Staff
Jessica Palmer
Jessica Palmer is the owner/instructor of Jessica's School of Dance. She started dance at the young age of 3 at School of the Arts in New Brunswick, New Jersey. At the age of 11, she auditioned and was accepted into the New Jersey Ballet Theatre Guild.
In 1992, Jessica moved to Georgia. She started taking class and joined the Susan Chambers School of Dance and the Susan Chambers Dance Company. A few years later, she became principle dancer in the Susan Chambers pre-professional dance company.
Jessica has taken classes with people such as Mia Michaels, from So You Think You Can Dance, Wade Robson, from So You Think You Can Dance, Joe Lanteri, Joe Tremaine and Doug Caldwell just to name a few.
In 1998, Jessica was accepted into and attended the Governors Honors Program at Valdosta State in dance. She received 2 scholarships to STEPS on Broadway in NY. She has received a scholarship to Broadway Dance Center in NY. She also received a scholarship to Debbie Reynolds Studio in Los Angeles.
She has received awards for choreography at regional and national dance competitions.
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Jessica took a few years away from dance when she met and married her husband. They then started their beautiful family adding three wonderful children.
Jessica originally started teaching dance at the age of 16 at her alma mater. After having her three children, she started teaching at Studio Dance Academy in Athens, Ga. She also taught at Oconee Youth Playhouse for several years.
Jessica hopes to share her love of dance with the children here in Oglethorpe County!
Jessica is now into the 5th season of Jessica's School of Dance and is the artistic director of the award winning JSDance Company. Jessica is looking forward to growing even more in the years to come.
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Codi-Belle Smith
Fairytale Ballet Assistant, Tap/Jazz Combo, Ballet I and Ballet II
Oglethorpe County native, Codi-Belle began dancing at the age of seven. While she dabbled in other sports along the way, dance was her first love. She was a competitive dancer for seven, where she met and was trained by Miss Jessica herself for one of those years! Recent Oglethorpe County graduate, she plans to attend UNG in the fall before transferring to UGA with a major in Psychology with a future goal in Speech Pathology. At UGA, she would like to take part in the UGA modern dance program (CORE) or become a Georgette. Codi-Belle loves watching others fall in love with the sport that has meant so much to her and she cherishes every moment she gets to spend with the little ballerinas.
