josie moss
owner / director
Josie Moss was born and raised in the small town of Troy, IL where she started her heightened dance training at age 9 under the direction of Jane Mannion. After graduation, her dance training took her to Chapman University where she graduated with a BFA in Dance Performance in 2017. Josie has trained in a variety of styles such as hip-hop, contemporary, jazz, tap, modern, ballroom, ballet and trained under prestigious choreographers such as Billy Larson, Will Johnston, Nick Watkins and many more. During her Chapman years, Josie has performed in a variety of different shows including the Fall Faculty Concert performing in Will Johnston’s “You”, Chapman Dance Alliance, and the Spring Dance Concert. Josie was also the president of Chapman's elite hiphop crew, Team Shaka. Josie has choreographed and taught for many studios and dance teams including McKendree University, Triad, Collinsville and Belleville East high school, PAVE School of the Arts, Jane Mannion’s School of Dance, Professional Dance Center, just to name a few. Josie was the head dance team coach for Triad High School for 3 years. Josie has also traveled with Hall of Fame Dance Challenge. Josie and her husband Cole opened their studio, Dance Network, in 2020. They are excited to provide opportunities for students for years to come.
Elaine Baer
dance staff
Elaine Baer currently resides in Highland, Illinois with her husband and four children. Her life in the dance world has been widespread. She has been fortunate enough to make a life of it, professionally and recreationally. As a child, Elaine grew up in dance education at Pat Fields School of Dance, as well as on the Highland Varsity Dance Team, and continued her love for it until after she graduated high school. Elaine was a Rams Cheerleader for 7 years and served as a line captain. Elaine went on to coach for Central Cheerleading, Triad Dance Team, and she is the current Highland Middle School dance team coach, her team receiving the Grand Championship at IDTA state. Elaine has taught at Jane Mannion's for the past 16 years. She enjoys getting to educate young minds, and share her love and passion for dance with them, with the hope they will love it as much as she does. Elaine looks forward to being able to continue to share her passion with the youth of the community for many years to come
Tayler Macios grew up as a competition kid in St. Louis. She is the winner of many regional and national championships. After graduating high school Tayler moved to Los Angeles to continue her training as a scholarship student at the EDGE Performing Arts Center. Now a graduate, Tayler has started her career as a professional dancer. Her credits include many live performances with former Pussycat Doll, Kaya Jones, where they toured all over Asia and the United States. Tayler has also performed at the Bellagio in Las Vegas for the Eplus New Years Eve show and Eplus’s After Grammy Party featuring Jessie J. She can also be seen in the Daft Punk ft Pharrell Williams music video “Loose Yourself to Dance” and TLC’s “What Not to Wear”. Tayler’s career is just getting started and she plans on living her dream as a dancer for many years.
Tayler Macios
dance staff
Emily Roberson
dance staff
Emily Roberson grew up in Edwardsville IL, where she has been dancing since she was 2 years old. She trained in the competition world until she graduated high school and then went on to study at the University of Arts, in Philadelphia: where she graduated in 2020, cum laude with a BFA in dance. In high school Emily was on varsity dance team for four years. She was captain of the dance team, a four time all american and won miss IDTA in 2015. She trained at Jane Mannion’s School of Dance where she won many regional and national titles. In 2014-2016 she was a company member of Hollywood Vibe. Then in 2016-2017 she was apart of the MVA+ program with Velocity Dance Convention. Within these two conventions she traveled and assisted many choreographers. Emily has studied and performed in works by Tommie-Waheed Evans, Wayne St. David, Thomas White, Kyle Hanagami, Sidra Bell, among many others. While attending the University of the Arts Emily performed in many works from students and outside choreographers. In 2019 she performed in the Young Choreographers Festival at the Symphony Space in NYC. She also presented her senior thesis “and never done;” in that same year. Among the years she has choreographed for many dance teams and studios in the Illinois and Missouri area. In 2021 Emily was a company member of the K/P Project and performed a piece at the City Foundry in St. Louis.
Raechel Roberson
dance staff
Raechel Roberson grew up in Edwardsville Illinois and has been dancing since she was 2 years old. She started dancing at Jane mansions school of dance when she was 11 and danced with her high school varsity dance team for her freshman and sophomore years of high school. She graduated in 2019 and now attends Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville. She is majoring in chemistry and minoring in dance. She is also a part of SIUE’s University Dance Company which trains her to be on a professional dance company and provides opportunities for performing. She spends a lot of her time assisting many choreographers in the Illinois and Missouri area. She loves teaching ballet to young dancers, and choreographing pieces to be performed on stage.
Sean Sessions
ballet / modern
Sean is a native of Columbia Maryland. He received his early dance training under Donna Pidel. He also trained at Butler University and Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. He has had the privilege of working under dance luminaries Suzanne Farrell and Anne Marie Holmes. Sean can currently be found dancing with The St. Louis Ballet under the direction of Gen Horiuchi. Sean is excited to be passing on his passion of ballet To the next generation.
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Jane Mannion
competition coordinator, front desk personnel
Jane Mannion received her Bachelor of the Arts as an English major from Southern Illinois University. Jane's passion for the art of dance led her to own/direct Jane Mannion's School of Dance for the past 39 yrs. As an accomplished and recognized choreographer, Jane has developed dancers and artists who have gone on to pursue careers in, dance, modeling and acting in Los Angeles, New York, and other cities in the US. She has also produced individuals who have danced and cheered for universities at both the Division I and II levels. Her competitive team is nationally recognized as being a part of one of the top 50 dance studios and also ranked within the top 10 studios in Illinois. Jane feels extremely blessed to have been given the opportunity to share dance with so many wonderful children over the past 39 yrs.