Meet the Owners
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Co-Owner
Dance Instructor
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Master teacher, performer and choreographer, Brittany Mains draws from her 18 years of dance training when in front of a classroom or on a stage. With a focus in Contemporary and Hip Hop, Brittany also possesses training in Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Pilates and Yoga. She has appeared in the official music video for Macklemore's "Dance Off" and performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Brittany's live performance credits include appearances with Beat Connection at the Capitol Hill Block Party, as well as dancing for Broadway legends including Hugh Panero, Susan Egan, and Nita Whitaker. She has trained under renowned dance professionals Alex Little, Daniel Cruz, and Doug Caldwell and has also had the opportunity to tour with The Young Americans, teaching music and dance in countries such as Germany, Spain, France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Japan, and South Korea.
In 2019 Brittany was nominated for Choreographer of the Year at the prestigious Industry Dance Awards. She has also received both regional and national choreography awards from Hollywood Dance Connection, Spotlight Dance Cup, Rainbow Dance Competition, and Velocity Dance Competition.
In addition to her work as a performer and choreographer, Brittany is also a co-director of IGNITE Dance and Yoga with Katie Black for the last 12 years. She is excited to partner up for the IGNITE Dance Carnation and continue to bring her passion for dance to new audiences.
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Co-Owner
Dance Instructor
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With 23 years of teaching experience, and ten years working as a professional dancer, Katie’s career in dance has taken her all over the world. In 2010, local families urged Katie to open her own studio locally, and put down roots. With tremendous support of the Snoqualmie Valley community, friends, and family, IGNITE opened and is now celebrating its 13th season! Katie is ecstatic to be partnering with Co-Director and long time friend Brittany Mains in opening IGNITE Dance Carnation in March of 2023!
Katie’s passion for dance grew from her gymnastics background, into training in all styles of dance, voice, and acting, also sparking her interest in yoga, in which she became certified through 8 Limbs Yoga Center and Yoga Alliance. Her professional work highlights include dancer and aerialist for Holland America - Dance Captain and Company Manager, Assistant Choreographer to Patti Columbo and John Charron, Assistant Casting Director - Stiletto Entertainment, dancer with Lionel Richie at the Wynn Hotel opening in Las Vegas, dancer and vocalist in “42nd Street”, dancer and gymnast with Doucette Entertainment, National Dance Competition Adjudicator, and Master Class Instructor/Choreographer. Katie has been recognized nationally for her choreography through the Industry Dance Awards and national competitions, as well as local acknowledgement for excellence in teaching. She is also proud to be serving as a board member for the Washington State Dance Studio Owners Coalition.
Katie is grateful for her incredible IGNITE staff and families that she has gotten to know as her own over the last 13 years, and IGNITE couldn’t exist without! She is thrilled to be sharing her passion for dance and life with her two daughters and husband, whose support she is forever grateful. Katie hopes to continue inspiring passion and strength for all students to follow their dreams, and make a positive difference!
Meet the Team
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Dance Instructor
Barre Instructor
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I began my dance adventure in Port Angeles, WA studying Ballet, Gymnastics and Cheer at the age of 5 and through my youth. I continued to dance through high school being a part of the Rider Angels Dance Team which focused on Jazz and Modern dance styles. Moving to the Seattle area I furthered my dance studies and eventually became a part of a Contemporary Performing Company. Dance has healed my life in many ways and my passion is to teach people to learn how to use dance to create happiness in their everyday lives. My goal is to make everybody feel welcomed and free in my classes to express and truly find themselves. In my free time aside from dancing I consider myself somewhat of a movie nerd and enjoy spending time with family and friends, and of course my 3 cats. When weather and time allows it I love being on the Peninsula in the woods or near the ocean in California.
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Dance Instructor
Front Desk
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Pippin Leiper is an Ignite alumni, who started their dance journey at 8 yearsold. Though their love for live theatre and performing began even earlier. Through dance they have received opportunities with Village Theatre including the prestigious Village Institute training program, as well as being cast in Village shows like The Little Mermaid, All That Glitters, The Grey Area, She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms, Urinetown: The Musical and While They Last. Pippin has choreographed multiple Mount Si High School productions, including Newsies and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, receiving an award from 5th Avenue Theatre in 2022 for their outstanding leadership and choreography. Currently, they’re the lead choreographer for Western Washington University’s top accapella choir, Pacific Note West. They are exited to be back and apart of the Ignite family in a new capacity. And are overjoyed to continue growing as an artist, and share their love of performing with others!
