HAYLEY
MACMILLAN-ORD
NPAA Co-Founder
Aerial Arts Program Director
Hayley has been teaching yoga for nearly three decades, beginning her journey after years in competitive sports and cheerleading. She opened her first yoga studio in the Cayman Islands in the early 90s and went on to study and teach many forms of yoga and movement, including Yamuna body rolling, restorative yoga, and vinyasa flow. After earning her degree in Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine, she shifted her focus to therapeutic yoga and body movement.
After discovering Aerial Yoga, Hayley moved to Nosara with her family and introduced Costa Rica’s first Aerial classes. Inspired by the joy and benefits of inverting, she created a children’s program that makes Aerial Arts fun, safe, and empowering for kids of all ages.
Hayley loves watching her young students build confidence, courage, and creativity as they master new skills in the air. She has developed her own unique style of Aerial Yoga and offers an annual teacher training, ensuring all NPAA Aerial Arts instructors share her commitment to safe, joyful, and therapeutic movement.
ADRIENNE
FITZMAURICE
NPAA Co-Founder
DANCE Program Director
Adrienne has dedicated her life to movement, dance, and inspiring the next generation of performers. She began dancing at age ten, studying ballet and jazz before discovering musical theater in high school, and continued her training in dance well into adulthood; from Minneapolis to Milwaukee to Chicago. In Chicago, she founded SHE, an all-female dance company that created original work and performed throughout Chicago’s independent arts scene, from festivals to unconventional warehouse spaces.
A Pilates and movement educator for more than 30 years, Adrienne trained at the internationally renowned Pilates Center in Boulder, Colorado, before founding Align Pilates in Minneapolis. Her work specializes in alignment, strength, rehabilitation, and helping people move with greater confidence and efficiency.
After making Nosara home, Adrienne studied with American Ballet Theatre’s National Training Curriculum in New York City before co-founding NPAA in 2019. Today, she brings together her love of choreography, movement, costume design, and performance to create productions and inspire students to become strong, confident, expressive performers.
SHANTI
BELESCO -GLYNN
Musial Theatre Program Director
Shanti Belasco Glynn is a master teaching artist with over 25 years of experience inspiring young performers. As the founder and director of a renowned youth theatre company in California for 13 years, she directed and choreographed numerous Broadway-style productions that nurtured hundreds of young actors and dancers. Shanti trained in dance at UCLA and honed her acting craft at the esteemed Eric Morris Actor’s Workshop in Hollywood. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, a Master’s in Multicultural Education, and a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential. Now based in Nosara, she brings her wealth of knowledge and passion to NPAA’s Musical Theater Program, guiding the next generation of performers with expertise, creativity, and care
Jasmin
rituper
Aerial Arts & Dance Teacher
Jasmin Rituper is an international movement artist, dancer, aerialist and fine nude art model. She has been dancing, performing and expressing herself physically and emotionally her whole life since age 3.
Ever since, she has shaping herself, her creativity, spirituality and her essence of being -through the body and movement in various ways and forms. After her first 20 years of dance education, Jasmin got her B.A. in dance and musical theater back in 2004, completed her 300hr YTT by 2007 and created her own movement method in the last 7 years called Mechanimal Movement. Starting 2005, she has been performing, choreographing and modeling in Europe, New York, La, and Vegas. Since 2017 she shares her work and teachings also in Nosara, Costa Rica. It has been her passion and mission to express and share this craft in every way and form possible. It is intentional, bold, primal, sensual, powerful & transformative yet sensitive and vulnerable.
oceanna
macmillan-ord
Aerial Arts Teacher
Oceanna was born and raised in Nosara, Costa Rica, where movement, nature, and holistic wellness have been part of her life from an early age. She began teaching Aerial Yoga at just 14 and has continued to deepen her training and understanding of aerial arts ever since.
