Faculty
Sandra Mitchell
Owner & Creative Director
Sandra Mitchell is an Atlanta native who has been active in the dance community for many years. She started young with baton and then moved to ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, gymnastics and acrobatics, She has loved performing and taking her students to perform at various festivals community events, charity benefits, and dance competitions.
As a professional, Sandra has enjoyed performing in, choreographing for, and assisting with many trade shows, live industrials, theater productions, benefits, church productions, and more. She began teaching full time at a local dance studio where she danced most of her youth. From 1991-1994 she was the owner and artistic director of North Atlanta Dance Centre in Alpharetta, GA. She then merged with Tolbert-Yilmaz School of Dance, where she taught from 1994-1999.
Sandra was fortunate to be involved in the 1996 Centennial Olympics. She was involved in the audition process and hired to be a first assistant choreographer in the production of each section of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. She was fortunate to work with Judy Chabola, Doug Jack, Ana Domingo, Kenny Ortega, Michelle Berube, as well as Lyn Heward and Boris from Cirque du Soliel. She also was chosen to perform in several sections and was one of eight, in a cast of thousands, to portray the Goddess of Victory – in the Traditions of the Games shadow piece.
In 2004, her family was relocated to Charlotte, NC where she directed the dance ministry at Church at Charlotte from 2005-2009. Because of her daughter’s interest, Sandra got involved teaching recreational gymnastics classes and ballet to the competitive gymnastics team at International Sports Center. In 2006, she was hired to be the assistant director of Charlotte Allstar Cheerleading.
In 2011 her oldest daughter got married, her middle daughter moved to Hawaii to attend HPU with a cheerleading scholarship, and her youngest daughter’s interest let them back to Sandra’s love - dance. Sandra taught at Miller Street Dance Academy for 2 years before relocating to Corona, CA.
Upon arriving in Corona Sandra had a difficult time finding a program that she wanted for her daughter which led to the development of Performing Arts Empire.
Sandra is blessed to have former students performing at Disney, on TV and film, on Broadway, American Ballet Theater, and running successful studios of their own. She brings a wide variety of experience to her endeavors and is excited to be pursuing her passion in Southern California
Ariel Buckingham
Owner & Managing Director
Having spent most of her youth in the world of dance studios and her high school heavily involved with coaching competitive cheerleading and gymnastics, Ariel Buckingham has a plethora of experience to bring to the table as management and additional teaching staff. Through supporting herself through college as a nanny in both Georgia and California, she has acquired a solid perspective on what parents want for their children that she hopes will ensure the success of parent-teacher relations. Her knack for detail and organization will serve to create a functional and fun environment for working and learning.
Tiffanie Levin
Financial Director
Tiffanie Levin is a California native who grew up in Orange County and surrounding areas.She has over 25 years of experience teaching voice, music theory, choreographing, and performing professionally. After high school she attended Mt. San Antonio College where she began her studies in music. While in college she studied voice under the direction of Janice McVeigh (Classical voice), Maude Moore (Classical Voice), and Andrea Baker Wilkerson (Classical, Jazz, Musical Theater). She also recorded a jazz cd with the Mt. SAC jazz, was dance captain for the Mt. SAC Singers, and was the music department lead soprano. During her college years she performed in countless musical theater productions as well as charity events. In the years following college, Tiffanie worked for several high schools choreographing for show choirs, teaching private voice lessons, doing voice-over work for animated cartoon, performing in community theater, and doing background work for music videos. She was also the chairperson for the National Federation of Music (Corona Chapter) for several years. She continues to perform locally and thoroughly enjoys teaching young people to sing and perform as they build confidence in their skill as well as themselves.
Natalie Bou
Company Director; Instructor- Ballet, Tap,Jazz, Contemporary,
Natalie found her love for dance at a very young age and teaching soon became her biggest passion. She graduate from OCHSA in 2001 and was a part of the Commercial Dance Department. She has taught and performed throughout Orange County & L.A for over 11 years. Working with many different dance studios and High School Dance Teams. Natalie has danced for Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios and was a featured dancer on Nickelodeons “Unfabulous”. She has also received her Yoga certification and teaches private and group Yoga sessions. Natalie is thrilled to be a part of the Performing Arts Empire family and can not wait to share her love for dance with her students.
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Analiese Alfonsi
Troupe Director; Instructor- Acrobatics
Analiese Alfonsi was born and raised in Southern California where she met and married her high school sweetheart. She now has 2 daughters. Analiese was trained in cheerleading beginning in 2nd grade, and was on the cheer team at Corona High School. She earned a B.S. degree in Kinesiology with a concentration in Pedagogy from Cal State San Bernardino. Throughout her college career and beyond, she coached competitive gymnastics as well as recreational classes of all ages where she was able to apply my cheerleading experience, education and love for youth! She is thrilled to be joining the Performing Arts Empire family, and share her extensive gymnastics knowledge with dancers of all ages and levels!
