Meet our Staff
Lauren Holley
Owner, Director, Instructor, Choreographer
Miss Lauren is from Crawfordville, Florida and attended Tallahassee Community College. She‘s trained in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Hip Hop, Lyrical, Pointe, Contemporary and Musical Theater. She has taken classes from many world-renowned choreographers such as the late Frank Hatchett, Mia Michaels, Dave Scott, Tyce Dioro, Ashle Dawson, and Jim Cooney just to name a few. Lauren’s choreography has won many platinum awards, overall and high score awards, best choreography awards, judges choice awards, most entertaining awards and much more. She believes there is nothing more gratifying than sharing the joy of dance with others and inspiring students to be the best performer they can be.
Tia Unsell
Instructor, Choreographer
Miss Tia, of Crawfordville is a former competitive dancer, now sharing her passion for dance with her students, where she has taught at Studio 88 for over 10 years. Tia is a proud graduate of Florida State University. She‘s trained in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Hip Hop, Pointe, Contemporary, Lyrical and Musical Theater and has taken classes from Broadway stars in New York at the Broadway Dance Center. Tia has had performance opportunities at Disney World, Carnival Cruise ships, and in New York City. She is also a multi-platinum award winning dancer, winning first place and overall awards. Tia’s choreography has earned many accolades from a variety of dance competitions including Judges Choice awards, Most Entertaining awards, Overall, and High Score Awards.
Outside of Studio 88, Tia is a dedicated titleholder in the Miss America Organization where she has held numerous titles including Miss Wekiva Springs 2022, Miss Tallahassee 2023, Miss Ocala 2024, and Miss St. Augustine 2025; placing in the Top 15 at Miss Florida every year. She is also heavily involved with Dancers Against Cancer- a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to dancers, dance educators, and their families battling cancer, in which she was even able to help one of our own dance families. Tia not only strives to help train incredible dancers, but well rounded individuals outside of the dance studio as well.
Harley Rigdon
Instructor, Choreographer
Ms. Harley, of Crawfordville, Florida, is a passionate and dedicated dance teacher with a love for both education and the arts. She graduated from Florida State University in 2021 and began teaching middle school in the county the following semester. Trained in ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, contemporary, lyrical, and musical theatre, Ms. Harley brings a well-rounded and versatile approach to her instruction.
She works primarily with the teen company, where her choreography has earned overall high-point awards, judges’ choice recognitions, and contributed to the success of two title winners. Her enthusiasm for dance shines through in every class, inspiring her students to grow both technically and artistically.
Kaila Sekula
Instructor, Choreographer
Miss Kaila is a dance teacher who has a passion for the intricacies of dance technique and exploring global dance culture. At age 12 she took her first studio dance class in order to round out her skills as a triple threat. She studied acting, solo vocals, choir, music theory, and various dance genres at Pius XI High School’s performing arts program and competitive dance team. Kaila also trained with the First Stage theatre summer academies where she learned skills such as Musical Theatre, mime, and the Stanislavsky system.
Currently she is pursuing ballet accreditation in The Cecchetti Council of America’s teacher membership program. She receives coaching from FCCA Adrianne Lehmann and studies at both the Tallahassee Ballet School and Pas de Vie ballet studio. She hopes her unique background will help students find joy in refining technique and authentic self-expression.
Lauren Shell
Instructor, Choreographer
Miss Lauren is a multidisciplinary, former competitive, dancer and tap dance enthusiast. She began taking ballet classes in Flint, Michigan around the age of 8, before expanding her dance training at Miss Kelly’s Dance Centre in Fort Myers, Florida at the age of 13. Miss Lauren has since continued to pursue her passion for tap dance and education – she has over 7 years of teaching experience; was an active member of the Seminole Tap Troupe from 2021-2024; regularly attends tap dance classes and festivals; is currently an iTap Online member; and has completed Hillary-Marie’s Level 1 and Level 2 iTap Teacher Certificate Programs (in 2020 and 2023, respectively).
Miss Lauren also has a master’s degree from Florida State University in educational psychology: learning and cognition, specializing in motivation and emotion, with research interests revolving around athlete burnout. She is excited to be sharing her knowledge and passion for tap dance with the students of Studio 88, helping each of them discover, harness, and hone the unique rhythm maker within themselves.
Ashley Mitchell-Buckman
Instructor, Special Needs Instructor
Miss Ashley is a former dancer, turned elementary school teacher, now Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She has merged a combination of her different backgrounds across education, behavior analysis, and dance to teach as a dance-buddy/teacher to individuals with disabilities. Miss Ashley hopes to provide more opportunities for neurodiverse kids to access the arts and creative movement and make dancing accessible to anyone who wants to learn. Learn more about her program, Amazing Abilities.
Imani Alexander
Instructor, Choreographer
Imani Alexander is a Wakulla High School graduate (co’25). She is now attending Tallahassee State College to pursue a degree in Associate in Arts and will transfer after two years to Florida State University (FSU) to pursue a degree in Dance. Imani was introduced to acting at an early age. She has a background in theater and has been featured in a number of productions at the Quincy Music Theater. The theater experience gave her the opportunity to dance, sing, act and learn a foreign language. Imani’s love for dance grew tremendously when she moved to Crawfordville and her parents enrolled her at Studio 88 Dance Productions.
Imani finds dance incredibly rewarding as it is a powerful form of self-expression and allows her to connect with her emotions while finding joy in movement. She expresses herself through many styles of dance and is also a dance instructor. She enjoys working with the younger dancers as they all share the same passion. It warms her heart to see their faces light up with each lesson.
