North Royalton Dance Academy (NRDA) is proudly led by one of the nation’s top dance instructors, Amy Stauffer. 

With 15 incredibly successful years of owning and operating NRDA in North Royalton, Amy still feels like she’s just getting started. She has trained and choreographed for over 2,000 students, maintained an exceptional staff, and sent dancers off to work professionally in the industry.

 Amy’s impressive dance resume is unmatched in Northeast Ohio. A dancer since the age of five, she has studied and performed on some of the most prestigious stages in the world. Her expertise spans across jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, tap, cheer, and ballet. Amy began instructing in high school while studying dance and choreography at the esteemed Harrison Arts Center at Lakeland High School in Florida. Her hard work and dedication earned her a full scholarship to the University of Central Florida, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. At UCF, her college dance team competed at UDA Nationals, finishing 5th in the nation during her senior year. Amy not only danced but also coached the team for her final two years. 

After graduation, she quickly stepped into the professional dance world. Her renowned performances have taken her to New York City, Las Vegas, Paris, and Canada, and she had the privilege of performing at Disney’s Magic Kingdom for two seasons. Amy also showcased her talents in professional sports, dancing for the NBA’s Orlando Magic and the Arena Football League’s Orlando Predators. Before founding NRDA, Amy co-owned a successful dance studio in New Jersey with her sister, where she began teaching and choreographing in 2004. 

She has earned numerous top awards at both local and regional competitions and built a stellar reputation for creating a fun yet structured environment for dancers of all levels. Amy has also traveled across the United States, teaching master classes and sharing her expertise. 

Now, with 15 years at the helm of NRDA, she continues to inspire and elevate her students. Amy resides in North Royalton with her husband, Jeremy, and their three young children: Corlyn, JJ, and Luke.

Amy is a proud dance mom of Hailey and soccer/football/basketball mom of Benjamin.   In addition to working the NRDA front desk and leading the efforts backstage during recitals, she works full time as an Engineer at FirstEnergy.  She also volunteers at St. Albert the Great as the Cheer Coordinator and chairs a few of the school’s annual events.  Her husband Dan likes to lend a hand around the studio and proudly owns the title Prop Daddy.

Alexa was born and raised just outside of Cleveland, Ohio, where she received her dance training at the Royal School of Ballet under Joanne Morscher. While at the Royal School of Ballet, she performed with the Royal Youth Ballet Company.  

She then moved on to The College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, where she studied special education and dance. After her time in Charleston, she followed her heart back up to Cleveland, where she coached the Padua Franciscan High School Bruinettes Dance Team and began her journey as a dance instructor.  

Alexa currently teaches at NRDA and Dance Lakewood.  She has also danced with and choreographed for Cleveland Dance Project since it began in 2015. Alexa specializes in both contemporary and ballet; however, she enjoys teaching all styles, ages, and levels. 

Erin Jester has been studying dance since the age of 3. For 4 summers, she performed at Cedar Point in the Live Entertainment shows as a singer/dancer and was nominated as Best Female Performer for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.

Erin graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a Bachelor of Music Therapy and Dance Performance.  In college, she studied jazz, modern, ballet, pointe ballet and tap. During high school, she studied for 15 years and focused her studies on jazz, ballet, pointe ballet, tap, tumbling and lyrical during those years.

Erin is also a music therapist and owner of Beyond Words: Music and Dance Center to provide music lessons/classes and adapted dance classes for students with special needs, specializing in the autism spectrum disorder.  Her training and experience in ABA and VB techniques are incorporated in her music therapy practice.  Check out Beyond Words online at www.beyondwordscenter.org.

Erin is a step-mom to Hailie and Avery and lives with her husband, Rob in Strongsville.  She is excited to share her passion of dance with the students at North Royalton Dance Academy.

