Brookfield Dance
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTORS
Meet Your Dance Team
At Brio Studios, we are thrilled to introduce you to the remarkable individuals who make up our team of extraordinary dance instructors and coaches. We believe in the transformative power of dance, and our instructors are at the forefront of nurturing creativity, self-expression, and growth in our young dancers.
Each member of our dedicated team brings a wealth of experience and a passion for dance education. They are not just teachers but mentors, inspiring our students to embrace the art of dance while fostering confidence and a lifelong love for movement.
Dance Leadership Team
Miss Kayla Gotto
Developmental Dance Program Director & Teams Coach
Kayla started dancing at age 5 at Monona Academy of Dance in Madison. From there she danced at Stoughton Center for the Performing Arts for 3 years and then A Step Above Dance and Music Academy in Monona, Wisconsin where she spent the next 9 years training in ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, lyrical, and contemporary. She also competed in A Step Above’s dance company competition team competing at numerous dance competitions and conventions every year.
Kayla’s training continued after graduation by taking part in Monona Academy of Dance’s annual Nutcracker, and their performance of La Fille Mal Gardee. She also danced at Mainstage Academy of Dance under the direction of Eddy Bray focusing on classical Vaganova Ballet. Now she continues her dance training at Dance Tracks LLC competing in their dance company.
Kayla started teaching dance 5 years ago at A Step Above Dance and Music Academy. After she moved to Milwaukee, she taught for 2 years at Aspire Dance Center. In 2021 she started coaching for teams at Brio Studios. She is now entering her 3rd year teaching and coaching at Brio Studios, and has taken on the role of Developmental Dance Program Director!
Miss Mel
Brio Badgers Co-Director & Teams Coach
Mel proudly co-directs our Brio Badgers All Star Teams in Brookfield, in addition to co-directing dance at our Shorewood location!
As a dancer, she trained formally over 15 years at a local studio where she competed regionally and nationally, in addition to performing on her High School Varsity Pom Team. Mel went on to study 2 years of dance courses in college before graduating with a Business Communications degree.
Sharing her love for dance has always been a huge passion and she is delighted to expand her reach through both, Brio’s Brookfield and Shorewood studios. With over 15 years of K-12 child education experience, including coaching competitive dance, Mel strives to build confidence and instill, in her students, a lasting passion for art of all kinds.
Developmental Dance
Miss Veronica
Developmental Dance Instructor
Veronica started teaching at Brio in August 2022. She began dancing at the age of 3 and has been dancing ever since. She was a member of her High school dance team as well as other studios. Her favorite style is contemporary but is also trained in jazz, ballet, tap, pom, hip hop, lyrical, and contemporary.
Veronica grew up competing and won many awards for solos as well as duets and group dances. She loves teaching all ages and seeing them grow in their dancing skills.
Miss Ryder
Developmental Dance Instructor
Ryder Ruck started dancing when she was 6 years old. She started dancing at BRIO as a student 4 years ago and fell in love with competitive dance. She has been trained in jazz, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, ballet, and Irish.
Ryder started student teaching 5 years ago at the Waukesha civic theater during a summer camp. She was an assistant teacher for the performance teams alongside another staff member last summer at BRIO. She also taught for our developmental dance program last season as well!
Ryder is incredibly excited to be teaching again this year and cannot wait to be back in the studio!
Miss Lindsay
Developmental Dance Instructor
Lindsay began dancing when she was in the third grade as a hip hop dancer for her studio in Duluth, Minnesota. She continued training in hip hop until she made it onto her high school’s dance team in the eighth grade. She then competed in Varsity Kick for 5 years and Varsity Jazz for 3 years. Lindsay served as captain of her dance team and was an All-State Jazz dancer her senior year.
Following high school, Lindsay continued to dance wherever she found the chance, engaging in club teams with an assortment of styles including jazz, ballet, contemporary, hip hop, etc. and held various small dance teaching roles over the years.
Lindsay initially m oved to Milwaukee in August of 2020 to pursue her bachelor’s degree in social work. She has since immersed herself in Milwaukee’s dance community, most especially in the realm of hip hop. She is currently a second year member of Milwaukee’s only all-women hip hop Dance Crew, KRUSH, and entering her third season on the University of Milwaukee’s HYPE Dance Crew. This is Lindsay’s first season with Brio and she is absolutely thrilled to be taking on this role and getting back into teaching!
