Meet the Staff

MEET THE STAFF

JESSICA MUDINSKI

Jessica Mudzinski cannot remember a time in her life without dance. Having started at a local studio at the age of 3, she went on to become a competitive dancer winning numerous title awards. She started teaching dance at the age of 14 and has now been instructing dance and gymnastics for over 15 years. This year will be her 10th year teaching at Performer’s Edge Dance Academy.

After graduating from Cardozo High School’s Performing Dance Program, Jessica attended Long Island University C.W. Post where she obtained a B.F.A in dance studies. At C.W. Post she had the opportunity to work with current and former members of The Jose Limon Dance Company, The Paul Taylor Dance Company and The Alvin Ailey Dance Company. While with the Post Concert Dance Company, Jessica performed as a featured soloist in a recreation of Jose Limon’s “The Winged”. During her time at C.W. Post she was also chosen to be featured in a commercial advertising the university’s dance program.

A month after graduating college, Jessica joined Ballet Deviare. Jessica performed with Ballet Deviare in “Memento Mori” and was also in “Disconsolate” a short film featuring Ballet Deviare that was accepted in the Royal Flush Film Festival.

Currently Jessica teaches all genres of dance including ballet, pointe, lyrical, contemporary, jazz, tap and gymnastics. She has completed the USA Gymnastics course on the Fundamentals of Gymnastics and has completed a Tumbling Effects workshop this past June. As and choreographer for PEDA’s highly acclaimed competitive team she has been recognized with numerous choreography, overall and high place awards at various dance competitions.

In addition to teaching, Jessica judges for several national dance competitions including, Nexstar National Talent Competition, Kids Artistic Revue and Rainbow National Talent Competition. Being a judge reminds her of the excitement she felt as a child attending dance competitions and she loves seeing how far the world of dance has come since she started her career.

It is a great honor to teach all the wonderful dancers at Performer’s Edge Dance Academy and Jessica is delighted to see how much to studio has grown and evolved over the past 10 years. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing the dancers you work with weekly perform on stage doing what they love.

DANIELLE MEDICI

ALEXA VILLEGA

Alexa Villega was born in Manhattan, New York and raised in Danbury, Connecticut starting dance at the age of four. After years of doing it for fun, she began to take it seriously and turned over to competitive dance at the age of 12 where she trained at Seven Star School of Performing Arts. There, she began taking classes in many styles including ballet, jazz, tap, contemporary, and hip hop.

Upon graduating from SSSPA in May 2020, she Committed to Pace University’s BFA Commercial Dance program under Rhonda Miller, Scott Jovovich, and Lauren Gaul to continue her diverse dance training and help transition her into the professional world. Alexa’s journey at Pace has been filled with an immense amount of growth, knowledge, and opportunities, learning from many professionals in the dance industry who have helped mold her into the dancer she is today. During her junior semester in LA, she signed with Bloc Talent Agency NYC & LA.

Throughout her time at Pace, she has taken three different choreography classes (Choreo 1, Choreo for Camera, Advanced Choreo) where she gained a love for choreography and currently creates on young artists at local dance studios as well as her peers from pace.

Outside of dance, Alexa enjoys going to the gym, thrifting, and spending quality time with family and friends. Alexa graduated from pace in May 2024 and is excited to step into such an expansive city and work as a bi-coastal dancer/choreographer

MISS CARLIE

Miss Carlie is a professional dancer who was born and raised in the Bronx, NY. She started dancing at the young age of two. She studied all genres of dance such as ballet, tap, jazz, modern, salsa, technique and hip hop. After joining the competition team she began traveling to perform and continued to train throughout the tri state area. Her performances include the Barclays Center, Rucker Park, Walt Disney World and so much more.

After graduating from college she moved back to the city to continue to train and began to teach young dancers.

Carlie currently teaches at both the Bronx and the Eastchester locations. When Carlie is not teaching dancing at the studio you can find her in the DOE as a certified dance teacher for the department of education. She also received her masters degree at NYU in May 2023. Dance has always been Carlie’s passion and she wants to continue to share her artistry with the world

LAURIELLE

Laurielle was born and raised in the Bronx.

She is a professional dancer living out her dream at AMDA in Los Angeles, California. She has been dancing since the age of two and competively since the age of five. Laurielle trained in all genres of dance during her fifteen years at Performers edge. She continues to study all styles of dance in her performing arts college. She has appeared in many videos, movies, series and documentaries. Whenever Laurielle is home she makes sure she spends her time at her home studio. She has choreographed solos and taught classes here at PEDA. Laurielle loves to share her talent and passion with the younger generation. No matter where her dance training journey takes her the studio will always be her home away from home

DOMINIC EPPS

Dominic Epps is a professional dancer who is born and raised in Queens, NY. He started out dancing at Devore dance center. As a tiny tot he learned ballet, tap, and African. As he got older he got into the advance classes supertot, lil pro/jr pro, tpe, and pe. He then added styles modern, jazz, contemporary, and his favorite hip hop to his repertoire. He continued dance in highschool studying at Benjamin Cardozo Highschool. During the beginning of his senior year of high school he would transfer over into industry work training with Royal thieves a hip hop team owned by Deshawn da prince. While there Dominic learned what it meant to be an industry dancer and what it meant to be himself. After highschool he studied dance at Queensboro community college. After two years he got signed to bloc talent agency and the year after he earned his first booked job dancing for new edition at the rock and roll hall of fame. Today he expands his horizons teaching kids the meaning of dance and if you have a passion for it to take advantage of where you are at and what you wants.