Liane began her dance career at the age of 6. Her first classes were in ballet, tap, and jazz. As she got older, she also studied lyrical, hip hop, and pointe. She spent several years competing regionally and nationally earning top honors on an elite competition team.  During those years, she took numerous classes with renown choreographers, including Dee Caspary and Ray Leeper whose work has been featured on So You Think You Can Dance. She also studied closely for 2 years with the amazing tap instructor/choreographer Mark Goodman. After high school, Ms. Liane spent her college years dancing on the Youngstown State University dance team as well as choreographing and dancing for the YSU dance ensemble. She also studied college level ballet, jazz, contemporary, and modern dance. She earned her bachelor of science degree in early childhood education. After college, she moved to Las Vegas where she participated in many adult ballet, jazz, and contemporary classes. While there, she also studied 2 years of ballroom dance, specializing in rhumba, salsa, and cha cha (as well as waltz, tango, and samba). Ms. Liane spent many years as a first grade teacher and loves working with children and seeing them grow and learn. She is very excited for the opportunity to join the amazing NRDA staff this year and share her talent and love of learning and dance with the community.

Rachel is so excited to be in her 9th year of teaching at NRDA!  

Rachel began dancing at the age of 4 and quickly gravitated towards ballet. Throughout years of studying with some of the most prominent ballet instructors in the Northeast Ohio area, Rachel spent her summers dancing in programs with Ohio Dance Theatre and Broadway Dance Center. Rachel graduated high school with plans to attend Point Park University to study ballet, when she quickly realized she wanted to pair her love of dance with her passion for music. 

She began a new journey at Mercyhurst University where she studied Music Education and Dance for two years. Plans changed again, excitingly, when Rachel transferred to Baldwin Wallace University in 2010 where she began studying in the BW Conservatory’s Music Education program. She continued studying Dance and Choreography under the instruction of Sara Whale at BW. Rachel choreographed in three of Baldwin Wallace’s dance concerts with her inspiration lying in collaborative and improvisational techniques. It was here that Rachel worked through a ballet injury and began training more in contemporary, modern, and choreography creation. 

While studying as a pianist with Dr. Robert Mayerovitch and Professor Mary Dobrea, Rachel was exposed to Dalcroze Eurhythmics and began professional studies of the method under the instruction of Jeremy Dittus at the Dalcroze School of the Rockies in 2013. Working towards a Dalcroze Certification included combining Eurhythmics, Ear Training, and Improvisation into one approach to teaching Music and Movement. 

Rachel’s desire to combine her background of Music and Movement together was highly encouraged by Monica Dale, a professor at the Dalcroze School of the Rockies Professional Studies Summer Institute. Monica danced professionally and provided great inspiration to Rachel’s interest in teaching dancers to react to music in a different way. 

Rachel taught Music and Movement in the Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District, her alma mater, for 3 years from 2014-2017. She transitioned to Music Ministry in 2017. 

She lives in Parma with her husband Joe, son Moses, and is currently expecting her second child in March 2025!

Theresa began going to NRDA in 2012 and has been spending more time there each year since with her two daughters, Peyton and Madeline. The girls feel as if it is a second home, their parents are happy to have found such a safe and nurturing environment.  Theresa works the front desk at NRDA, she enjoys helping and getting to know all the kids and parents.  When not at NRDA, Theresa is an RN, she is the Director of Nursing and has been with her company for 30 years.

Zoe Williams comes to North Royalton Dance Academy with a wealth of knowledge from 14+ years of dance training and many successful years in the convention and competition circuit. 

Zoe has had the unique opportunity to choreograph and teach since the age of 17. Over the years, she has received numerous awards for her choreography, along with overall high scores and nominations for the Industry Dance Awards. 

Her latest achievement was winning the “Best Contemporary/Modern/Lyrical Performance of 2024” at the Industry Dance Awards in Los Angeles, California. She has had the opportunity to be involved in several notable projects, including the Dancer’s Against Cancer PSA, The Industry Dance Awards, Choreographer’s Carnival, and music videos for Spencer Ludwig (“I Just Wanna Dance”) and James Barre (“Blame It on Us”). 

Additionally, she participated in the Vans US Surf Opening and Detroit City Dance Festival. Currently, she travels as an apprentice with Tap into the Network, a national tap convention. 

When Zoe isn’t in the studio choreographing, she travels with the American Dance Awards as their Social Media Coordinator. Zoe prides herself on creative and challenging classes in all styles of dance. She strives to be a leader, team player and role-model for each one of her students and hopes to inspire each dancer to achieve their personal best.