MEET OUR TEAM
Amie Hanrahan
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Amie studied classical ballet with Long Beach Ballet Arts and studied under David Wilcox with the Los Angeles Classical Ballet as well as the OC Metropolitan Ballet. During her childhood, she performed the roles of Clara and Snow Queen in the Nutcracker as well as performed in productions of A Mid Summer's Night Dream and Romeo & Juliet. In high school, she won multiple National Dance Competitions and was recognized in 1999 as the United Spirit Association's Top Dancer of the Year. Amie attended USC and majored in communications and minored in dance and was a member of the Trojan Dance Force, their nationally ranked competitive dance team. During her time on Trojan Dance Force, she worked with many top industry choreographers such as Mina and Marina Ortega, Andy Vaca and John Peters. Amie began Ballet With Miss Amie in 2011 after the birth of her second son. As a life long dancer, she desired to return to dancing after motherhood and found her passion in teaching young children ballet. In 2012 she co-founded Little Princess Academy, and in 2015 opened up her first studio in Sierra Madre.
Anneliese Klages
COMPANY DIRECTOR
Anneliese is an award winning dance teacher and choreographer with over 20 years of dance experience. As a child, she trained in all genres of dance, with a main focus on ballet and pointe work. She worked with many prominent choreographers, including Lincoln Jones of the American Contemporary Ballet Company and Lawrence Rosenberg of the Anaheim Ballet. After graduating high school, Anneliese started her professional career. She has performed with many prominent dance companies including the Anaheim Ballet Company, Elle Vie Dance Company, and the Rubans Rouge Company. Anneliese has also performed at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, and has appeared in many commercials and shows. While receiving her Bachelor's Degree from Chapman University, Anneliese fell in love with teaching dance to children, and has helped many of her students pursue professional dance careers. She feels very blessed to teach throughout Southern California.
Helene Williamson
BALLET DIRECTOR
Helene was raised in La Canada Flintridge and her dance training began there which led to her ongoing training around the country. Awarded scholarships and trained at the esteemed School of American Ballet at Juilliard, the American Ballet Theatre School, the Joffrey School, Pennsylvania Ballet School, and the San Francisco Ballet School she has studied with the most prestigious teachers in the world. At the age of 14, Helene was given an apprenticeship to the Minnesota Dance Theatre and mentored under founder Loyce Houlton.
In 1982, Helene joined the Los Angeles Ballet under John Clifford’s direction, before moving on to the Nevada Ballet Theatre. Her talent was recognized by international star Mikhail Baryshnikov, who invited her to be a part of his television special – leading to a series of other performances in movies and television.
These years proved to be artistically fulfilling with roles created especially for her, along with performing soloist/principal roles in Giselle, Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Paquita, Romeo and Juliet, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, Serenade and Cinderella to name a few. Unfortunately, a devistating hip injury brought her professional dance career to an abrupt end, just ten years later. It was during her recovery that she was introduced to the Pilates method. In 1997, Helene became a Certified Pilates Instructor by Master Teacher, Romana Kryzanowska. While raising her two children in La Canada dance continued to flow through her life and she remained teaching and coaching prominent artists including Yen Han, principal ballerina with Ballet Zürich, and in 2009 was recruited to oversee and develop a prominent dance school in Pasadena, California.Currently, she is a guest Master Teacher at Franklin School of Performing Arts in Tennessee and has an ongoing relationship with Civic Ballet and North Mississippi Dance Centre as guest Ballet Mistress. Helene is also on faculty at Sierra Madre Dance Center in California. In addition to group lessons, she shares her dance knowledge and expertise in private coaching sessions which are geared towards professional, pre-professional and competitive dancers.
In 2023, Ms Helene was named the director of SMDC’s pre-professional ballet division. Her unparalleled teaching and attention to detail has helped name Sierra Madre Dance Center as winner of Pasadena Weekly’s Readers Choice “Best of 2023” for dance studios. We are honored to have Ms Helene on staff and train our students on a daily basis.
Cheryllyne Krayer
HIP HOP DIRECTOR
Born and raised as a first-generation Filipino-American in Los Angeles, Cheryllyne fell in love with dance at an early age but started training later. She graduated from Azusa Pacific University with a degree in communication and a minor in leadership, and then spent two years in China as an English teacher. After returning, she began taking multiple dance classes for fun, soon after started dancing for a professional hip-hop artist, then began one of her life’s passions teaching ballet and tap to children ages 3 to 9 and managing a children’s fitness facility in the city of Monrovia for five years. She has performed in the Clippers pre-show, the Filipino musical “Noli Me Tangere”, and numerous dance productions at Mosaic, LA and at the Athletic Garage Dance Center in Pasadena. Cheryllyne joined Amie and her staff in 2017 as the hip hop instructor and is honored to part of the SMDC
family. As a dancer/choreographer, she hopes to inspire the youth to have confidence, to be humble, and develop good character through dance while at the same educating them on the history of hip hop culture. She currently lives in Pasadena with her husband Elliot. Outside of teaching dance, she works for an organization that provides educational opportunities to migrants and people in Asia.
