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Our Instructors

Sarah Woerner

Sarah Woerner

Owner/Director

Sarah has danced at Dimensions Studio since the age of 5 when Dimensions opened its doors in 1997. Sarah danced competitively and won several high awards for her performances over the years. She continued with her dance training through college and into adulthood. While in college, she performed with the Bailey Mountain Cloggers Dance Team in Mars Hill and the Catawba College Dance Ensemble in Salisbury, NC. At a young age, Sarah performed on Off-Broadway in New York City after receiving extensive training from many distinguished instructors and choreographers, including attending Beginnings Workshop under the direction of Petr Sklar. For a short time, Sarah also trained under ballet master, Wayne Burritt at Dimensions Studio in Mars Hill. Sarah is a registered member of Acrobatique and is in the process of receiving her Jr Acrobatics certification. She has acted as a guest judge and master instructor at several studios around the Western North Carolina area. Sarah was an instructor with Betsy’s School of Dance in Franklin, NC and Tiger, GA from 2014-2018. She has led dance teams from both studios to winning high awards at regional dance competitions. With more than 15 years of teaching experience, Sarah became the owner of Dimensions Studio in Mars Hill in 2018 and Weaverville in 2021. Sarah serves as the artistic director and head choreographer of the All-Star Performance Team and acts as an instructor at both locations. Sarah attends several dance conferences each year to extend her dance, instruction, and business knowledge. Sarah thrives on sharing the love of dance with her community, she is inspired to instill confidence and positive dance experiences in young dancers. It was always a dream of hers to become the owner of Dimensions, her home studio which has a special place in her heart.

Sarah is married to the love of her life, Allen. Together they have 3 sons- Oaklee, and twin boys Archer & Woodson!

Abria Pelka

Abria Pelka

Mars Hill Dance Instructor

Abria Pelka is a dancer, teacher, and choreographer. She specializes in hip hop, jazz-funk, and contemporary. She is originally from San Diego CA, where she danced competitively for 12 years but now resides in North Carolina and teaches hip hop and jazz-funk. When she’s not dancing she’s either taking care of her farm animals or building tiny homes with her husband.
Caitlin Wilde

Caitlin Wilde

Weaverville Dance Instructor

Miss Caitlin grew up in Weaverville and went to school in the North Buncombe district. She previously taught at Weaverville Dance Academy for four years, 2016-2020, teaching beginner hip hop and lyrical. She took dance for 13 years at Weaverville Dance Academy before attending college. Miss Caitlin went to Mars Hill University and graduated in 2018 with a degree in Middle Grades education with concentrations in English/Language Arts and Social Studies. She currently teaches fifth grade at Enka Intermediate School. She is married to her high school sweetheart. They now live in Marshall with their two cats. We are so excited to have her on staff at Dimensions!

 

Candice Howard

Candice Howard

Mars Hill Dance Instructor

Bio Coming Soon!

Charlotte Hovey

Charlotte Hovey

Mars Hill Dance Instructor

Miss Charlotte is a professional Dancer, Singer, and Actor as well as an instructor/choreographer of Classical Ballet, Pre-Pointe/Pointe, Jazz, and Musical Theatre. Her most recent role was performing year-round in Broadway’s North American Tour of Phantom of the Opera. She also holds nationally recognized teaching certifications in both Yoga & Pilates, beginning her professional Adult Fitness Instructor career while living in NYC. Charlotte began to volunteer teaching Dance, Theater, and Yoga in her teenage years realizing that she thoroughly enjoyed helping others learn how to express themselves and to understand how to connect with their bodies through movement. She is very excited to be joining the Dimensions Studio staff and is looking forward to meeting and sharing experiences with the people in her new community.
Elaine Gonzalez

Elaine Gonzalez

Weaverville Office Manager

Over the past 15 years, Elaine served as Director of Operations at Legal Club – a nationwide legal referral service headquartered in south Florida. There, she successfully managed and optimized company wide operations, supervised the functions of all internal departments, and analyzed and effectively mitigated risks. Elaine’s career path also includes experience in marketing, customer service, and administration where she displayed her capacity to multi-task and empathize, promoting a team spirit among associates. After raising her family in south Florida, Elaine and her husband decided to retire from full-time work in 2020, and build a new home in Weaverville, North Carolina. She is looking forward to becoming involved in giving back to her community, drawing from her extensive experience and skills. Dimension’s ethos to achieving a healthy, active lifestyle fits right in with Elaine’s life philosophy of mindful living. It is with these mutual goals, that Elaine is eager to assist the Dimensions team to achieve their goals!

