Meet The Staff

Artistic Director/ Owner

Paola Rarick

Artistic Director/ Owner

Paola Rarick was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was exposed to art at an early age from her father who was a writer and renowned director in Argentina. She began her dance training at the age of 6. She has extensive training in Ballet, Tap, Musical Theater and Lyrical dance. Paola danced competitively for 9 years throughout the country. She was a member of nationally recognized and award winning dance companies. She continued her dance training at Broadway Dance Center in NYC. Besides running her dance studio, Paola is also choreographer for Shoreline Theater Company, Artful Living Productions and Branford High School Performing Arts. She loves to bring the joy of dance into theater production. Some of Paola’s theater production choreography credits include: Hairspray, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid, The Addams Family, The Producers, Little Shop of Horrors and most recently, Anything Goes. Paola has a bachelor’s degree in corporate communications. She resides in Branford with her husband, Bill and daughter, Bella.

Miss. Linnea

Miss. Linnea is a second-year teacher at Studio One Dance Company. Even though she has been teaching for two years, Miss. Linnea has been a part of the Studio One family for the last 18 years, beginning at the age of 2, since the studio opened.

She has received extensive training in many genres including ballet, tap, lyrical, jazz, hip hop, contemporary, musical theater, modern, and pointe, etc. From 2018 to 2022, she was a student at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, majoring in dance, and learning from members of the Alvin Ailey American Theater, specifically Earl Mosley. Earl personally selected Miss. Linnea, as well as a limited number of dancers from the entire dance department at her school, is one of only three freshmen, to get selected for a special piece. She is also a member of the National Honor Society for the Dance Arts and was inducted in 2021. She has traveled to perform in other states, such as St. Louis, Missouri, where she performed two self-choreographed pieces in 2021.

Miss. Marla

Miss Marla has been a part of the Studio One Dance Center since she was in middle school. She was a student ,and assistant, and has now been a teacher for some years except for when she took a short break from dance to have her two daughters Madelyn (5) and Kaylee (2).

Miss Marla’s favorite style of dance is hip-hop but enjoys teaching ballet and tap. She always encourages a loving and fun environment for her dancers.

Miss. Shelly

Miss. Shelly began her gymnastics career at a small gym, Northern Elite Gymnastics and Cheer, in northern New Jersey. With a competitive dance background, she quickly fell in love with the artistry of gymnastics. She competed in what was formerly known as the Junior Olympic Program from the age of 8 to 18 and was recruited as a Division 1 athlete on the Acrobatics and Tumbling team at Quinnipiac University.

Throughout her gymnastics career, Miss. Shelly received several state champion titles and broke state records. While training, she also began coaching gymnastics at 14. Since then, she has continued coaching a variety of ages and experience levels ranging from pre-school, beginner, and competitive levels. She has helped her athletes earn individual and team state champion titles.

Titles and awards aside, Miss. Shelly's true passion is helping young kids develop into unique individuals. She is extremely excited to continue encouraging young minds at Studio One Dance Center!

Miss. Lia

Miss. Lia studied at the Indianapolis Youth Ballet Company under Ms. Yu Qin Hao, former principal of the National Ballet of China. She rose from soloist to principal of her youth company, and was also a member of a competitive dance team, winning nationals & receiving high scores for her solos.

Miss. Lia returned to ballet when she moved to the east coast where she consistently takes class at Yale Rec under Ann Cowlin. Ballet is the style she is the most passionate about. She loves teaching brand new and experienced dancers the art of ballet in an encouraging environment that facilitates learning technique properly.

Miss. Linda

Miss. Linda Provo Piscioneri has been dancing since the age of three and grew up dancing at Gloria Jeans Studio of Dance where she was trained as a competitive dancer in all forms of dance. She has been teaching recreational and competitive dance for over 30 years and her students have competed on the local, national and international level.

Linda was a member of the United States Tap Team from 1995-2001 and is a four time world champion. When she is not dancing, Linda works for Boys and Girls Village in special education as a Crisis Intervention Specialist. When she is not working Linda loves to travel with her son.