Our Faculty & Staff

OUR FACULTY

 Jamie Parnum is the Founder of Soaring Spirit. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Dance, has nineteen years of teaching experience, and over twenty-five years of dance experience.

Jamie has choreographed more than one hundred dances, has served as a liturgical dance director, and has danced in over twenty-five churches. She uses choreography to visually interpret worship songs, Biblical themes, and hymns. She has attended numerous workshops throughout the country to learn, experience, and further enhance her knowledge of Sacred Dance.

Jamie has combined her love for God and love for dance, and teaches her students a foundation of dance technique combined with the opportunity to experience dance as an expression of devotion and worship to God.

Jamie is moving to King City in June, 2010 and is taking some time off from teaching. Although she is no longer the owner of the studio Jamie plans to continue being involved with dance ministry. She hopes to return to her work of teaching worship dance workshops & classes and helping to integrate worship dance especially within churches and rest homes. Jamie attends Kingsway Community Church in San Jose.

Cheryl Bamberger is excited about sharing her love for God while teaching the art of dance. She has been dancing since she was a child, has over fourteen years of formal dance training, and specializes in tap and jazz.

Cheryl has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business and worked for fifteen years in the business world. She has taught children’s choirs, directed children’s musicals, and led worship for children’s church for several years.

She attends Central Christian Church and helped form a new dance ministry at the church for children and adults. She really feels God’s call on her life to combine her love for dance with the heart for teaching others how to worship with it. After teaching with Soaring Spirit over the last five years, she feels blessed to be worshiping alongside this wonderful community. 

Rachel Barna has a passion for communicating the gospel message through dance and recently finished creating original choreography for Santa  Clara University’s Spring Dance Festival. She plans to graduate in fall 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in Dance.  She enjoys integrating the arts with other subject areas and is currently researching the effects and methods of integrating the arts into literacy instruction.

A former figure skater, Rachel began taking ballet classes as cross-training and later decided to pursue dance after her instructor at Valley Christian High School taught her the beauty of worshipping God through this art form.  Since then she has studied a variety of forms including jazz, tap, ballet, hip-hop and modern.  She has also participated in master classes and workshops with Cindy Salgado, Lineage Dance, and Ad Deum Dance Company.

Rachel has taught creative and performing arts at Children’s Musical Theatre, Los Gatos Parks & Recreation, and Sacred Heart Community Service.  She has also participated in and led a worship dance ministry at Santa Clara University.  Rachel resides in San Jose and attends Camden Ave Baptist Church where she teaches children’s church.  She is excited and thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the Soaring Spirit Dance community.

Joann Chang has been dancing since she was six years old. She studied ballet intensively for many years and then developed a love of many other styles of dance. A former cheerleader, drill team member, dancer and singer in several musical productions, she didn’t begin to integrate her faith and gift of dance until college. She received her B.A. in Human Development at UCSD and formed the first dance ministry at her church. During this time, Joann discovered a love of modern dancing and swing dancing. She later pursued a Master’s in Public Health with an emphasis in Health Education from UCLA. God has since then opened doors for her to use her gifts to teach youth in the worship arts.

Currently, she teaches piano and voice through the Music Place and on the side, teaches dance at Redwood City Elementary Schools. Joann’s passion is to teach and inspire both children and adults to use their bodies to glorify and worship Him through a spectrum of diverse dance styles such as: hip hop, ballet/jazz, modern, swing, salsa, blues, ballroom, interpretive praise, and ethnic dances. She is often invited to perform and choreograph worship dance pieces for Christian schools, church functions, and Christian conferences.

She is an active member of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship. Joann is the founder of the Social Dance Ministry, sings in the gospel choir, and helps lead worship for the young adult fellowship. We welcome Joann to the Soaring Spirit staff and are delighted that she will be sharing her gifts and love of dance with our students!

Leslie Delman is excited to be part of this unique dance studio.  She has been dancing since she was seven years old and is very passionate about using the art forms of both dance and drama to communicate God’s love to people, especially the youth of today.  She sees the performing arts as a powerful way to reach the people of this world, and is thrilled to be part of a ministry that helps dancers learn to glorify God through their movements.

Leslie is currently in the process of getting her Bachelor’s degree in Musical Theatre and with a minor in Dance, and will be completing her degree in 2012.  She has over ten years of experience performing on stage, as well as over three years working as a choreographer and director with children of all ages.

Leslie currently attends Family Community Church where she serves on both the Dance and  Drama Ministry teams and in addition works with the youth ministry.

Jessica Estrada recently joined Soaring Spirit’s dance team. She is excited about the opportunity to teach children the love of dance and to use their gift as worship unto the Lord. She took her first ballet class at three years old and has over fifteen years of formal dance training. She has studied ballet, pointe, tap, jazz and liturgical dance. Her training began at the Deane School of Dance in Massachusetts and continued at Ballet San Jose (formerly Cleveland/San Jose Ballet) and San Jose State University, where she holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations.

