Faculty
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Melanie Emory – Owner | Artistic Director | Teacher
View Bio
With a background in Early Childhood Education, Melanie has been teaching for 24 years. She trained and taught at Regina’s School of Dance and was in the competitive dance company, Southern Dazzle under the direction of Regina Gaskins Clark. She began teaching at Dance Dynamics under the direction of the late Pam Mierlarczyk in 2002 and became director and owner of Dance Dynamics in 2008. Melanie continues to update her training through annual seminars and conventions. Competitively, her choreography has won Top Overall Awards to Best Choreography at numerous dance competitions.
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Beth Morris – Assistant Director | Teacher | Company Assistant
View BioBeth started dance at age three with Dance Dynamics, during its founding year. She is a former member of the Dance Dynamics Dance Company and trained extensively in the areas of ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, lyrical and pointe. She has traveled to New York and taken classes at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway. She has competed regionally and nationally with both groups and solo performances. She was a background dancer briefly and was a Dance Assistant with Hoctor’s Dance Caravan at Disney. She was nominated for Governor’s Honors in Dance. She has a Bachelor’s of Science in Child and Family Development with an emphasis in Family Services/ Social Work from Georgia Southern University. In addition, Beth is also a social worker with expertise in domestic minor sex trafficking and serves with many nationally recognized organizations and assists with the statewide hotline for child sex trafficking victims. Beth is also the Advancement and Advocate Coordinator at Central GA CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) where she serves children in foster care in Bibb, Peach and Crawford counties advocating for them in juvenile court.
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Paula Aguirre – Pilates | Company Planning Coordinator | Company President
View BioPaula started taking ballet at 2 years old and continued dance classes in tap, jazz, lyrical and pointe until the age of 18, participating in her studio’s performance class as well as school dance teams. She moved to Macon in 2001 to attend Mercer University School of Engineering. When her son was born in 2006, she became a stay at home mom. A few years later, after her daughter was born in 2009, Paula found herself longing to reconnect with her dance background and found Cor Pilates. She noticed the way Pilates changed her body and made her feel better. It even improved the symptoms of her lymphedema and her heart condition – POTS. After 3 years of practicing, Paula took the opportunity to become a certified instructor and now is the co-owner of Cor Studio. She looks forward to sharing the many benefits of Pilates with others while continuing to learn and grow in her personal practice and as a teacher.
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Rachel Davies – Lyrical | Ballet | Tap | Company Teacher
View BioRachel began her dance training at the age of three and studied ballet, Pointe, jazz, tap, lyrical, contemporary, modern, hip hop, and musical theater. She competed in several different national competitions, traveling to various states, including Nevada, Missouri, and Ohio. Before graduating high school, she performed in Detroit’s Fringe Festival and studied under Meg Paul of the Joffrey Ballet for one summer. She continued her dance education and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Oakland University in Michigan, where she performed with the Oakland Dance Theater for three years. During this time, Rachel also performed as a guest dancer in the Eisenhower Dance Ensemble’s Motown in Motion. After graduating, she was a background performer in David Shelby’s “Kick a Little Dirt” music video. She then moved to Arizona where she became a member of the Phoenix Contemporary Dance Company.
Rachel’s teaching career started when she became an assistant teacher at her local studio at 14 years old. She returned to the studio while at Oakland University to continue teaching. She has experience teaching ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, and contemporary to children between three and 18 years old, and has also been a competition choreographer. In addition, Rachel is also a preschool teacher with four years of experience.
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Kali Morrow – Jazz | Contemporary | PBT | Company Teacher
View BioKaliahna Phelps was born in Atlanta, Georgia. When she was 2 her family moved to Warner Robins and by the age of 3 Kaliahna, better known as Kali, began attending weekly dance classes. As Kali got older, she began studying various styles of dance including ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, modern, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, various forms of Middle Eastern, and ballroom. In 2007 Kali started taking master classes and competing, attending conventions, and participating in summer intensives such as New York City Dance Alliance (NYCDA), Dance Educators of America (DEA), Nuvo, Northwest Florida Ballet, and Atlanta Ballet’s Advanced summer intensive to name a few. Through all this training Kali has studied under numerous master teachers in a verity of styles.
