Community School of the Arts Instructors


Eboné Amos | MFA in Dance: Performance and Choreography, Florida State University
| Teaches Ballet, Contemporary and Jazz
"As an instructor, I am interested in individuality. My primary goal as an instructor
is to cultivate an environment where my students can find validity in their dance
abilities through exploration and self-discovery."

Dillon Ward | Professional Filmmaker | Teaches The Short Film
"I was first introduced to filmmaking the summer before 5th grade when I took a stop
motion animation class. The camera we used took floppy disks, and I can still remember
the stacks and stacks of floppy disks everyone had next to their computer while editing."




Shana Thornton | Writer and Owner of Thorncraft Publishing | Teaches Creative Writing
Basics, Creative Writing for Military and Families and Fiction Writing
"Both reading and writing have always been a big part of my life and my routines.
Writing is a practice, and many parts of it become better with time and effort."




Joanna Grisham | MFA | Teaches Creative Writing
"From my earliest memories, I was always creating characters and building worlds,
but I didn’t know much about creative writing until I took an intro class in college.
The first short story I ever wrote was in that intro class. My professor submitted
it for a scholarship, and I won. I was shocked. I didn’t know anyone would care about
anything I’d written. I had only ever written for myself."

Dr. Ayo Walker | PhD | Teaches Hip Hop Dance
"My older sister was a cheerleader and because I was her shadow and wanted to do everything
she did, she would teach me all the latest dance steps and whatever cheers she would
learn in practice. And when her team would come to our house and see me doing all
their moves perfectly, they decided to make me their mascot/secret weapon at their
cheerleading competetions. It worked! I would wait around the entire competition for
them to put me on the floor for their final competitve routine and I would steal the
show and we would win every time."


Jessica Fife | MFA | Teaches Youth Pet Portraits
"I have always loved to draw. I would doodle on all my class papers from a very early
age. My parents always encouraged it and I would take art classes outside of school.
It wasn't until my first undergraduate Painting class that it sparked my passion.
"