As an aerial instructor, Oceanna has a particular strength in the technical side of the discipline. She has an exceptional eye for body positioning, alignment, and the mechanics behind each skill, and is skilled at breaking down complex poses and sequences into clear, achievable steps. Her teaching helps students understand not just what a skill should look like, but how their bodies need to move and engage to execute it safely, correctly, and with control.
Oceanna has continued to expand her aerial education through specialized training, including trapeze training in San José with [INSTRUCTOR NAME/CREDENTIAL]. Her background in Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture further informs her understanding of the body, movement, alignment, and physical well-being.
Oceanna brings a thoughtful, precise approach to her classes while still encouraging curiosity, play, and confidence in the air. She is passionate about helping young aerialists build strong technical foundations that allow them to progress safely and ultimately develop their own artistry and expression.
diego
espinoza-LopÉz
Aerial Arts & Musical Theatre Teacher
Diego is a born Tico, NPAA alumnus, and a valued member of our Aerial Arts and Musical Theatre faculty. A recent graduate of Del Mar Academy, Diego has spent years developing as a multidisciplinary performer, combining his love of aerial arts, movement, theatre, and character work.
His aerial training spans a variety of apparatuses, with a particular strength in silks, as well as hammock, lyra, trapeze, spiral, and straps. He has continued to expand his movement education through training with The 360 Movement in Nosara and has completed Aerial Yoga Teacher Training, deepening his understanding of movement, body awareness, improvisation, and creative exploration.
Most recently, Diego traveled to London for an intensive summer program at the prestigious Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, furthering his training in musical theatre through acting, singing, dance, movement, and ensemble performance.
Diego is passionate about bringing the tools and inspiration he gains through his own continued training back to NPAA. As both a teacher and choreographer, he loves exploring the intersection of aerial arts, movement, character, and theatrical storytelling—and encouraging students to take creative risks, discover their individual strengths, and develop their own artistic voice.
emma
holt
Dance Teacher
Emma Holt began dancing at the age of six and spent ten years training and performing as a member of a competitive dance team in the United States. During those years, she competed extensively and had the opportunity to perform at Walt Disney World as well as for an NBA team.
Through her ten years of competitive dance, Emma developed a deep appreciation for the discipline and growth that come with training. Just as importantly, she learned the value of teamwork, confidence, and connection. She believes dance gives young people a powerful way to express themselves, challenge themselves, and build meaningful relationships with those around them
Emma continued her dance journey at the University of Delaware, where she joined the university dance team. There, she has led open dance classes and choreographed competition pieces performed on stage by the team, further developing her experience as both a dancer and choreographer.
Now in her fourth year of teaching, one of Emma’s greatest strengths is her ability to connect with young dancers. She genuinely loves working with kids and brings the same enthusiasm, patience, and encouragement to her youngest students as she does to teens. Emma is passionate about creating a space where dancers feel supported and confident while also being challenged to grow.
jessie
alegria
Dance Teacher
Jessie Alegría is thrilled to join NPAA as a hip hop dance instructor. Dance has always been Jessie's first love — growing up in Costa Rica, it was movement and music that first taught Jessie how powerfully the two could bring people together. Over the years, Jessie's path led toward fitness, building a 20+ year career as a trainer and instructor and, most recently, becoming owner of Aleo Studio. But dance never stopped calling, and Jessie is beyond excited to come back to where it all started.
Jessie's love for hip hop and movement has shown up throughout that journey — from founding Hip Hop Pop Up, an inclusive hip-hop-inspired dance event, to teaching Creative Movement and Performance Hip-Hop to kids and adults at Urbanity Dance Center and across Boston Public Schools. Jessie holds a B.A. in Anthropology with a minor in Dance from Oberlin College.
Working with young teens at NPAA feels especially meaningful to Jessie, who knows firsthand how much dance can shape a person at that age — building confidence, creativity, and a sense of belonging that lasts well beyond the studio. Jessie can't wait to help NPAA's teens discover that same joy and self-expression.