Julie Aspeslet-Pozar

Owner/Director

Mrs. Julie Aspeslet-Pozar is the owner and director of Studio 5-6-7-8. Mrs. Julie began teaching in Poinciana, Florida in 2000, developing the Poinciana Dance Classes. She and her husband Michael Pozar incorporated the flourishing classes into Studio 5-6-7-8. Mrs. Julie began her career at the age of two in competitive Baton Twirling. As a professional competitive baton twirler for 18 years, Mrs. Julie has won hundreds of state, national, international, and world titles in USTA and NBTA competitions. She twirls 1-4 batons, flag batons, hoop batons, fire batons, and knives. She was the feature twirler for her high school which led to a scholarship to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, as their feature baton twirler. Mrs. Julie was featured at halftime events for the Green Bay Packers' NFL shows and the Minnesota Viking halftime shows for baton twirling. She was also selected and honored in "Who's Who in Baton Twirling" for over 10 years. Mrs. Julie has done numerous commercials and videos with her baton twirling career along with judging state and national baton twirling competitions.

Baton twirling led Mrs. Julie into the world of dance at age five, when she began her intense studies in ballet, tap, jazz, modern, and pointe nationwide, to develop her balance and technique in twirling. She quickly became part of the performing dance companies in Wisconsin.

Mrs. Julie has received many dance scholarships in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago throughout her training career. She has trained with L.A. DanceForce, Tremaine, L.A. Underground, Steps On Broadway, Chicago National Association of Dance, Dance Masters, Dance Caravan, Dance Olympus, Dupree Dance Academy, Hubbard Street-Lou Conte, Dance Educators of America, and Chi-Town. She was elected to an apprentice with Mr. Gus Giordano in Chicago at his dance convention tours. The election of th teacher assistant courses led her to teaching dance at the age of 15 years old. Mrs. Julie has taught and opened numerous danced studios throughout the nation in ballet, tap, and jazz curriculums. She auditioned and danced with the NBA Minnesota Timberwolves and the CBA La Crosse Catbirds, where she was also the head choreographer. The La Crosse Catbirds led Mrs. Julie into choreographing dance lines both prefessionally and on a high school level. She became recognized in the cheerleading and dance line industry with Cheerleaders of America and Universal Dance Association with her choreography, and soon began judging both cheer and dance competitions. Once in Florida, she choreographed and coached the competitive dance lines of Boone High School's Bravettes Dance Team, Dr. Phillips High School's Pantherettes Dance Team, and Trinity Lutheran School's JV and Varsity Cheerleading Squads.

Mrs. Julie developed an afterschool dance program for Orange County schools, where she taught and facilitated dance classes in public and private schools. She structured the same dance program to the YMCA day care facilities near Walt Disney World, where she taught dance for three years. To date, she has taught Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Pointe, Cheerleading, Baton Twirling, and Dance Lines for over 20 years, both competitvely and prefessionally. Mrs. Julie has also worked at Walt Disney World as a staging specialist, where she taught the choreography and blocking of the shows and parades. She began her career with Disney in 1993 as a performer and staging, and quickly worked in all four major theme parks either performing, teaching, or choreographing shows, parades, auditions, and special events. Disney has allowed Mrs. Julie to travel all over the country on audition trips and instructing shows in Disneyland California. She has danced in numerous shows at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida and Six Flags Great America in Chicago, Illinois.

Mrs. Julie love and devotion to the art of dance, cheer, and baton twirling is well recognized throughout the nation. She thanks her husband and wonderful daughters MaKayla and LaVon.

Michael Pozar

Owner/Music Instructor

At the age of 12, Mr. Michael discovered "Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" in the basement of his home in Pennsylvania. He would sit everyday after school watching the record spin. He also found a Hank Williams Sr. album that he would loop endlessly. Since then, Mr. Michael has learned how to play guitar, as well as study the art of songwriting. Mr. Michael has formal training in vocal and ensemble work, and has sung in various choirs. After attending numerous conferences and seminars, he has become a published songwriter. In 2002, Mr. Michael was honored with a "Regional Christian Music Songwriter Award" from Premier Records. A song that he wrote at 16 years of age, was first published and signed by Virginia Borden Rhythms. Mr. Michael is published in Nashville, Tennessee for his country music songwriting, which he continues to this day. He also writes for AristoMedia, The Wildhorse Saloon, and the legendary Blue Bird Café in Nashville, TN. Not only is Mr. Michael a very talented and successful singer/songwriter, he has also performed with Walt Disney World as a stage performer and puppeteer for ten years.

