Rachel Handren - Owner, Creative Director & Instructor

Born and raised throughout California and Minnesota, Rachel grew up surrounded by a variety of environments that exposed her not only to unique communities and ways of life, but also a rich tapestry of music and performing arts. After attending a buddy day at her friend’s dance studio, Rachel began studying dance during the 4th grade primarily training in the styles of high kick, jazz and hip hop. When her competitive team was offered the chance to perform in the Outback Bowl, Rachel found her true passion in bringing performing arts to a wide body of people and began seriously pursuing other styles of dance such as ballet, lyrical/contemporary, musical theater and street/urban dance. Her teams earned many accolades including being undefeated champions 8 years in a row and many high titles at regional events throughout the Twin Cities. During her senior year, she fell in love with choreographing routines and began teaching classes the minute she graduated.

Since beginning her teaching career, her recreation teams have learned to perform with strong story telling and humor to interest and challenge students to pursue a higher level of dance education. Her competitive teams have been given many unique choreographic challenges and have received significant awards including several 1st place adjudications, judges choice awards, overall high scores as well as over $10,000 in scholarships. During a national event in the summer of 2019, Rachel was nominated and awarded the National Dance Teacher of the Year trophy against 10 other distinguished and talented coaches.

In her free time, Rachel loves spending the day outdoors with her adorable Pit-Lab Mix, Luna, playing video games, listening to vinyls on her record player and discovering new tasty hole-in-the-wall local restaurants. If you have a recommendation, let her know!