Our Team
Heather Walts (Owner & Director)
Heather is a mother of two daughters. She opened JDA at the age of 21 and has been the owner and director for 13 years.
Attended Florida School of the Arts & the University at Buffalo Summer Dance Masters.
Certified by Dance Masters of America
More than 16 years of teaching experience & danced professionally in Florida for 3 years.
Award winning Choreographer & has directed 2 music videos seen on TV.
Lindsay Clark
Lindsey has trained and specialized in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, & Lyrical. She was a soloist dancer at the Greenville Ballet School and Company. A principle dancer at the Fletcher School of Dance. She taught ballet at the Ashville Center of Performing Arts, Angie's Dance Academy, Milford Dance Acedemy, & Mary Jos Performing Arts Center. From 2008 to 2020 she was the owner and director of the Tampa Bay Ballet as well as taking on the role of artistic director and President there since 2013.
Brooke Jones
Brooke’s dance journey began as a recreational dancer when she was 8 years old. She quickly fell in love with it and took it to the next level by joining the competitive dance world at the age of 9. She has earned many scholarships, awards, and recognitions throughout her dance career from prestigious institutions such as Joffrey, Sarasota Ballet, Modas, Alvin Ailey, and American Ballet Theater. Brooke has frequently been praised by judges for her performance, creativity, and technique. She has years of assisting her instructors in the classroom, upon graduation, Brooke began to teach her own classes. She is an award winning choreographer creating dances for groups, soloists, and duets. Her choreography consistently places at the top and her dances continually achieve overall wins. Her choreography is always commended for precision, creativity and individuality. She most recently won the coveted award of 2023 National Emerging Choreographer from Artistic Dance Exchange.
Cathy Scavelli
Cathy Scavelli was born in Connecticut and holds a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. She began her dance training at a very young age, and trained in ballet, tap and jazz. She trained for 15 years with Lorraine Judd-White, who was mentored in tap dance by Henry LeTang and Leon Collins. At a very young age, tap dance became her favorite style.
Cathy has attended numerous master classes and week-long intensives. She has trained with Master Tap Teachers to include Dianne (Lady Di) Walker, Prof. Robert Reed, Lane Alexander, Avi Miller and Ofer Ben, Acia Gray, Gene Medler, Germaine Salsberg, Sam Weber, Bob Audy, Jay Fagan, Nicole Hockenberry and Jason Samuels-Smith. Her most memorable tap experience was when she had an opportunity to dance on stage with the late, great Gregory Hines.
For the past 30 years, Cathy has taught all tap levels from beginner to pre-professional. She has also mentored many students who went on to become tap instructors. Cathy teaches tap technique and tap rudiments regularly in class, and her students experience all styles of tap from rhythm tap and jazz-tap, to Broadway style and funk. She also loves to teach historical choreography from the great tap masters.
In 2017, her choreography was one of three solo pieces to be chosen from the United States to compete at the IDO World Tap Dance Championships in Riesa, Germany. Her choreography has also won top awards at local and national dance competitions. Cathy is also one of the choreographers and founders of the Sunshine City Dancers in the Tampa Bay area. However, her biggest passion will always be to help tap students of all ages to achieve their goals whether they are recreational tap dancers or pre-professional tap dancers. Cathy is excited to be on staff at Just Dance Academy and share her passion of tap dance with all her students!
Maycie Gallagher
Maycie has been dancing since the age of 3, not only with award winning studios in Pasco county but with multiple academic schools as well. Her talent and leadership lead her to the opportunity of being selected as the senior captain of Dance Extreme Academy Advanced Elite Competition Team. She has received multiple awards and scholarships such as Best Dancer at both DEA as well as River Ridge High school 4 years in a row, an invitation to perform as a dancer in Artistic Dance Exchange Nationals Hip Hop group and receiving a scholarship to Joffrey Ballet School. Her dedication to dance and teaching has found her placing at the top in Hip-hop, lyrical, tap, contemporary, and jazz for groups and solos, and she has received many judges’ awards for her entertaining and energetic performances. Most recently, Maycie was a Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleader finalist and plans to audition again.