MEET THE TEAM

Ashley Jex

Teacher, Office Administrator

Ashley started dancing at a young age, beginning her training with Janet Gray Studios in ballet, tap and jazz at 3 years old. Ashley continued her dance education in college going on to receive a B.A. in Dance from BYU in 2021, emphasizing her study in world and cultural dance. While at BYU she participated in dance workshops and classes from various professional Ukrainian Dance Companies in Ukraine, performed in China and several U.S states alongside the International Folk Dance Ensemble, and in elementary schools around Utah with the Traditionz Ensemble. Additionally, she studied ballet in Italy and France on a six-week study abroad where she took classes from esteemed teachers at La Scala in Milan, Scuola di Danza Hamlyn in Florence, and two weeks at the World Dance Movement in Castellana Grotte, Italy. While in Italy, she competed at the World Dance Movement Competition and placed second in duets for her tap duet choreography and performance.

Ashley’s teaching experience includes teaching tap and beginning world dance at BYU, and teaching tap at The Dance Club. She has discovered a love for teaching and is excited to share that with her students!

Photo credit: BYU Photo

Kiesa Keller

Teacher, Social Media

Kiesa Keller started her dance career at Ballet West when she was just four years old. When she was eight years old, she left Ballet West to learn more about other dance forms. She studied with various dance studios all over Utah Valley, becoming familiar and proficient in ballet, lyrical, tap, jazz, tumbling and hip hop. Though she found value in all of them, tumbling and hip hop took her heart. When she was 15, she stopped dancing and joined the CCHS cheer team. There, she continued to practice her skills in hip hop and gymnastics while also becoming proficient in cheer dance and stunting. In her fourth year of cheerleading, she was nominated to be the spirit cheer captain. She helped choreograph school cheer routines and later that year, lead her team to a national championship title. 

Kiesa has been a part of Evolve since it opened. She is doing what she loves, teaching hip hop and gymnastics at the studio. She is currently majoring in Writing Studies at Utah Valley University as well. She has taken college level dance classes at UVU, and frequently goes to Millenium to keep up on her skills. Recently, her hip hop choreography was used for Ella Renn’s music video, “Galaxies”.

Tara Marrelli

Teacher

Bio coming soon.

Brynn Hall

Teacher

Bio coming soon.

Cheryl Gilger

Ballet Teacher

Bio coming soon.

Jenny Hendricks

Teacher, Production Staff

I have a passion for dance! I started dancing at the age of 3 and haven’t stopped since. I trained at Dance Attack Dance studio in Sandy, Utah, was involved in many competitions, school programs, and community events. Every year, I looked forward to learning new things and meeting new people.

High school was a great experience working with instructor Paul Winkleman and being on Alta High School’s ballroom team, competing in many national competitions and being sponsored by Disney World. Through my 15 years of competition dancing experience I’ve been trained in Jazz, clogging, lyrical, and ballroom.

Getting married and starting a family shifted my focus of performing dance to sharing my passion with others. For the last 24 years I’ve taught classes, given private lessons, consulted studios and for 5 of those years owned my own studio.

In 2018, I was honored to be part of the team to build Evolve Dance studio. The program has great roots and amazing people.

Nina Welker

Accounting

Bio coming soon.

Tracy Fonger

Office Staff

I love spending time with my family in nature. We are often found mountain biking together. I love working for Kinderprep Preschool Academy and Evolve Dance. I work with the best! We love our students!