Joanie is a multi-disciplinary dance artist with 13+ years of teaching experience. Starting with Irish Step dance at age 5, she transitioned to belly dance at the age of 14, and by age 18 was teaching and performing regularly. She spent 8 years as a full-time belly dance artist under the stage name Elena Faye, working as a senior faculty member at Saffron Dance, one of the largest belly dance schools in the country, where she eventually served as Artistic Director from 2017-2019. During this time she also spent 5 years as a soloist and company dancer with Nomad Dancers, a Persian and Central Asian performance troupe in Washington DC.

In 2017, she discovered partner dance, starting with Bachata and two years later expanding to Brazilian Zouk. Living in DC, she was lucky to study regularly with internationally-known Zouk artists Gui Prada, Alisson Sandi, and Elena Rovito of District Zouk. Although no longer a full-time dancer, she continues to find great joy in social dancing, performing, and teaching! She teaches weekly Bachata classes in Santa Fe with her dance partner Stephen Smith, and is thrilled to be teaching Brazilian Zouk and belly dance at The Hut.

Joanie moved to Santa Fe in the fall of 2024 to pursue her masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Southwestern College. She lives with her lifelong best friend and their 3 handsome cats.

Joanie teaches monthly workshops in Brazilian Zouk and belly dance.