Jessica has participated in training workshops and concerts given by Ballet Magnificat!, Jerusalem Worship Dance, and Dance for His Glory. She has also performed at various churches and conventions over the yeas. She has taught ballet for children, led dance workshops for VBS, and choreographed numerous worship dances for teenagers and adults, including all of the routines for a modern-style Christmas musical.

She and her husband have two daughters and are active members of Kingsway Community Church. Most of all, Jessica enjoys putting on kids praise music, pulling out the girls’ instruments, and worshipping the Lord with them through dance!

Cris Giannetto has been a dancer and teacher all her life.  She started taking ballet lessons at an early age and has continued studying ballet most of her adult life.  Cris has been teaching ballet to adults and teens for several years.  She truly enjoys helping students learn the dance steps while incorporating the music with the steps. Her philosophy as a teacher is that students learn better when they are enjoying themselves and the class!
Cris works full time as a Human Resources Representative at Applied Signal Technology.  She and her husband attend Central Christian  Church, where she co-leads an adult dance worship ministry.  Cris is excited to be able to teach for Soaring Spirit and hopes to combine her love of dance and teaching into Christian ministry geared towards the local community.

Terese Mansfield has always had a love of dance since she was a child.  She began ballet lessons at an early age and continued dance lessons for many years.  She has been involved in dance periodically throughout her life. Eight years ago she discovered worship dance and feels both privileged and blessed to take an art form that she loves and develop it to express her love and adoration for the Lord.
Terese was a member of a worship dance team for five years.  As a member of the team she was blessed to minister the gospel and demonstrate God’s love through dance at numerous churches, convalescent homes, various secular events, local Christian TV programs, a women’s prison and even at funerals. She has attended several praise and worship conferences where she learned new techniques in using dance as an art form to express adoration to our Heavenly Father.
Terese, her husband David and two sons are active members of The Home Church in Campbell.  Four years ago Terese founded and began directing a worship dance team for children and youth at her church called “For His Glory”. For His Glory dance team ministers both to The Home Church and the public through outreach events. Terese is excited to be able to teach for Soaring Spirit. She hopes to use her love of worship dance to teach families a new way to worship together and minister to the local community through dance.

Teghan Meyer comes to us from East West Dance where she has taught almost every dance form for every age. Her first experience working with kids was through putting together Bible lessons using theater and dance with her youth group for children’s church.Teghan grew up in Lakeway, Texas where she studied Tap, Jazz, Lyrical and Ballet with the 620 Dance Centre for thirteen years.

In 2000 she moved to Los Angeles and danced with the San Pedro City Ballet for one year and went on to teach at their sister school, Manhattan Beach Ballet School. In previous years, at Mira Costa High School, Teghan studied Modern, African and Hip Hop under the direction of Yvonne Johnson.

In 2006 she began teaching at East West Music & Dance instructing Jazz/Hip Hop, Modern/African, Ballet and Tap for all ages. Teghan graduated Cum Laude from San Jose State University in May 2009 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art History and a Minor in Dance. She is now a Visual Designer at Macy’s Sunnyvale but continues to fulfill her passion of Dance at the Music Place and Soaring Spirit passing on her 20+ years of dance knowledge to her students.

Joan Uram comes to us from a long background of dancing and teaching in the area. Originally a student of Mary Ann Norris, Joan started dancing at the age of four. Her passion for tap dancing was inspired by Arthur Duncan from the Lawrence Welk Show! Almost forty years later, Joan still enjoys taking tap, jazz and hip hop classes as much as her life of being a wife and mother allow.

Joan loves the joy she experiences with dancing and feels that teaching is the best way to share her love of dance and the freedom of spirit that you can achieve through dance!

Joan’s dance experience started in a competition group called “The MaryAnnettes”, which specialized in kick line and prop work in both tap and jazz. As an adult, she started taking classes and ended up teaching tap dancing for twelve years at Marie Stinnett Dance, working mainly with teens and adults. Five years ago Joan joined the staff of East West Music & Dance and had the chance to work with four to six year olds, as well as teens and adults. She also occasionally taught jazz dance and hip hop as well. She is excited for the opportunity to bring her love and expertise of dancing to the Soaring Spirit family!

Joan worked for many years at Hewlett-Packard Company in both accounting and as an Administrative Assistant. She has a B.A. in Sociology from UC Santa Cruz. She was blessed to fit dance into her busy life of work and school!

Amanda Bartley has been teaching dance for over 10 years. Since receiving her Bachelor’s Degree in Dance from the State University of New York in Potsdam, Amanda has had the privilege of teaching a variety of ages and levels throughout the country. She has taught in upstate New York, Houston, Southern California, the East Bay and right here in San Jose. While in Southern California, Amanda owned and operated her own dance studio and performed at Disneyland on several occasions.

Dance has been Amanda’s lifelong passion, and she is excited to combine her love for dance with her love for God. She feels truly blessed to share the gift of dance with others and worship the Lord alongside such a beautiful family of believers.

Amanda is an active member at South Bay Church where she helps lead worship for Bay Kids, co-leads a Life Group with her husband, and is the leader of Moments for Moms. In addition to being a wife and mother to two young children and teaching dance at Soaring Spirit, she also teaches at East West Music and Dance, and Neighborhood Christian Preschool.