OUR INSTRUCTORS
SOPHIE FOLLETT
Founder, Owner & Director of SJDC
Contemporary, Jazz,, Acrobatics,, &
choreography education instrUCtor
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Sophie started Sophie Jean Dance Company in 2016. She studied a Bachelor of Dance Studies with Honours at the University of Auckland. Sophie is currently teaching NCEA dance in secondary schools and is working on a new choreography that is being performed at the Hawkes Bay Art's Festival. She has also created an overseas education experience for her senior dance students to head over to Canada to attend a summer dance camp with Stacey Witt at MacDonald Island Dance Company. Her choreography has been presented in Tempo Dance Festival in 2015 (performer & choreographer), Short and Sweet Dance Festival (2013) where she was awarded People's Choice Award, The University of Auckland Blues award ceremony (2013), and in 2012 Sophie was awarded The University of Auckland Blues award for Chorography. She has been a part in many performances including Camelle Pinks Choreography Unfurl performed in Sydney, Short and Sweet Festival (2013/2015), and Auckland of University Action show (2014), Monster Valley experiment her own choreography and in Helen Foy choreography (2014), Short & Sweet Dance Festival in my own choreography - 2013 (awarded People's Choice Award), Tempo Dance Festival – Tertiary Colours Choreographed by Pee Jung Lee (2012), Youth Dance Festival in Singapore collaboration choreography with Pee Jung Lee & Nita Latu – 2012, Lead performer in SACRE Performance choreographed by International choreographers Volker Eisenach & Royston Maldoom and guests Taiaroa Royal & Moss Paterson (2011)
stacey witt
JAZZ, TAP, MINI MOVERS,, tiny toes, CONTEMPORARY & ACRO instrUCtor
Stacey is from Canada, and brings 30 years of dance experience to Sophie Jean Dance Company & 10+ years of teaching experience. She started teaching at Sophie Jean Dance Company in 2019 & was teaching dance for 4 years in Alberta, Canada at MacDonald Island Dance Academy (2014-2018). Stacey has studied a range of dance styles from contemporary, jazz, hip hop, modern, tap, ballet, African, Acro and musical theatre at various dance academies. Stacey has trained with the Canadian National Tap Team (2007-2009) & Canadian National Jazz Dance Team (2009) cas well as the Matthew Clark Dance Company, competing in world dance competitions in Germany, Poland and Spain and taking home 3 gold medals from the experience! She also was a part of the Tap Reloaded European dance tour (2010), performing in Malta, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Stacey continued to develop her dance training at the University of Auckland in New Zealand for 3 years (2011-2014), where she also met Sophie! She also teaches private dance lessons at Iona College in Havelock North (2019-present). Stacey is also a co-creator and choreographer of The Intro Club, performing contemporary pieces in Fringe in the Stings (Hastings, Hawkes' Bay) She is extremely passionate and believes in providing a dance education that is fun, inclusive and inspiring for all ages & levels! She is excited to join the Sophie Jean Dance Company family!
MAIA BASSETT
Maia started her dance journey at the young age of 3, getting in amongst a range of many different dance styles along the way. In her years of dance training, she has learnt many hiphop street dance styles and has lots of hip hop knowledge that she is keen to share! A few favourite hip hop styles of Maia’s are; Waacking, Voguing, Krump, Popping, Locking and Litefeet. Currently, Maia has been teaching Hiphop locally at primary schools around Hastings, as well as Rezpect Dance Academy and has been doing so for 6 years. Over this time she has had the privilege of tutoring, choreographing for and traveling with a bunch of Hawkes Bay’s talented youth, and continues to open up opportunities for her students. She has been a part of Regional, National and International crews at Rezpect, and has competed and learnt in places as far as Australia and America. Maia views dance as a community and is excited to make some new connections starting at SJDC in 2024. She can’t wait to meet you!
hip hopinstrUCtor
brianna williams
ballet, tiny toes, mini movers, jazz & contemporary instructor
Brianna started dancing at the age of 3, where she found her love for ballet. She has been with Sophie Jean Dance Company since 2019, and found a new passion for contemporary and jazz and began teaching in 2025. She is currently studying a Certificate in Ballet Teaching and will further her studies in 2027 to complete a Bachelors in Dance Studies with the Royal Academy of Dance. Brianna was apart of the SJDC Competition teams from 2022-2024 and has also performed in multiple ShowQuest and Dance NZMade competitions, as well as the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker in 2018. She was also apart of the group that Sophie took to London in 2025 where she took classes at Pineapple Studios and was able to learn new things to extend her dance knowledge further. Brianna’s goal is to allow her students to gain confidence within themselves and their dance abilities and to share her love for ballet to other people. She is so excited to introduce the RAD syllabus to her classes, and to gain new connections with more students in 2026.
alaina howlett
musical theatre, tiny toes, Adult Jazz instructor
Alaina started dancing at the age of 5 quickly finding her love for jazz. She started at the Sophie Jean Dance Company in 2020 reigniting her love for jazz as well as a new passion for tap and since then has studied a Bachelor of Arts majoring in theatre and minoring in dance. She has performed in a variety of performances such as Les Miserable, Once on this Island, the opera Dido and Aeneas, the Sir Edmond Hillary scholarship night, the unity dance showcase as well as all of the end of semester performance for the University of Waikato from 2023-2025 . For the past two years she has been coaching a school dance team for the Dance NZ made competition, this was her introduction to teaching and she loves watching all the students grow and thrive in their dances. Alaina views dance as a way to express yourself with the people who share the same passions as you, creating one big family like community who is always supportive. She is so excited to start teaching at SJDC and can’t wait to see all her dancers grow. Alaina is excited to start our first Musical Theatre classes at SJDC as well as teaching in our Tiny Toes & Adult Jazz!
lola clarkson
mini hip hop instructor/relief teacher
Lola has been dancing at SJDC since 2019 and has found her place within the studio.She has done many styles over the years and has discovered a fierce passion for Hip Hop. Over the years she has been dancing, she has learnt much from her experiences, and has grown as a dancer and been teacher assisting hip hop for many years. She has been involved with Dance NZ Made and Showquest for her school within the past few years, and has been in the SJDC Competition Team previously. Lola is really excited for this opportunity to teach some of the younger students her favourite dance style of Mini Hip Hop.