Teacher Bios
Celinda is the owner of En Pointe Dance & Fitness. She began dancing at the age of three in a small town in Northern California. She danced with Ballet Repertoire Theatre throughout her high school years.
She continued to dance in college and followed her love of dance to California State University, Long Beach where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance. Celinda owned and operated a children's mobile dance company for the past ten years, bringing dance to children in preschools, elementary schools and junior high schools.
She has performed in ballets such as "The Nutcracker," "Cinderella," "Alice In Wonderland," "Hansel & Gretel," "Sleeping Beauty" and many others. Celinda is a certified Burn at the Barre instructor and is licensed to teach Zumba, Zumba Toning and Zumbatomics.
She is excited for the opportunity to bring dance and fitness to the community through En Pointe Dance & Fitness.
Liz Valdez Gilliland, a Long Beach native, has trained extensively in all genres of dance throughout the L.A. and Orange County areas. She began her training at the age of 8 years old at a local studio in Long Beach. Shortly after beginning her training she began her teaching career at the age of 12. Liz danced through high school at Wilson and received a dance scholarship to Chapman University where she continued to broaden her dance training to include Modern, Dunham African Dance, Pilates and Musical Theatre. She has performed with Van Son Entertainment in Orange County and Atlantic City as well as various venues throughout the community. Ms. Liz has taught all ages from toddlers to adults and currently teaches Creative Movement, Ballet/Tap Combo, Barre and Adult Lyrical. She believes that there is healing and joy in movement and is pursuing a degree in Dance Movement Therapy.
Chelsea Brooks is a recent transplant to Long Beach from Chicago. She graduated with honors from Columbia College Chicago with a B.A. in dance, choreographic concentration. She received extensive ballet training through high school, but fell in love with modern and contemporary dance in college. After graduation, Chelsea danced as an apprentice for Cerqua Rivera Dance Theater and company member for Noumenon Dance Ensemble, Innervation Dance Cooperative SPEAKS, Tapestry Dance Company, Project606, and a featured dancer with Core Project. Her choreography has been showcased at Going Dutch, an all female choreographers showcase in Chicago, and Delve Showcase. Her most recent passion is fitness and completed her certification in Jillian Michaels Body Shred in 2015.
Laura Jane Schierhorn, a Chicago native, began her dance career training with Watmora Casey, Homer Bryant, Bruce Stegman, Jay Fagan, Melissa Ridgway and Fletcher Nickerson. Upon moving to California, Laura continued her training at Jimmie DeFore Dance Center eventually becoming a company member of Jazz Spectrum under Artistic Director and company founder, Christine Baltes.
Laura also began teaching at several Southern California studios including the prestigious Southland Ballet Academy. Laura is an International award winning teacher and choreographer and has students that have gone on to have illustrious careers with companies such as ABT, Nashville Ballet, the Royal Ballet, Alonzo King’s LINES and many more.
For the last 15 years, Laura‘s work as a Global editorial and celebrity makeup artist and beauty editor has taken her across the globe, but dance has always been her first love.
Destiny Santiago has been training in jazz, hip-hop, tap, lyrical/contemporary, ballet, musical theatre,ect., for 13 years. Her journey began on a competitive dance team which gave her many opportunities including, performing at the Warriors Half-Time shows for four years, obtaining the title of Dancer of the Year and National Champion several times, working with many professional choreographers, and performing on Disneyland stages, as well as dancing in the Disneyland Christmas parades.
In High School, Destiny joined and choreographed for the Cheer and POM team and for the school dance shows all four years. Once she graduated, she relocated from the Bay Area to Long Beach to further her education at Cal State University, Long Beach, where she plans to obtain a degree in psychology as well as a minor in dance. Once Destiny moved here in 2019, she joined a local hip-hop dance team known as PAC Modern. Destiny Santiago has a strong passion for dance and hopes to make an impact on future generations!
Olivia, a New Mexico native, has been training in ballet, contemporary, and hip-hop for 18 years. She was a soloist in the Las Cruces Chamber Ballet throughout high school - dancing as the Spanish Chocolate in the Nutcracker, the Diamond Fairy in Sleeping Beauty, and the Black Swan in Swan Lake. While attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for her bachelor's in civil engineering, Olivia joined United in Movement, a dance team focusing on hip-hop and modern dance styles. During her presidency, she and her board of directors planned a performance that showcased all 13 dance clubs on campus, which sold out the 1,300-person capacity of the Performing Arts Center. Since moving to Long Beach, Olivia is looking forward to helping people realize their passion for dance, just as she has.