Bethany Sahagun
Instructor- Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical
Bethany Sahagun is from Norco, CA. Bethany excelled in Volleyball and Basketball from age 9, and started dance training at Performing Arts Empire. Bethany plays various instruments including piano, guitar and ukulele. She currently attends Riverside City College and is studying Hip-Hop and Modern styles. Her passion and love for dance grows every day, and she truly enjoys inspiring young children through the art of dance.
Dani Dexter
Instructor- Acro, Ballet, Hip Hop, Jazz
Dani is a competitively trained dancer and gymnast with a focus on contemporary, acro- tumbling, ballet, jazz, and hip-hop. She received her most predominant training from Nuevo School of Contemporary Dance and Kips Gymnastics, and has continued her dance education through master instructors and conventions. She had the honor of dancing for the Professional Arena Football League as an LA KISS Girl and spent her second year on the team as Dance Captain. During her time spent on the team she had the privilege of working with top industry choreographers and performing with KISS. Dani was featured on the 2015 ESPY Awards Show at the Microsoft Theater and has also performed numerous times at the Staples Center
with the LA Sparks WNBA. Dani performed for the LA Sparks Home Opener production and danced back-up for recording artist, Antonique Smith. Additionally, Dani was part of the NBA Legends Dance Team that toured China, representing the USA overseas at celebrity basketball games and media appearances. Dani continues performing regularly at the Disneyland Resort in Pixar Play Parade, A Christmas Fantasy Parade, and numerous special events. Her past Disneyland experience includes Dj's Dance & Drive, Phineas & Ferb Rockin' Rollin' Dance Party, California Adventure’s Rockin’ New Year Party, and a Car’s Land commercial filming. She has also danced for Knotts Berry Farm Entertainment for four years and performed in several shows including, Calico Can Can Show, Peanuts Party in the Park, Snoopy's Merriest Tree Lighting, and It's the Merriest Christmas Show Ever Charlie Brown, where she was cast as a dancer/acrobat. She held the title of Dance Program Director at Centennial High School for two years and helped lead the team to placing top 5 on a national level, as well as having the dance team televised on Fox Sports. She has experience teaching ages 2-adult throughout studios and schools in the Riverside County and Orange County area, in addition to guest teaching classes and summer intensives. Dani feels passionately about sharing her knowledge and love for dance to all ages and aspires to make each of her students feel limitless in their potential and nurture their talents.
Jazmyne Moreno
Office Manager
Jazmyne started dancing at 3 years old at her aunts studio in Santa Fe Springs. She later moved to Upland and was on Upland High Schools Dance teams, and took many classes as electives. She continued to dance until she was 23. She has two children, Julian and Sophia. After her 7 year break from dance, at 30 years old she joined an adult dance studio and continues dancing till this day at 32 years old! Her specialties are jazz and tap, but she also has experience in ballet, pointe, Irish, hip hop, contemporary, lyrical, and musical theater. Besides working in the office here at PAE, she is also a licensed esthetician and lash tech during the day at a studio in Jurupa Valley. She currently resides in Fontana, Ca with her kids, and her amazing boyfriend Steven. She loves theme parks and making memories with her family. And she is SO excited to be here at PAE!
Lauren Holmes
Instructor- Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Pilates
Lauren grew up dancing with Performing Arts Empire from the age of ten all the way through high school. Before finding Performing Arts Empire, she trained in gymnastics, dance, soccer, volleyball, and basketball. She also enjoys surfing, traveling, and cooking. When our studio opened, she fell in love with dance all over again in the summer classes and joined in season one. She was a part of our student assistant program, Troupe team, and Company team. She danced competitively for three years, was the team captain in the 2018-2019 season, and competed in the Dance Masters of America titles competition. Through the Troupe team, she was given many performance opportunities and loved performing. As a student assistant throughout all her years of dancing as a student at Performing Arts Empire, she was given the opportunity to help lead classes, and found her passion for working with kids and teaching. After graduating high school, she danced at Orange Coast College and studied choreography, modern, contemporary, and improvisation, child development, kinesiology and more. She performed in the 2021 fall concert. She started teaching at our studio after she graduated and is now in the process of becoming certified in mat and reformer Pilates. Her favorite styles of dance are contemporary, jazz, and pointe.
Marisa Alfaro
Instructor- Musical Theater, Jazz
Marisa Alfaro is a quadruple threat that loves to entertain others from the range of infants to adults. Marisa has gained numerous award from competitions but one of her highlights is achieving 3rd place overall singer/performer. She is trained in singing, acting, dancing, and playing the flute. Aside from performing for local theatre groups, Marisa has performed for Carnival Cruise line, Mountain High Ski resort, Knotts Berry Farm, and Seaworld. She is currently a performer for a cosplay party entertaining group and a dance teacher at Performing Art Empire. Marisa is a current student at California Baptist University studying Vocal Performance, with an emphasis in Musical Theatre.
Molly Marksbury
Instructor- Acro, Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical
Molly is a competitively trained dancer, with a love of creative and new movement. She recognized her love of dance at 11 years old and has been pursuing it ever since. She is pursuing a kinesiology major, dance minor, ASL interpreting license, and Special Education certificate. She is so excited to teach and create movement and art with her students.