STAFF
Madeline Vergari Neumann
(Owner/Director of Voice)
Madeline was born and raised in Cambridge, Ohio, and she attended Ohio University. At age 14, she started her own band, playing drums and singing. Her all girl band played at many school functions, etc. She was a runner-up in the Miss Ohio pageant and won the talent competition. As a result, she landed her first professional job with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. She toured the country with them for three years, then moved to Los Angeles and joined the Ray Conniff Singers, and traveled to Europe, South America, and Japan. She then joined Ray Anthony and the Bookend Revue, opening the new MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Through the years, she has sung with the Johnny Mann Singers, the Ray Charles Singers, Harry James, Ray Anthony, Les Brown, Bob Crosby, and Frank Sinatra Jr. Madeline sang at the White House for President Nixon and the Inaugural for President Reagan. She has recorded on many albums and commercials, as well as cartoons for Hanna- Barbera. Her own CD, entitled “This Is My Lucky Day!”, with Roger Neumann’s Rather Large Band, on the SeaBreeze label, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Madeline also sang the main title theme for the feature film, “A Private Matter”, starring Sissy Spacek and Aiden Quinn, with music by James Newton Howard. This film is now out on video. She sang solos on the Tracy Ullman Show “Tracy Takes On” on HBO. She also started and now directs the Saint Kateri Children’s Choir, where they have recorded two CDs titled “Christmas Time Is Here” and “Walking By Faith”, where she is featured as a soloist. She and members of her choir can be heard on the Fox TV show called “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader”. She has sung at the Governor’s Ball of the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards. She sings many different styles from rock to jazz. Regularly you can hear her sing at Disneyland at the new Fantasy Faire Theater with a big band. She does many jazz festivals and concerts throughout the country. She resides in Santa Clarita, California with her husband, Roger Neumann (a musician, composer and arranger), and her daughter, Gina and son Rico.
Gina Neumann
(Owner/Director of Dance)
Gina was born in Santa Clarita, California, where she fell in love with dance at the age of three. She studied at numerous studios in Southern California, and participated in studio, high school and college dance teams. She began instructing dance at an early age, and has been sharing her passion with students for the past fifteen years. Gina received her BA in Communications, but could not let go of her love for dance, leading to the opening of L’amoré Dance Performing Arts Studio. Having both parents as professional musicians has given Gina a natural ear for music, which has influenced her in her unique style of choreography. Having an open mind, and knowing that one is never finished learning, are traits she instills in her students. Gina continues her education and training in the field of dance in order to broaden her knowledge, which she shares with her students.
Michael Talamantez
(Instructor of Dance)
Michael Talamantez, more commonly known as Michael Mantez, took his first steps into the dance world at the age of 15. Mantez first began competing on several traveling competition teams and a year later, he booked his first job as a guest performer on the number one dance show in America, “So You Think You Can Dance.” From there, he progressed in his dance career booking several more appearances on T.V. shows, music videos, and short films. He has worked alongside Nigel Lythgoe, Dejan Tubic, Dave Scott, Chris Judd, Sonya Tayeh and Tiffany Burton-Rojas. Mantez, now a 20-year-old full-time college student, enjoyed a taste of what it’s like behind the video camera and is pursuing a career in Film and Business. “It’s nice to get away from my everyday crazy-hectic schedule and just escape into a world where I can teach dance classes and learn from those who share the same passion as me and just have a good time,” says Mantez.
Brooke Huzl
(Instructor of Dance)
Brooke Huzl was born in Akron, Ohio. She has been dancing since the age of three. For the past 12 years, Brooke has trained at Center Stage Dance Studio in Northfield, OH. At the age of 18, Brooke graduated from North Royalton High School and simultaneously earned her Associates Degree in the Arts. Since graduation, Brooke has assisted and taught master classes for her home studio as well as many other studios throughout Northeast Ohio. She specializes in all styles of dance. Brooke spent the summers of 2015 and 2016 training with The MusEffect in Los Angeles. In 2017, she was hired as an apprentice with MusEffect. Brooke now lives in Los Angeles, where she is pursuing her passion for dance. She is training at multiple studios including Millennium, Edge, Movement Lifestyle, Playground LA, and Debbie Reynolds. Brooke is a Pro-Assistant at the dance convention, Hollywood Connection, and travels around the country to assist the faculty. She is also signed with the Movement Talent Agency. Brooke is excited for her future sharing her love of dance!
Lizzy Friedman
(Instructor of Dance)
Lizzy began her dancing days in the Santa Clarita Valley back at the age of 2. Having 2 older sisters who also danced, Lizzy started trying to find her favorite style early on which led to her training in many different dance styles growing up. Lizzy spent 10 years training at a formerly local dance studio where she would compete group and solo routines at a national level. Lizzy also spent 4 years on the national, award-winning Saugus Dance Team in high school and was the 1st place winner for her senior year solo in the super dancer division at USA Nationals. Since graduating high school in 2016, Lizzy attended 1 year at OCC community college. During this time, she completed one year of school while competing with her dance team and becoming a national winner in the division of college Pom, inside the ESPN arena in Orlando, Florida. In 2017, Lizzy decided to head towards her dreams in Los Angeles where she began attending classes at Millennium Dance Complex and Playground LA, eventually signing with her agency, Go2Talent, in 2018. Lizzy’s current credits include: Hrvy, Kenny Wormald, Malú Trevejo, Borgeous, Brinn Nicole, Chelsie Hill, and hopefully many more to come! When Lizzy isn’t teaching, she is usually hanging out with loved ones, spending time in nature, doing yoga or dedicating her time to training in Los Angeles. Lizzy is very excited to try and achieve all of her goals that she has for herself within the dance industry, while also spreading her knowledge and love for dance with all of her students!!!
