Our Team

Stella is a dancer, choreographer, and instructor from San Jose, California. She started dancing at Purdance in 2015, where she trained in contemporary, jazz, ballet, pointe, lyrical, and musical theater. She was a part of multiple Elite teams at Purdance, which allowed her to perform and compete all across the Bay Area. Stella began working as a teacher assistant at 13 years old. Since then, she has continued her love for teaching. She adventures in other styles and has even found a passion for cheerleading. She cheered all throughout high school and as captain her senior year was able to lead and choreograph for the team. Stella is studying at CSU East Bay as a Business Management major. She is also currently teaching for both Purdance and CLAP Arts. She hopes to keep dancing all throughout her life and is excited to see where it will take her! 

Mari is a Bay Area native with a love for all expressions of art, especially music and dance. She has had an affinity for singing since she was a young girl, participating in talent shows and musicals during middle school and eventually joining the concert choir at her high school. Her journey with dance began a little later when she joined the Abyssinian Student Union dance team at UC Riverside in 2018. Mari fell in love with the sense of community this experience provided her with, as well as the opportunity to become fully immersed in different cultures through movement. Since then, she has started training in pole dance at various studios around the Bay Area and most recently joined Purdance as part of the Administrative Team. Mari is currently pursuing her ADT in Communications and a Commercial Music Production Certificate of Achievement at West Valley College. She is so excited to be a part of the welcoming environment that is Purdance and looks forward to helping build this lovely community!