Angela Amoroso

For over 40 years, Angela Amoroso has been creating original works, teaching, choreographing, producing, and directing children’s dance and theatre coast to coast. By utilizing the creative vehicle of the performing arts, Angela has inspired her students to cultivate inner balance, transforming their lives in meaningful ways.  Attention to environmental awareness, world peace, health, and community service, she has empowered her students to be great performers and great people.  Developing balance that showers into all aspects of a student’s life while cultivating a generous heart may just be the key to their success.

Originally from New York, she trained with some of the finest teachers in New York in all of the disciplines of Dance: Ballet with Wilson Morelli and at Robert Joffrey, Jazz with Phil Black, Pepsi Bethel and Alvin Ailey, Modern with Martha Graham, Tap with Bob Audy and Phil Black. Her involvement with Community Theater on Long Island for both performance and choreography include Oklahoma, Fiddler on the Roof, Anything Goes and West Side Story. Angela has also been a member of NYC, Dance Circle Repertory Company where she has choreographed as well as performed. In 1982, Angela performed in the Equity Showcase of Jesus Christ Superstar in Manhattan.

Angela was one of the first recipients for the San Diego Metro 40 Under 40 Award. She is also the recipient of a Channel 10 Leadership Award. Most recently included in She Who Inspires, Philanthropic Women Changing the World from San Diego, compiled by the University of California San Diego.

She and her husband, Drew Skinner founded Isabella’s Giraffe Club, a non-profit 501c (3) educational and charitable foundation when their daughter, Isabella, was just two days old. Today they are the peer-to-peer contact for parents when a baby passes in San Diego. They created the workshop, Good Grief to Go to support anyone who has experienced the passing of a loved one.

Their philanthropic efforts with the talented dancers at Scripps Performing Arts Academy have supported worthy causes such as local libraries, under-represented youth, women’s shelters, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Jacobs Medical Center at UC San Diego Health, and the revitalization of the Rolling Hills Park in Rancho Peñasquitos, Sienna’s PlayGarden.

Inspired by miraculous “coincidences” Angela and Drew have written the award winning book, Surrounded by Angels, and a CD of original songs, Only for a Moment.

Angela has developed many educational programs including: Be Original, Broadway Bound I, Broadway Bound II, Stretch, and You Signed Up for This.  She and her husband are frequently asked to speak at various medical seminars and symposiums, presenting at training sessions for emergency workers, first responders, and public health workers. She has served on a variety of boards including San Diego Earth Day, Southern California Regional SIDS Council that reports directly to the Governor, and the UCSD Health Patient and Family Advisory Council.

Angela feels blessed to share her life with her husband, four daughters, seven grandchildren, three furry friends, and the incredibly talented faculty at Scripps Performing Arts Academy.

Miah Nwosu

Miah Nwosu began seriously studying ballet at age eight at The Scripps Performing Arts Academy shortly after participating in a Miramar Ranch Elementary After School Program. That June she performed in her first production with the SPAC, “Earthkalah.” She trained at Scripps Performing Arts for seven years, primarily under Lili Griffths, former Soloist dancer of the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, continuing her studies at City Ballet of San Diego in the highest level of their pre-professional division. She performed with the company in the Nutcracker, their company premiere of “Don Quixote,” and various other productions and spent a summer training at The Ailey School in New York City. Miah later attended Fordham University in New York City, training at The Ailey School, Steps on Broadway and Broadway Dance Center.Upon her return to San Diego, Miah joined C. Anthony Cole Repertory Theatre and later La Diego Dance Theatre for its inaugural season.

She was rehearsal coach and dancer representative for the company, had the pleasure of teaching audition classes for both companies and has served as a guest teacher at several local dance schools.Miah has acted as head choreographer for SPAA since 2003 and has successfully mounted original productions and set full length classical ballets including The Nutcracker, Prokofiev’s Cinderella, Ballet Does the Rat Pack, Glazunov’s The Seasons, La Boutique Fantasque, Grand Pas de Quatre, an original version of Les Rendez-vous, a full length ballet original, Thumbelina, a beautiful restaging of Coppelia, Fokine’s Les Sylphides and numerous original one act and evening length ballets.

Since 2003, Miah has developed a highly effective, comprehensive training program at The Academy that has provided students with the spring board and support system to launch them successfully into collegiate and professional dance programs including Indiana University, San Francisco Ballet School, Nevada Ballet Theatre, The Boston Conservatory, California Institute for the Arts, UCI and multiple summer intensive acceptances (several with scholarships) to prestigious programs across the nation. Miah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Art with a Photography concentration and handles all Graphic Design, Photography and Print Work for SPAA and SBT.She currently teaches Ballet III and up at both locations and overseas all Academy programs. She is also the Artistic Director of SPAA’s youth company in residence, Scripps Ballet Theatre.

