Our Teachers

What makes the Looking Glass Studio stand out from others are our teachers. Our teachers are talented, experienced, and passionate about the art of dance.

Liana Harnitchek

Liana started her dance training at the age of 3 and continued to attend the Looking Glass for 15 years. During this time, she was trained in many areas of dance, including jazz, tap, hip hop, ballet, and musical theatre. Some of her most memorable experiences were performing with the TAPS ensemble in Looking Good productions, as well as with the IMAGES jazz ensemble at the Mission Inn Festival of Lights and at Disneyland. After numerous classes and performances, Liana is excited to join the LGSPA staff, teaching Kinder Theatre. She looks forward to this opportunity to share and instill her love of dance with her students. She is currently a student at Cal State University San Bernardino, working toward a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

Sarah Lopez

Sarah started dancing at Looking Glass at the age of 3. She always had a deep love and passion for classical ballet and trained with all of the best LGSPA ballet instructors as well as the various summer intensive companies such as the Boston ballet. Sarah continued her dance career through college at various studios where she fell in love with lyrical and modern dance. After having her 2 children, Sarah found herself choreographing for many local productions and eventually decided to return to LGSPA to teach. Sarah is now the dance team coach at Inland Leaders Charter School in Yucaipa and is so excited to return to LGSPA to teach the next up and coming generation of dancers.

Shelby Mallory

Shelby started dancing at age 4 when the Looking Glass Studio was located on 'E' Street in San Bernardino. She grew up taking jazz, ballet, tap and hip hop for over 15 years until she joined University Dance Company at CSUSB. At CSUSB, she was on the traveling competition team for two years until she tore her ACL and meniscus while doing a jump. She took a summer off to have surgery and recover. After that, Shelby returned to dance to teach and choreograph. She has choreographed for philanthropy events with dance teams at CSUSB, winning three competitions in a row. Shelby currently teaches a mix of jazz and hip/hop while working full time in marketing/communications for Blue Shield of California.

 

Annette R. Wagner

Annette began training at the age of 4 in tap and ballet, and later in jazz and vocal. She joined the Looking Glass Studio over 20 years ago, where she continued training in tap and jazz. Some of her most memorable experiences in performing include the Redlands Bowl dance products, the Riverside Community College Dance Program, Cal State San Bernardino Drama Program, Looking Glass’ “Looking Good”, as well as various Inland Empire organization performances. She has directed and choreographed children’s and adult musicals for various faith based organizations in the Inland Empire. Annette earned her B.A. in liberal studies with a concentration in theater of the arts from CSUSB.

Suzanne cox

Suzanne started dancing at the age of 17. She went to UCR where she received her BA in dance. She has studied ballet, pointe, tap, lyrical, modern, hip-hop, contact improve, jazz, contemporary with many professionals. She has taught various forms of dance since she was 19 years old. She has learned from many professionals over the years. Suzanne started learning circus acrobatic arts at age 28. She first started learning how to lift and be lifted from Brennan Mejia (Power Ranger star ). Later took other forms of acrobatics with the American acrobats where she learned more intense lifts, condition, aerial silks, arm balancing and Lyra. She has also learned from various professionals in the circus realm. She has studied the program and received her certification in acrobatics for dance from Acrobatic Arts in Las Vegas in 2018. She has taught acrobatics for dance for 5 years including big classes to do extreme lifts for dances.

Samantha French

Samantha started performing in Redlands at the age of 5. This is where she developed her love for all forms of acting and theatre. She continued to take acting classes and perform in plays across the Inland Empire. These plays include: Tartuffe, Antigone, Henry V, and Doctor Faustus. In 2018, she traveled to The Globe in London to undergo a Shakespearean Acting Intensive. More recently, she has received her B.A. in Theatre & Film from UC Riverside and her M.A. in Theatre Arts from UC Santa Cruz, where she also taught acting class and theatre history. Now she is teaching theatre at From the Heart Performing Arts and is very excited for her new adventures at Looking Glass.

francesca (Franki) Bossone

Franki began dancing at the age of 13 and has extensive experience in both the training and teaching of jazz, contemporary, hip-hop, tap, and ballet. She was a member of a competitive dance team for many years and continued her dance career on a D1 team at the University of San Diego.