DIAMONIQUE FERRAN

Diamonique Ferran aka Diamond

Age 26 has been dancing

Since the age of 2.Diamond trained at Tko dance academy till the age of 19 in Tap,contemporary,Jazz,Hip hop and ballet. Diamond has been on BET 106 and park for a hip hop contest with Urban dance league under Ant Boogie she has danced for Bobby Shurmda at rolling loud New York and did Yeezy season 4 NYFW on top of other events she has done. Diamond is currently with Royal Thieves hip hop crew which she has been on for the past 7 years and continues to Train in the industry taking classes to advance her knowledge and skill in dance. She is now sharing that knowledge and those skills with PEDA dancers in all genres of dance.

Miss Kasey

Miss Kasey is a young artist who is apart of our prestigious Senior Company. She has danced and trained since the age of four in all genres of dance here at Performers Edge. She attends Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts where she continues her dance training throughout the week as well as at the studio. She loves sharing her passion and talent with the younger generation. Miss Kasey will begin her journey as a dance instructor this season in a Ballet/Jazz class. She is fun, patient, caring, and most of all super talented.

MIA LATONE

Mia grew up in Rochester, New York where she trained and competed with Little Red Dance Studio. Mia studied all genres of dance with her favorite being jazz. She began her dance journey at the age of two and her competitive life began at the age of five under the direction of Lisa Allain and Ballet training under Sarah Rothrock-Rickel. Mia holds many prestigious titles and high scores for her solos as well as award-winning groups. She was an assistant, on tour for the well-known dance convention, Adrenaline. She was awarded a scholarship to AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy) where she graduated with a degree in Dance Theater. Mia is now a full-time dance instructor in New York City where she has choreographed award-winning groups as well as solos.

At Performers Edge you can always find Miss Mia teaching with a smile on her face. She teaches dancers ranging in the ages of two to eighteen. Miss Mia loves sharing her passion for dance with all her students

Mr Marcello

Mr. Bernard received his early training at “Armonia Danza” (directed by Mariangela Bernacchia) in his native Italy; during this time he also trained with Member of International Vaganova Method Society’s Marit Bech, as well as receiving numerous awards in well renowned European competitions such as “Eurocity” and “DanzaEuropa”. In 2011, after a brief visit at the Contemporary Academy , Codarts, in Rotterdam, he joined the Ajkun Ballet Theatre, under the Artistic leadership of Leonard and Chiara Ajkun, where he performed a wide variety of traditional repertory ballets such as “Don Quixote”, “The Nutcracker” and “La Bayadère”, as well as being the lead role in multiple contemporary masterpieces choreographed by Mr. Ajkun, including “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” &“Goya, the Spanish Master”. In 2018 Mr. Bernard joined Connecticut Ballet as a featured dancer directed by Brett Raphael, as well as joining the Carole Alexis Dance Company, first as company member then as ripetitor for the company. As a guest Artist over the years, Marcello has appeared and performed with companies like Orange County Ballet Theatre, Pennsylvania Youth Ballet & Kodiak Dance Theatre, as well as international dance showcases and workshops like the Dance in Italy Festival and Danzainfiera.

Currently, Mr. Bernard is part of the faculty at Movement Dance Center, Dance Mixx Dance Studio, Ballet Des Amériques, Performers Edge Dance center and Diamond Dance Academy.

Ciara Mercado

Ms. Ciara grew up in the Bronx, NY. She began dancing at age 2, training in various genres such as ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary, and salsa. She joined the PEDA family and competition team at 11 years old. During her time at PEDA, she was a part of the regional and national award-winning company team and became an assistant teacher to Ms. Angelique Rodriguez. She also served as co-captain of the Preston High School Hip Hop Dance Team. After she graduated from PEDA, Ms. Ciara became a member and secretary of the Pace University Hip Hop Dance Club. In March of 2022, Ms. Ciara became a full-time teacher in our Eastchester location as our hip-hop teacher and just completed her first year-long season as a full-time teacher in June of 2023. Ms. Ciara recently graduated from Pace University in Pleasantville, NY this past May with her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She will continue her education at New York University for her Master’s in Social Work while teaching at PEDA.

Ms. Ciara always wants her students to believe in themselves and be confident. She wants to pass on her love and passion for dance to the next generation.

“Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.” -Martha Graham