Artistic Staff
Rachel Prescott
artistic director & owner
A native of Destin, Florida, Rachel Prescott began her classical ballet training at age five with Bernadette Clements Sims, founder of Northwest Florida Ballet, placing her earliest formation within the founding line of classical ballet on the Emerald Coast.
She rose through the school to become a company member of Northwest Florida Ballet, dancing under Ballet Mistress Dorothy Daniels Lister, a former member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo who led the Children's Department of the Joffrey Ballet's official school for twenty-five years. Under Miss Dorothy's direction, Rachel performed in The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Giselle, Coppélia, Sleeping Beauty, Scheherazade, La Bayadère, and Cinderella, among many other classical and contemporary works.
Through Lister, her training descends directly from the Ballets Russes tradition that shaped classical dance in the twentieth century.
Admitted to Northwest Florida State College's Collegiate High School, Rachel danced concurrently with the college's dance program under Artistic Director Frances Herron, training with Ulli Dunbar, a former professional dancer with Germany's Frankfurt Ballet.
A notable modeling career with Elite Model Management later carried her to New York City and Los Angeles, where she continued her training at Steps on Broadway, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Westside School of Ballet, and the Alonzo King LINES Dance Center.
Rachel is certified in American Ballet Theatre's National Training Curriculum, Pre-Primary through Level 5. In 2020 she founded studio6twenty5 in Destin and built its program from the ground up: an ABT-curriculum Children's Program for ages 2–12, a large Adult/Open Division, a Pre-Professional TEAM, and an Adult Ballet Company presenting full-length classical repertoire — The Nutcracker, Coppélia, Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White — with complete costume wardrobes and sets maintained by the studio.
For four consecutive seasons she has self-produced and self-funded The Nutcracker and an annual spring production of rotating classical and original repertoire.
A second-generation steward of the arts in Destin, Rachel is the daughter of architect and ballet dancer Jeffrey Prescott, whose firm, Prescott Architects, designed Northwest Florida Ballet's current home as a pro bono gift to the ballet.
In Rachel, the region's classical lines converge: the founder's line of Bernadette Clements Sims, the Ballets Russes and Joffrey line of Dorothy Daniels Lister, the Frankfurt Ballet line of Ulli Dunbar, and the institutional legacy of Frances Herron — carried forward, daily, at the barre in Destin.
Shaye Smith
pre-professional team director
Shaye Smith began her classical ballet training at just 2 years old with Birmingham Ballet Academy, where she continued training throughout her childhood and teenage years. She has performed classical roles with Moscow Ballet, Washington Ballet and Alabama Ballet, as well as in The Nutcracker on Broadway in New York City.
Her performance repertoire includes Coppelia, Swan Lake, Hansel and Gretel and many more.
Additionally, Shaye also competed at a state and national level with her high school dance team, and went on to work for - and judge for - the prestigious Universal Dance Association.
Through the opportunities with UDA, she performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and at Halftime of The Cotton Bowl.
Shaye attended Auburn University and studied modern, ballet, choreography, dance history and rhythm tap with the dance program. She performed in many dAUnce productions as part of the Dance Program under the Auburn University Theatre Department.
A longtime educator, Shaye began teaching ballet in college and has been teaching ballet, lyrical and jazz styles for over 10 years. She has been an official judge at both local and regional level dance competitions, as well as dance team auditions.
Shaye currently serves on the artistic staff as Assistant Director at studio6twenty5, as well as the Pre-Professional TEAM Director and choreographer for the 2024-2025 season.
Shelby Valk
teaching artist
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Shelby began her dance training in 2006 in Orlando under the training of Irina Depler and Katerina Fedotova, and choreography of Vadim Fedotov. After her move to the panhandle area she continued with ballet from Patsy Graydon Hill and expanded with modern styles with A Time To Dance. In 2016 she began her teaching training as an assistant teacher, and by 2018 she was teaching independently. During this time she was fortunate enough to receive ballet lessons from the great Dorothy Daniels Lister.
As Shelby entered adulthood, she began taking ballroom lessons. With her ballet background, she was quickly recruited to assist as a consultant by the other teachers to help their students find fluidity in their movements. While she continues to love ballroom, post-Covid she transitioned to teaching specifically wedding dance lessons. That was until a student of studio6twenty5 recommended Shelby to audition for S625’s production of Alice in Wonderland in 2024. Shelby has since rekindled her love for ballet and is excited for the opportunity to work at such an incredible and unique ballet studio.