Stewart-Johnson Dance-Academy
Staff
Isobel Johnson
Miss Isobel started at age 3 and took over the Granzow Academy in 1964. She was a charter member & soloist with the Princeton Ballet, performing with them for many years. She studied with many Master teachers, including Charles Kelley, Luigi, Phil Black and numerous others. She is a Life Member of Dance Educators of America and is past-president of Dance Masters of America - Chapter 25 where she currently serves on their Board of Directors.
Many Stewart-Johnson graduates have gone on to careers in professional dance, including Complexions Dance Company, Bad Boys of Ballet and numerous shows in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and abroad. Some have opened their own successful dance studios as well.
Kim Spolitino
Kim began dancing at 2 at her mothers studio . As a child she studied in NYC with Charles Kelley , Frank Hatchet and American Ballet Theater . Her professional career began at 11 years old , where she danced with ABT at Lincoln Center in their Spring performances . Her senior year of high school , she started performing with the group " Menudo " at Radio City Music Hall . That job lead her to tours all over South America , Puerto Rico , Mexico and USA. After graduation , her career took her to Atlantic City where she performed at the Atlantis , Trump Plaza , Trump Marina , Harrahs , Ballys , The Claridge , Sands and Ceasars .
From there , Kim moved to Las Vegas to do " Abracadabra " which ran at the Aladdin Hotel . Working with some of the best dancers in the business , she met up with John Crutchman and Alan Sherfield , who put together a dance group to audition for Star Search . They called themselves " Fusion " and went on to win the $100,000 Grand Prize .
Kim's roots have always been home with the studio and after Star Search , she returned home to work on the East Coast and teach . She performed for many more years in AC and NY and then went on to choreograph at all the casinos .
Kim now teaches full time and heads the competition program at the studio. Her students have won numerous dance titles , choreography awards and have gone on to perform professionally . She is an active member with DMA and serves on their Board . Kim now enjoys watching her daughter dance and hopefully follow in her footsteps.
Taylor Spolitino
Taylor danced at Stewart Johnson Dance Academy since the age of 2 and was a soloist since the age of 5.
She won numerous titles from ASH, Legacy, Radix, Nuvo, Jump and won the title of National Senior Champion for West Coast Dance Explosion.
Taylor is currently signed with the CESD talent agency in NYC and is persuing a career in dance.
She has worked with directors and choreographers including Nicholas Cunningham, Daniel Gold, Bianca Star, Leila Pari,Josh Assor ,Charlie Sutton,Jason Williams, Patricia Crumrine, Hannah Wintrode ,Marlowe Scott,Heather Hadley, Jordin Sparks, Deborah Cox and Illusionist Leon Etienne.
Recent performances include
-"Royalty: Royals of Pop!"
-"Broadway Bares: Pleasure Park"
-"Queens Call To Action! Benefiting
-"The ACLU of Tennesee"
-"JQY Purim"
-"Magic Rocks" Live Show
-Grand Opening of the ‘Tin Building’
with Jean George
-NBC Upfront Show
-Leg Up on Life “Night of Life”
-”Bizzabo” Commercial
-"Over the Rainbow” Off Broadway
Production
Marynoel Kilgallon
Marynoel began her early dance training at Knecht Dance Academy in Levittown Pa. She went on to receive a BA degree in Theatre and Dance and a minor in child psychology from DeSales University in Center Valley Pa. She became a member of DMA in 1987 and has been an active member ever since. She is a former President of DMA NYC and attended Teacher's Training School in Buffalo NY.
Marynoel has trained students that have gone on to professional dance careers in ballet companies, Broadway shows, cruise lines, Disney, TV, movies and opened their own studios. She is the teacher of DMA's Miss Dance of America, 2005, 2006, and DMA's Master Dance of America 2005.
Marynoel's greatest loves in life are raising her 4 boys and sharing her passion and love for dance with her students. This year will be her 28th year of teaching.
Holly Lindauer
Holly Lindauer began her dance training at the young age of 3 under the direction of Isobel Johnson and Kimberly Spolitino. Throughout her years at Stewart Johnson, Holly was an assistant teacher, she performed with the competitive jazz company and did numerous solos.
Upon graduating high school in 2001, Holly went on to perform professionally in Atlantic City while earning her Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts from Rider University and graduated in 2007.
Holly is thrilled to be a part of SJDA's amazing and talented staff . Her passion for dance comes through to every student she teaches .
Kristen Hoagland
Kristen Hoagland is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She has studied under the direction of Isobel Johnson, Kimberly Johnson Spolitino, and Sandra Moore. Kristen has been the honored recipient of performance awards and scholarships from numerous competitions and conventions such as Dance Master of America, West Coast Dance Explosion, NYCDA, Legacy, Showstoppers, Onstage NY, and Starpower.
