Faculty (N-Z)

Tony Nguyen started his dancing career when he finished high school. His training started at a local Sacramento ballroom training in all forms and styles, but he came to love Salsa, Swing, Tango, and Waltz. Wanting to expand on his vocabulary he decided to start taking ballet, jazz, and tap at American River College under Carrie Perriera and Sunny Smith. He transferred to CSU Sacramento in the fall of 2006 and is currently training under under Nolan, T’Sani, Lisa Ross, Lorelei Bayne, and Randee Paufve. He has also trained with CORE Dance Collective for one season, and interned for Joe Goode Performance Group in summer of 2009. He is happy to be working at Hawkins, and looks forward to more years of teaching and creating work on the kids.
Erin Nobbe received her primary dance training under the direction of Marguerite Phares.  At age 10, she joined the Phares Theatre Ballet.  During the eight years she was with PTB, Erin trained with many professional choreographers and teachers, spent two summers with the Boston Ballet, and gained an extensive background in ballet, modern, jazz and character dance.  At the age of eighteen, Erin began her professional career with Ballet Iowa under the directorship of internationally known Konstintin Uralsky and Irina Vassilini-Uralsky. Erin was a principal dancer in several classical and neo-classical ballets.  Upon returning to Sacramento, Erin began teaching at Hawkins School of Performing Arts in 1999.  She has been a guest dancer for Phares Theatre Ballet and worked as a guest choreographer for the Ballet Folsom.  Erin took several Hawkins’ students to the international ballet competition “Youth America Grand Prix”.  The students had an opportunity to work with internationally known teachers and directors in a workshop at the San Francisco Ballet School.  Erin is now staying busy with teaching, private instruction, guest work with Folsom Lake Civic Ballet and, of course, her five year old son, Colin.
Patty O’Neil has been a resident of Folsom since 1993 and teaching at the Hawkins School of Performing Arts since 1994. She began dance instruction at the age of five taking classes in tap, jazz and ballet. During her five years as a principle dancer with The Tucson Community Ballet Company, she danced roles in Copellia, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. She also studied dance at the University of Arizona under the instruction of Nina Janik and George Zorich while earning her Bachelor of Science in Interior Design. Patty recently danced with the Folsom Lake Civic Ballet as a guest artist in the production of Hansel and Gretel. She incorporates her background of both Cecchetti and Russian techniques while sharing ballet with her students.

