Instructors

 

Ms. "Nicole" Cote

Starting at the early age of 8, Nicole registered for a single Jazz Class at a local dance studio in New York. After 4 years of studying jazz classes, she then moved to Florida with her family to a local town called Palm Bay. Growing a passion for dance, she desperately searched for a new dance school to continue her dancing career. Se began dancing with "Patricia's School of Dance" under the direction of Patricia Snellman and Kim Cole. She has made many wonderful accomplishments throughout her dancing career that she will never forget. Nicole Cote was competing at age 14 with solos, duets, and small groups and has received many first place and even high score awards for tap, ballet, lyrical, and jazz. Not only dancing for awards, Nicole has also performed at such exhibits as the "Melbourne Arts Festivals" and local Florida Pageants. Se has also danced with professionals from Broadway.

Even though Nicole has stayed busy competing and performing locally, she was offered a teachers assistant position and soon began teaching on her own. She became a full-time dance instructor for "Patricia's School of Dance" for 3 years and then became a full-time instructor for "Kim Cole Dance Studio" for 8 years. She has had the privilege of teaching her competition team choreography that has been awarded first place and platinum awards throughout the state of Florida. Teaching from ages 2-adult for 11 years has taught Ms. Nicole the tricks and the trades of becoming a successful dance instructor.

Now, Nicole Cote has had the opportunity of becoming a Director of her own school. Ms. Nicole has decided to stick with her lifelong passion of dance for many years to com. She will continue to direct, instruct, dance, and manage "Nicole Cote School of Dance" and continue to attend dance conventions and competitions around the state Florida to gain better knowledge that she can pass down to her students for years to come.

Ms. Nicole Cote has received her "Bachelors in Arts" degree from the University of Central Florida and received her Certification in Dance from "Dance Masters" in October 2006.

Brianna Dipaolo

Brianna has been dancing since the time she was seven years old and now at the age of twenty she continues her love for dance. Brianna has danced at a number of studios in Palm Bay and Melbourne and has competed with various Jazz, Hip Hop, and Lyrical teams Some awards that she has won include platinum, high gold, gold and silver medals in all three areas of dance. Her favorite and most skilled area of dance is hip hop, along with training in break-dancing.

While in school she has held titles of captain, co-captain and choreographer for the West Shore Perfections Dance Team winning for best choreography and style. Brianna was also a member of the Brevard Community College hip hop dance team performing at college basketball games here in Brevard County. She is currently the Drama Dance Ministry director at her local church, traveling with her dance team to various talent competitions throughout the state of Florida. She is also the director of a youth hip hop outreach program in Palm Bay for the past year and a half. Brianna will continue dancing for as long as she can and is looking forward to what her dancing career may bring.

Erica Whiting

Ms. Erica began dancing at the age of 3. Even then her parents knew that dance would be a part of her life forever! Throughout her more than "three" decades of dancing, she has mad many wonderful accomplishments starting from early elementary school. She has performed in numerous local exhibits, festivals, pageants, and plays. She attended "Nilo Toledo" camp of fine arts in tampa for several years during the summer, spending 3 weeks enjoying dance, voice, and drama classes. She also attended many dance conventions throughout Florida.

As a teenager, Erica involved herself in many competitions locally and nationally. She has won first place senior solo awards at competitions such as Dance Educators of America, Nilo Toledo, and Dance Masters. Also winning many awards for local talent shows as well. One of her finest memories was being involved in a group competition and winning 1st place in the state of Florida and 4th place in the nation held in New York City.

Erica has been teaching ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, lyrical and gymnastics for over 20 years. She was an instructor with "Patricia's School of Dance" and "Kim Cole Dance Studio". She is also certified as an aerobics instructor with AFFA. Her endless patience with preschoolers is a gift in itself. She continues to attend conventions such as "Tremaine" to gain knowledge and learn fresh choreography that she can pass down to her students. She is devoted to sharing her love for dance with her students now and for many years to come.

Stephanie Vanhorn

I began my dancing career at the age 4 in Pennsylvania at Thomas Kovaleski Dance Academy. I took tap and ballet for four (4) years there and performed twice each year in their show. My very first dance recital was "I Love Dancin'". We also had performances at the local fair each year, and in our annual October "Halloween Parade". At the age of eight (8), we moved from Pennsylvania to Florida, where I looked for a local dance studio that would enhance my dance experience and my need to learn more.