Kristen is currently an ensemble member on the National Tour of Hamilton and has been traveling the US and Canada performing with the show for the past 3 years. She has also toured with the National Tour of West Side Story directed by David Saint, where she played the part of Mugsy, Swing, and u/s Anybodys. She has been a part of two productions at the Goodspeed Opera House, Bye Bye Birdie directed by Jenn Thompson and The Circus in Winter directed by Joe Calarco.
She has had the pleasure of working directly with choreographers AC Ciulla, as his assistant on numerous projects, Luis Salgado, Spencer Liff, Dwight Rhoden, Desmond Richardson, Ivan Koumaev, Mari Madrid, Larry Keigwan, Jeffrey Lapes, Jihan Amoroli, and Michael Susten just to name a few. Kristen was the Assistant Choreographer to Jason Sparks for the new musical, “Propaganda! The Musical” featured in NYMF.
Along with dancing herself she is also a very passionate teacher. Kristen teaches ballet, lyrical, hiphop, musical theater, contemporary, and jazz. Her classes offer a safe environment for dancers to explore their own abilities as well as learn from others. She prides herself in keeping a positive attitude and pushing students harder then they thought possible. Her students have been the recipients of numerous awards at regional and national competitions. Her choreography has also received special awards in every age division. Kristen truly loves sharing her passion with others!
Tyler Stewart
Tour
Best of Rock the Ballet Germany Tour 2015 Dancer/Soloist \
Best of Rock the Ballet Switzerland Tour Dancer/Soloist
Best of Rock the Ballet Israel Tour Dancer/Soloist
Best of Rock the Ballet China Tour Dancer/Soloist/Swing
Bad Boys of Ballet Mexico Tour Dancer/Soloist
Rasta Thomas’ Romeo + Juliet Finland Tour Dancer/Soloist
Rasta Thomas’ Romeo + Juliet Sweden Tour Dancer/Soloist
Rock the Ballet France Summer Tour Dancer/Soloist
Rock The Ballet France Winter Tour Danner/Soloist
Best of Rock the Ballet Germany Tour 2017 Dancer/Soloist
Best of Rock the Ballet Switzerland Tour 2017 Dancer/Soloist
Rock the Ballet France 2017 Dancer/Soloist
Rock the Ballet Hungary Tour Dancer/Soloist
Rock the Ballet Kazakhstan Dancer/Soloist
Rasta Thomas’ Romeo + Juliet USA Dancer/Soloist
Rasta Thomas’ Romeo + Juliet France Tour Dancer/Soloist
Rock the Ballet France 2018 Dancer/Soloist
Rock The Ballet X Germany Tour Dancer/Soloist
Rock the Ballet X Switzerland Tour Dancer/Soloist
Rock the Ballet France 2019 Dancer/Soloist
Rasta Thomas’ Romeo + Juliet Germany Tour Dancer/Soloist
Rock The Ballet X France Tour Dancer/Soloist
Television/Stage/Industrials/Festivals
Dancers Responding to Aids Dancer Symphony Space, NY
Guten Morgen Deutschland Dancer Cologne, DE
Monte Carlo Sporting Summer Festival 2015 Dancer Salle des Etoiles, MC
Dance Against Cancer 2016 Dancer AXA Center, NY
Gala De Danza 2016 Dancer Cabo San Lucas, MX
Dancers for Good 2016 Dancer East Hampton, NY
Dancers for Good 2017 Dancer/Soloist East Hampton, NY
Eurasian Dance Festival 2017 Dancer/Soloist Astana Opera, KZ
Training
Stewart-Johnson Dance Academy, NJ
Atlantic City Ballet, NJ
American Repertory Ballet- Princeton Ballet School, NJ
Broadway Dance Center, NY
Steps on Broadway, NY
Peridance Capezio Canter, NY
Generation IV Summer Intensive
New York City Dance Alliance Convention
Break The Floor Conventions
Dance Masters of America Convention
West Coast Dance Explosion Convention
Sara Rivera
Sara Rivera is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She began her diverse dance training at age 4 at Stewart Johnson Dance Academy and continued until 2016 performing styles such as contemporary, jazz, tap, acro, ballet, and hip-hop. She continued her dance training and obtained her Bachelor in Fine Arts from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in May 2020, where she was able to develop her knowledge in modern and ballet technique, choreography, improvisation, and pedagogical teaching skills. She is currently continuing her studies at Rutgers and will be graduating with her Master's degree in Dance Education (EdM) in 2021.
Throughout her time in college, she performed works by world-renown choreographers such as Bill T. Jones, Randy James, Chien-Ying Wang, Paul Ocampo, Yin Yue, and Pam Tanowitz. In 2017, she was given the opportunity to perform at the Joyce Theatre as a soloist within a group piece choreographed by Lar Lubovitch, who is a New York-based choreographer.�
In October 2019, she traveled to Beijing, China to perform a group piece choreographed by Chien-Ying Wang at the International Creative Dance Seminar hosted by Beijing Normal University.
