Our Staff

Founder and Director Angela Puleo, ACC is a Certified Performance Improvement Coach, educator and public speaker and the owner of Blairsville Dance Project. She has built a career teaching individuals how to overcome self-doubt and achieve their goals. She has worked with national companies and coached thousands of individuals as a recognized expert in mindset and goal achievement. A dancer since age 2, Angela has trained in ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, contemporary, ballroom, Latin and is a National Clogging Hall of Fame inductee and former Adult Miss American Clogger. In addition to training and competing in multiple dance styles, Angela is also a certified dance instructor, competition judge and workshop educator.

Angela opened Blairsville Dance in 2006. After getting her MBA, she then founded Compass Sterling, a coaching and consulting firm in 2016 and the non-profit Project Compass Kids in 2020.

Her passion is helping youth develop a self-image that serves them well in dance AND in life. Her goal is helping dancers find the power to create their ideal lives, both in and out of the dance studio. Outside of coaching and teaching, she is working with her mother Deborah Adams, a published author, on a series of growth mindset books for young dancers, featuring the loveable, yet oftentimes clumsy, York the Yeti. In addition to serving as Director of Blairsville Dance, Angela currently teaches Senior Jazz, Senior Hip Hop, Performance Clogging and coaches Blairsville Dance Force competition dancers.

Brett Taylor

General Manager

After working professionally for a number of years, Brett Taylor decided she wanted to be a dance teacher and a role model like all of the teachers that she had when she was younger. She opened a dance studio in New Jersey, Rising Stars Performing Arts Company. She loved being the owner and director of her studio, and teaching tap, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, ballet and pointe but moved to Murphy, North Carolina in 2008 to be near family. She brought her passion for impacting youth to the Blairsville Dance Family in 2009 and now works as the General Manager. Brett teaches Youth and Junior Ballet, Ballet Intensive classes, Pre-Pointe, Pointe, Junior Jazz, Acrodance 3, Youth Hip Hop and Senior Lyrical. Prior to moving to western North Carolina, she performed in numerous dinner theater productions at Elaine’s Dinner Theater in Cape May N.J. As well as being a performer and lead dancer at Elaine’s, she was also the choreographer for the theater for a number of years. Brett has also worked on Premier Cruise Lines as a lead dancer, actor, singer as well as the choreographer.

Molly Brendle is the Director of Preschool Dance and developer of our sought-after preschool curriculum that combines dance and growth mindset. Molly has been teaching dance professionally for twelve years at Blairsville Dance Project. Prior to joining the BDP staff, she studied dance for nearly seventeen years, with a focus on Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop and percussive dance styles. Before becoming a lead dance instructor, Molly was an assistant teacher for seven years, assisting with students of all ages and has competed in regional and national dance competitions countless times in both Hip Hop and Clogging as a team dancer, as well as a soloist. As part of her continued commitment to quality dance instruction and study, Ms. Brendle continues to study dance through master classes and has trained with many internationally known industry professionals, including Tony Dovolani and tWitch. She as achieved multiple certifications in Preschool Dance and Acrobatic Arts and oversees curriculum development for Dance Fundamentals, Tap/Ballet Combo, Fairy Tale Ballet and Dance and Tumble classes. She also teaches Dance Fundamentals, Tap/Ballet Combo, AcroDance 1 and co-teaches Advanced Hip Hop.

After rekindling her childhood love of dance while preparing for Dancing with the North Georgia Stars with one of the Blairsville Dance teachers, we were able to convince Angie to join our studio family. She already had extensive training in multiple dance styles, but she began classes as an adult student at Blairsville Dance in 2018. Because of her dedication, talent and gentle way with children, she was a natural fit for the BDP staff, and she began teaching in 2019. Angie currently teaches Fairy Tale Ballet.

Hope Koluder began as a student at Blairsville Dance in 2008. Over the years, she has studied ballet, jazz, clogging, hip hop and contemporary. In addition to her training at Blairsville Dance, she was active in the theatre program throughout school and is an accomplished actress and singer. She began teaching the Musical Theatre program in 2020. In addition to oversight of the Musical Theatre program, she also teaches Tap/Ballet Combo, Junior Hip Hop and Dance and Tumble.