Faculty
Stephanie Zurinsky
Artistic Director
Stephanie is the proud owner of Vibe Dance Studio. She started dancing at the young age of 3, studying up and down the East Coast. Throughout her dance education she had the opportunity to train with Tony Award winner Andy Blankenbuehler, the talented Joe Lanteri, and jazz master Luigi. It was under the direction of Janie Miles that Stephanie knew what she wanted to do with her life: share her love of dance with students of her own. At the early age of 16, Stephanie began teaching young children at a local dance studio. In college she worked for the Walt Disney Company as a Dancer Performer and continued choreographing for dance studios in South Florida. Since then, Stephanie has taught all over the country, choreographing full-length musicals, pageant numbers, and award-winning routines.
Maya Sharpe
Vibe Dance Company Choreographer
Maya began dancing at the age of 3 and since then she has developed a love for all styles. Through the years she has taken jazz, lyrical, contemporary, tap and hip hop. Some performance highlights include dancing at Benaroya Hall, placing 1st in USA championships at Hip Hop International and having various jobs with Nike. She is always looking for ways to improve and gain experience in this industry. Her favorite styles are hip hop and tap and she has been consistently training at The Connection PAC since she was 12 competing and performing all over the Pacific Northwest. In addition to being a dancer, Maya has a passion in teaching and sharing what she has learned over the years. She has experience teaching ages 9-18 and is excited to work with all her students.
Laurie Balise
Ballet, Meditation & Mindfulness
Ms. Balise is a Seattle native and has been involved in dance and the arts all her life. She began dancing at age 3 with Dorothy and Nelle Fisher and then became a founding senior company member with Olympic Ballet Theater in Edmonds. She attended the Pacific Regional Dance Festivals for several consecutive years and received a scholarship to attend the Craft of Choreography Conference in Geneva, NY. She performed at numerous venues throughout the PNW and in multiple full-length Nutcracker Productions, Frederick & Nelson Santa Breakfasts, and Spring Showcases. Her primary training is in ballet, including partnering and pointe. She’s had experience as well in jazz, lyrical and hip-hop. She’s uses her varied sports background, including competitive swimming, rowing, soccer, and basketball, to enhance her athleticism in dance and as a teacher of both dance and fitness. She’s appeared in two fitness videos with Kari Anderson, including “Angles, Lines & Curves,” a Pilates/ballet floor barre inspired class format, and “Curl,” an abdominal workout. Ms. Balise has taught at various studios north of Seattle for over 10 years. In addition to coming onboard with Vibe, Ms. Balise also works as a private tutor for Kindercare, teaching phonics, early math, and music to preschoolers and school age children. She also works as the Content Coordinator for the Mill Creek Lifestyles Magazine, as well as doing contract work teaching dance for Mill Creek Parks and Recreation and Bootcamp for Run2BFit. Her other current primary position is as a fitness instructor for LA Fitness where she has taught every class they’ve offered for over 10 years, including Pilates, Yoga, Bodyworks and Aqua Fit.
Ms. Balise is a graduate of the University of Washington where she studied Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations. She worked as the Publicist of the Seattle Symphony during the opening and Inaugural Season of Benaroya Hall, and served as an intern in the Public Relations Department at Pacific Northwest Ballet. She was on the Board of Directors for PNB’s “Backstage Pass” young professionals group during its initial season.
Jaron Laquian
Break Dance Instructor
Jaron has 8 years of bboying under his belt. He knew about break dancing since the early 2000’s where he eventually learned a few tricks from his older cousin. It wasn’t until his freshman year in high school, where he and his friends started a crew called “Soul Rebelz”. They traveled and competed at countless competitions all over the Pacific Northwest making a name for themselves. Jaron also has hip-hop choreography in his back pocket, having trained through the Connection PAC under Kolanie Marks and the T-twins. Jaron believes in the saying “each one, teach one” pushing him to provide as much knowledge about the hip-hop culture to the new generation.
Maggie Clarke
Vibe Dance Company Choreographer
Maggie began dancing at the age of three training in many genres over the years including tap, ballet, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, pointe, hula, Tahitian, and ballroom. She has been with Vibe Dance Studio since it opened in 2010 and is excited to come back and teach as an alumni. She competed for Vibe Dance Company from 2010-2015 on both the regional and national levels where she earned multiple scholarships, awards, and titles. Maggie has also been a member of the Tremaine National Performance Program since 2014 traveling across the US to train under and assist artists such as Keri LaGrand, Derrick Schrader, Laurie Johnson, Tony Bellissimo, Tiffany Maher, Meghan Sannett, Jeff Amsden, and Emily Zachary Smith as well as Mr. Joe Tremaine himself. Maggie is currently a student at the University of Washington and is a second year member of the Cheer and Dance team. She has choreographed and performed multiple halftime shows and features at many sporting events and had the opportunity to travel with the women’s basketball team across the country in their exciting journey to the Final Four. Besides witnessing and being a part of UW Athletics history, she says one of her favorite memories of her rookie season was performing with Brad Paisley at the Seattle concert of his “Crushin’ It World Tour”. This past summer she trained with other collegiate and professional dance teams from across the US and continues to train in all styles of dance at various studios in the greater Seattle area. She is very excited to be back teaching at Vibe and is looking forward to sharing her love for dance with all her students!