Lori Buffalow
Owner and director, of the Next Step Dance Studio. She has been teaching and dancing professionally for the past 21 years. While a member of the American Dance Company and the United Spirit Association, she performed in concerts featuring Huey Lewis & The News, The Beach Boys, and Gloria Estefan. She was a member of the San Francisco 49ers Gold Rush. Lori earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Mary's College and has been a popular dance instructor for children and teens in the Danville area for many years. Since taking over The Next Step, her performing dance teams have won top awards while earning several dance scholarships. The teams have performed at Disneyland, on Cruise lines and performed on a European Tour plus numerous local events. Several of the Next Step's students have advanced to college dance teams, pro sports teams, and have made careers in dance production. The goal of The Next Step is to provide a positive, nurturing experience for students, in varying styles of dance on all levels & for all ages. A talented and professional staff has been assembled in order to achieve that goal.

Kaela Fonzi
Kaela Fonzi is beginning her fourteenth year of dancing at the Next Step Dance Studio, this fall. She is seventeen years old, and a senior at Monte Vista High School. Kaela is a member of both the Monte Vista Pom Squad, and the Monte Vista Advanced Dance Class. While dancing at The Next Step she has attended numerous competitions, and won several dance scholarships.

Kaela has performed in Europe, Disneyland, the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, and for many local charities. She has been a teacher at the Next Step for all of her four years in high school, and loves working with dancers of all ages and levels.

Kelly Garcia
is the manager of our studio and director of our K-Team, Petite Pre-team, Preteam & Teen Explosion, competitive dance teams representing The Next Step, which have won several awards and dance scholarships. Kelly has performed for more than 21 years, 15 of them as a very popular and experienced instructor. Portrayed on the cover of the aerobic dance book "Keep Moving," illustrations of Kelly can be seen throughout, depicting proper forms and techniques.

Wendy Haddock
has been dancing for 22 years. She has studied jazz, tap, ballet, modern and hip-hop extensively in Southern Californian studios and schools. Wendy attended Cal State Long Beach as a dance and art double major and danced with various companies such as John Stronk's Dancers, Diamontey Dance Company and Unity Dance Ensemble. She has performed and toured with these companies as well as being in Rgs D's Video and choreographing/dancing for Don Carlos.

Denise Hampel
Denise Stephanie Hampel graduated with high honors from CSU East Bay with a B.A. in Theatre Arts with a Dance Option. She taught for several years in studios in Germany and danced in a competitive Modern Dance Company before she moved to the Bay Area. Here she was part of Contemporary Modern Dance Companies such as Dandelion Dance Theatre and ABD Production. She also choreographed her own work which was presented at the Dance IS Festival in Berkeley.

Nicole Haworth
Nicole has been dancing at The Next Step Dance Studio for many years. She is a Junior at San Ramon Valley High School where she is also a member of the Pom Squad and the Dance Team. Nicole is a bright and talented dancer and spends most of her time in the dance studio where she is a member of four Next Step Competitive Performance Teams. Nicole has performed at Disneyland, with the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, on a European Tour and for many local community events. Nicole has been teaching at The Next Step for the past two years and is well liked by her students. We look forward to continuing to have Nicole on staff at TNS.

Rachel Jackson
is the director of Juicy and Dance Rage, competitive dance teams for middle school and high school students. She has choreographed and performed in the Bay Area and internationally for the past 18 years. She is the former director of the San Francisco 49ers Goldrush Cheerleaders, has worked with Boyz II Men, Baby Face and Tony Bennett, plus appeared in commercials for Dr. Scholl's and Pepsi.

Corissa Johnson
Corissa graduated with honors in the Spring of 2008 from California State University, East Bay Hayward, where she obtained a degree in Theatre Arts-Dance, as well as an English minor. Corissa has danced, performed, and choreographed for 8 years and has extensive training in Hip Hop, Modern, Jazz, and Salsa. She has traveled to New York and participated in the Headliners Competition and also to Germany, for the IDO International Hip Hop Competition. Corissa has choreographed for various musicals, concerts and dance teams in the Bay Area including a piece for "Works in the Works 2007" in Berkeley. She is currently working with the youth, at McClymonds High School, as Program Manager for "You Must Believe Inc.", promoting self esteem and the arts through Theatre, Dance and the spoken word. The Next Step welcomes Corissa and is excited to have her on staff!

