Miss Terri is the director of Next  Step Dance Studio.  She holds her Master Certification in dance from Chicago National Association of Dance Masters.  She has served as a Board Member, Treasurer and currently is the Principal (hires Faculty for the organization).  She earned her B.F.A. degree in dance from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.  She has over 30 years of teaching experience.  Her passion is teaching children the love of dance.

Katie grew up in Wisconsin Rapids, WI, where she was a competitive cheerleader for ten years. She competed on the JV and Varsity Co-ed teams in high school. She also trained in Ballet, Jazz, Modern and Pointe at Dance With Pam for seven years. Katie has been teaching dance for over 5 years at the YMCA in La Crosse, for the city of Middleton Recreation Department, and for Dancercise Kids LLC. She was a KID from Wisconsin Singer/Dancer, and toured the state of Wisconsin for two summers. She has attended Chicago Dance Masters Training, and was a Central Wisconsin Dance Camp Staff Member for two summers. In 2013, Katie was crowned Miss Wisconsin Rapids Area, and competed in the Miss Wisconsin Pageant. She has been and continues to judge local cheerleading and dance competitions throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota. Katie graduated from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse with a B.S. in Business Management, and is now pursuing a Juris Doctor Degree at Marquette University Law School.

Miss Amanda has 30 years of dance experience. She took 15 years of studio dance which included training in tap, jazz, ballet, and pointe. She has been teaching dance for 16 years at both the competitive and recreational levels. She was also an award winning choreographer for a junior high and high school dance team for 5 years in southeastern Wisconsin earning nine state titles within her five years choreographing with the teams. She has also served as the WACPC Dance Judge Coordinator responsible for training and hiring regional and state dance judges for the state of Wisconsin, a USASF Worlds Dance judge, and a regional and national level studio and scholastic dance judge with several competition producers. She was a former member of the Danceworks On Tap performance group, which took her love for tap to the next level. She loves working with the students at Next Step to educate, inspire, and create while making once in a lifetime dance memories. She is looking forward to another year of watching each dancer's technique and passion for dancing grow.

Miss Laura grew up in Madison, WI where she began taking dance at a young age. She trained at the Madison Professional Dance Center (MPDC) in ballet, jazz, tap, contemporary and modern dance for 10 years. Throughout her years there, she was also apart of their company, competing throughout Wisconsin and Illinois. In High School she joined the school’s dance team, performing at football and basketball games, and was captain her Junior and Senior years. At age 18, Miss Laura had the honor of dancing with her MPDC teachers, as well as other local dancers, in a production that was performed at the Overture Performing Arts Center. She then moved to Milwaukee, WI to attend the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, receiving a bachelors in Early Childhood Education. Miss Laura has been teaching kindergarten for Milwaukee Public Schools since 2015 and is going back to school at UWM for her masters. Miss Laura is so excited to join the Next Step Dance family and to help teach the new Twinkle Star dance program for our youngest dancers!

Rizzie started dancing at the age of 10 at Elite Dance Center in Dyer, Indiana. She always admired the joy her dance teacher put in every class, competition, and recital. I’ve always wanted to a teacher like her and inspire new dancers through optimism and the love of dancing! I love Next Step because everyone feels like a family. It is a welcoming place of passionate dancers at every age!

Rae began her dance training at the age of 8 and was instantly in love. Her studio dance education was complimented by programs with the Milwaukee Ballet School and Danceworks. Growing up as a student and assistant on the competition circuit, she studied lyrical, jazz, tap, hip-hop, classical and contemporary ballet/pointe and received numerous awards, recognitions, titles and scholarships which led her to Summer intensives with companies such as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the Rock School in Philadelphia.
As a teen, Rae was featured in modern dance performances in the Netherlands and Germany. She was also active in theater, including a run as “Kristine” in “A Chorus Line”.
At 18, Rae moved to Los Angeles to dance and perform for stage and screen. While making a living doing industrial and commercial dance work, she took every opportunity to learn from and/or perform with contemporary and jazz choreographers, including Justin Giles, Mia Michaels and Dee Caspary.
Rae has taught dance for close to fifteen years and is the Artistic Director of Friction Dance Company, collaborating with local dancers, artists, directors and musicians to bring dance to an atypical audience. She is thrilled to return to Next Step and inspired to be working with such a talented and hard-working group of young dancers.