Having attended so many training programs Kali received a well-rounded education in dance that earned her many awards, scholarships and opportunities to dance abroad. While completing all this training, Kali began an in-depth teacher apprenticeship at the young age of 9 where she was trained by highly experienced instructors and received hands-on teaching experience. When Kali was 14, she became a junior instructor and was teaching her own classes with supervision from a mentor. Once her teacher training was complete, she went on to teach at multiple studios and choreograph top-overall-winning competition routines. Kali continues to further her education through certifications and attendance of conventions as she believes a dancer never stops learning.
In total, Kali has received over 8 years of teacher training from several dance educators, has over 12 years of teaching experience, is a Progressing Ballet Technique certified instructor, all with over 20 years of dancing behind her. Her favorite part of teaching is watching her students succeed and helping them use their creativity as an outlet. All while aspiring to not only continue her education as an instructor, but to educate dancers while helping them to develop a passion and respect for the performing arts.
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Princess LaShelle – Hip Hop | Company Teacher
View BioA native of Macon, Georgia, Princess LaShelle is a fun and infectiously energetic dance instructor, choreographer and creator. She has over 15 years of experience in performing arts and specializes in Hip Hop and W. African dance. Her extensive training resume includes studying at Hayiya Dance Theatre, Dance411Studios, Millennium Studios L.A. and G-Rhythm Performing Arts Center in various styles of dance including hip hop, West African, street jazz and contemporary dance. Princess has performed on several nationally televised television shows including BETs 106 and Park, BETs Celebrity Hair, VH1s Kandi Burruss Wedding and MTV’s Rick Ross Dream in addition to several sitcoms. For 5 years, Princess served as a brand ambassador for Cumulus Media’s radio station Blazin 92.3, board member for the non-profit organization Women of Vision 3000 and recent winner of Dancing Stars of Central Georgia. -
Chloe Napier – Ballet | Tap | Jazz
View BioChloe started dance at the age of three at Gail Hursey’s School of Dance in Statesboro, GA where she continued to dance until the age of 20 (at that time her family moved to Cartersville, GA). She took classes primarily in ballet, tap, jazz, and pointe, but also took classes in high school for lyrical/contemporary. While in high school she began assisting Mrs. Gail with several of the younger classes, and absolutely fell in love with teaching. She also started a liturgical dance group at her home church in Statesboro. While in college at Presbyterian College she participated in a dance production and also participated and choreographed dances and liturgical movements to go along with the PC Choir’s annual Christmas Performance. After college Chloe took a break from dancing while attending law school at Mercer. But soon after graduating she became involved with Simply Dance in Forsyth where she participated in classes and eventually moved to full time instructor. She taught classes in ballet, tap, jazz, pre-pointe, and lyrical/contemporary for the past five years. Now she is super excited to share her passion for dance with all of the wonderful students at Dance Dynamics!
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Danny Davis – Tap | Company Teacher
View BioDanny Davis was born in Macon, GA and grew up in Bonaire, GA, where he was carried along to a dance studio every night while his mother watched his older sisters’ dance classes. When he was big enough to join, Mom threw him in too, and he LOVED it! Danny began his dance education at the Academy of Dance in Warner Robins, where he was a member of the Southern Spirit and Competition Company teams. Danny also attended class at Dance Arts Studio in Macon, with ballet training under Jean Weaver and Alice Sheridan. He was a long time participant of the Nutcracker of Middle GA and the Middle GA Youth Ballet. In the year 2000, Danny began his time at Dance Dynamics, training under Mrs Pam Mielarczyk. Throughout all of this time, he earned scholarships from DEA, NYCDA, PDTA, HDC, and various other acronyms of the 90’s-00’s Dance World. He later toured with Hoctor’s Dance Caravan, assisting with and performing at dozens of Nationals competitions across the US. Danny attended the dance program at Idyllwild Arts Academy in Idyllwild, CA before returning home to rejoin his DDC family.