Jen Kajioka
Jennifer is a Monte Vista High School graduate and has participated in Monte Vista Cheerleading as well as the Dance Team for her four years attending. She started taking ballet and tap when she was 5 yrs. old and later on, stopped for sports, but dancing has always been her passion. While teaching her second year at The Next Step, she is now attending Las Positas College where she is minoring in Art - Dance and has continued dancing for the Las Positas Dance Team.

Lauren Moshy
Lauren has been dancing since she was four years old. She started dancing with The Next Step at the age of 7. She first made dance team in 2001 on the award winning Junior Tap Team. Since then she has competed on many of The Next Step's dance teams and branched out into jazz and ballet and hip hop. Lauren is also in the highest dance level at her high school. This will be her second year teaching at The Next Step, and she looks forward to two more years dancing with The Next Step before heading off to college.

Rolleen Myers
comes to The Next Step as an accomplished dancer and entertainer with 26 years of experience. She is the Tap Director of the award winning JR, Elite and T.A.P. Tap Teams as well as our Pre-Tap team. She was line captain/co-captain for the Oakland Raiderettes, Miss Alameda County USA 1991, an interviewer and reporter for the "Medal Minute" TV show and the producer/host of Rock’ n Rolleen’s "Hard Rock Work Out" TV show.

Marissa Pfaff
Marissa Pfaff has been dancing since 1999 extensively in ballet, jazz, tap and recently in modern. She has worked with choreographers in the Bay Area such as Janice Garrett and Paco Gomez. On breaks she works in Los Angeles with high school dance curriculums, enhancing their programs and training them for spring competitions. Along with continuing her dance training at St. Mary's College of California, where she is studying for her BA in Performing Arts, with an emphasis on dance; she is also training in aerial arts to one day audition for Cirque du Soleil.

Rosie Radiator
Rosie's national solo TV commercial, Guinness World Records and Radiators night club trio, have made her the subject of numerous national and international news stories.

The Smithsonian Magazine calls Rosie "San Francisco's tap dance guru." and Senator Dianne Feinstine says "There goes the true spirit of San Francisco."

Since her historic dance across the Golden Gate Bridge on Labor Day 1976 proclaiming the first Tap Dance Day, Rosie and her Rad Tap Teams have set numerous Guinness World Records and are the current record holders for long distance unison tap dancing.

Jillian Rovner
Jillian has performed in Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop and Lyrical numbers both competively and on tour. She has been a member of The Next Step Performance Teams and has performed at Disneyland, California Adventure, the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and on a European Tour! Jillian is starting her Junior year at San Ramon Valley High School where she also is a part of their Pom and Dance Teams. Jillian has obtained high honors both in her High School and in the dance world, winning many scholarships. Jillian enjoys working with children and has been a popular teacher this past year when subbing dance classes. She specializes in Next Step Birthday parties and looks forward to working with future TNS dancers!

Angela Taylor
comes to The Next Step from Buenos Aires, Argentina where she was trained as a Ballet dancer as well as a Ballet teacher of the Russian method developed by Maestro Prokofiev, teacher and choreographer of the Mariinsky Theatre. After performing with two of the Ballet Companies in Buenos Aires, Angela traveled around South America instructing and preparing advanced students to join some of Argentina’s main companies such as Teatro Colon and Teatro Argentino de la Plata. Angela has worked with John Graham, who trained her in the basics of the Feldenkrais Method which she incorporates into her Ballet lessons.

Susan Williams
is one of the Bay Areas most popular ballet instructors and a noted choreographer. Some of her choreography productions include Alice in Wonderland (Rossini, Respighi), Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mozart, Mendelssohn) and Patchwork Girl of Oz (Tchaikovsky). Susan choreographed two operas each year for the San Francisco Children’s Opera and has also worked with the Oakland Opera Theatre. She is a proud member of both the Royal Academy of Dance and the Bay Area Dance Coalition. Susan has received a Bachelor of Arts in the Art Department at U.C. Berkeley and also an Advanced Syllabus, Intermediate: Full RAD membership, Elementary Certificate from the Royal Academy of Dance, London.