Meet the Team

Jason is one half of the leadership duo behind Elite Dance & Music. A visionary entrepreneur with a passion for helping people grow, he brings energy, creativity, and big-picture thinking to the studio. Whether he’s fine-tuning schedules, cheering on young dancers, or fixing something behind the scenes, Jason is all about building a space where kids thrive and families feel at home.

While dance might not be his go-to move (unless his daughters volunteer him), Jason is a firm believer in the power of the arts to shape confidence and character. When he’s not at the studio, you’ll likely find him working on hobbies, walking the dog, going to the gym, or spending quality time with his favorite people — his family.

Tashara is the heart and calm center of Elite Dance & Music. With a head for details and a heart for people, she keeps everything running smoothly behind the scenes. From finances to operations to supporting the team, she’s the quiet force making sure the magic of dance happens without a hitch.

A lifelong lover of the arts and proud dance mom herself, Tashara knows how special the studio experience is for both kids and parents. She brings warmth, wisdom, and a steady hand to every part of the business — and does it all with grace (and usually a to-do list in hand).

When not at the studio, Tashara is most often found with her family, curled up with a good book, or organizing the next big adventure.

Lisa began dancing at the age of four with The Dorothy Frankovitch School of Theatrical Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada. By the age of ten, she was giving solo performances in pointe and flamenco dance. She competed for a short while with a traveling gymnastics team always doing well in the floor category due to her dance training.

At 12, Lisa began dancing at UNLV with The Nevada Dance Theater under Artistic Director Vasili Sulich where she danced with the youth company in NDT's performances of Hansel and Gretel and The Nutcracker. Later in high school, she was promoted to the corps de ballet for performances of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and The Nutcracker. Lisa earned several dance scholarships in college where she was chosen for the elite song and dance troupe “Showtime Company.” They toured during the summers throughout the US and Canada performing in over 70 major cities including Chicago, New York, Montreal, and yes... Nashville.

It was in college that she added tap, modern, jazz, and clogging to her repertoire. She also began to compete in ballroom dance where she completed her silver medal training in both Latin and Smooth ballroom and took several 1st and 2nd place trophies competing against world-ranked BYU ballroom dance team members. While in college, Lisa began teaching ballet, tap, and jazz classes at the local dance studio and then taught ballroom, ballet, and jazz at The Dance Institute in Las Vegas during her summer breaks.

In 1984, Lisa married Rusel Hays and they created their seven wonderful children. During her 20-year career as a military wife, Lisa created dance programs on bases in Fairbanks, Alaska and for three years in South Korea. Ms. Lisa believes that every dancer should have a strong foundation in ballet and pulls her teaching style mainly from the Russian "Vaganova" school, but uses terminology from the more commonly found French and Cecchetti methods. “My main goal is to have a fun but well-disciplined class which teaches every child to be self-confident and to love dance.”

Besides teaching at Elite, Lisa is currently competing in Irish dance and gives private lessons in flute, piano, and harp. She and her husband created the Nashville Fencing Club and coach the fencing teams for multiple local high schools. For the past four years, she has taught hundreds of Ravenwood JROTC cadets formation ballroom routines for their annual Military Ball.

Stacia Simonsen trained in modern dance and ballet with The Young DanceMakers and Classical Ballet Conservatory in Utah. She studied children's dance teaching methods in college, majoring in Humanities and minoring in Modern Dance. She then worked full-time with the Young DanceMakers. After moving to Arizona, she taught creative dance, modern, jazz, and ballet at Canyon Dance Academy by night and creative movement at preschools by day. Her choreography has been featured at regional dance festivals of the Southwest. While performing with Canyon Movement Company she also studied and taught Dance for Parkinson's Disease. She has taught dance and preschool in Nolensville since 2021. She and her husband have 5 children.

Kiana Renae is a dance educator, adjudicator, and coach from Southern New Hampshire. She trained with Saving Grace Dance Ensemble and Boston Community Dance Project, performing in NYC and Boston at venues like Alvin Ailey Studios and Times Square. She toured the Northeast teaching and managing events for Step Up 2 Dance and has adjudicated for KAR, NexStar, and Sheer Elite.

Now based in Nashville with Fresh Talent Group, Kiana is also an ICF-certified life coach, musician, and board member of Satellite School of the Arts. Her passion is inspiring others through dance, music, and storytelling.

Molly is a dedicated dance educator committed to cultivating vibrant movers, refined performers, and lifelong students of their craft. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Arizona and a Bachelor of Arts in Dance Performance from Chapman University.

Molly’s academic experience includes teaching appointments at the Gus Giordano Jazz Dance School, California State University, Fullerton, Grossmont College, and Middle Tennessee State University, where she has served as an adjunct professor in the School of Dance.

As a performer, Molly was a principal dancer with Royal Flux Dance Company—featured on NBC’s World of Dance under the direction of Jaci Royal—and with Talia Favia’s award-winning contemporary company, The Difference Between. During her time in Los Angeles, she also toured with Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre and appeared in various film and television projects as a dancer represented by Go 2 Talent Agency, Inc.

Molly’s unwavering commitment to dance education, combined with her extensive performance background and dynamic choreographic work, offers her students a unique and holistic perspective on the evolving landscape of contemporary dance.

Kylie Koeppen has called Nashville home for nearly 6 years and has spent that time trying to better herself and her dance community in all the ways she can. Originally from Indiana, Kylie has a degree in Psychology ABA from Purdue University; but her true passion has always been dance and all things creative.

Kylie spent some time in New York at the Joffrey Ballet School, studying in their Jazz and Contemporary trainee program and loved every second. During her time in Nashville, Kylie has had the privilege to teach at multiple studios in multiple styles. She is also a signed professional dancer with Fresh Talent Group and when she’s not teaching or in class herself, she is most likely on set or on stage!

MAGGIE PELTON grew up in the New Jersey Ballet Company. Her studies expanded to other disciplines while receiving her BFA in dance from The Juilliard School and intensive training at the Martha Graham and Jose Limon schools in New York City. After being awarded a scholarship from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, she was asked to join Ailey II which performed across the United States and the Caribbean. Ms. Pelton had the great honor of being the last female chosen by Alvin Ailey himself to join his first company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater which tours internationally. While living in southern California and now Nashville, Maggie has danced in television commercials, music videos and has gone on to teach, choreograph, and act as a consultant for dance and fitness in various projects. After many years of teaching for Nashville Ballet and performing with its resident modern dance company Epiphany, she currently is an adjunct professor of dance at Belmont University and David Lipscomb University, is a founding faculty member of Cookeville Leisure Services School of Dance, is on the dance faculty at Harpeth Hall School for Girls, teaches ballet to figure skaters and continues to serve as a guest artist choreographing, teaching master classes and dance workshops in ballet, modern and jazz disciplines from coast to coast.