Linda Schugel has 45 years experience in dance and choreography and keeps her dance education up to date. Beginning her training at Frabelle’s School of Dance in Union, NJ, she continued her dance education in NYC, studying with Phil Black, Charles Kelly, and Joe Tramaine. Mrs Schugel performed on the Dick Clark and Zachary Television Shows for over 6 years and then later on the Steel Pier. Performing with such artists as the Critters, Chubby Checker, The Turtles, and Shirley Ellis to name a few. After living in Union, Mrs. Schugel moved to teach at Horizons as a dance educator in NYC, and at Dance by Verna in Manahawkin for over 16 years. Mrs. Schugel then ventured to choreography in Atlantic City and opened Encore Performing Arts Center in South Jersey. Linda co-choreographed The Nutcracker Suite at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City for several years and throughout many ventures has won numerous technical merit awards along with a multitude of high score awards. Mrs. Schugel along with the Ovations co-director, Aimee Sprague, and Jennifer McIntosh, the school's Ballet Coordinator, were awarded with the Educator Award from Company Dance National Dance Competition for their continued technical teaching and nurturing love for children. Mrs. Schugel’s unique productions and innovative styles have been showcased all across the East Coast and her love of arts is showcased through her teaching and choreography. Mrs. Schugel owned and operated two schools of dance – Encore Performing Arts Center in Atlantic County and now her beloved Ovations Performing Arts Academy in Ocean County. Her students have performed at the NJ PNC Arts Center, Disney World, Disney Tokyo, Radio City Music Hall Music Christmas Spectacular, on Broadway, across various Cruise Lines, and as Professional NBA and collegiate dancers. Linda’s students have been accepted to schools such as ABT, Juilliard, Joffrey, Broadway Dance Centers Company, NJ’s Governor School, The Rock School, University of the Arts in Philadelphia along with the North Carolina School of The Arts. Mrs. Schugel has dedicated her life to young aspiring dancers while creating a legacy for herself.

Aimee Sprague specializes in the teaching of Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Musical Theatre, and Voice yet that is not where her boundaries lie. With years of training under her belt, Aimee began the venture of Ovations Performing Arts Academy with the founder over 25 years ago. Aimee began her training with Encore Performing Arts Center, NJ Coastal Ballet Company, and Broadway Dance Companies Child Company in NYC. She received scholarships to the Philadelphia Academy of Theatrical Arts and Alvin Alley’s Dance Company, NYC. Aimee has performed in places such as the Taj Mahal, The Broadway Dance Center Company in NYC and was a soloist twice at the NJ Garden State Arts Center. Choreographing is one of her many talents. She has choreographed for the Mrs. New Jersey Pageant, Mrs. Pennsylvania Pageant, Disney World, the National Ballet of NJ, and many various companies. Aimee is welled trai ned in all aspects of dance as well as performing arts and stage production. Aimee continues to study with choreographers such as Frank Hatchet NYC, Chris Judd, Keith Diorio, Gus Giordano, Eddie Garcia, Sheila Barker, and more. She also has won many awards for best choreography, highest score and best overall performance and is now judging for National Dance Competitions.

Amanda Sullivan began her dance experiance in 2001 at The Rehearsal Hall and later began training at Ovations. She trained under Linda Schugel, Amiee Sprague, Jennifer McIntosh, and many other teacher here for 8 years until she graduated high school. During her time at Ovations Amanda held the titles for Sr Miss Beyond the Stars ('15) and Sr Miss Revolution ('15). During and after her time at Ovations Amanda worked as a dancer at Six Flags Great Adventure Fright Fest's "Dead Mans Party" choreographed by Ashlee Dawson from 2016-2017. She also was a backstage manager/convention assistant for Dancers Inc National Dance Competition from 2017 until 2019. Amanda danced in NYC for the Art of Triumph Showcase raising awareness for domestic violence. She has also been in many concept videos directed and choreographed by Ashlee Dawson. Amanda continues to immerse herself in the dance world by constantly attending master classes at Broadway Dance Center in NYC and taking classes under names such as Tyce Diorio, Brian Freedman, Tessandra Chavez, Mollee Gray, Tucker Barkley, Marinda Davis, Misha Gabriel, Angel Armas, Jon Rua, and Nappytabs to bring back and inspire her to create new ideas for her students.