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Yoga Manager
Yoga Instructor
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Heidi was born and raised in South Africa. She relocated to Seattle 17 years ago with her family. Prior to her move, she worked as a high school PE and Social Studies teacher. Teaching people to be active and healthy is Heidi’s passion. She has coached high school dance, field hockey, swim teams, and mom-and-toddler fitness classes. In the past, she used to engage in various exercises but would regularly sustain injuries due to her competitive nature and lack of body awareness. Consequently, she took a few months off to focus solely on yoga. After attending her first power class, she became addicted to the physically challenging and restorative nature of this practice.
Heidi completed her 200hr Teacher Training with Shakti Vinyasa (Baron Baptiste Inspired Vinyasa yoga), recognized by the worldwide Yoga Alliance in 2014. She has since then added Yin Yoga and Myofascial release classes to her practice and teaching.
She is also a certified Girl Gone Strong Women Coaching Specialist. (GSS-1).
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Dance Instructor
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Josette grew up in North Bend, WA and began dancing locally at the age of 5. She found her way to Ignite Dance and Yoga where she trained for seven years on their competition team. After graduating high school she continued her dance training at Hofstra University in New York. During her time there she performed various pieces in the Faculty shows and the student run shows. Her love of dance was shared inside and outside the classroom through various volunteer, positions teaching workshops to young children and helping students with disabilities. After four years she graduated with a B.A. in Dance and a minor in Entrepreneurship. She has since then moved back home and performed in Joysauce Late Night Musical and Snowflake lane as a member of the Snowbelle dance team. She is so excited to be a part of this community!
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Dance Instructor
Yoga Instructor
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Pamela Allen is a Pacific Northwest native and accomplished dancer, teacher and choreographer. Pamela has a lengthy career of teaching that includes titles such as Artistic Director of Synergy Performing Company, Owner/Director of Turning Pointe Dance Academy, serving as the director of the Tri-Cities Dance Association, choreographer/instructor for Universal Dance Association, department head for the ballet, tap, and jazz departments, guest choreographer for the Academy of Children’s Theater, The Tri-Cities Juneteenth Pageant and many more. Pamela has also been a guest speaker across the Pacific Northwest and West Coast on dance choreography, technique, and dance program development. Pamela is one of the original Co-Founders of Beat BangerZ founded in 2010 in Portland Oregon. As a co-founder and member of Beat BangerZ, Pamela has choreographed and performed internationally, sharing her passion for the percussive art form of tap. In 2015 Pamela co-founded the non profit organization, Portland Tap Alliance. This organization supported and funded the rebirth of the legendary Portland Tap Dance Festival and partnered with other artistic based non profit organizations to promote the arts. Pamela continues working to create opportunities to expose the communities of the Pacific Northwest to the tap art form and support talented artists who continue to do the same. Pamela is known for giving fun, inspirational and technique building classes.
Pamela’s passion for the visual arts has opened a path for expanding her knowledge in Yoga. As a student of yoga for over 20 years, she began her practice with Bikram yoga for the first 10 years then went on to study a variety of yoga teachings. In 2018 through YogaBody Yoga Teachers College, Pamela became a certified Yoga Trapeze instructor which is the leading inversion and suspension trainer world wide. Pamela is continuing her yoga certification with a special focus on Hatha, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Iyangar, hot Yoga and gravity yoga. Pamela has donated much of her time and choreography to other nonprofit organizations in the community furthering the exposure of dance and yoga education of the youth.
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Dance Instructor
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Cody is a Seattle native who began formal studio training in hip hop at Alderwood Dance Spectrum in 2005 under Kontagious Movement’s Megan X. From there, Cody worked as a dance captain and choreographer for Kontagious Performing Company, later training with some of Seattle’s most elite companies including The Connection’s PG Fam (Kolanie Marks, Andrew Faulkner, The T-Twins), Luscious & Vicious/Purple Lemonade (Ron Smith) and The Bad Kids (Shumon Wood).
Cody has worked as a resident and guest choreographer, instructor and coach at multiple Washington and Oregon studios since 2011 in both competitive and recreational capacities. Some of Cody’s client base consists of Equity and Agency-signed dancers as well as former, current and prospective NFL cheerleaders, specializing in competitive choreography and audition prep.
Cody’s professional credits include backup dancing for Ru Paul’s Drag Race Season 8 TV personality Robbie Turner and choreography for Vietnamese pop artist Minh Thanh. Cody has also worked as a professional dancer in Seattle, cast in multiple resident productions (Le Faux, MX.) as well as local institutions such as Westlake’s Sign of the Times (Justin Williams, Grant Cabebe).