Danielle Storey Loredo grew up training at Tempe Dance Academy and Nina Marlow School of Ballet in Phoenix, Arizona. Her competitive dance experience has given her so much to be grateful for, and she also attributes her success as a dancer/human to her steadfast commitment to ballet training and technique. Danielle received a performing arts scholarship to the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University where she studied Dance Performance and Corporate Communications. In college, she was a student choreographer, co-founded the SMU dance club, and worked through an intense curriculum   Upon graduating in 2011, Danielle came to work in Austin and taught dance classes part time. Her passion for teaching performing arts was so centric in her life that she decided to leave her corporate job, and help Kathy Dupuy and Kristin Nicolaisen start Balance Dance Studios.

Danielle is also passionate about performance and has danced for choreographers Danny Buraczeski, Kristin Nicolaisen, Quinton Weathers, Cat Cogliandro, Cheryl Copeland, Devon Adams, Millicent Johnnie and Jessie Smart.  With experience in the commercial dance world of Los Angeles, she  understands what it takes for pre-professional dancers to make a living with their art. Some of her most memorable LA experiences include assisting dance legend Jackie Sleight, apprenticing for Diavolo Dance Company and workshopping the choreography for Disney’s Frozen show at California Adventure. She pulls a lot of her stylistic inspiration from her time spent in LA training with her contemporary favorites, Jason Gorman and Cat Cogliandro. Danielle aims to train dancers into anatomically aware, sharp, dynamic and daring performers. She also hopes to make an impact in her students’ lives beyond the studio, mentoring and encouraging positivity and confidence!

Dani Sanders, CPT, FMT, is a fitness professional that focus’ on dancer health and performance, and functional fitness. She studied Exercise Sports Science at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX and graduated with her Bachelors in 2015. She has worked in multiple gyms and dance studios across Texas teaching her love of health and fitness and sharing the benefits of sport specific training with dancers. Dani started dancing at a young age up until her early twenties when a chronic hip injury pushed her into another direction. This is where her passion for cross training and educating dancers began. Her dance training experience coupled with her copious amounts of kinesiology and physiology knowledge has given her the ability to work with dancers in a unique way that has yet to hit mainstream dance studio training. Her program is designed using scientifically proven muscle training protocols that incorporate both dance techniques and Pilates ideologies. She works hard to cross train dancers in order to keep them dancing longer, injury free, and performing at their best.

Shawna Hesketh started dancing at an early age at her one room studio in her small Central Texas hometown. Her love of dance grew and she went on to be on her high school’s drill/dance team and began to teach dance at the age of 16. She attended Sam Houston State University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Photography and Dance. While at SHSU she was in several performances including a graduate thesis and also worked in the costume department for their Nutcracker production. Throughout her college days she kept steady jobs within retail management working her way from bottom up to Assistant Manager. After getting married, moving to Austin, and having her first child, she got back into dance full time by diving into ballroom dancing. Then a simple twist of fate and the interconnections of the dance community she began her journey with Balance Dance Studios, joining them in the Fall of 2012, their first year of being open. Since then she has created a home and family with Balance that now she gets to share the journey with her two children as she gets to watch them dance and grow.