Our instructors
Carly Sanchez - artistic director
Carly M. Sanchez, born in Garden City, Kansas, moved to LA to pursue a commercial dance career while attaining her BA in Dance, Psychology, and a minor in Spanish. She studied under brilliant dancers such as Sean Greene and Mike Esperanza and choreographed for/worked with world-renowned dancers Ade Obayomi and Stephen "tWitch" Boss. After realizing her passion was more for teaching and choreographing, allowing her to work with young dancers and help them achieve their goals through creativity, she decided to move to Denver, CO, and open her own dance studio. She is proud to begin her 11th year as the owner and artistic director of Mercury Academy Dance. She is also the proud director of Mercury Dance Company, a professional company that serves as a segue for young dancers into the professional community in Denver.
Katelin Wallace - Ballet/contemporary
Katelin began dance training at the age of eleven, beginning at Metropolitan Academy of Dance and then for six years with Denver Academy of Ballet. She also had the opportunity to train with renowned companies including American Ballet Theater, Ballet Austin, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and Alonzo King LINES Ballet. In 2017 she began dancing professionally with Mercury Dance Company and has been with the company ever since. Katelin has been teaching at Mercury Academy of Dance for 6 years now and is passionate about passing on her love of the art form to the next generation of dancers.
Hannah Prudhomme - Ballet/Lyrical
Hannah started dancing at age 12 at The Turning Pointe Dance Academy, the local studio in Elizabeth, CO. There, she trained in many dance styles as well as competing & winning many overall awards at national competitions. After moving to the Denver area she was invited to be a member of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance second company, Cleo II. She received first-class training from world renowned choreographers and performed professionally as a member of Cleo II for 4 years. She enjoyed living out her ballerina dreams en pointe as a member of Reformation Dance Company, a contemporary ballet company, for 3 years.
She currently dances professionally as a member of Davis Contemporary Dance Company and as a member of Mercury Dance Company, MAD's professional company. Hannah has been teaching for many years and has been an instructor with Mercury since 2017. She is experienced in teaching a variety of dance styles and specializes in teaching ballet & lyrical. She also thoroughly enjoys being able to feature her choreography on MAD's competitive companies. She is always happy to be able to share her love of dance, whether it's performing on stage or through teaching the next generation of performing artists!
Lindsey Hayutin - intro/level i/tap
Lindsey Hayutin was born and raised in Colorado and started dancing at the young age of 2 years old. Dance has been her biggest passion since then. She was heavily involved in the dance studio she grew up in; Aurora Dance Arts. She participated in every performance opportunity and especially loved the winter shows where she received lead roles such as the oldest dancing princess in The 12 Dancing Princesses. Her favorite production she was involved in was the Wizard of Oz where at a young age she was casted multiple years as a tap dancing munchkin and an Oz citizen. She trained in just about all styles throughout her 16 years of childhood dancing and is thankful for that now as she teaches many different styles her at MAD including tap, ballet, Poms, and Jazz. In high school she joined the Grandview Wolves Poms team where her team won second at state. Today Lindsey enjoys continuing her education and has traveled to LA to participate in the Dance Teacher Summit where she got to train with outstanding dancers such as Kenny Wormald, Julie Kay Stallcup, and Chloe Arnold. As Mercury’s only tap Instructor she enjoys continuing taking adult tap classes at her childhood dance studio. Lindsey was the head administrator at Mercury for the past 9 years until she became a mom of 2 in 2024. She has been teaching at MAD since 2015 and enjoys passing her knowledge and passion of dance to all her students. She also loves being head of the Mini/Junior competition team. She looks forward to continuing her teaching career with MAD for many more years to come and to hopefully have her two daughters be MAD dancers themselves in the next few years!
Lindsey Somers - poms/jazz/ballet
Lindsey is a Colorado native, growing up dancing at Eaglecrest High School and Encore Dance Studio. After graduating from high school, she went on and pursued a degree in Dance Management at Oklahoma City University. She has taught at multiple dance studios in Colorado as well as performed in multiple shows; Green Day's American Idiot at the Pollard Theatre, Mamma Mia! at the Arvada Center, Six Flag's Elitch Gardens, and for the past 3 years with the Colorado Mammoth Wild Bunch Dancers. Lindsey is so excited to be passing down her passion for dance to the next generation as she heads into her first year of teaching with the Mercury Academy of Dance family!
jashawn Thornton - breaking/hip-hop
For over a decade, JaShawn has specialized in teaching Hip Hop, Street Dance, and Breakin’ (Breakdancing) from beginner to advanced levels. In class, dancers will learn new fundamentals, vocabulary, and how to groove, while also being challenged in new ways. As a teacher, JaShawn offers tools to help dancers become more well-rounded by incorporating choreography, athleticism, and creative improvisation (Freestyling) in each class while exploring a variety of styles and approaches to help dancers identify and develop their own individual styles and keep each class fresh! If you’re looking to have fun while pushing yourself to new heights, JaShawn has the class for you!
Miranda Reeves - modern
Miranda was born and raised in Gilbert,AZ. She started dancing at the age of 2 doing competitive dance. She has trained in Modern, Jazz, Contemporary, Ballet, and Hip-Hop. Her passion in dance led her to wanting to further her education of movement. In her undergrad at Utah Valley University she took many classes involving Laban Movement Analysis, Kinesiology, Anatomy and creative dance practices that has shaped the deeper amount of education she provides for her students. She also learned and studied modern dance techniques from Graham, Limon, Cunningham and Gaga technique. She worked side by side with Ririe-Woodbury, Laja Martin, Diavolo, Monica Campbell, Brian Gerke, Sarah Donohue, Melissa Younker and Angie Banchero-Kelleher.
After receiving her Bachelors in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Modern dance, Miranda moved to Switzerland to undertake cultural exchange that have only added to her values and perspective. Miranda is now teaching around Colorado and will be applying for graduate school this upcoming year to achieve her MFA. Miranda dances for the sake of connection and knowing that dance does in fact reinforce community. She continues to teach, choreograph and perform emphasizing the importance and realism of the human experience through dance. She truly believes dance is a gateway to any human to connect deeper to themselves and others.
Stacey Kim - aerial silks
Stacey’s aerial adventure began in 2010 in Detroit, when she and her daughter took to the skies. Stacey instantly fell head over heels for the physical challenge and artistic beauty of aerial arts. Starting with silks, sling, trapeze, and lyra, she quickly became a circus arts enthusiast. Her circus repertoire grew to include hula hooping, fire dancing, silk fan dance, and even a dash of Cyr wheel after joining a troupe in Michigan.
With a passion for learning from talented artists, Stacey soon found herself wanting to share her skills and began training to become an instructor. Fast forward to 2020, she landed in Denver, where she connected with the vibrant Colorado circus community. Here, she continues to hone her craft, learning from the industry’s best.
Today, Stacey is a dynamic instructor at local studios, after-school programs, and juggles a digital marketing career as a social media manager and video editor. Whether she’s in the air or online, Stacey is always spinning something spectacular!