About Us

Michelle Harris - Hip Hop and Jazz

Miss Michelle was a member of the color guard team for 3 years and a cheerleader for 4 years at Park View High School.  During her Junior and Senior years, she was captain of the Park View Varsity Cheerleading Squad and was captain of the Marching Dragons Color Guard team her senior year.  Michelle later choreographed the routines and instructed the color guard team at Randolph Henry High School, with her team having a successful competitive season.

Michelle has been trained largely in Modern Dancing and American Style Ballroom Dancing.  Most of her training was done at the College of William and Mary.  Michelle not only trained in Modern Dancing, but also took courses in Modern Dance history giving her a thorough knowledge of technique and background.  While attending William and Mary, Michelle joined the ballroom dance club and competed and placed in numerous competitions.  She competed mostly in Tango, Foxtrot, Waltz, Cha Cha, Rumba, Swing and Viennese Waltz.  During this time, Michelle and her partner had great success competing, most notably 1^st place in Tango against 75 couples at a D.C. competition.  While with the ballroom dance club, Michelle performed at the annual Heart Ball which is held at the Science Museum of Virginia by the American Heart Association, two years in a row.

After college, Michelle continued training at Arthur Murray in Pittsburgh, PA and later taught ballroom with Dance Pittsburgh.  Apart from Modern and Ballroom, she taught Zumba, a Latin-dance inspired fitness class, for a number or years.  This opened her up to numerous new styles of dance; such as Cumbia and Reggaeton.   Michelle has been exposed to many other styles of dance such as; Lindy Hop, Salsa, Mambo, Hip Hop and Ballet.

Miss Michelle enjoys exploring creativity in dance and nurturing free movement.  Having been exposed to different styles of dance, she enjoys bringing a fusion of dance styles together in her teaching and choreography.

Angela Obst - Contemporary, Lyrical, and Tap

Miss Angela has been dancing for 18 years, 13 of which were under the instruction of Phyllis Daw and Shannon Smith with Shannon’s School of Dance in South Hill, VA where she was trained in classical ballet, jazz, tap and was introduced to lyrical. She also served as a dance assistant for two years to assist in conducting ballet classes for young students. Upon graduating from high school, Angela then attended Longwood University to obtain her Bachelor of Sciences degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. During this time, she made the Blue Heat Dance Team and performed at university sporting events before auditioning for the Longwood Company of Dancers. She danced with the Company under the direction of Rodney Williams and served as Historian and then Rehearsal Directress for the Company as well as obtained membership in the National Dance Association. During her time with the Company, she was given the opportunity to choreograph multiple small and large group numbers that were performed at biannual shows which sparked her interest in integrating various dance styles into her choreography. Angela participated in dance workshops with guest artists including Desmond Richardson and Sarah Jo Fasio, and she was chosen to dance in Company pieces choreographed by Thomas Ragland of Richmond Ballet and Kenneth Greene who previously performed with Alvin Ailey and currently teaches drama and dance at Spelma College. Longwood University presented her with the opportunity to take classes such as Modern Dance, Zumba and Yoga as well as explore teaching group aerobic classes including dance aerobics and an intensive abdominal workout class.

To complete her academic career, Angela attended Radford University where she obtained her Master of Science degree and was given the opportunity to dance with the Contemporary Dance Ensemble for Virginia Tech as an associate member. She grew up dancing ballet, tap and jazz and was introduced to genres ranging from modern and contemporary to hip-hop, Broadway, and African in college. Her passion is contemporary choreography and partnering; however, ballet will always “enchant” her like no other dance. Outside of dance, Angela is an avid reader and enjoys exercising, kayaking and traveling with her husband. She is thrilled to join the family at Botofogo's Dance Studio and can't wait to share her love of dance with the students!

Alicia Washburn - Tutu Tots, Creative Movement, Classical Ballet, Pre-Pointe, Pointe’, and Musical Theater Dance Instructor

Miss Alicia received her early dance education from Joy Hargrave of Lockhart’s School of Dance of South Hill. She then became a student of Shannon’s School of Dance, under the direction of Shannon Smith and Phyllis Daw. She received training in classical ballet, tap and jazz for seven years, in addition to assisting ballet classes with Mrs. Daw for three years. This inspired her love of dance and cultivated an interest in teaching.  Alicia furthered her ballet training at Raleigh Dance Theatre, under the direction of Mary LeGere , as well as the Chesterfield School of Ballet, under the direction of Patricia and Leona Dodd.  While attending Radford University, she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Minor under the direction of Frano Jelincic and Dagmar Kessler.

Ms. Washburn attended Summer Intensives at Raleigh Dance Theatre in North Carolina, Southern Ballet Theatre in Florida, as well as American Academy of Ballet in New York, where she also served as a counselor. During college and in her summers away, she expanded her knowledge by taking classes in modern, Pilates, acting, dance history, yoga, Brazilian, Russian folk dance, floor barre, swing, music appreciation, Spanish dance, partnering, Pointe, variations and mime. Summer study also enabled her to take classes with many prestigious Ballet Masters such as David Howard, Gelsey Kirkland, Stephanie Saland, Violette Verdy, John Meehan, Susan Jaffe, and Sean Lavery, to name a few. Having the opportunities to study with a wide variety of teachers and being exposed to many different methods and styles of dance, enabled her to become a more versatile dancer and gave her the ability to incorporate diversity in her teaching methods.

Recently, Miss Alicia obtained certification in Basic 1 Zumba.  She is very excited about adding this to the class schedule.  Miss Alicia is a ZIN member which gives her the most recent Zumba moves, music, and choreography.  Don't miss the party!!

Currently, Ms. Washburn choreographs for the Colonial Theater in South Hill.  She has choreographed for “Smoke on the Mountain” and the 50s and 60s revue,  “The Totally Awesome Musical”, and "The Wizard of Oz."

Ms. Alicia currently has over 18 years of ballet training and 7 years of teaching experience. She is an avid runner who enjoys participating in various marathons and triathlons in her free time. She currently works full time for Peebles as an associate buyer.