Jennifer McIntosh began her training under the direction of Pamela Clark, Linda Schugel, and Donna Daniels. At the age of 12 she became a featured dancer with the Shore Ballet Company dancing as Clara in the Nutcracker for two years, followed by company roles in Cinderella, Les Sylphides, Coppelia, and Pas de Quatre amongst many others. Jennifer also enjoyed dancing at the PNC Bank Arts Center, being chosen over every other ballet soloist in New Jersey to dance in the Arts Showcase. At the age of 13, Jennifer started her training at the Rock School, the official school of the Pennsylvania Ballet. While at the Rock School, she trained under the tutelage of Bo and Stephanie Spassoff, Gloria Govrin, Yvonne Patterson, Olga Kostrinsky, and David Gallagher. She was also chosen to perform in Pennsylvania Ballet’s annual performance of the Nutcracker. As a Freshman in High School, Jennifer was accepted to the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts. While studying and performing under the direction of Melissa Hayden, Frank Smith, Fanchon Cordell, Gina Vidal and Susan McCullough, Jennifer was one of 20 students asked to spend a summer at the Hungarian National Ballet in Budapest. Upon graduation, from North Carolina School of the Arts, Jennifer began her run with “Legends in Concert”, followed by a run at Lilly Lang Tree Theater in the production of “Viva Las Vegas”, and performed in Atlantic City in “The Magic of Alan Valentine”. Jennifer also worked at Encore Performing Arts Center as a Ballet instructor. Jennifer later began her work at Ovations Performing Arts Academy as the Ballet Director and Chief Ballet Choreographer. It is at Ovations that Jennifer has found her true role as instructor in the arts. Jennifer and her students have received Choreography Awards, Overall High Scores, as well as winning the “educator” award from CO. Dance. Her students have been accepted to summer programs including American Ballet Theater, Joffrey Ballet, American Academy of Ballet, The Rock School, University of the Arts, and Julliard amongst others. Over her years as a dance educator Jennifer has found her true passion in helping her students to maintain their classical teqnique with a modern approach to choreography. While maintaining the discipline of ballet Jennifer strives to make the art accessible to all children. 

Michelle began her career as senior captain of both cheer and dance at Clifton High School, then immediately began coaching  at her alma mater after graduation. She was the Assistant Varsity Gymnastics coach from 1997-1999, responsible for team choreography on the floor and beam events. She has danced in many performances including, The Daily Burn fitness show on MTV.  From 1998-2000 she was one of the Head Coaches of the All-Star Cheerleading team at Gymnastics World, in Nutley, NJ. After graduating Seton Hall University, where she choreographed many school-sponsored performances, she became both the Head Varsity Cheerleading and Head Varsity Dance Team coach at Wayne Hills High School in Wayne, NJ. Here, her successful teams attended local, regional and national competitions, as well as being featured in American Cheerleader Magazine. After relocating her family, she spent one year at Spotswood High School as the assistant Varsity Cheerleading coach and choreographer for school events before coming to teach and coach at Barnegat High School. It was here that she was the assistant Varsity Cheerleading coach from 2005-2007 while starting the Barnegat Varsity Dance Team in 2005. While she coached and choreographed from 2005-2016, her dance team has received numerous accolades including 1st in the State in Pom, Lyrical and Jazz divisions. While the head coach of the Barnegat Dance Team, she was the recipient of the 2001 New Jersey Cheer and Dance Coaches Association Coach’s Recognition Award, was certified as a Universal Dance Association coach, has judged multiple local cheer and dance competitions, and choreographed many shows including the spring musicals and Mr. Bengal pageant. Michelle, most recently, was the head coach of the Stockton University Dance Team and choreographed for all their local, regional and National competitions. She also continues to choreograph for other dance teams in NJ. She is versatile in the areas of jazz, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary, pom, acro and musical theatre.