Danny has been teaching multiple mediums of dance professionally since he was 15 years old. His specialty is Tap, but loves it all! He has won numerous choreography awards for his competitive dances, and has been privileged enough to choreograph and teach at some of the best studios in Middle GA. Danny studied Secondary Education at Georgia Military College and Religious Studies at THE University of Georgia (GO DAWGS)!
Danny is a former member of the Macon Film Festival Board of Directors and an accomplished musician, appearing with his band on Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel.When he’s not stomping his feet around, Danny spends his time as CTO of Turco Roofing in Warner Robins. Danny is blessed to be the father of Sailor, the sweetest little dancer ever, 2 cats, a tiny dog, and a handful of reptiles.
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Carter Atkinson- Ballet
View BioCarter Atkinson grew up dancing in Middle Georgia and is a recent graduate of the University of Alabama with a BA in Dance. She has trained in ballet, pointe, contemporary, jazz, and other styles. She is a former member of Middle Georgia Youth Ballet and was also a performer in the Nutcracker of Middle Georgia for many years. During her time at UA, she was able to continue her dance education in many areas, including ballet, pointe, modern, contemporary, jazz, heels, musical theatre, pedagogy, and choreography. She was a performer with the Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre, where she was able to dance in original ballet, contemporary, and jazz works by Quianping Guo, Fen Kennedy, Jamorris Rivers, Rita Snyder, and more, as well as in ballets such as Sleeping Beauty, where she danced both the role of Aurora and in the corps de ballet. Carter has performed in, directed, and choreographed many ballet, contemporary, and jazz works for Dance Alabama!, the Dance Alabama Film Festival, and Alabama Dance Festival.
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Allison Swinson – Contemporary | Jazz – Company Choreographer
View BioAllison grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, where she trained with Annette Wilson, Natalie Fotopoulos, and Alexei Moskalenko. She attended the University of Alabama, where she was a member of the Dance Department. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance in 2012, Allison moved to Atlanta, Georgia to pursue her career in dance, working with Project 7 Contemporary Dance Company, and teaching at various studios. Allison was recently part of Project 7’s “SHE,” and 1st runner-up at the Capezio A.C.E. awards in New York City in 2014.
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Ruby Hilliard – Guest Faculty
View BioRuby began her dance training at the age of 3 at Dance Dynamics under the direction of Melanie Emory, where she studied all styles of dance such as ballet, pointe, jazz, contemporary, lyrical, hip hop, tap, and musical theater. She continued her training throughout her high school years. During her time at Dance Dynamics she received multiple awards and accomplishments such as 2 national titles and multiple competition awards both as a soloist and as an elite team member of the Dance Dynamics Company. She was also a member of the Middle Georgia Youth Ballet for 8 years where she received training under the direction of Alice Sheridan. Ruby has been to multiple summer intensives where she has trained under many professionals such as Ashley Bouder, Sasha Hutchings, and Mitchell Finke. After high school Ruby chose to continue her dancing career at Point Park University where she has worked with many choreographers such as Christopher Huggins, Susan Stowe, Jason Mcdole, and Marc Spalding. Ruby is expected to graduate with her Bachelors of Fine Arts in the spring of 2025, and she plans to pursue a career in the industry.
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Studio Assistants and Junior Assistants
View BioAssistants are frequently responsible for taking attendance, escorting students to the bathroom, handing out and gathering props, leading warm ups, and keeping kids focused. A student assistant will carry out tasks requested by the teacher.
Laney Childers
Lillie Dolan
Allie Emory
Emma Grace Stanfield
Bella Emory- Junior Assistant
Campbell Hetes- Junior Assistant
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Guest Teachers and Choreographers
View BioAlice Sheridan
Sasha Hutchings
Melissa Ruiz
Spring Joy Christensen
Lisette Bustamante
Hannah Kasulka
Geovanna Garavelo-Bortoleto
Gabby Fenimore
Hope Duncan
Luke Dockery
Ashton Paredes