SHAE TAYLOR Artistic Director Shae brings 18-years of dancing and teaching experience with her to the program, and has a strong passion for Ballroom Dance that is contagious. She received her formal training from Brigham Young University where she received a BA in Ballroom Dance and was a member of the world-renowned BYU Ballroom Dance Tour Team. Shae worked as a student teacher at BYU for two years teaching Bronze level classes to hundreds of students, and took her first formation team to the National Championships where they placed fourth in their division.
After graduating in 1997 Shae moved to Nampa, Idaho where she taught dance at Nampa High School for three years and started a District-wide Ballroom Dance program in the high schools that grew to include three levels of instruction as well as a competition team. Her social dance classes were voted as "favorite class" by the student body.
In 1998 Shae and her husband Perry, also an accomplished Ballroom Dancer, founded the Class Act Ballroom Dance Company at Centre Stage Performing Arts Studio in Nampa. Many of her students from Class Act Ballroom have continued to pursue dance at various levels ,and have had tremendous opportunities and accomplishments including:
- Attending Universities with full-tuition Dance Scholarships.
- Competing at the World Championships in Blackpool, England
- Dancing at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China
- Touring Russia, Africa, and Europe
- Dancing professionally in shows and on cruise ships
- Perfoming in productions such as Jason Gilkison’s “Burn the Floor”
One of Shae’s former students is currently the United States Amateur National Smooth Champion! She is proud to have laid the foundation for their training and share her love of Ballroom Dance with them.
From 2001 to 2006 Shae owned and directed Class Act Dance Studio in Olympia ,Washington where she taught children ages 3-17. In 2003 she founded Dance Force which was a competitive dance company that competed and performed locally. During this time she also traveled to teach and choreograph for the Class Act Ballroom Dance Company in Nampa, the Pacific Ballroom Company in Federal Way, Washington, as well as other studios and Ballroom Dance schools.
In 2006 Shae and her family moved to Chandler, AZ to settle for good. She has continued to teach and choreograph around the valley for various dance studios and ballroom organizations. She is excited to be a part of the Arizona Dancesport Academy and share her talent, experience and passion with future generations of ballroom dancers! CONTACT
Dancing has been the love of her life since she was 5-years old. Elizabeth trained in classical ballet, jazz, tap, and hip-hop for 13-years. She also taught and assisted classes in those styles for 5-years at DancEnergy. She fell in love with ballroom dancing when she attended Brigham Young University. While there, she performed with the BYU Ballroom Dance Company and she expanded her horizons and danced with the International Folk Dance Ensemble as well! While training almost 20 hours a week, she somehow found time to earn her Bachelors of Science in Management and applied those dancing hours to her Minor in Ballroom Dance. Elizabeth started competing ballroom in syllabus events, quickly moving from bronze to the gold bar categories. She also competed in open events in Latin, Standard, and Smooth styles. In 2008, she had the privilege of being a teacher’s assistant for the BYU Youth Ballroom Camp and assisted professional ballroom dancers including Urs Geisenhainer, Christian Perry, Thomas Lewandowski, and Curt Holman in Latin, Standard, and American styles. Elizabeth is so excited to be a part of the Arizona Dancesport Academy!
