About TDA

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Our Values

The Dance Academy values the art of dance in every genre.

It is our goal to encourage and inspire each dancer as they gain exceptional technical training in various styles of dance at our Lehi dance classes

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Discipline That Leads To Confidence

Our dancers are well rounded, strong, happy and not only successful in dance, but in life.

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Training For Success

Always remember why you started, keep setting new goals and never give up. 

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Customer Loyalty Through Generations

Many students that have grown up at TDA, are now bringing their children to our studio and dance classes. s

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Our Main Focus Is You

We take pride in being an exceptional smaller studio because we can better get to know all of our dancers and their personalities. 

Lehi dance classes

Our Team

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Jill bio photo

Jill W. Trane

Owner, Instructor, Jazz, Acro-Tumbling, Lyrical

Jill is the owner and an instructor for TDA. She has been dancing and singing since the age of three. Her love of theater began when she was fourteen when was selected to star in the leading roll of "Clara."  Jill has always had a passion and gift for working with youth and children.  She began her dance training with Joan Lacombe, then went on to Alpine Stars.  Jill began teaching and choreographing routines at the age of 14. She went on to choreograph for AF High School Cheer, AF High School Dance and AMTA.

During H.S. Jill starred in The Sound of Music, received Best Soprano 150-member choir, was awarded several college scholarships in Academics, Musical Dance Theater, and Vocal Performance. She lettered in Dance, Theater, Cheer, Choir, Academics, and graduated Magna Cum Laude, top 10% of her class.

Jill was crowned Miss American Fork, a Top Five Finalist at Miss Utah and received the Talent Award with a Perfect Score at both Miss Utah and Miss American Fork.
She choreographed and directed The Safety Kids and performed for elementary schools all over Utah Valley promoting Drug-Free Schools.

Jill has played leading roles in My Fair Lady, Forum, The Gift of Christmas, West Side Story, as well as LDS Motion Pictures and many others. She was offered professional leading roles in Les Miserable and Phantom of the Opera. She was part of Sharing the Light for 10 years and directed many dance, vocal, and theater productions. She was awarded Best Actress and was part of the Dean’s List at Weber State College.

Jill has judged numerous scholarship pageants as well as vocal and dance competitions. As Director, Choreographer and Instructor she has received awards for Best Sportsmanship, Best Choreography, Best Director, Platinum, High Point, Best Costume, Best Technique and Best Showmanship. Her students have gone on to receive college scholarships, pageant awards, dance endowments, and make high school and collegiate level drill and dance teams.

Jill is a Certified Acro - Tumbling Instructor with Acrobatic Arts.

She enjoys serving her community and has coached and choreographed for Lone Peak High School, Skyridge and Lehi Youth Cheer for several years. Her teams have won the Spirit Award, Top Banana and 1st Place.

Jill treasures her family. She loves the community of Lehi and is proud to call it home.

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Cecilee Trane

Jazz, Hip Hop, Ballet, Contemporary, Acro-Tumbling

Cecilee's love of dance has lasted her whole life. She has danced at The Dance Academy since she was only 2 years old.  She was a Winner of the Provo Baby Contest when she was 2 1/2 because of her passion for performing. Throughout her childhood she won Overall Grand Champion and Specialty Awards for Performance and Showmanship in both solo and team routines, numerous times.

Cecilee was the President for Skyridge High School Drill Team and the Captain for Skyridge High School Dance Company. She was a member of both for three years. Cecilee was the Skyridge High School Homecoming Queen in 2018. She graduated with a 3.99 GPA, lettered in Drill, and was awared High Honor Roll and Academic All Region. 

Cecilee was the lead dancer in a music video produced by Zev Duke in 2019. She has also danced for the opening of a Young Living Event featuring Carrie Underwood.

She has choreographed multiple routines of different styles for TDA and in the last two years she has received multiple Judges Choice Awards including: Best Choreography, Best Technique, Artistic Award, Best Showmanship, as well as Multiple Overall Grand Champion in 2020.

Cecilee is a certified Acro-Tumbling Teacher with Acrobatic Arts.

Cecilee is currently attending Universtiy of Phoenix, studiying Business Marketing with an Association of Arts. She teaches Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop, Contemprary, Lyrical, and Acro-Tumbling dance classes. Cecilee brings fresh ideas and lots of creativity to our TDA family. Lehi dance classes

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Tandy Twitty

Office Manager, Instructor

Tandy’s love for dance and performance started at age 5 when she started her first dance class. She grew up in Lindon and was a cheerleader for the Pleasant Grove Junior High Squad, and was a member of The Dance Company for Pleasant Grove High School. Tandy was also a model and was featured in many advertisements and runway shows such as Capelli’s Salon, JMR Clothing, The Palace, and many bridal stores. Tandy was featured as a mannequin model at several clothing stores in The University Mall.

Tandy was a dental assistant for 4 years. She then worked for a local orthodontist as an office manager for several years. She did accounting and advertising for The Holy Cow Boutique. She taught the ready to learn program for KBYU, teaching mothers how to integrate reading and hands-on activities with their toddlers and young children to better help them retain information.

Tandy resides in Lehi with her husband and four children. She has been working at The Dance Academy for seven years, and teaching dance classes for four of those years.  She takes the love she has for dance and the knowledge she has gained to provide the best environment for young children to develop their love and talent for dance.

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Hally Smith

Jazz, Hip Hop, Ballet, Acro-Tumbling, Contemporary

At age 5, Hally started her dance training at Center Stage in Orem, Utah and continued dancing through High School at The Vibe in Pleasant Grove, Utah under the direction of Rick Robinson, Kellie Messerly, and Alan Salazar.