Amanda Carr
(Instructor of Dance)
Amanda Carr grew up in Los Angeles, CA and has trained at dance studios in both LA and New York. She is now working as a professional dancer, with credits in tv, film, theatre, and live stage shows as well as assisting choreographers and now starting to choreograph on her own. She has danced in production shows at Six Flags Magic Mountain here in Santa Clarita, and at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. Amanda has also been in musicals such as “Beauty and the Beast”, "Sister Act the Musical", "Oklahoma", "Bye Bye Birdie", and most recently "Something Rotten" at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. During quarantine, Amanda was a part of the immersive Stranger Things Drive Into Experience in Downtown LA and she danced on an episode of Young Sheldon with David Hasselhoff. Amanda loves teaching all styles of dance and is so excited to be teaching at L'amoré now after subbing on and off for several years!
Selina Pengelly
(Instructor of Dance)
Selina was born and raised in CA with a passion for dance from a very young age but had to wait until she was 12 years old to save up her babysitting money to take classes. She credits her ability to easily break down skills for her students to her late start and has a knack for diagnosing technical issues and fixing them. She trained next to some of the best dancers in Northern CA on her High School dance team and absorbed everything she could, as fast as she could, often going home and working for hours to perfect choreography and skills. After training hard in dance and vocal music, she landed a professional job right out of High School singing, dancing and acting in a live show 5 days a week. Wanting to continue her education in music and dance, she moved to Idaho to study dance and vocal performance at BYU-I taking a deeper dive into ballet modern and musical theater. There she met her husband Cory and they moved to NYC where they worked and started their family. They moved again to Michigan where they ended up calling home for 16 years. Once her kids were old enough to start dance, she began to work full time as a dance instructor instead of subbing at all the local studios. At her home studio she taught competitive Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary and Musical Theater classes for the juniors, teens and seniors, including her two older daughters for several years.
She specializes in turns, leaps, and jumps and loves helping kids have that lightbulb moment in class. In a full circle moment, her oldest Daughter Eva is now majoring in dance on the very same campus where she studied over 21 years ago! Selina’s two other daughters feel so blessed to have found L’amoré and love being on the senior and mini companies! Selina is also blessed to have just become the new Coach of the Hart High School dance team, and is so excited to start building and growing the program there!
Madelyn Shih
(Instructor of Dance)
Madelyn has been dancing since the age of three, studying under Gina Neumann before and throughout L'amoré's origination. Madelyn is trained in many styles of dance including jazz, lyrical, contemporary, and ballet. She has been a part of the national award winning Saugus Dance Team for four years, serving as team captain, receiving multiple first place awards, and earning placements in WCE's solo finalist rounds. Madelyn is eager to spread her growing knowledge and love of dance. Gina has been a huge inspiration for Madelyn throughout her training years; she hopes to be the same for her students.
Annie Reichman
(Instructor of Dance)
Annie has been taking performing art lessons since the age of 5. Her background includes various theatre art productions, vocal lessons, singing with Miss Madeline, and she then discovered a passion and magic for dance at the age of 11. Annie started to compete in dance at L'amoré and won many first place scholarships on Junior, Teen and Senior Elite teams. She was on the Saugus High School Dance team for 4 years. She was Team Captain her senior year and she choreographed an award winning dance that same year. Her achievements include WCE Dancer of the Year Walnut, 2nd Place WCE Dancer of the year Glendale and 3 first place senior titles which she choreographed the dance herself. She competed in the Improv category all four years and won numerous first place titles including National Improv Champion her Junior year. She is very excited to bring her enthusiasm, love and passion for dance to L'amoré.
Sophie Fogt
(Instructor of Dance)
Sophie was born and raised in California and has been teaching dance for over 20 years. She has taught in California, Texas, Michigan and Utah. Starting her dance career at age 18 as a competitive studio teacher and high school coach. From choreographing and creating, teaching competition studio teams and specializing in technique and development of young dancers, her passion is constantly growing. Sophie danced for Utah Valley University Dance Team for 4 years and was President and Dance Captain and simultaneously earned a BS degree in Psychology. She choreographed many routines that were performed at games and concerts by her team. Sophie has judged all over for various auditions & loves to help students develop their performance skills and break out of their comfort zone. Sophie’s choreography has won many awards and she enjoys connecting creatively and crafting a routine specifically for that team or dancer. She loves to grow and continue developing as a teacher by learning new ways to conquer technical skills and tricks. Sophie values effort and a growth mindset in her students by connecting with the hearts of her dancers and reminding them that the only way to fail is if you never try.
Keira Cooper
(Student Instructor of Dance)
Keira has been dancing since she was five years old. She joined the L'amoré family when she was nine years old and has been dancing with us ever since. Keira has trained in almost all styles of dance including ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip hop, and lyrical. She has been in many specialty groups and has won numerous awards from her team dances and solos. Keira has also been a part of her high school dance team, Saugus Dance, for the past two years. Her team has won two national titles during this time and she will continue to dance with Saugus for this upcoming year. Keira is thrilled to take her love for dance and put it into teaching. She is beyond grateful for the L'amoré family and plans on spreading her passion for dance even after high school.