Joanne Brown

Joanne started dancing at the age of 3 in San Francisco with Betty Gentry and Ardith Gotthardt.  After they moved to Fremont, she continued her training with Amy Palmer.  At the age of 10 she moved to Daly City and took lessons at the St. Francis Heights Dance and Music Guild until she graduated from High School.  She attended San Francisco State University where she continued to study in jazz, ballet, modern and afro. She received her teaching credential and BA in Liberal Studies in 1975.  With a shortage of teaching jobs she pursued her dance career and taught at the Powell Reilly Dance Studio in San Francisco.

In 1980 after moving to Fremont she started teaching four ballet classes at the Union City Leisure Services and the rest is history. Thirteen years later in January of 1993 Joanne Brown Dancers was opened and still going strong.

You will occasionally find her using her teaching credential and substitute teaching at several Union City Elementary Schools.  She teaches the dance program at Pioneer, Kitiyama, and Alvarado Elementary Schools.  You can see her production numbers at Marching On.  She has taught master classes in Lake Tahoe and Portland, Oregon.

Joanne was responsible for choreographing the number that won the City of Union City their 1999 All American City Award.

Carol Keyser

Ballet is a lifelong love for veteran teacher Carol Keyser who trained at San Francisco Ballet before moving to New York for High School and Boston for College.

She performed as first soloist in The Vergiu Cornea Dance Company, creating such roles as Solveg in “Pier Gynt,” The Dying Swan in “Carnival of the Animals.”  She guest taught at Cornell University, The University of Maryland and opened her first studio “The Ballet Center” in Ithaca, New York.

Moving west, she established the Ballet Arts Guild Studios with twin studios in Sunnyside and Yakimma and created the Yakima Valley Regional Ballet.  She worked as Ballet Mistress training local students to perform for the Eugene Ballet’s “Cinderella” and the Portland Ballet Theater’s “Nutcracker.”

After retirement from the Ballet Arts Guild, she helped begin the Yakima Academy of the Arts a free academy in a ghetto area offering art, music and dance classes.

After a move to Maui in 1991, she taught at The Maui Academy of Performing Arts and The Maui Ballet, creating several ballets for both companies.

Moving back to the mainland, she joined Joanne Brown Dancers in the summer of 1998 and is happy doing what she loves best - teaching children the joys of classical ballet.

Aubrey Martinez

Aubrey began dancing for Joanne at the age of 4. She continued with Joanne until the age of 19, when she left and began her college career. During her years of dancing, Joanne recognized Aubrey’s natural ability for choreography at a young age. Joanne nurtured this gift and soon Aubrey was assisting with classes and choreography at the age of 9. When she was 13 years old, she was choreographing 75% of jazz dances that she was in. At the age of 18, Joanne turned over the competition jazz dances to Aubrey. It was during this year that she would choreograph the dance, “Let My People Go”. This dance would win multiple awards including the coveted ’18 & Up Overall Winner’ at the I Love Dance Competition in Sacramento, CA. This would be the first award of this kind for the studio. Aubrey’s choreography has won numerous awards at many different competitions during the years and now she has returned to continue where she left off. Aubrey has taught jazz, lyrical and tap. 

Aubrey was born and raised in the bay area, growing up in Union City where she graduated from Logan in 1994. During her high school years she was actively involved in drama, the school musicals that included ‘A Chorus Line’, ‘West Side Story’, ‘Damn Yankees’ and ‘42nd Street’. She also participated in the Dance program at Logan, Club Vogue and Cheerleading for 2 years. She was Captain of her JV squad but decided to quit cheerleading after her Varsity year to pursue a job. After she graduated high school, Aubrey joined the work force full time and eventually decided she wanted more out of life. Aubrey obtained a B.A. degree in Psychology from Sacramento State in May of 2003. She is currently contemplating continuing for her Masters degree. Aubrey enjoys working with people and is happiest when she is fully utilized. Her greatest accomplishment is her daughters, Isabelle and Mariah. When mom is teaching or working the desk, you can see the girls around the studio as well. Aubrey hopes to instill in her students the joy and passion for dance that she feels so completely. Regardless of life, there is always music and that means there will always be dance!

Ginelle Watkins

Ginelle was born and raised in the Bay Area where she graduated from Moreau Catholic High School.  She started dancing at the age of 3.  She joined the Joanne Brown Dancers studio at the age of 5.  At the age of 8 Joanne felt she was ready to begin dancing with the competition team.  She also competed as a tap soloist for many years.  In 2005 her award winning tap solo, Faith, won in her category to perform in the showcase at the Encore Performing Arts National Dance Competition in Las Vegas.  Two years in a row she placed in the Miss Teen Dance category at the Kids Artistic Revue (KAR) competition.  At a young age she started assisting Joanne in classes.  Through the years, Joanne saw her unique gift to teach and connect with young children.  Today she continues to teach young children in tap, jazz, and ballet in ages ranging from 2-16.  She is currently a junior at California State University, East Bay where she is majoring in sociology.  In addition to teaching, she continues to embrace her love of dance on stage by dancing with the adult competition dance team.

Serenity Siya Lui Mlay

Serenity grew up dancing since the age of four with various dance studios in the Bay Area such as Academy for the Performing Arts under the direction of Deborah Skinner and Janet Nordgren, Angela Marie's Choreographics and at Ohlone College under the direction of Janel Tomblin-Brwon.

She has also been heavily involved in the local theatre community such as The New Conservatory Theatre Centre in San Francisco and a few productions at Ohlone College like, “West Side Story”, “A Flew in Her Ear”, “ Blackbird”, “ Crashing Heaven”,  ”A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “A Cry of Players”, and “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest”. Her directing credits include Ohlone College’s Student Repertory production of “Dolores”, “Still Love”, and “A Play for Germs”.

Serenity is currently teaching dance in local after school arts programs, and at Joanne Brown Dancers in Union City. In 1997 she attended the California State Summer School for the Arts to study theatre under the direction of Donald Forest and Michael Fields and at the CSU Summer Arts in 2003 to study dance with Joe Goode Performance Group and Rennie Harris Puremovement.

She received her A.A. degree in Liberal Arts from Ohlone College in 2002 and is currently pursuing her B.A. in Dance and a Minor in International Relations.

Technique
Serenity Mlay

Tap and Jazz
Ginelle Watkins