Emily Bassinger

Emily Bassinger

Mars Hill Dance Instructor

Emily Bassinger began dancing at the age of four at Louisburg School of Dance in Louisburg, North Carolina. She began with ballet and tap and progressed to jazz, lyrical, clogging and pointe. While at Louisburg, she performed at local festivals, competitions, and while in high school, performed at the North Carolina State Fair in the Clogging Competition. Emily graduated from high school in 2008 and continued her education at Mars Hill College where she received a B.S. degree in Business Administration and a Minor in Spanish. While at Mars Hill she was a member of the 21 time National Champion Team, The Bailey Mountain Cloggers. Emily held the position of Craft Chair her senior year. While on BMC she participated in many competitions, community events/festivals and traveled overseas to Germany. Emily works as the office coordinator for Haw Flether Elementary School in Asheville.  She loves being a part of the Dimensions Studio family.
Gina Elrod

Gina Elrod

Tots Instructor

Gina Elrod believes in keeping the fun in fitness! Gina understands how early beginnings in movement can lead to lifelong healthy habits. Her goals are to “encourage wellness, community, and good fun.” She is an A.F.A.A. (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America) Certified Personal Fitness Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor (since 2004) and is dedicated to encouraging functional
movement improvement for all ages. Gina is dedicated to encouraging those new to fitness with easy to follow workouts and practical tips. She also offers variety to those already making the consistent movement commitment. As one of Gina’s long-time fitness class participants said “Gina is warm and welcoming. She works hard at making sure everyone, of all ages and fitness levels, gets a good workout. She is committed to continuing education in fitness and regularly brings new ideas to the workouts”

Halea Baker

Halea Baker

Mars Hill Clogging Instructor

Meet Ms. Halea! She has been dancing for almost 19 years! Growing up, she studied many different styles of dance, but clogging has always been her true passion. She has taught many different camps, classes, and even traveled internationally multiple times with the motivation to share all of her knowledge about the rich history that clogging holds. Ms. Halea has won many different awards through clogging, including being inducted into the ACHF clogging hall of fame in 2015, 2017, and Team of the Decade in 2020. She is currently a rising senior at Mars Hill University studying Integrated Health Science with a concentration in Occupational Therapy. She is a member of the Bailey Mountain Cloggers and the MHU Dance Team!

Julie Worley

Julie Worley

Mars Hill Office Assistant

Julie joined our office staff team in 2019. Before becoming a stay at home mom, she worked for 10 years for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Her two daughters, Jaycee and Jade, both dance at Dimensions. Julie loves to spend her time helping the studio any way she can. She is a vital part of our staff and we are thrilled to have her at Dimensions!

Leanne Gompers

Leanne Gompers

Weaverville Dance Instructor

Miss Leanne is a teacher of ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical and theater, and has been teaching for over 30 years! She received her BFA in Dance from the Boston Conservatory in 1986. After graduating, Leanne taught dance classes, choreographed, and performed in studios and Community Theaters in the NJ areas where she grew up.
In 1990, she opened a dance studio in Wilmington, NC to be near Carolco Film Studios. During her 7 years there, Leanne had the privilege of choreographing for the television series “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”, and performed in the movie: “Radio Land Murders” as a Featured Dancer. She married the love of her life, Brian, and continued teaching while raising their sons.
Leanne and her family moved to Asheville in 2006. She performed in the Asheville Ballet Nutcracker; choreographed numerous Musical Theater productions for local schools that her sons attended; and was a Ballet Instructor for 12 years at Weaverville Dance academy in Weaverville.
Dimensions is so excited to have her on staff this coming season!