Miss Lori enjoyed a 20-year history with the Milwaukee Ballet. She joined the company under the direction of Ted Kivitt and quickly progressed to soloist and featured dancer. Having roles in over 35 different ballets, she gained invaluable knowledge dancing traditional classical repertoire, as well as performing the choreography of Alvin Ailey, Coo San Goh, Sir Frederick Ashton, Agnes De Mille, Ruth Page and numerous Balanchine works. Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen and Clara from the Nutcracker, Pas de Trois from Swan Lake, and Bluebird pas de demux from Sleeping Beauty were some of her featured roles. After retiring from the stage, Ms. Romito was invited by Milwaukee Ballet Artistic Director Basil Thompson to assume the role of Assistant to the Ballet Master where she maintained such duties as rehearsing and staging major productions including Swan Lake, Giselle and Coppelia. As a result she was then appointed to the position of Assistant Ballet Mistress under Artistic Director Dane LaFontsee. Her responsibilities included daily scheduling of all company rehearsals, instruction of company and professional trainee classes, and rehearsing classics such as The Nutcracker, Les Sylphides, Cinderella and Balanchine’s Who Cares? Her early training gave her the opportunity to take many leading roles in a variety of dance styles including ballet, jazz, tap and ballroom partnered dancing. She received extensive American and International training with some of the world’s top instructors including Richard Ellis and Christine DuBaoulay, former artists with the Sandler’s-Wells Royal Ballet, Larry Long, designated as one of the top 20th century Ballet Masters and featured in the book “The Art of Teaching Ballet”, and the Joffrey Ballet School, New York. Ms. Romito was a cherished instructor with the Milwaukee Ballet and School for over 15 years teaching intermediate through advanced dancers including summer intensive workshops. She has been a featured guest instructor with many pre-professional ballet schools throughout the midwest. Currently she lives in New Berlin, Wisconsin with her husband and daughter.

Miss Stephanie started dancing at the age of 5 at Encore dance studio in Cudahy, WI under the direction of Lee Burke and Amy Brinkman (Danceworks). She then transitioned to one of Miss Terri’s first high school dancers when she opened in 1997 and completed her training at Next Step!!! She was also a member of the Franklin high school Pom Pom team. She continued her dance training and received a Bachelor or Arts degree in dance from UW Milwaukee and has been teaching dance intermittently to all ages ever since. She is also certified in Pilates, previous Zumba instructor and personal trainer. She has taught many classes at various local gyms and Rec departments and also choreographs musicals for a local high school. She also has a bachelor of science degree in nursing and works intermittently as a registered nurse. She is thrilled to be returning to her home studio and to be able to share her passion of dance with her students!!

I have been dancing since the age of 2 years old. Growing up, I competitively danced at Denise Sabala Dance Studios and Dance Xplosion in Illinois. I professionally danced as a Milwaukee Bucks Dancer for 5 years from 2014-2019! During those years, I had the privilege to represent the Bucks organization overseas dancing in London, China, Taiwan and was selected as the All-Star Dancer in 2016 where I traveled to Toronto! I was also fortunate to back-up dance with Walk the Moon, Naughty by Nature, DMC, Montell Jordan, Blackstreet and Warren G!

Originally from Waukesha, Kessia is a life-long dancer. With an early foundation in competitive gymnastics, at age 7 she transitioned into classical ballet training with Milwaukee Ballet School and Academy, later going on to study at Miami City Ballet School. As a pre-professional student, Kessia studied jazz and contemporary alongside ballet and was selected to perform with the corps de ballet of both Milwaukee Ballet and Miami City Ballet. For the past 3 years she has enjoyed passing down her love of dance as a teacher at Petite Pas Ballet School in Delafield, and is thrilled to continue doing so at Next Step Dance Studio while she earns her undergrad at UW-Milwaukee.

Jasper Sanchez was born in Rockford, IL and started dancing at the age of 10. He is a self taught dancer and did not grow up training in a dance studio. Instead he got his training through YouTube videos and later on in high school where he attended Auburn High School and was a part of the Creative and Performing Arts program, where he was awarded the CAPAbility award, an award recognizing a student that embodied all aspects of the CAPA program decided by CAPA staff. He was also nominated for Visual Artist of the year in the RPS 205 school district. He continued his dance training in Milwaukee, where he attended school at Marquette university and pursued dance throughout the city in groups including HYPE, Origins, Water Street Dance Company, Bachelors, and SAINTS as well as performing for Danceworks. After training in styles of contemporary and hiphop, he was able to join Chicago Dance Crash and IMMAbeast. Other credits include Wisconsin Sports Awards, Summerfest, and even being in a KOSS commercial. He has taught a lot in the Midwest including Wisconsin, Chicago, and Michigan. His goal is to educate dancers on the importance of movement exploration as well as self discovery by providing creative movements and choreography to his students.