Amanda Klinke Hernandez, Artistic Director
Amanda Klinke Hernandez brought her teaching talents to the Seattle area in 2005 after 10 years of professional teaching and choreography in Illinois and Michigan. In 2008, Amanda took ownership of Wendy’s School of Dance in Bothell and rechristened it the Washington School of Dance with the goal of providing superior dance education while supporting the performing arts in the community at large.
Mari Engel
Heather Hatada
Thera Langham Knapp
Thera found her love for the performing arts at the young age of three when she took her first steps into the dance studio. Throughout her life she has studied dance as well as theater and fine arts locally and nationally. Her training includes work in classical ballet, contemporary, modern dance, musical theatre, hip hop, jazz, tap, lyrical, belly dance and more. She realized her passion for arts education in her early adult life after spending years struggling through traditional school, while thriving in the arts. Her goal as an educator is to create positive educational experiences for all students through the arts, and to help her students find their passion and grow their artistic skills.
Over decades as a performer, and her thirteen year career as a teaching artist, Thera has performed, choreographed, produced, directed and set hundreds of pieces and productions on stages all over the greater Seattle area. She is currently in her sixth year teaching with a local non-profit, Dandylyon Drama, her forth year teaching with Washington School of Dance, and is an instructor and program director with Seattle non-profit, DASSdance.
In 2020, she completed writing her first one act musical, “The Tale of Miss Beatrix Potter,” which won first place in Dandylyon Drama’s New Works Residency Program. Her budding career as a playwright is developing rapidly with a handful of plays and musicals in the works. You can find out more about Thera’s creative work as an educator, artist, playwright and creative consultant at www.MissThera.com.
Meghan Varner
Meghan Varner is a jazz, contemporary, and ballet teacher. A dancer since childhood, she has taken a wide variety of classes and styles, and has studied with Donald Byrd, Eva Stone, and Wade Madsen among many others. Meghan received her BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts, where she supplemented her core training with world and historical dance forms, dance history, and music. As a teacher, she loves bringing this broader knowledge of dance into the studio, giving students the chance to engage with dance on multiple levels.