After a trip to Los Angeles during her junior year of high school, she fell in love with both contemporary and commercial dance. In her senior year, Tia began dancing with the Towson University Dance Troupe and trained under Karen Mucciolli. This was followed by two years of dancing with The Rage Box Contemporary Dance Company of Maryland.
Tia made the decision to move to Los Angeles a little over a year ago and has since been training extensively at Edge Performing Arts Center in a variety of dance forms. She has had the honor to work with such choreographers as Bubba Carr and Dorina Sanchez. She also joined the Hart Pulse Dance Company and recently signed with Clear Talent Group. Tia wants to thank Passion for Dance and all of their affiliates for blessing her with his amazing opportunity.
She is a graduate of the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance and continues her passion for dance by pursuing her career in Los Angeles and teaching her students at a variety of dance workshops.
Gakenia is signed by Trio, one of the most elite dance agencies in Los Angeles. She recently received recognition from The Passion for Dance Project, as one of the 2008 scholarship recipients, which affords her the opportunity to continue training as a dancer and singer.
Gakenia’s eclectic blend of experience has blessed her with the versatility to easily work with many different choreographers, as well as relate to all of her students' individual backgrounds and needs.
Celina Nightengale grew up in Denver, Colorado and has danced her whole life. Celina trained with various dance academies including Hill Academy of Dance, Cleo Parker Robinson, Colorado Ballet, and Motion Underground. Celina attended the University of Denver and received her B.A. in Communications with a minor in Marketing.
While attending DU she danced for the University of Denver Dance Team and was a member of Motion Underground’s Lyrical Company. She also danced professionally as a member of the Colorado Mammoth Wild Bunch of which she served as captain for two years. Some of Celina’s other performances have included dancing for Chingy’s opening act DC, and dancing for the half time show of the 2005 NBA All-Star game.
Celina received a scholarship from the Edge Performing Arts Center that brought her to Los Angeles to further her career in dance. Celina recently signed with the dance agency Bloc and is looking forward to continuing success in her career.
Jon Stotlar moved from Colorado to Los Angeles in 2005 to pursue a career in commercial dance. After completing the year-long Edge Scholarship Program in Hollywood, Jon signed on with the Bloc Agency for dance, commercial and print representation. In addition to auditioning and performing Jon also assists classes at EDGE Performing Arts center and trains there regularly. Jon is a proud Member of Adam Parson’s Commonality Dance Company.
Jon’s work includes, the Visa National Commercial “Transactional Fluidity” with Mia Michaels, Moto8 for Motorola an A-List Party thrown at the Palladium in Hollywood and featuring an exclusive performance by Christina Aguilera. Jon worked as a featured extra on Jamie King’s “Rock Your Body” Nike workout video. Jon was also a workshop assistant for J.T. Horenstein for an upcoming movie adaptation of an Off Broadway Musical. Most recently, Jon worked on a music video for Canadian Band Finger Eleven with Tracy Phillips.
Other Choreographers Jon has worked with include: Denise Leitner, Malaya Ho, Terri Best, Cindera Che, Tovaris Wilson, Andre Fuentes, and Ryan Heffington.
2006 Passion For Dance Scholarship Recipients
Khasan Brailsford grew up in Orange County. He began to dance his sophomore year of high school and has been at it ever since. Khasan’s early style was ballet and he expanded his training to hip-hop, jazz and modern. An audition for the Edge Performing Arts Center scholarship landed him training with some of the industries best choreographers including: Blake McGrath, Mark Meismer, Dee Caspery, Mandy Moore, Brian Friedman, and Tovaris Wilson. Khasan’s performances include Carnival, The Choreographer’s Ball in Hollywood, The Chocolate Nutcracker and Disney’s Christmas Fantasy.
Recently, Khasan has just finished performing in the live stage show “Aida” and will travel for six-months with the Holland America Cruise ship to Alaska, Hawaii and South America. Upon return, Khasan will sign with LA’s top dance agency, BLOC.
The Passion for Dance Project is pleased to have Khasan as one of their first scholarship recipients and look forward to see his success grow as a dancer.
Danielle Towne grew up in Gilbert, Arizona. Danielle has been passionate about dancing her entire life. Danielle’s life learning styles range from jazz, tap, ballet, modern and hip-hop from such studios as Dance Connection, Dance Express and Classic Image. Upon graduation from high school, Danielle moved to Hollywood to pursue her dream of becoming a professional dancer. Since Danielle relocated to Los Angels she has trained at Edge, Millennium and Debbie Reynolds with such instructors as Ryan Heffington, Andre Fuentes, Doug Caldwell and has assisted Eddie Garcia. When Danielle is in New York, she enjoys taking class at the famous Broadway Dance Center!
Danielle just finished performing in the live stage show Girls, Girls, Girls choreographed by the fabulous Chris Judd and Eddie Garcia.
The Passion for Dance Project is pleased to have Danielle as one of their first scholarship recipients and look forward to see her success grow as a dancer.
Tia Durand grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. She started out a figure skater, which then introduced her to ballet. She studied at both the prominent Joffrey Ballet School as well as The Rock School for the Pennsylvania Ballet and was accepted into the prestigious American Ballet Theater training program. 
Gakenia Muigai is from Tucson, Arizona. She has extensive training in the styles of ballet, jazz, modern, hip-hop and African dance. Gakenia studied with Alvin Ailey and has traveled to Italy twice to further her dance perspective.