Emily Relph
Emily has been singing, dancing, and performing since childhood. Emily studied dance at numerous competitive studios growing up, including Center Stage Dance Academy, Cutting Edge Dance Center and Inland Pacific Ballet. Emily attended the Orange County School of the Arts where she received training in the Musical Theater. Some of her credits while attending the Orange County School of the Arts were, Purity in Anything Goes, Ensemble in Titanic, and Kirstine in A Chorus Line, which was directed by Broadway star, Krysta Rodriguez. After attending OCSA for high school, Emily moved on to study her BFA in Musical Theater at Texas Christian University and performed in shows such as Everyman, Sweeney Todd, and Pippin, and was able to train with Broadway professionals. She is now studying Communication Studies at Azusa Pacific University. Emily’s professional credits include, Dance Ensemble, The Music Man; Alice, Bye Bye Birdie; Ensemble, Wizard of Oz, all at the Candlelight Pavilion. Another professional credit she has is Tammy in Hairspray with Broadway in the Park. Emily has an extreme passion for teaching children the arts.
Sarah Shahan
Sarah grew up in the San Gabriel valley and is thankful to work within a close community. She graduated from Azusa Pacific University with bachelor's and master's degrees in English, and is pursuing a second master's degree in Tolkien Studies. She has been dancing and performing for over fifteen years. Her training took place at studios such as Centre Stage Dance Academy and Athletic Dance Garage. During this time, she competed in dance competitions including KAR, Starpower, NUVO, and Showstoppers, and has been a part of nationally ranking teams. Sarah has also performed in dance ensembles in shows like Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, Guys and Dolls, and You're a Good Man Charlie Brown. Sarah was also a member of APU’s Hip Hop team from 2015-2016, performing at events throughout Los Angeles. She has experience in jazz/contemporary, ballet, hip hop, and tap and is especially interested in ballet and jazz technique. Her goal as an aspiring educator is to take what dance has given her and use it to guide young dancers to their full potential.
Kristen Fenwick
Kristen grew up in Lincolnshire, England. She studied ballet, tap, modern, jazz, and contemporary at the Joyce Mason School of Dance from the age of 2 until 19. Kristen has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fashion design from the University of Kingston in Surrey, and moved to Columbus, Ohio in 2005 for a job offer designing clothes for Abercrombie & Fitch.
As a child she successfully completed many years of RAD examinations, as well as regularly competing in both local and national dance competitions. Every year she performed in a 2 week long production with her dance school. Her favorite role was performing the sleeping beauty pas de deux. While at university, Kristen’s love of dance continued where she took adult dance classes, and while living in Columbus she took adult ballet classes with Balletmet.
Kristen moved to Pasadena in 2014 where she lives with her husband Matthew and their 3 children George, Henry and Darcy. She is delighted to be able to use her life long love of dance to teach students at Sierra Madre Dance Center.
Megan Lewis
Megan is the Co-Founder and Director of Little Princess Academy as well as the creator of Dream Come True Entertainment. Megan has enjoyed using her talents over the years to bring smiles to the hearts of children and parents alike through Princess Parties! With a natural love for party planning, she enjoys working alongside moms and dads to make every moment magical for their little princess. Megan grew up performing with Musical Youth Artists Repertory Theater (MYART) and Orange County High School of the Arts (OCHSA). She went on to receive her BFA degree in Musical Theater from California State University, Fullerton. Megan can also be found in the summer directing children’s productions for MYART at the Jewish Community Center in Long Beach, CA. Megan and her husband live in Monrovia, CA. with their little princess... Sarah and little prince...Liam.
Shelbi Keith
Shelbi Keith grew up in Odessa, Texas where she danced with a local studio from age 3-18. There she studied ballet, jazz, tap, and hip-hop but her favorites were always ballet and tap! In high school, she began teaching ballet and tap to the 3 and 4 year old classes in her local studio. Along with dancing, Shelbi also had a passion for music and played the violin in the orchestra from age 11-18. After attending college at Texas Christian University, Shelbi moved to Los Angeles to marry her high school sweetheart who was pursuing his career in the film industry. Shelbi started teaching dance at Ballet with Miss Amie in 2014. She and her husband currently live in Pasadena with their daughter Diane.