Meet Our Team
Jamie Blakeney - Dance Program Coordinator
Bio coming soon! :)
Taylor zielinski - Dance Instructor
Taylor was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. She started dancing at four years old, and continued her training at Fusion Dance Project. After graduating high school, she attended the University of Alabama where she had the opportunity to perform in multiple faculty choreographed performances (ARDT), and student lead performances (DA). Upon graduation she received her BA in dance with minors in Theatre and General Business. She has always had a passion for teaching dance and is so excited to be a part of the BOOST family! She cannot wait to instill that same passion for dance in all BOOST students!
Kelly Heyman - Dance Instructor
Kelly is originally from Southern California but has lived in the greater Nashville area since 2000. She has been dancing since the age of 13, starting in hip-hop and moving into the world of ballet, jazz, contemporary, pointe, modern, and jazz funk! In 2019 she completed her BFA in Theatre and Dance from Austin Peay State University, training with renowned names such as Elaine Husted, Ellen Werksman, Marcus Hayes, and Laquimah VanDunk, to name a few. She continued her training in 2011, taking intensives with the renown Martha Graham Dance Company, working with former company members Peiju Chein-Pott and Amelia Benard. She further developed her hip-hop skills with Kyle Hannagami's intensive the same year.
For the past three years Kelly has been teaching in Clarksville, Tennessee, where she choreographed award winning competition numbers ranging from hip-hop to jazz to musical theatre. Now, we are thrilled to have Kelly as an instructor for many of our dance classes here at BOOST!
Emily Mejia - Substitute instructor
Growing up as a life-long Nashville native, but also having Honduran parents, Emily has been influenced by the rhythm of many genres of music from around the world. Since she was 9 years old, Emily has been inspired to be the best dancer she can be. Her earliest exposure to dancing was, surprisingly, Traditional Aztec Dancing from a local group. She was in such awe, Emily asked to join their dance group, which they accepted. After practicing with them for a few months, Emily was allowed to perform with them at Centennial Park and Cheekwood. As she excelled more at her dancing, she decided to join the dance club of Hillwood High School, where she started with ballet, jazz, tap, and modern interpretive dancing. During her senior year, Emily choreographed 4 dances, which was one of her personal best achievements as a dancer. After graduation, her dance teacher motivated her by saying, "Emily, keep on dancing!" She directly inspired Emily to learn and expand her repertoire of dance genres and can now comfortably dance to Bachata, Merengue, Salsa, Cumbia, Folclorico Dance, Spanish Flamenco, Samba, Hip Hop and Heels. Emily had always dreamed of one day teaching new dancers the joy of moving to the rhythm, so she came to BOOST to fulfill her dreams and help young dancers to believe and fulfill in theirs, too!