Yvonne Derdock

Instructor

Mrs. Yvonne Derdock has 30 years experience as an actress, vocalist, and dancer. As an actress she has made numerous appearances in movies, commercials, and stage productions. Her movie credits include, "Summer Rental," "Long Gone," and "The Parent Trap 2." Mrs. Yvonne has starred in commercials such as Pepsi-Cola, Apple Computers, Stay Fit Exercise, KFC, Walt Disney Resorts, and many more. She has also been a guest star in "The New Leave it to Beaver," and many other local cable television series. She has worked with stars John Candy, MC Hammer, Joey Lawrence, Haley Mills and Nick Carter, just to name a few. She has been actively involved in musical theater and has performed in productions of "Oklahoma," "Mame," "West Side Story," "South Pacific," "The King and I," "The Sound of Music," "Bye Bye Birdie," "The Wiz," "A Chorus Line," and "Evita." As a vocalist, Mrs. Yvonne had the honor of performing with the Florida Orchestra. She has performed as a solo vocalist for many different cabarets, and variety showcases. She is currently a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and Equity. Mrs. Yvonne's true love is dancing, and she has worked with top choreographers such as Luigi and Joe Tremaine. She has won awards as a dancer on the local, state, and national level. Her dancing career has given her the opportunity to perform and study across the country including New York and Los Angeles. Mrs. Yvonne's training includes ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, acrobatics, flamenco, belly dancing, Broadway jazz, hip-hop, and folk dance. She was previously a staging specialist at Disney's Hollywood Studios, where she staged various shows for the Walt Disney World Company. She is currently a dance instructor for Suncoast School of the Arts and Studio 5-6-7-8. In addition she has been an assistant choreographer for the cheerleading of the Tampa Bay Storm, the USAFL, and the Tampa Bay Mutiny of Major League Soccer. She has won numerous awards for her choreography. Mrs. Yvonne's greatest accomplishment is being the proud mother of five. With her love of children and family, Mrs. Yvonne dedicates herself to teach and inspire the youth of today to further their careers in the performing arts.

Jerry Haughton

Instructor

Jerry began his dance training at the age of 10 and at 16 was a winner on the popular television show “Star Search”. After graduating from the Pinellas County Center for the Arts, Jerry went straight to performing professionally as a featured vocalist at Busch Gardens. Following Busch Gardens he worked aboard the Norwegian Cruise Lines and then went on to play Aladdin in Tokyo Disney Land’s production of “Aladdin’s Great Adventure". Upon returning to America Jerry took featured performance roles at Opryland as well as SeaWorld. It was around this time he started his longest running gig at the Walt Disney World Company in Orlando, Florida. He became a Pleasure Island Explosion Dancer which is where Jerry fell in love with the ever growing dance form of hip-hop, and got the opportunity to cut his teeth in choreography. He was privileged to get to work with several famous choreographers and dancers. He then moved on to "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" at MGM Studios where he appeared as Clopin and Quasimodo for the following two years. Taking a few months from Disney, Jerry embarked on a North American tour with the popular recording trio "Mpress". He soon returned back to the Disney family to perform for The Disney Cruise Lines as a lead performer in all of its productions. He then spent the better part of a year in Los Angeles taking class and working on his craft. He also appeared in Disneyland's version of "Aladdin". Jerry was asked to return to Orlando to be the featured male adagio dancer at the Animal Kingdoms "The Festival of the Lion King". After two years he was chosen to be the lead vocalist in Animal Kingdoms "Tarzan Rocks" and then returned to "The Lion King" where he still performs occasionally today. Through all of his career Jerry has been teaching for several different studios throughout central Florida and is extremely excited to be entering the field of dance education full time. With years of experience as a performer as well as an instructor he hopes to inspire dancers to find the same love for dance and performing that has kept him going for the past 26 years.

Veasna Keo

Instructor

Mr. Keo is 22 years old, and was born in Thailand. He has lived in Florida most of his life. Mr. Keo has studied Tae Kwon Do and Vovinam Kung-Fu. He has been breakdancing for eight years now, and continues ot practice breakdancing very competitively. Mr. Keo is currently part of a dance crew called the Irukandji Crew, or also known as the Deadly Jellyfish Crew, which is a newly formed crew that is widely known across Florida. Mr. Keo was never a good dancer and was always shy in younger years, until he began practicing breakdancing. "The first time I saw it, I knew I had to try it. People always made fun of me and said that I could never do it, and told me to stop. That was the driving force for me to become even better." In learning and mastering the dance style, his shyness and lack of skill were placed behind him, and his love for the dance grew strong. Now, Mr. Keo and the friends he practices breakdancing with, are well known dancers and a big part in the breakdancing community. Breakdancing continues to move to the next level, and Mr. Keo wishes to see what the children of tomorrow are coming up with to take the style of dancing further. Mr. Keo hopes to inspire the kids of today, never knowing who is going to be the next "Krazy Legs."

Lariza Suarez

Instructor

Miss Lariza began her gymnastic/dance education in her birth place: Havana, Cuba at the age of five. She was trained in Rhythmic Gymnastics and is a graduate of the School of Superior Physical Education and the National Prodanza Course. Lariza studied at the International Training Course and the National Ballet Course with the Alicia Alonso Company from 1974 - 1995. As a competitor from 1977 - 1985, Lariza accomplished extensive achievements in "Golden Rings" Championships (2nd Place); "All Stars" (1st and 2nd Place); "Martha Garcia's" Championships (1st and 2nd Place); "Mariana Grajales" Youth Competition (1st and 3rd Place). Along with great success in local championships came International Championship success from 1982 - 1991 in the "Bulgaria" Student Tribune Tournament as on of the best 15; Moscow "The Soviet Women;" Italy; Hungary, Czechoslovakia; France "Corbeill-Essones" Tournaments; Yogoslavia World Competition; and Cuba Pan-American Games of Joint Exercise (1st Place). As a coach, Lariza worked in various venues from 1987 thru 2007. These included, but aren't limited to, First All Sports School and National Gymnastics School in Cuba. She coached and competed simultaneously with consistent 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place classifications. In 1997, she came to the U.S. in the Pacific Games, Colorado Springs, and in 1998 - 2000 was Ballet/Dance Teacher in Oklahoma Sooners University. She was elevated from Level Seven to Elite team status at Dynamo Gymnastics in Oklahoma City, and moved on to Ballet Teacher for all levels at Lake Owen Camp in Minneapolis.