share her passion for aerial silks with the Phoenix community.
Alicia
Choreo & Pole Instructor
Alicia began their dance journey at 11 years old at Virginia Dance Center where they learned ballet, pointé, jazz, and lyrical/contemporary. They took part in several company recitals as well as numerous individual projects using dance as a medium. Two years ago they fell in love with pole dancing and haven’t stopped since! They hope to inspire confidence and self esteem through their interactions with students. Dance has always been an integral part of their busy life as a student, caregiver, and several other occupations. They are currently studying to complete their degree in Environmental Science.
In their off time they enjoy collecting plants, watching movies, and spending time with their dog and cats.
Samuel Faulkner
Chair Acro Instructor
Meet Samuella aka Black Diamond. She's located in northern Virginia, and has been poling for the last 7 years, specializing in chair dance, flexibility, lyra, and aerial hammock. She began her pole journey as a source of workout and soon fell in love with the empowerment, strength, and the people she has met along the way. She is all about the sensual flow of things while incorporating her flexibility. She enjoys performing at showcases or anywhere an apparatus can be found.
She is currently obtaining her XPERT Certification in Aerial Sling and has connected with chair dancers around the world.
