Ms. Tami

Ms. Tami is a California native and grew up in Palo Alto.  She started dancing after graduating from college, proving that it’s never too late to start dancing!  The story goes that she happened to walk by a Jazz class at Foothill College and decided it would be fun to try something new, she was hooked forever!  Since that chance moment, she trained as an adult in Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Tap and Hip Hop. 

She attended San Diego State University where she successfully earned her degree in Computer Science.  After college, she worked at Franklin Resources which is now Franklin Templeton, Cypress Semiconductor and Electronics for Imaging, Inc. before dedicating herself as a full-time dance instructor.  

Her dance related experiences outside the classroom include years of working, volunteering and assisting the Foothill Repertory Dance program run by director, Bubba Gong.  Foothill has community performances and many collaboration opportunities with other community colleges including City College of San Francisco, West Valley College, and Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo.  Foothill was also the main performance entertainment for the 2017 Community College League of California annual conference held at the San Jose Fairmont.  Her groups have also performed at several San Francisco Chinese New Year parades and an exclusive 2019 performance at San Francisco's acclaimed Legion of Honor Museum.

As a performer, she danced with a small modern company called, Dogpatch Superstars, and also Allegra Dance.  As a choreographer, she recently completed a piece for Adobe and is currently working with the Palo Alto Children’s Theatre student program.

Ms. Tami was the Director and leader of a highly respected Youth Competition Team on the peninsula for almost two decades.  Given that experience of running an award-winning competition team, she was able to attend conventions and conferences on a regular basis and learn from Tyce Diorio, Jackie Sleight, Barry Youngblood, Eddie Garcia, Kobi Rozenfeld, Scott Fowler, Gregg Russell, and many more.  In addition, she took classes from Charlie McGowan in San Jose before he landed roles as an actor in movies, such as A Chorus Line and Grease 2.  Under her direction, the nationally ranked company received top honors and awards in all disciplines of dance as well as studio, choreography and teacher awards.

Ms. Tami has been a highly valued member of the DAU Staff for many years.  She is Dance Academy USA’s Early Dance Director, and, a member of the Production Company Staff.  Ms. Tami relishes in seeing students excel and become passionate dancers.  Her goal is to not only instill a passion for dance in all, but to guide and help them through the journey as they learn honesty, discipline, commitment and dedication.