Shala Parrish-Hanks

Ballroom

Shala has been teaching classes and coaching Latin dancers in Utah for 20 years. In her teaching career she has coached dancers who have gone on to become Pros on Dancing With the Stars and Dancing With the Stars Junior, and finalists on So You Think You Can Dance and World of Dance. As a competitive coach she has had students win National Latin Championship titles in Pre-teen, Junior 1, Youth Pre-Champ, Amateur Pre-Champ, Youth, and U21 Latin, and had many finalists in those divisions and more. She has coached couples chosen to represent team USA at Junior Blackpool, the WDC World Championships in Paris, and the WDSF World Championships in Beijing.

Shala is trained in many dance genres including Jazz, Hip Hop, Contemporary, and Ballet, but her specialty is Latin Ballroom. Shala has trained and competed all over the world, and moved to London at the age of sixteen to pursue her ballroom career. Some highlights of her dance career include placing 7th in Under 21 Latin at the British Open Championships In Blackpool, being a US Amateur Latin finalist, youth Latin vice- champion, and Irish Open champion. She was also a recipient of both Edge Performing Arts Center and New York City Dance Alliance scholarships. Outside of the competitive realm, Shala has also performed for Bowflex, Nordstrom, The Miss Utah Pageant, and Odyssey Dance Theatre.

Shala has a life-long passion for dance, teaching, choreographing, and helping each dancer she works with reach their full potential as a dancer and a person.