LINDSEY GUILLIAMS

LINDSEY GUILLIAMS

Weaverville Dance Instructor

Miss Lindsey began dancing at age 4 right here in the Dimensions Weaverville studio- formerly Weaverville Dance Academy (WDA). She was trained in ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical and hip hop. After being there 14 years she continued dancing in college as a member of Appalachian State University’s Entropy Dance Crew, as well as post-grad in Wilmington, NC as a member of Physical Graffeeti. Lindsey loves to share her love of dance wherever she can and has most recently taught jazz, tap and hip hop classes at Creative Republic Dance Academy in Franklin, NC and led movement groups to clients at an addiction treatment center in Asheville, NC. Lindsey was also a dance instructor at WDA student in 2014, and again during WDA’s 2019-20 season. Currently, Lindsey works for an optometry practice in South Asheville and is thrilled to have Dimensions as her newest dance home!

Marta Cano

Marta Cano

Zumba Instructor

Bio Coming Soon!

Maya Harrell

Maya Harrell

Mars Hill Dance Instructor

Meet Ms. Maya! She has danced at Dimensions for 10 years, taking acro classes her entire career. She has been an assistant Acro instructor for 5 of those years. Ms. Maya’s favorite dance styles have always been Contemporary and Acro. She is currently a student at Madison High School, and plans to attend UNC Chapel Hill to study forensic psychiatry or law.

Ruth Van Sickle

Ruth Van Sickle

Mars Hill Yoga Instructor

Ruth has been a student of Yoga for many years.  She received her certification in 2007 from the Asheville Yoga Center.  She has completed her 200 hour and 500 hour teacher training, being certified in Yin Yoga, Vinyasa Flow, Kids, Restorative and Pre-Natal Yoga.  She previously taught in Weaverville, Haywood County, at the Mars Hill Library and in Johnson City, TN.  Ruth has worked with all ages including the very young to the very young at heart.  She is excited to bring the benefits of balance, relaxation, and strength offered from Yoga to Dimensions Studio.
Samantha Morgan

Samantha Morgan

Mars Hill Dance Instructor

Samantha Morgan started her dance career at the age of three in Sanford, N.C. She trained in ballet, jazz, tap, modern, and clogging. After attending several studios in the area, Samantha found her home at Holly Springs School of Dance in Holly Springs, N.C. While in high school, she was the captain of the Lee County High School Dance Team and assisted in teaching several studio classes. At HSSOD, Samantha was a member of the Springs Dance Company. As an alumni member, she has taken part in several opportunities with the establishment, including being a team member with their annual Costa Rica Dance Mission Trip and chaperoning dancers performing in the 2021 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Samantha graduated from Appalachian State University in 2017 with a BSW and a minor in Dance Studies. At ASU, Samantha was cast in several performances with the Appalachian Dance Ensemble and Independent Choreography Projects. She also choreographed four lip sync dance performances for her sorority as a part of ASU’s Homecoming and Greek Weeks. Upon graduating, Samantha moved to the Asheville area to pursue graduate school, and a career in social work. She is currently a school based therapist at Leicester Elementary School. Samantha is extremely excited to once again return to her lifelong love of dance in the form of teaching at Dimensions!
Sheena East

Sheena East

Studio Fit Personal Trainer

Sheena East is a Certified Personal Trainer who specializes in women’s health, fitness and weight loss. She loves empowering women through strength and weight loss she also has experience in working with building muscle and gaining strength with men and women. She knows everybody’s body is different and has knowledge in different ways of pain management which ranges from back pain, knee pain, hip tightness to neck and shoulder pain. Sheena has worked in a small group fitness setting to big box gym settings and loves helping others start or continue a fitness lifestyle that in turn makes for a healthier lifestyle.
Taylor LotTeS

Taylor LotTeS

Mars Hill Dance Instructor

Miss Taylor grew up in WNC and studied dance from the age of 5 years old at Betsy’s School of Dance in Franklin NC. Taylor took a variety of dance styles with Ballet and Jazz being her favorites. Taylor spent her senior year of high school as a boarding student at the the NC School of the Arts in Winston Salem NC, with a focus on Drama and Musical Theater. Taylor has spent the last 10 years in Asheville teaching part time as a Zumba instructor and substitute for multiple dance classes. You can find Taylor enjoying live music venues, dancing to the beat of her own drum and spending quality time with her little family. Taylor has two daughters who will be starting at classes at Dimensions Dance Studio this year, and are all anxiously awaiting for classes to start