Drew Skinner

Drew is a talented musician, accomplished craftsman and professional wood worker. He spent 9 years performing as Mother Ginger in San Diego City Ballet’s Nutcracker before meeting Angela and joining her at SPAA. Drew is multi-talented, managing and maintaining our facilities, greeting families from behind the desk while also building and designing sets and props for our musical theatre and dance departments.

Gina Amparan

Audrey Bondoc

Audrey began dancing at the age of 4 ½ studying ballet, jazz and modern. She quickly rose to higher levels and was accepted into the Junior Company and performed in many productions.Audrey continued her dance training at Academy of Performing Arts & at Mesa College performing with their dance company around the southern California area. She was also a member of Unity Dance Ensemble and Unity II under the direction of Tessandra Chavez.In 2007 she moved to San Francisco and trained at SF Dance Center, ODC School and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance from SFSU also performing & touring with their dance company. While studying in SF, she found her love for Pilates which encouraged her to receive her certification. Audrey found her passion in teaching dance in 2000 and has been teaching all over San Diego and the Bay Area ever since. Her students have been accepted into many prestigious summer intensives around the world and have been accepted into collegiate and professional dance programs. She currently is a guest instructor teaching dance courses at Mesa College.She wants her students to thrive not only as dancers but as unique individuals. “Dance is not just about technique; it’s about how we feel when we dance or when we witness the heart and soul of movement and music and it’s just magical.”

Ana De La Torre

Ana fell in love with dance when she was in high school. She trained at the Academy of Performing Arts, Edge Performing Arts Center and Millennium Dance Complex. At a young age she began putting choreography together for dance teams, parades, and musicals in the San Diego and Los Angeles areas. She has had the pleasure of working with Bill Virchis, Kevin Patterson, Liam Harney, Tiffany Billings, and Joelle Martinec, just to name a few. Ana’s exceptional teaching skills have brought her to Scripps Performing Arts Academy! She is an exciting dance teacher with original choreography that can’t wait to share her passion with her students. 

Johanna Duffy is a dancer, performer, and aspiring speech pathologist. She earned her BA in Dance from Cal State Fullerton before obtaining her comprehensive Pilates certification in San Diego, California. She spent several years teaching dance and Pilates before moving to Orlando, Florida, in 2022 to join Walt Disney World’s entertainment department.

Since then, Johanna has performed in various roles, including puppeteering in Animal Kingdom’s Merry Menagerie, dancing as an elf in Hollywood Studios’ Merry Motorcade, and as a dancer in Magic Kingdom’s Festival of Fantasy Parade.

While continuing her career in the movement arts, Johanna is also pursuing a degree in speech pathology. She embraces new opportunities with passion and enthusiasm and is excited for what the future holds in both dance and speech therapy.

Melissa Laidlaw, Children’s and Primary Divisions Coordinator

Melissa Laidlaw has been a passionate dance teacher for the last 16 years. After growing up in San Diego and dancing from age 3, she earned her BA in Dance at California State University, Fullerton.  While at Fullerton she performed and choreographed pieces in many dance productions, while teaching Ballet, Jazz, Tap, and ‘Parent and me’ classes in a popular Fullerton dance studio. Having completed her BA in Dance, Melissa moved to Las Vegas and continued teaching, cementing her joy in children’s ballet which led to her becoming a certified American Ballet Theatre Curriculum Instructor.  Whilst living in the UK for two years, Melissa took her love for creating dance movement to a new level and attained her MA in Choreography from the University of Lincoln. This experience has hugely helped to enrich her classes in creative ways by incorporating play and imagination into the fundamentals of ballet.  As a mom of two young children, she is constantly learning and creating different ways to ignite their imagination to aid their learning and overall development, and they remain a key inspiration in her creative approaches to teaching children.  Melissa is excited and grateful to be part of the SPAA faculty and is looking forward to continue bringing the joy of dance to the children of San Diego!

Becca Newton

Becca Newton, originally from Sacramento, CA, is a graduate from CSU Long Beach where she obtained her BFA in dance. As a teen, Becca trained with a pre-professional dance company under the direction of Jen Bradford where she had the opportunity to perform at venues such as the Royan Festival of France, and The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Becca also trained extensively in classical ballet under the direction of Theodore Constant, and through attending summer intensives/workshops, she has received training from educators such as Lillian Barbeito, Sidra Bell, Troy Ogilvie, Drew Jacoby, and much more. Becca discovered her passion for choreography early on, and her work has been presented in a collaborative show with Backhausdance Company, at the CSULB’s Contemporary Dance Concert, and took first at the Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival, Palm Desert. Her repertoire includes works by choreographers such as LeeWei Chow, Jenny Backhaus, Sidra Bell, Ben Levy, Lorin Johnson, Alex Ketley, Rebecca Lemme, Keith Johnson, and Rebecca Bryant.

