Sarah Schaper is the founder and owner of In His Image Dance Studio.  She was born and raised in Tallahassee Florida and was homeschooled through high school.  After graduation she attended Florida State University and received her bachelor’s degree in Commercial Entrepreneurship.  She has been trained in Ballet, Pointe, Tap, Jazz, Contemporary, and Modern for 16 years. Over the years she’s worked with many studios around Tallahassee and has been teaching dance for 10 years.  She is very passionate about instructing and knew at a young age that the Lord had called her to pour into the younger generation through dance.  The heartbeat of her mission is to seek Christ and provide a rewarding outlet for girls.  

Bailey started her dance journey with Melbourne City Dance Center (now, We Dance Academies) in Melbourne, FL. Here, she was taught ballet by the highly acclaimed principal dancer, Artem Yachmennikov. Under Yachmennikov’s artistic direction, she became a company member of Melbourne City Ballet Theatre, performing, teaching and choreographing for school performances.

In 2018 and 2019, she danced alongside the National Ballet Theatre of Odessa performing soloist roles in The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake such as The Courage Fairy, Maids, and Neapolitan Princess, and corps de ballet roles such as Forest Nymphs, Mazurka and Swan Corps. While at Melbourne City Dance Center, Bailey attended the Bolshoi Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and MODAS Dance summer intensives, and competed in the Valentina Koslova Competition in NYC, and the American Dance Competition in Tampa, where she won a Scholarship from Ajkun Ballet Theater. 

During Bailey’s senior year of high school, she accepted a trainee position at Orlando Ballet where she performed choreography from Directors Robert Hill and Jorden Morris. At the end of the year she suffered a ligament tear in her foot and was forced to stop dancing. Bailey now attends Florida State University majoring in French and Communications. She can’t wait to be back in the studio meeting and passing on her love of dance to new students. 

Jenna spent 15 years training extensively and exclusively in classical ballet in the Vaganova method in her hometown of Ocala, Florida. It was there, under the instruction of Ana Jacobs, she performed leading roles in original Bible-based ballets for Dance Divine School of Ballet and the Light of Joy Ballet Company, a Christian ballet school and pre-professional company focused on praising the Lord through the art of ballet. For several years, Jenna taught ballet to students of all ages and abilities, some of whom went on to start professional dance careers with companies such as Enoch Contemporary Ballet, the Nashville Ballet, and others.

As Ballet Mistress for the company, Jenna choreographed original works, ran full company rehearsals, and assisted backstage during performances. When she stepped away from performing and teaching to pursue a career in journalism, she remained involved in the ballet world—taking classes whenever possible, guest teaching, judging auditions, and serving her hometown studio in a communications capacity. When life and work transitioned her to Tallahassee, she served on the board of directors of The Tallahassee Ballet for a year. She currently serves as a kids volunteer at City Church.

In 2019, she began a rewarding career in state government for the Florida House of Representatives, serving three Speakers of the House. However, her most important title is wife and mom to two little girls, Ava and Anna, and bonus daughter, Sam. She’s excited to jump back into serving the Lord through ballet and watching her students grow in strength, artistry and their relationship with God!

I am a recent graduate from FSU with my bachelor’s in behavioral neuroscience. I have been dancing since I was two years old, and danced competitively for 13 years! My favorite kinds of dance are ballet and contemporary, but I love anything that gives me an outlet to express myself. I am so excited to share my passion and create an environment of love and encouragement this year! 

Hi! My name is Halle Jones and I am currently attending Florida State University getting my bachelors in human development and family sciences. I plan to get my masters in occupational therapy for pediatrics. This will be my last year at FSU, and I will be graduating in May of 2024. While I am in Tallahassee, I attend City church and serve on the kids’ team. A little bit about my family is that my dad is a young adults and children’s pastor at my church back home, my mom is a fourth-grade teacher, and I have three sisters. I danced from the age of 3 years old to 18 years old. I danced competitively for the last 7 years of my dance career. I have been trained in ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, acro, and hip hop at Jump Dance Company in Lakewood Ranch, FL. I am experienced with children ranging from ages 1 year old to 17 years old. I am also experienced with kids who have special needs.  I absolutely love dance and God has shown such faithfulness through dance in my life. There was a point in time where my parents weren’t sure if we were going to be able to afford the tuition of dance for the next year to follow and before the next season started, one of my teachers called me and said they were giving me a scholarship for the rest of my time at the dance studio. God has continuously shown his love through dance. I have always had such a passion to dance, and it was always a dream of mine to one day be able to share that and teach dance.