After college, she hopes to continue her love for performing by auditioning and joining a New York-based dance company. Her main goal as a dance educator is to provide an equitable classroom for all her students; a classroom where the students feel comfortable in exploring new ways of moving and expressing themselves through contemporary choreography that focuses on rich and grounded movement.
Danielle Gonzalez
Danielle was enrolled at Stewart Johnson Dance Academy in 1997, at the age of 3. She continued her training under Isobel Johnson and Kim Johnson-Spolitino until 2012. In her time at Stewart Johnson, Danielle was a company member and an award winning soloist. She also had the privilege of being a student assistant teacher from 2006-2012.
After graduating from Stewart Johnson, she began coaching gymnastics and joined the SJDA staff in September of 2013.
Along with teaching at the studio, Danielle is enrolled as a full-time student at The College of New Jersey, where she is pursuing a dual bachelors degree in Elementary Education and English.
Jaela Bristol
Jaela Bristol began her dance training at Stewart Johnson at the age of 2 years old. At the age of 8 she decided to take a few years off to focus more on her gymnastics training. During that time she won several State and Regional gymnastics titles with Arena Gymnastics. After suffering a serious knee injury, she decided to return to her favorite dance studio Stewart Johnson and All Star Cheerleading Spirit Explosion Fab 5. In the time of her return, she was invited to re-join the dance company and competed in many competitions with her classmates which she began competing with at age 6.
In addition to her competition dance team, she had simultaneously completed at the Cheerleading World Championships qualifying 4x. Her cheer team was ranked 2 years in a row top 10 World Champions. After recently graduating from Stewart Johnson, she is currently assistant teaching acrobatics with Kim Spolitino and Danielle Gonzalez.
In addition to teaching acrobatics, Jaela is a Certified Gymnastics Coach from USA Gymnastics University at Envisions Gymnastics where she coaches USAG and USAIGC Competitive Gymnastics, Recreational, and Cheer Tumble.
In addition to all above she is currently a full time student at Rider University.
Paige Swisher
Paige started her dance career at age three at Stewart Johnson Dance Academy where she was trained by Miss Isobel, Miss Kim, and other SJDA staff in Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop, lyrical, and Contemporary. Paige was a student here for 15 years and is now on our prestigious staff .
Throughout her dance career, Paige performed in multiple plays at Kelsey Theater and Bucks County Playhouse including Twas The Night Before Christmas and The Wizard of Oz. She also performed in Atlantic City Ballet Theater's production of The Nutcracker for two years.
Outside of all the time spent at the studio, Paige is a full-time Cosmetologist at a salon in Pennington, NJ.
Her main goal in class is to provide a safe, fun environment for every student to be able to let loose and express who they really are. " I was always taught to dance like no one is watching and have fun while doing it and now that is what i like to express to all of my students."
Emma Bryce
Emma began dance training at Stewart Johnson Dance Academy at the age of 8 years old. She has trained in jazz, tap, ballet, pointe, lyrical, hip hop, and contemporary at SJDA growing up. While at the studio, she was a part of the competition team, taking part in many conventions and auditions along the way, and had numerous solos in pointe and lyrical while at the studio. Going into her graduating year she was awarded the Wilma Stewart award at the recital.
After graduating Emma went on to Mercer County Community College to continue her education in dance. While at Mercer she trained in modern and in ballet, and took many classes in acting, performance, and improvisation. At MCCC she performed in a couple of musicals such as: “Cabaret” and “Catch Me If You Can” at the Kelsey Theater, dancing, acting and singing in the ensemble and also was given the opportunity to assist choreograph for “Return To The Forbidden Planet” at the Kelsey. Emma danced in MDE’s spring/fall showcases and in her last semester she performed in a student’s short film, “Last Dance” while at the college. She also got the opportunity to perform with Buggé Ballet for their winter showcase in Jersey City and recently this past fall completed her degree, earning an Associates in Fine Arts, Dance.
Emma now is planning on going back to school for her Bachelors in secondary art education, and will begin teaching the tiny tots and ballet at SJDA this year. Her love for dance continues to motivate and push her to be the best she can be in not only dance but in life. She currently has been auditioning in the dance world and continues to pursue what she loves to do everyday.
Barrett Stillitano
Barrett Stillitano is a dancer,choreographer, and teacher. She was fortunate enough to study under various teachers and choreographers. Barrett attended the Joffrey Ballet School on scholarship for many summers and was able to expand her dance studies in NYC.
As a student Barrett was given the opportunity to receive many awards and scholarships such as, Petite Miss Dance of NYC, Teen Miss Dance of PA, Miss Dance of CT, a finalist in Miss Dance of America for Dance Masters of America’s, Dancer of the Year for American Dance Awards regionally as well as numerous special awards.
Barrett was then able to go on with her love for dance with teaching. Having her students win various awards as young and junior dancer of the year regionally for American Dance Awards and to herself win special awards as well as choreography awards.
Now as a mother of twin girls Barrett is honored to share her passion with the younger generation.