Hally has had many opportunities to perform and compete from coast to coast including being a finalist with The Vibe on Paula Abdul’s TV show, “Live to Dance” in 2011. As a result of that show, her team was invited to perform in The Chinese New Year Parade and several venues in Hong Kong.

Hally has received several High Point, Best Choreography, Best Technique and First Place awards for her choreography. She has creative and beautiful choreography, pushes her students to excel and creates a love for dance in the studio.

Hally has been formally trained in Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop, Ballroom, Tumbling and Contemporary, and loves to be able to pass along this training to the dancers at The Dance Academy.

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Brooke Darger

Ballet, Lyrical, Jazz, Hip Hop, Acro-Tumbling, Contemporary

Brooke began dancing at the age of 2 and has been competing since she was 5. She has been formally trained in Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical, and Hip Hop. Brooke has trained at studios across the valley while being a part of several award-winning teams.

Brooke was the Captain of Skyridge High School Drill Team and a member of Skyridge Dance Company. She also served as the team’s Technique Officer and  Choreographer. She maintained a 4.0 GPA, while earning a spot on the All-State Drill Team, as well as the Academic All-State Drill Team.

Brooke has recieved Overall Grand Champion, Best Choreography, Best Technique and several First Place and High Point awards for her choreography. She is and exceptional teacher in both Jazz, Ballet, Lyrical, Technique and Hip Hop as well Acro-Tumbling and Contemporary. Brook loves to teach and share her passion for dance with the students at TDA.

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Lindsey

Lindsey Larsen

Ballet 

Lindsey’s initial ballet training began at age four and includes training with Barlow Arts Conservatory and with Ballet West Academy Thanksgiving Point, sponsored by the Barbara Barrington Jones Family Foundation. During her years with Ballet West Academy, Lindsey trained under the direction of Jennie Creer King and Maricar Drilon, and was a recipient of multiple merit scholarships. As a young student, Lindsey enjoyed performing in The Washington Ballet’s “Cinderella” as the role of an Autumn Fairy Corps Member, several years in Ballet West’s “The Nutcracker”, and had numerous performing opportunities through Ballet West Academy including roles as Lilac Fairy and Lead Garland Fairy in “Sleeping Beauty”, and with Ballet West II as a Rosebud in “Beauty and the Beast”.

Lindsey has been privileged to receive training from Irena and Slawomir Wozniak, Alaine Haubert, Alexei Moskalenko, Pamela Robinson-Harris, Jan Fugit, Jessia Thompson, Lindsay Folkman, Albert Blaise Cattafi, Wilson Domingues, Zherlin Ndudi, and Calvin Kitten.
She has also attended summer intensive courses with the Washington Ballet under the artistic direction of Septime Weber, Ballet Hawaii, Master Ballet Academy, and Ballet West Academy.

Lindsey was crowned Miss Lehi 2019 and received the talent award for her performance of La Esmerelda. Through her service as Miss Lehi, she created a program that brings dance education to students with special needs at the high school level and has participated in the Movement Mentor program as an adaptive dance mentor/teacher at Ballet West Academy. She is currently pursuing a BFA in classical ballet at the University of Utah with an emphasis on performance and teaching.

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Kristin Gage

Ballet, Jazz, Ballroom

Kristin fell in love with dance at an early age and begged her parents to sign her up for lessons. She took dance very seriously and danced for Utah Regional Ballet for 9 years, where she trained intensively under many professional directors and guest instructors from around the world. She also attended years of professionally instructed summer workshops for both Ballet and Jazz. Kristin absolutely loved dancing in many Ballet productions including, Sleeping Beauty, La Coquette, Ledged of Timpanogos, and her very favorite, The Nutcracker.

Kristin later attended UVU under a ballroom dance scholarship, where she danced for the Touring Team. She also took private lessons from various professionals including Andrea Hale and Louis van Amstel from Dancing with the Stars. Kristin competed individually in Latin Ballroom, Standard Ballroom and Cabaret. Dancing took her to Europe, as well as New York, where she competed individually and placed in the top three in Cha-Cha, Samba, Paso Doble and Jive.

When Kristin retired from competing, she went on to teach. She taught Ballroom at various studios. She also choreographed for and coached competitive youth ballroom at several elementary schools. Her teams went on to win several competitions, including Nationals at BYU.

Accompanying Kristin’s passion for dance is her passion for children. She adores working with children and has four of her own, soon to be 5, as she and her husband are currently in the process of adopting a toddler from China.

Dance has blessed Kristin’s life in innumerable ways and her gratitude propels her to want to continue to share all the benefits of dance! es

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Austyn Farnsworth

Austyn Farnsworth

Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Hip Hop

Austyn began dancing when she was three years old. She has danced competitively for over nine years and has exceptional training in ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary and various styles of hip hop. She has received multiple awards including Advanced Overall High Point, Judges Choice and Best Choreography.

Austyn was part of Odyssey’s Thriller for two years and danced on Cyprus High School’s Dance Company for three years. Austyn loves choreography and has had many opportunities to choreograph in high school musicals and for her show choir. She has a strong passion for the art of dance and love’s to come up with new ideas. She is planning to continue her training at UVU while majoring in dance education.

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Awards

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Utah Valley
Magazine

Best Dance Studio
2017, 2018

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Daily Herald Readers Choice

Best Place to Dance
2016

Best-Technique

Best
Technique

2019, 2018, 2017,
2016

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greatest
showmanship awards

2019, 2018

best-Choreography

Best
Choreography

2019, 2018, 2017, 2016

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Best
Sportsmanship Award

2019

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Best of
Lehi award

2019

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