Hi everyone, my name is Joelle Bass. My interest in dance goes back to when I took worship dance as a 5 year old at our homeschool co-op. When I resumed taking dance classes around age 12 I began to see dance as a vehicle of the Gospel that goes beyond language. At that point I joined a studio in town where I could get intense ballet training and I immediately threw myself into the deep end. Since then I have been privileged not only to perform with this company but also to teach at their ballet school. I enjoy dancing in almost every form but I especially love to the structure of ballet and the rich history of Hebraic dancing. This coming year I am looking forward to teaching a wider variety of classes and working with dancers who are not only furthering their skills but furthering The Kingdom. 

Kaitlyn Esquivel is from West Palm Beach, Florida and began her training at her training at Dance Unlimited. She soon transferred to Dance Universe where she trained with the studios pre-professional company. Over the years, Kaitlyn has attended multiple of American Ballet Theatre's summer intensives including training in New York City. Kaitlyn has been teaching since 2021 at Dance Universe. The summer of 2023 Kaitlyn received her teaching certification under American Ballet Theatre's Curriculum in levels pre-primary through level 3. Kaitlyn has taught at a few local studios in the West Palm Beach area as well as at Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Preparatory Program. Kaitlyn went to Bak Middle School of the Arts as a dance major. For high school, she studied at American Heritage for a year on a full dance scholarship. Then she transferred to Palm Beach Central High School, Dreyfoos School of the Arts, and finally The King's Academy where she graduated top three in her class. At The King’s Academy Kaitlyn performed principal roles as Sugar Plum in The Nutcracker, Kitri in Don Quixote, and Odette in Swan Lake.

I started dancing at the age of 3 just outside of Tampa, Florida at KW Dance Center starting with ballet, tap, and jazz. I joined the competition team at age 6 where I danced competitively for 10 years in all styles including ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, musical theatre, hip-hop, and several others. During my time as a competitive dancer I got to travel to different competitions and conventions with the honor of taking master classes from professional dancers such as Paula Abdul, multiple SYTYCD winners, and many more. During this time, I was given the opportunity to teach and assist in my studio growing up. I was also on my high school dance team where I got to cheer on my classmates during football and basketball season. Dance has been such a big part of my life and I am so excited for my second year of teaching. 

Hello, My name is Skylar and I am a Junior at Florida State studying exercise physiology, hoping to become a physical therapist for dancers. I have been dancing since I was 2 years old at a dance studio called That’s Dancing in my hometown. Although I love all styles of dance, my favorite is Ballet. I am so excited to teach this year and to join a new dance studio family!

Hey! I’m Hannah Garcia and I’ll be teaching at In His Image this year. I began dancing at Wildwood Ballet at age 5, switched to The Tallahassee Ballet a couple years later, and have been dancing there ever since. I also currently dance with In His Image Company. I have experience in ballet, jazz and contemporary, and love learning any new dance styles. However, my favorite has always been ballet. I am so grateful for all the dance opportunities God has sent my way, and I seek to bring Him glory and honor whenever I dance. I have been an assistant dance teacher for the past several years. First at my church, then at The Tallahassee Ballet, and finally at In His Image. I love sharing my knowledge of dance with others and am so excited to teach. I can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for me at In His Image!

Hi! My name is Sadie Fitzgerald. I am a junior in high school, and I have been dancing for nearly seven years. I started dancing in Virginia when I was nine years old and quickly realized my love for dance. I have taken many classes, including ballet, pointe, contemporary, lyrical, and I am currently participating in the IHI company. I have been taking classes with In His Image for about three years and have helped assist in classes the last two years. I am so excited to share my knowledge of dance and learn along with my students as we navigate the dance year together. I’m looking forward to worshipping the Lord through dance and teaching the students how we can use it to worship God.