Diego Schoch is a San Diego-based dance educator and physical therapist with over 25 years of experience in the dance world. A former soloist with North Carolina Dance Theatre (now Charlotte Ballet) and a Principal with Milwaukee Ballet, Diego has performed leading roles in works by Alvin Ailey, Alonzo King, David Parsons, José Limón, George Balanchine, Antony Tudor, and Marius Petipa. His career has also included extensive work as a choreographer and college professor, with commissions from Milwaukee Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, UNC School of the Arts, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

A Southern California native, Diego earned his Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in 2021. He integrates his expertise in biomechanics and functional movement with his background in dance, classical Pilates, and Iyengar Yoga, promoting a whole-body approach to healing and movement. Passionate about helping dancers maintain long and healthy careers, he is a member of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) and stays current with advancements in dance medicine.

Diego has served on faculty at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and the Milwaukee Ballet School. Additionally, he is an Assistant Repetiteur for the Salvatore Aiello Trust.

Beyond his professional life, Diego enjoys streaming movies and shows, exploring San Diego’s coffee shops and breweries, and staying active through surfing, climbing, hiking, weightlifting, and dancing.

Gary Sevani is a distinguished choreographer, educator, and arts advocate with over 30 years of experience in dance instruction worldwide. He is the former CEO and Artistic Director of Synthesis Performing Arts Center, which he founded in the U.S. in 1996. His teaching spans children (K-12) and adult professionals, offering training in Ballet, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Tap, Modern, Musical Theater, Partner Dance, and more.

A graduate of the College of Classical Dance in Russia (1980), Gary earned a Master of Fine Arts in Choreography from the State University of Performing Arts in Moscow (1985). He trained under renowned artists such as Nadejda Pavlova, Vladimir Gordiev, and Boris Baranovsky. In 1989, he founded Synthesis Modern Ballet Dance Company in Russia, leading touring productions across Europe and the U.S.

Since relocating to the U.S., Gary has become an influential advocate for the arts, directing and choreographing productions like The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, and A Christmas Carol. He is a guest instructor at dance schools in Italy and Japan and serves as an honorary board member and master teacher at the State Institute of Performing Arts in Moscow.

In addition to his work in dance, Gary is the founder of T-Jamz (Teen Choreographers, Singers, and Performers Jamboree), a global initiative that nurtures young talent in the performing arts. Through his leadership, he continues to inspire the next generation of dancers and artists worldwide.

Sole Centurion

Ms. Centurion began training in her native Argentina at the Northeast University Ballet School and graduated from the School of Ballet Contemporaneo del Teatro San Martin in Buenos Aires. She has performed ballet, modern, jazz, gymnastics and folkloric dance and tango throughout Argentina and abroad. She had an extensive career within the contemporary arts; teaching and performing professionally for over 20 years, working with well recognized choreographers and directors from South America, Italy and the United States, performing in great theaters, important venues and festivals across the aforementioned countries as well. In USA, Ms. Sole joined Miami Contemporary Dance Co & School as a Company Dancer, Ballet Mistress and Assistant Artistic Director in Miami, FL where she spent almost a decade. After spending a few years back in Argentina, working with the Ballet Contemporaneo del Chaco as performer, teacher and assistant director; she relocated to Chicago,IL, where she worked as a member of the Ballet faculty at Foster Dance Studios and Outreach Facilitator of COCODACO dance Project, in collaboration with Youth & Opportunity United, teaching underprivileged children at local public schools. Ms. Centurion also dedicated her career to promoting Argentine culture, music and dance. Working together with her husband Richard Scofano, a professional Musician, Bandoneon Player and Composer, they travelled around the world teaching and performing their artistic work. Ms. Centurion strives to incorporate an inextricable relationship between different dance techniques and styles into a multi-disciplinary art to widen her work to all possibilities.

Kiona Daelyn

Kiona Daelyn began moving in Tucson, AZ and performed with Funhouse Movement Theatre and O-T-O Dance as a dancer and aerialist. Kiona holds a B.F.A in Dance Education from University of the Arts in Philadelphia where they performed works by Silvana Cardell, Curt Haworth, and Martha Graham; studied dance pedagogy under Connie Michaels and Donna Faye Burchfield ; and studied modern dnace and improvisation with Curt Haworth, Jennifer Binford-Johnson, Brian Sanders, Manfred Fischbeck, Kim Bears-Bailey, and Zane Booker. While living in Philadelphia they taught dance, yoga, and meditation to all ages. Since moving to San Diego in late 2011, Kiona has performed with several choreographers including Angel Arambula, John Diaz, Jean Isaacs, Regina Klenjoski, Zaquia Mahler-Salinas, John Malashock, Michael Mizerany, Spencer Powell, Khamla Somphanh, Henry Torres, and Jeanne Travers. Kiona is a founding company dancer and aerialist with Astraeus Aerial Dance Theatre, where they also serve as sound editor. They also perform and choreograph dance and aerial arts as a freelance artist. Kiona is currently teaching dance, yoga, and aerial classes to children and adults in various studios throughout San Diego county