2023/2024 Faculty
Tessa White, School Director
Tessa is the founder of both Ballet Rejoice Company and School for the Arts as well as Fairytale Ballet. Over the past 20 years Tessa has had the privilege of coming along side of hundreds of dancers and helping them to reach their goals and inspiring them in their training and beyond. She enjoys all aspects of this mission from technical training, to choreography, and performance. She has staged classical ballets as well as creating and choreographing many full length original ballets for Ballet Rejoice Company. Many of her students have gone on to pursue dance as a career. She enjoys working with all ages and levels of ballet from beginning through pre-professional.
Tessa found her passion for ballet at a very young age and dance has always been a part of her life. Previously, Tessa was also the founder and director of The Conservatory of Dance for 5 years, and was a teacher and performer with Ballet Hawaii, and Assistant Director and Principal Dancer with Placer Theater Ballet for 7 years.
Through her many years of working with dancers Tessa value's most the relationships she has formed with her dancers along their dance journey.
Samantha Rasi
Samantha is excited to be a part of Ballet Rejoice. Samantha began dancing ballet at the age of 7. At the age of 13 she received a full scholarship to the Harid Conservatory where she trained for one year. The following year she went to study ballet with Pacific Northwest ballet on full scholarship for three years. She went on to dance professionally with Fort Worth Dallas Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, Long Beach Ballet and Inland Pacific ballet as a principle dancer. Throughout her professional career she danced leading roles such as Myrtha in Gisselle, Dark Angel in Balanchine’s Serenade, Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes, Balanchine’s Who Cares, Romantic girl in Graduation Ball, Prayer in Coppelia, Sugar Plum Fairy, Dew Drop Fairy, Snow Queen, and Arabian in the Nutcracker and many more leading roles in varies ballets. Samantha became certified in Pilates in 1998 through Long Beach dance conditioning with Marie Jose Blom. After working many years rehabbing injured patients at Rehab Technical Works Physical Therapy she decided to open her own Pilates studio in 2001, State Street Pilates in Redlands California. After her retirement from her ballet career she began to fall in love with yoga. She is now also a certified yoga instructor and teaches yoga daily in Roseville and El Dorado Hills. Samantha is excited to work with the dancers and bring her knowledge of the body and injury prevention to Ballet Rejoice. She lives in Loomis with her husband and three boys.
Isha Covington
Isha was born and raised in Helena, MT and studied ballet privately under Sallyann Mulcahy. She attended summer programs at the San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and Pacific Northwest Ballet on scholarships. She performed with Artisan Dance (now Ballet Montana) for seven years, and was a trainee with PNB under Peter Boal before joining the Sacramento Ballet for seven years. Isha has had many career highlights performing principal roles in Ron Cunningham’s The Nutcracker, Bolero, Carmina Burana and creating the role of Jordan in Cunningham’s world premiere of The Great Gatsby, Kent Stowell’s Swan Lake, and Mulcahy’s Carmen. As well as performing other acclaimed pieces by George Balanchine, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Edwaard Liang, Trey McIntyre, Septime Webre, Amy Seiwert, Matthew Neenan, and Twyla Tharp. After her professional career, Isha spent years training to become a professional Firefighter/Paramedic with Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District. She is returning to teaching after becoming a Mom. Outside of dance, Isha enjoys being a Pilates instructor, an adjunct professor at American River College, rock climbing, and enjoying time with family and friends.
Amanda Grider
Amanda is a mother of three, professional dancer, choreographer, and instructor. For 17 years, Amanda has incorporated the dance world into her life. Amanda trained under Tessa White at the Conservatory of Dance as well as other instructors. She has experience in Pointe, Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical, Modern, Tap, and Hip Hop with her emphasis being classical and contemporary ballet. Amanda has worked to develop dancers from 3 years to 18 years of age. Amanda spent two summers studying with the Milwaukee Ballet Summer Intensive Program. Following her two summers at Milwaukee Ballet, Amanda was offered a scholarship and role as an apprentice with the Milwaukee Ballet. Amanda’s objective is to infuse a love for the art of dance within each of her students that incorporates passion, discipline and technical strength. Amanda will help each student identify their individual strengths and opportunities. Amanda is committed to teaching with integrity, honor, and consistency and looks forward to being a part of your dancer’s journey.
Cristina Cardoso
Cristina Cardoso found her love for dance in the San Francisco Bay Area. Growing up, she was trained in a plethora of styles including, Jazz, Contemporary, Ballet, Tap, Hip-Hop, and Musical Theater. Cristina began her career as a competition dancer and dance teacher as a teenager. By the time she graduated high school, Cristina had won both regional and national dance competition awards. She was named “Dancer of the Decade” at her home studio. Cristina attended UC Berkeley for her undergraduate degree, and there her love for dance only grew. She served as choreographer and co-president of the oldest student-run dance organization on campus. She also lead the Christian Hip-Hop/ Urban team for two years as both spiritual and then artistic director. After graduating, Cristina returned to her childhood studio where she had the honor of serving as head competition coach for three years. Most recently, Cristina has moved to Sacramento after getting married, and she is thrilled to be a part of the Ballet Rejoice family.
Dani Hansen
Dani Hansen is a former elementary school teacher and has been choreographingand directing children’s theatre for 15 years. She has performed in concerts and musical theatre all over the greater Sacramento Region, Bay Area, and Southern California. She spent several summer seasons performing with Broadway at Music Circus, Sacramento and has performed nationally with Shirley Jones and Patrick Cassidy’s Music Man in concert tour as well as Grease with PLAN B Entertainment. She is currently playing her favorite role of “Mama” a little closer to home these days and is SO happy to be sharing her love of musical theatre and performing with new students.
