Meet The Team
Diane Elliott Robinson
(Founder and Director)
Diane always loved to dance! She is featured in two books “Minneapolis Negro Profile” at the age of 10 dancing at The Way Community Center; and “Step Right Up and Lead”, a book about how Diane fought a lot until dance redirected her focus on bettering herself.
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Diane began her dance technical training at the age of 13 when she received a scholarship to attend training at Children’s Theater. A year later she received a scholarship to attend The Minnesota Dance Theater. She later received a Bachelor of Science in Business from the University of Minnesota where she also studied modern dance, ballet, and jazz.
Diane started teaching dance and choreographing at 18 years of age at The Metropolitan Arts Cultural Art Center. She established Hollywood Studio of Dance in 1991. She has taught dance at a number of local schools, namely: Fair School, Wise Performing Arts, and Harvest Preparatory. She is currently teaching dance at Friendship Academy of the Arts and is a recurring teacher at Camp Capri, located within The Capri Theater. In addition, Diane provides dance and motor skill development at Seed Academy, Atrebla Early Learning Center, and School Readiness Learning Academy. While maintaining her duties (or responsibilities) as Director and Dance teacher at Hollywood Studio of Dance. She has also taught at Summit Early Learning Center, Star Child Development Center, and Northside Child Development.
Karrie Puckett
Karrie Averyheart has danced with Hollywood Studio of Dance for over 20 years and taught dance instruction for 6 years. She started dancing when she was 3 years old where she cried through the first show. By the second show, she knew that dance was going to be a major part of her life, because dance opened so many doors and opportunities for her.
After her performance at a regional StarPower dance competition, Karrie was offered a dance scholarship to the University of Jamestown where she attended and participated in the KnightLine Dance Team. Once she graduated and returned back home, she was offered a position as a dance and theater teacher at Franklin Middle School where she taught for 3 years. Afterwards, she came right back to Hollywood and began teaching, helping with classes, competition & performance team, in addition to teaching solos and duets.
JaQuazna Martin
JaQuazna Martin started her journey of dancing at the age of 4 years old. She started dancing at Hollywood Studio of Dance when she was 6 years old. At the age of 13 she joined the competition dance team where she remained until graduation. As a Hollywood Dancer, JaQuazna has won numerous awards and has traveled nationally for various dance opportunities.
JaQuazna began assistant teaching at the age of 14 and became a teacher when she returned from college. JaQuazna has been trained in Jazz, Ballet, Musical theater, hip-hop and her all time favorite Tap. Dance has brought so much joy and happiness to her life, and happiness is best felt when shared. She is passionate about challenging the dancers to achieve something great each year, and loves watching each dancer evolve. This will be JaQuazna’s fourth year teaching and choreographing competitive dance and she is very excited to share her love and knowledge of dance with the new incoming students.