We found it with Kim Cole Dance Studio, which later changed to Nicole Cote School of Dance. It was great to find a studio that I felt I could express myself and feel that the teachers there had a love for dance. I registered for three classes and by the next year I was in unlimited, wanting to learn every aspect of dance. This year, I have also added a duet and will be performing a solo. I have since used what I learned to make my own performance up that won me a spot with a talent agency. Because of my love for dance, I spent this year assisting teachers with their classes to learn more, and I am looking forward to teaching classes this coming year. My future is in dance, and I would someday like to own and run my own dance studio.

Kristi Arvold

Kristi began dancing at the age of three, taking classes at a local preschool. At the age of four she also began taking gymnastics classes. For the next several years she competed in gymnastics traveling throughout Florida, including competing, and placing in the Florida State Gymnastics Meets. At age seven, she began taking dance classes in addition to her gymnastics, and her love for dance grew far greater then the love for gymnastics. So, by the time Kristi was eight years old she knew dance would be a part of her life forever,and the studio became her second home. she began taking as many dance classes as her schedule would permit. Her first year of dance competition was at age eight, under the instruction of Nicole Cote, representing Patricia's School of Dance. The following seven years she compteted under the instruction of Kim Cole, representing Kim Cole Dance Studio. she competed in duos, trios, as many as five different groups at a time, she had the opportunity to travel all over the state of Florida competing in many different dance competitions and receiving numerous awards. At the age of ten, Kristi became an assistant teacher, helping Kim with the younger students, and knew then that one day she would like to teach her own classes. She was selected Teen Dancer of the year in 2002 at Kim Cole Dance Studio. Kristi was on the Varisity Dance team for a year while attending Palm Bay High School, so had the opportunity to learn a different style of dance while being a part of the team. Kristi also has attended many different dance conventions, to include Tremaine, West Coast Dance Explosion, and The Pulse and continues to do so, every year.

Kristi was given the opportunity to teach her first dance classes her senior year of High School, by Nicole Cote, and has been at the studio teaching since then. This year will be her third year as a dance instructor for Nicole Cote School of Dance. In addition to teaching dance, Kristi worked on earning her AA degree at Brevard Community College. She graduated from BCC in August 2007, and is currently working on her bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education.
Kristi is looking forward to another "fullfilling" year, working with students of all ages and levels at Nicole Cote School of Dance.

Kristin France

Kristin started dancing at 9 years old. She started in a single jazz class at Kim Cole Dance Studio. Kristin had always been involved in many different activities including gymnastics, soccer, cheerleading, and baton twirling. However none of these compared to her love of dance. As her passion for dance grew, Kristin enrolled in more dance classes, eager to learn all forms of dance. In 2002 Kristin was accepted into Kim Cole Dance Studio's Elite Group. In 2000 she was honored to be chosen to play the part of the Wicked Witch in the Elite Group's performance of "The Wizard of Oz". At the age of 16 Kristin became an assistant teacher where she discovered her love of working with children. Since 2005 Kristin has also been a part of the competition team at Nicole Cote School of Dance. She has won numerous silver, gold, and high gold awards in group and solo performances. She has also won a "Special" award for her incredible flexibility. Kristin travels to as many dance conventions as she can to take classes from the best in the industry and to gain better knowledge of all forms of dance. Some of these conventions include Tremaine, The Pulse, and Nuovo; and she will continue to travel to conventions every year. Because of Kristin's great work ethic, she was chosen to be apart of "the crew" at The Pulse in 2007.

Now with 10 years of dancing under her belt studying ballet, pointe, tap, hip-hop, jazz, and lyrical, Kristin is also a full time student at Brevard Community College currently working on her General AA degree. From there she will move on to further her education at the University of Central Florida to study Hospitality Management. After completing her education, Kristin hopes to take a year or two off traveling the world while working as a dancer on a cruise ship. Kristin looks forward to sharing her love of dance with all of the dancers at Nicole Cote School of Dance. She plans on dancing for many years to come and looks forward to all of the new and exciting adventures it will bring.