Miss Payton
Developmental Dance Instructor
Payton has been dancing for ten years training in styles such as pom, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary, ballet, pointe, tap, and ballroom. She has been competing for the past seven years all around the world competing at national competitions such as The Dance Awards, National Dance Honors, and Youth America Grand Prix. She has attended conventions such as Jump, Nuvo, Revive, Tramaine and Dance Masters.
Payton started teaching dance two years ago, and it has been one of the highlights of her dance career. She has experience with various ages and loves them all! Payton was with Accent on Dance Studios for the past ten years, and is very excited about being with BRIO Studios!
Miss Adeline
Developmental Dance Instructor & Teams Coach
Adeline, known to her students as “Miss Adi”, grew up as a high-level rhythmic gymnast in Chicago. She was coached and mentored by multiple Olympians and world renowned coaches. She traveled the world competing, coaching, and choreographing. She also trained in Russian Ballet and various styles of dance. After retiring, Adeline spent time in Costa Rica helping develop rhythmic gymnastics and dance programs and helping the Costa Rica Gymnastics Federation build a national team. She started working at Brio Studios in 2021 and has been working with recreation and team levels. She has a passion for teaching kids and helping them gain confidence in themselves and reach their goals inside the studio so that they can take those skills to confidently impact the world around them.
Miss Courtney
Developmental Dance Instructor & Teams Coach
Courtney started dancing at age 3 at Monona Academy of Dance. She then spent 2 years at Stoughton Center for the Performing Arts. After, she found her home studio, A Step Above Dance & Music Academy, in 2009. She received training in ballet, pointe, contemporary, musical theater, jazz, heels, & hip hop. In hip hop, she was introduced to popping & krump. Aside from taking developmental classes, from 2014 to 2019, she also competed on ASA’s competition team, A Step Beyond.
After graduating in 2019, she joined Winona State University’s Dance Team, where she danced pom, hip hop & jazz. January 2020 she competed with WSUDT at UDA regionals competition in Minneapolis. During the summer of 2022, Courtney auditioned for the Bucks 414 Crew with a virtual audition video. She was invited to a second callback audition.
Courtney has taught at Brio Studios since fall of 2022 for our Developmental Dance Boys Hip Hop classes. She has since began coaching our Brio Badgers Tiny All Star team & coaching solos & duets summer of 2023.
Ballet Conservatory
Miss Lily
Lead Ballet Instructor
Originally from Beaver Dam, WI, Lily Edgar started dancing at the age of 4. In 2010 she transferred to the School of Madison Ballet to continue her ballet training. At the age of 18 she joined Madison Ballet, one of two professional companies in Wisconsin, where she danced professionally until April 2023, and performed in Madison Ballet productions on Overture Stage for over a decade. Some of her favorite roles include ‘Clara’ in a brand-new Nutcracker production choreographed by Sara Stewert Schuman. She had the pleasure of performing various other roles and productions, notably so ‘Orange Girl’ soloist in ‘Birthday Variations’, by Gerald Arpino, Lucy in Eddy Brays ‘Dracula’ with Mainstage Academy, and many other featured roles in ballets, including ‘A Midsummer’s Night's Dream’ and ‘Cinderella’ with Madison Ballet.
Ms. Edgar also began teaching ballet at the age of 18. She has experience teaching ballet to all ages and loves the opportunity to share dance through a lens of joy and optimism. Ms. Edgar is particularly passionate about continuing the beauty and training of classical ballet. She is eager to change the culture in the studio to a more inviting, inclusive and accepting space for all, where we can learn, grow, and push ourselves to become better artists and people
Miss Emma
Ballet Conservatory Instructor
Emma Becker is a Dance Major at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She has been studying ballet from the age of 5 to the present day and has also been studying modern dance at UWM. She started her dance journey at the Central Wisconsin School of Ballet in Wausau, WI under Madam Kar Kar and Patrick Casper. She recently attended the Milwaukee Ballet Summer Intensive and in past years has done the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive. some performances she has been in while studying in Milwaukee have included UWM’s Productions of New Dancemakers, Winterdances Longing is Momentum in Disguise where she worked closely with Mair Culbreth (Professor at UWM) and Kia Smith (Artistic Director of South Chicago Dance Theater), Springdances Elemental where she also worked with Alfonso Cervera (Professor at Ohio State University and poc chuc teacher), as well as Dancework’s Get It Out There performance and Milwaukee Ballet’s Emergence performance. She is very excited to start teaching ballet at Brio!