Erin has been studying many styles since the age of 4 including Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Lyrical, Hip Hop, Acro, Contemporary, Pointe, Musical Theatre, and Vocal at Ovations Performing Arts Academy. From age 14 she studied at Broadway Dance Center in NYC, NY. She also danced with the Giordano Dance Company in Chicago, IL on a summer scholarship program and performed in showcases and parades throughout the city. Erin has also assisted choreographers at conventions in Chicago, such as Brian Friedman, Barry Youngblood, Judy Rice, Sheila Barker, Nick Florez, Tyce Diorio, and Gregg Russell.

This fall will bring Heather into her 10th season as a tumbling instructor. Heather is a USASF certified tumbling instructor for Levels 1-5. In her earlier years Heather was a gymnast for twelve years. Heather thoroughly enjoys teaching tumbling to children of all ages and levels. She strongly believes in positive reinforcement and is constantly seeking to encourage every single one of her students. Heathers passion for tumbling, patience, and teqnique helps her students quickly progress and achieve all of their goals resulting in strong, mindful tumblers. Heather is looking forward to another season with Ovations and thanks her students and their families for trusting her to shape their future as tumblers.

Kiara began her dance training at Encore Performing Arts Center in New Jersey. Kiara is a B.F.A. graduate from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA where she pursued her love for the art of dance. She has experience in both concert and commercial work and most recently has performed with the Young Choreographers Festival in New York. Kiara was also an ASH Assistant and as this she traveled nationally assisting and performing with many award-winning choreographers such as Lisette Bustamante, Jojo Gomez, Desmond Richardson, Dwight Rhoden, Sabrina Phillips, and many more.

Layla McIntosh began her career as a dancer at Ovations Performing Arts Academy in 2004. Layla learned from a multitude of teachers inside and outside of Ovations. At a young age Layla started taking convention classes at conventions such as Camp PULSE, JUMP, New York City Dance Alliance, C.O. Dance, The Dance Awards, Beyond the Stars, and Dancers Inc. allowing her to learn from many different choreographers including Travis Wall, tWitch, Tyce Diorio, Ashlee Dawson, Misha Gabriel, Mollee Gray, Lane Napper, Mia Michaels, Chris Judd, Rosero McCoy, Janelle Ginestra, Anthony Burrel, Jon Rua, Willdabeast, Joe Lanteri, and many more. Throughout her time in the convention scene Layla was able to tour with Camp PULSE as a "Camp PULSE Counselor" for two years, gained many full convention scholarships, earned the recognition of "Best Dancer" at both JUMP and NYCDA conventions, earned a full scholarship to Studio School LA's summer program, and gained a $30,000 scholarship to Sacred Heart University for dance. Through Ovations Layla also gained opportunities to model for Costume Gallery Dance Catalog, and represent them at Catwalks and Costume Expos. Most recently during her time at Ovations Layla was crowned International Queen of Dance at The United States Tournament of Dance Competition. After graduating from Ovations Layla moved on to collegiate dancing at the D1A level at Temple University. Layla continues to train year round with a wide variety of choreographers and continues to push her boundaries to hopefully inspire the next generation to do the same.

Marcie Cantillo has studied dance since the age of  three.  She has trained at Encore Academy under the direction of Linda Schugel and Aimee Sprague, Gene Medler, Director of North Carolina’s Tap Youth Ensemble and Dance by Verna. Marcie has performed in the Mrs. New Jersey and Mrs. Pennsylvania pageants and in Walt Disney World Florida’s student program, on the famous Epcot Stage. Marcie participated in numerous national dance competitions and continues her training at dance conventions and workshops throughout N.J and NYC. Marcie has been teaching tap and dance combo since 2001 and is trained in all forms of dance. Her students have won high score awards, and the over all best performance award for her age appreciate technical tap routines/choreography.  In addition to teaching dance, Marcie holds a BA in English Education from Elon University, NC and is a high school English teacher.