Amy Reese started dancing at age nine. She studied ballet, tap, jazz, and gymnastics, receiving her early training at Riverside Dance Theater and Noerr Dance Academy in Southern California. She studied dance at UC Santa Barbara with Valerie Huston, Delila Moseley, Holly Schiffer, Vincent Brousseau and numerous guest artists, while pursuing her B.A. in English. She has danced with Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera, as well as City Ballet of San Diego, under the direction of Steven and Elizabeth Wistrich. While living in Colorado, she performed with Canyon Concert Ballet, OpenStage Theatre and the Dance Connection. She has performed in such ballets as Giselle, Swan Lake, Carmina Burana, Paquita, Coppelia, Serendade, and The Jungle Book. She taught ballet at Canyon Concert Ballet and at the Mountain Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. She studied choreography with Bella Lewitsky at CSU Long Beach, and Nancy Spanier at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her choreography has been selected for the Northern Colorado Choreographers Showcase/New Visions Dance Festival in Fort Collins, Colorado.    Locally, Amy has performed with the Dangerous Lorraines Dance Theater in Sacramento and recently received her teacher certification in Elementary Education. She is the proud mother of two boys.
Marlene Richards, a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles and has taught dance in college and professional studio arenas for the past twenty years. She also headed her own professional company in the Bay Area as artistic director and choreographer. Marlene has studied Ballet and modern dance under such dance dignitaries as Mia Slavenska, Richard Gibson, Lar Lubovitch, Donald McKayle, Gus Solomones Jr. and dance educator Dr. Alma Hawkins. She has participated in dance ’87 Sacred Dance Guild National Conference in New York, as well as the “First International Liturgical Dance Conference” in Avignon France. Ms. Richards was the recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship/Graduate Dance center for Choreography at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Maureen Roman has lived in California most of her life and has been performing since the age of 12 in theater, and churches, both pre-professional and professional. She has traveled across the East Coast performing in several states and even in Central America and has studied her craft in Canada, San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento. She has been in productions such as Oklahoma, starred in The”Perils of Pawleen” and “The Gift’ directed by Sha’ Givens. She currently lives in Loomis, CA and loves teaching as well as being a proud wife and mother of three.
Janae Rosebud is a dancer of eleven years and an instructor/choreographer of six years.  Although she has trained in many different styles, hip hop  has always been her passion.  She began her dance training at ten years old with Showbiz Productions.  There she was a member of the Hip Hop Crew, with whom she performed at Sacramento Kings and Monarchs games for nearly five years.  She debuted as a hip hop instructor for Showbiz in 2004 at the tender age of fourteen.  Within one year, she also began teaching for Step 1 Dance and Fitness. Janae went on to co-direct and choreograph her own competitive hip hop dance group, 916 Cliq.  The group performed together for nearly two years and became Jamz National Champions in 2006. At age seventeen, Janae was recruited and signed to a talent agency known as MSA Talent Group. The agency helped educate her and prepare her for the Los Angeles dance industry, and after graduating high school, she moved to LA to pursue her dance career.  During her stay, she was involved in some amazing projects, such as the remake to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, featuring and co-produced by Adam Sevani of the movies “Step Up 2″ and “Step Up 3D”.  Upon her return to Sacramento, Janae began teaching for the Hawkins School of Performing Arts in 2009. Nearly two years later, she is now co-director of the Hawkins competitive hip hop team, Adrenaline Rush, along with the talented Mikee Juaquin.  She is also teaching for a few other dance studios and programs in Sacramento: Step1 Dance and Fitness, the Greathouse of Dance, Urban Arts Studio, and Yav Pem Suab Academy. Above all, Janae strives to continue to grow and push herself creatively.  She makes a tremendous effort to always stay ambitious and innovative, for she hopes to help inspire her peers and fellow music lovers, just as others have inspired her to develop into the artist she is today.
Tracy has been a Hawkins instructor for fourteen years and is also on the faculty of the American River College Theatre Arts Department.  At ARC she teaches acting, theatre and film classes and serves at the Vocal Director for the college’s musicals. She also directs both mainstage and children’s touring shows for the college.  In the community, Tracy vocal directs for the Fair Oak Theatre Festival, and appears regularly on the pledge drives for the local public television station, KVIE.Tracy’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Music from the Conservatory of Music at University of the Pacific, and a Master of Arts in Directing from California State University, Sacramento. When Tracy’s not teaching, she’s thoroughly enjoying her two school-age daughters, both of whom have been taking dance and acting classes at Hawkins since they were old enough to show an interest!
Robyn Soliman has been teaching at Hawkins for 11 years, training with “CORE Collective Dance Company” in Sacramento, choreographed for local dance teams and theater companies, danced Polynesian dance with “Halau Lokailia” of Diamond Springs and “Rapa Ta Tira” of Stockton. Currently, Robyn teaches dance at Antelope High School as well as Hawkins School of Performing Arts.
Beverly Stewart started dancing at the age of three. She has had training in ballet, tap, jazz, musical theater, ballroom dance, gymnastics, and singing. She studied at the Orange County Ballet Company, the National Ballet School of Canada, and Broadway Dance Center in New York. At the age of seventeen, she started working for Royal Cruise Line as a lead dancer, company manager, and vocal soloist in the Broadway revue shows. She has worked in Los Angeles, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, as well as on a national tour performing in shows such as “42nd Street”, “George M!”, “Hello Dolly”, “Cinderella”, and “No, No, Nanette”, as well as Best of Broadway here in Sacramento She also worked for Disney Special Events Company for three years. Beverly has been teaching dance for over 15 years. She enjoys being a wife and mother most of all!
James Wakeley was born in Massachusetts and as far back as he can remember; people would constantly drop quarters in the jukebox to watch him move. The more they wanted to see the more he wanted to do! He never passed up an opportunity to dance, no matter what the occasion! Getting tired of the cold weather, he decided it was time to move to California. He attended Mira Loma High School and spent most of his lunches working on new moves with many of his friends. He took this time to prepare for rallies and off-campus demonstrations.

He’s had the pleasure of working with Pepper Von to help our community on many occasions, such as “Dream Collectives”,” The House”, and “Holy Cry”. Has had the opportunity dancing as a Kali Kat Dancer at Cache Creek Casino, and has been in shows such as “Let’s StayTogether”, and “Clara’s Nutty Adventures”. James has taught the arts of hip-hop and breakin for the past four years, and to him, it never seems to get old! “There’s always something new to learn! -Music drives me; it helps me think, makes me breath, and proves I listen. Music is my life.”