Our Team.
Meet Maverick Dance Alliance's fearless leaders!
Our staff is committed to offering high-quality dance instruction and is made up of individuals who have collegiate dance experience, professional experience, degrees in dance, and have knowledge of USASF. All Staff members are CPR certified, all team coaches are USASF members and have completed background checks as well as USASF's athlete safety training, Safe at All Star. MDA staff is continuously learning how to better themselves as educators in order to help our dancers reach their goals and beyond!
Emily Tinsley
Owner/Director
Instructor & Team Coach
Emily Tinsley is an alumni of East Carolina University where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance. It was during her time at ECU that she found her love of choreography and teaching. Her choreography was selected to perform at the American College Dance Association gala. Following graduation, she moved back to Chattanooga and began working for a local studio where she coached for the competitive team as well as taught various levels of dance Technique, Contemporary, Lyrical, Jazz, Ballet, and Acro.
Bettering herself as a dance educator is one of Emily's passions and because of that she holds certifications in CPR/First Aid, Acrobatic Arts, Youth Protection Advocates in Dance, U.S. Safe Sport and Safe at All Star. She has spent summers attending the Dance Teacher Summit in NYC, Mather Dance Company Teacher Intensive hosted by Shannon Mather, whose dancers won the last season of NBC's World of Dance, the 2021 USASF conference virtually and the 2023 USASF conference in Nashville, TN. She is also a member of the USASF and National Dance Coaches Association. Emily is ready to share her passion for All Star with the Chattanooga community and hopes to impact the lives of her students through All Star.
FUN Fact:
Top Gun is one of my favorite movies of all time and the name of the studio was partially inspired by Maverick from the film.
Top 3 Favorite Collegiate Dance Teams:
The Ohio State University
Grand Valley State University
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Brooke Tinsley
Co-Director
Instructor & Team Coach
Brooke Tinsley, a Chattanooga native, received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the Ohio State University. During her time at OSU she danced under the direction of former company members from Doug Varone and Dancers, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and the Mark Morris Dance Company to name a few. Tinsley has also studied at the American Dance Festival, American College Dance Association Festival, Bates Dance Festival, and OhioDance. She began choreographing in 2017 and since then has had her choreography featured in dance films, contemporary dance comcerts, and for competitive dance teams. Alongside her dance training, Tinsley also has an extensive background in technical production, collaborating on the technical elements with a range of international artists and choreographers. Tinsley brings a fun and positive experience to the studio while upholding the high quality of training offered at Maverick. She is excited to coach and lead the dancers of Maverick this season and cannot wait to watch them grow and thrive.
FUN Fact:
The number one item on my bucket list is to swim with sharks.
Top Three Favorite Collegiate Dance Teams:
The Ohio State University (Go Bucks!)
Bringham Young University
Louisiana State University
April Jensen
Instructor
Team Coach & College Recruitment
Brand new to Tennessee, April has spent the last 30 years of her dance career either performing, directing, coaching or consulting with some of the top dance programs in the Midwest. A three-year captain of her college dance team, she helped lead the team to multiple national championships. She most recently has been coaching in the all-star world, with her team consistently placing in the Top 10 at Dance Worlds from 2014 - 2018.
Individually, April was a 2013 DX Coach of the Year Finalist, and was later inducted in the 2015 DanceXtreme Hall of Fame. A member of the USASF 2015 Mentoring Leaders program, April helped guide the vision and creation of the BOLT Athlete Leadership Course, and continues to assist in the curriculum development of all-star athlete leadership programs. She is a lead facilitator for the BOLT program and travels the US working with All Star cheer & dance athletes. This led her to be recognized by CheerBiz News as one of the “35 under 35 People to Watch” in the Cheer & Dance Industry in both 2015 and 2016.
April is passionate about training dancers for placement on top collegiate teams, and has a proven track record of setting up athletes for post-secondary success. April is beyond excited to join the Maverick Dance Alliance family and to be a part of Chattanooga’s first All Star dance program!
Fun fact: Most of the time when I go out to eat or order coffee from a coffee shop (one of my favorite things to do by the way), I ask them to surprise me with my order!
Jordan Klattig
Instructor
Team Coach
Jordan Klattig is an alumni of The University of South Alabama. She received a Master of Education and was on the dance team for 4 years. She currently teaches 4th grade at East Brainerd Elementary. Jordan started dancing when she was 5 and competing at the age of 9. During high school, she worked at her home studio before her dance classes and during the summers to get experience choreographing and teaching technique. Jordan knew that this would be just the beginning of her time teaching dance. She continued passing on her love of dance at a local studio in Mobile, Alabama when she was in college where she taught jazz, ballet, lyrical, tap, hip hop, and tumbling to all ages of dancers. Jordan moved to Chattanooga last summer with her fiancé, Chris and Golden Retriever, Kobe. She got married in March and was instantly ready to get back into teaching dance after wedding planning was over. She is so excited to be a part of the MDA family!
Fun fact: From a very young age, I always knew that I was going to be a teacher!
Maya Purcell
Instructor
Team Coach
Bio coming soon!
Lydia Bonanno-Campbell
Instructor: Lyrical, Ballet, Jazz
Originally from New Jersey, Lydia started dancing at age 7 when her family moved to Wisconsin at Bravo Center, LLC under Amy Teelin and Kristen Reynoso. At age 14, she started assisting in classes and found her love for choreographing and teaching. After high school, she would continue to assist and set choreography for their annual spring shows. In 2015, Lydia moved to Cumming, GA to work for the award-winning Cumming Dance Academy. From 2015-2023, she taught and choreographed for ages 2-18, and helped to plan and run their winter and spring shows for almost 900 students. During her tenure there, she helped to grow the Pointe and Rec programs. In 2023, Lydia moved to Chattanooga with her husband and their two dogs, Arrow and Lou. She's excited for a great season and to share her love for dance with the students at MDA!
Fun Fact: I'm a huge New York Yankees fan and one of my dogs is named after an old player.
Lenette Perra
Instructor: Ballet
Lenette holds a BA from Butler University in Dance Education. And an MD from the University of Munich, Internal Medicine specialty from UTMCK. She danced 12 years professionally with, Butler Ballet, Bochum Playhouse, Gärtnerplatz Theater and finally 10 years in a large ballet company, the National Theater of Bavaria in Munich Germany. She also choreographed 4 pieces for that theater. Before college and after all along the way she has taught ballet at all levels in the US and in Europe. She danced in ballets from many famous choreographers and shared the stage with many famous ballet stars. She has filmed and done shows in London, in Italy, France Germany and here in the states. She last taught, and choreographed for about 12 years for the Knoxville Tennessee Children's Dance Ensemble while she did her medical residency there.