Shiva Bagheri
Brandon Forrest
Shiva began teaching dance, choreographing, acting, and dancing professionally at the age of 15. Before that, she was a competitive gymnast with SCATS - one of the best gymnastic schools. She first danced professionally, as a chorus dancer in "Orpheus in the Underworld," at the Music Center. She has since danced and worked with such choreographers as Debbie Allen, Marguerite Derricks, and Zina Bethune. She's appeared in commercials and TV appearances and has earned such credits as: "Mr. Belvedere," "Doogie Howser," "Pollyanna II," and "Army of Darkness," and Coke, McDonalds, and Disneyland commercials. Her latest commercial that she choreographed and featured in was for Planet Fitness. She played the crazy fitness instructor.
In 1999, Shiva ventured into the fitness world and won such titles as Ms. Fitness Inland Empire, Northern California, California, Las Vegas, and Nationals 1999. She placed 5th in the Ms. Fitness USA competition and 8th in Ms. Fitness World competition. Her competitions have been televised on Fox Sports Net and ESPN 2. She continued to compete for 3 more years, staying in the top 10 in the World.
The styles of dance Shiva teaches & choreographs are Ballet, Pointé, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Modern, Contemporary, Tap, Tumbling, & Musical Theatre (Acting, Voice, & Dance). She has choreographed numerous ballets including, "Sleeping Beauty” and "The Nutcracker," as well as creating original works, "Wizard's Wish," "Wishing Upon A Star," and many other. She has taught children as young as 18 months to professional level adults. She's very passionate about teaching dance and has been doing it for over 25 years as well as being a Certified Personal Trainer.
Brandon at the tender age of 23 has accomplished a lot as a professional ballet and contemporary dancer. A former student of Los Angeles County High School of the Arts and San Francisco Ballet School he frequently performed a variety of works in addition to Musical Theatre. As a company member of Los Angeles Ballet he performed choreography by Josie Walsh who will be directing the upcoming production of Secret Garden with Southland Ballet Academy in October 2016. Brandon has performed with Long Beach Ballet, Ballet Magique, LA Ballet Academy, Santa Clarita Ballet, Pacific Festival Ballet, Pacific Ballet Dance Theatre. He's played Billy Elliot in the muscial "Billy Elliot," for La Mirada Theatre. He has appeared as a dancer on "Glee," "The Moment" on USA network, a Cosmopolitan Las Vegas Hotel commercial, and Ray-Ban 50th Anniversary International Campaign. Brandon has taught at numerous schools in the LA area with passion to inspire all ages while maintaining a safe and comfortable environment.
John K. Wilson
John comes to us with 50 years of musical theatre experience. John has performed such roles as Harold Hill in The Music Man, Curly in Oklahoma, Billy Flynn in Chicago, Kenickie in Grease, Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie, Cliff Bradshaw in Cabaret, Harold in The Full Monty and many, many more. He has a degree from Fullerton College as a theatre major where he also adjudicated in their annual theatre festival. John has spent the last 28 years also working in television and film as an actor, writer and producer. John was an acting coach and teacher for the Parris Talent Management team and has directed a number of stage productions. John's creativity and unique vision are exactly what we want for our classes as we venture forward in creating an atmosphere where we take dance and add the entire theatrical experience for our students, giving them all the tools they will need to take their craft to the next level.