Johnny was born in Montebello Ca, but quickly moved to Yuma Az, where he spent most of his childhood. Upon graduating high school, Johnny was invited to audition for a “Scooby Doo Production” and little did he know this would be the start of his dance career by getting casted as Fred for 2 out of the 3 performances. At the studio Johnny quickly started to excel as a late start and excelled in Jazz and Hip Hop, not losing sight of training in lyrical, contemporary and ballet.
After two years at the studio, Johnny was asked to Choreograph for a local high school color guard where he went from just a small piece for competition to head coach the next 5 years.
During his collegiate time in 2010 in the fall, Johnny then Auditioned for the Arizona Western College Matadors Dance team and became captain in his first year. Following that year he became head choreographer where his choreography consistently was made up of Jazz, Pom, Side Lines, Hip-Hop, and Cheer!
Throughout his career he has also been able to choreograph 20+ quinceñeras too. Johnny is super passionate, excited and humbled to be a part of En Pointe and can’t wait to work with all of you!
Rachel Oberg grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, where she studied ballet under the direction of
Melissa Morris at Blue Springs Ballet. During her time with Blue Spring Ballet, Rachel was a
principal dancer in the youth ballet company, where she danced the title role of “Cinderella” in
Cinderella, “Sugar Plum Fairy” in The Nutcracker, and “Marie Taglioni” in Pas de Quatre, among
others. As a young student, she attended many summer dance programs to enhance her ballet
training, including Boston Ballet Summer Dance Program, Dmitri Roudnev’s Ballet Intensive
from Moscow, and Stephen’s College Summer Dance Program. Upon graduation from high
school, Rachel went on to study ballet at the University of Utah, receiving her Bachelor of Fine
Arts degree in ballet education, as well as her teaching certificate. There, she had the
opportunity to study with Conrad Ludlow, Attila Ficzere, Sharee Lane, and Bene Arnold. Rachel
has danced professionally with the Ballet Theatre of Maryland and Contemporary Ballet Dallas,
dancing in roles such as soloist in American Ballads: Blue Trio, “Juliet’s friend” in Romeo and
Juliet, and “Belle’s friend” in Boogie Woogie Christmas Carol. Most recently, Rachel has
performed as a guest artist in several different productions of The Nutcracker as “Snow
Queen”, “Dew Drop Fairy, and “Sugar Plum Fairy”. In addition to teaching at En Pointe, Rachel
also teaches in the Ballet and Contemporary Dance Conservatory at Orange County School of
the Arts. She has also been a guest instructor at several summer ballet workshops and
intensives around the country. Rachel loves sharing her passion for ballet with others and is
thrilled to be on staff as a teacher for En Pointe Dance and Fitness.
Veronica Resa Leveaux, a Long Beach local has been dancing and training ever since she was 2 years old at her local dance studio. She trained in Ballet, Contemporary, Hiphop, Jazz, Tap, and more, With her passion for dance she soon joined the Wilson High School’s Dance team her freshman year, making it into 7/8. She continued to dance all four years of High school, and improved allowing her to join Advanced Dance when she was a sophomore. Now in college, Veronica continues to share her love and passion for dance by teaching at En Pointe!
Hannah Foster is from Salt Lake City, Utah. At 2 years old she started taking dance classes to be like her older sisters, and loving it. She is trained in ballet, jazz, hip hop, contemporary, and acro (her favorite). As well as several years spent doing gymnastics, power tumbling, and cheerleading. She danced competitively for 10 years at Shaw Dance Studio. Then went on to compete with Syracuse Danceline where she trained under Bonnie Story. She attended Weber State University and has become certified in Early Childhood Education, thus starting her journey in teaching dance. In 2017 she moved here to Long Beach, where she continues to teach.
Trinity is from originally from Temecula, CA and moved to Long Beach in 2022 to attend CSULB. Trinity grew up in competition dance which provided her with ample training and technique in ballet, tap, contemporary, hip hop, and lyrical. She also had the opportunity to perform in World of Dance LA 2023 exhibition with Davin Lawson. Trinity is currenty a BFA dance major, which has provided her with many amazing opportunities such as being in Azuki Umeda’s piece “How I Became Kinder & Kinder” that is going on to perform around LA, San Diego, and the Bay Area. Trinity has been dancing for over 15 years and loves to share her love of dance with others!