Meet our Teachers

Meghan is a Charleston, South Carolina native. She grew up training and competing in Ballet, Modern, Contemporary, Hip-Hop, Jazz, and Tap. Meghan found her love for teaching while attending the College of Charleston where she graduated with a BA in Arts Management and Dance Minor. Meghan has led multiple competition teams to Regional and National victories winning high score, overall, entertainment, and choreography awards. Her students have won titles, such as, Mister Dance of America and several of her students have gone on to dance at Clemson University, Winthrop University, the University of South Carolina, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Disney. She is nationally certified by Dance Masters of America in Ballet, Jazz, and Modern and enjoys traveling to share her love of dance with others. Meghan is also the owner and director of Ignite Dance Competition. 

​Nancy's dance journey began at the Myrtle Beach School of Performing Arts, where she trained in the Cecchetti Method of Ballet. Since 1993, she's been a member of the Cecchetti Council of America, and from 1999, she's been involved with Dance Masters of America and the Southern Council of Dance Masters.With over 35 years of teaching experience, Nancy is a certified examiner in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Acrobatics, and Modern dance styles. Her students have excelled at regional and national competitions, winning titles like Petite Miss Dance of SCDM and Mr. Dance of America. In 2003, Nancy founded Planet Dance, where she continues to share her passion for dance with students of all ages as an instructor. She's also been a guest artist at local schools and an artist in residence at a Berkeley County elementary school for three years. Nancy's choreographic skills extend to pageants, and she's judged at both regional and national dance competitions, influencing dance excellence across the country. 

Ashley is from Summerville, South Carolina. She grew up competing and training at Planet Dance in all styles of dance including ballet, tap, jazz, acro, modern, contemporary, and hip-hop. With Planet Dance she competed and won at the state, regional, and national levels. Her favorite style of dance is jazz and acro. Outside of competitions, she has performed on a Carnival Cruise ship, in Christmas at Northwoods, and in the Charleston Ballets’ The Nutcracker. She is currently a member of the Buc Angels Dance Team at Charleston Southern University. Her favorite part about being on a dance team at both Planet Dance and in college is the friendships, growth, and education she has received. She is so excited to come full circle and give back to Planet Dance. She plans on graduating in May of 2025 with a Bachelor of Science in Pre-Professional Biology with a Minor in Spanish. Outside of the dance community she coaches gymnastics at the Goose Creek Recreation Center and holds a local Miss South Carolina title where she advocates for mental health awareness for athletes of all ages and levels.

Growing up in SC, she became proficient in Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Contemporary, Hip-Hop,  and Modern Dance. Beginning with a stage performance at the age of 6 in The Broadway Nutcracker at the Manhattan Center in NYC, Tiffany's diverse dance styles have led her to many stages across the United States, Canada, China, and Japan. A few performance credits include Broadway Christmas Wonderland, Twist & Shout, Rock Around the Clock, Dancing Queen, The Nutcracker, Piccolo Spoleto Afternoon Interlude in Charleston, and Broadway Finale at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Tiffany also performs as an assistant illusionist and her TV credits include ABC’s Nashville,CBS’s Reckless, and Lifetime’s Army Wives.   

Ashley Clarke first fell in love with dance at age 9 when she began her training in Jazz dance at Dalton Ballet in Massachusetts. She quickly expanded her repertoire to include ballet, modern, hip hop, tap, lyrical and pointe and often performed lead roles in local performances as Peter Pan, the Little Mermaid and Lion King. As an adult she grew a great love for teaching dance and has 12 years experience teaching dance professionally in Massachusetts, New York and South Carolina. She takes as many opportunities to expand her own dance ability by taking classes and at times, performing at local events. Ashley’s favorite thing about teaching dance is making deep connections with her students and watching them fall in love (and stay in love) with expressive movement. She strives for a safe, welcoming environment and clear, detailed class instruction. She lives in Ladson with her husband Daniel, two sons Rowen and Theo and dog Hudson. Besides dance she also loves fitness, art and music.

 Megan Deshotel, with over a decade of experience, is a scholar, dancer, choreographer and instructor specializing in integrating dance with strength training. Holding a B.FA, M..F.A and South Carolina teaching license for South Carolina Board of Education. She continues to stay up to date with current research, explore new movements and participate in her own strength training program.

Started dancing at a young age and worked her way up to a teaching assistant with New Dimensions Dance Company in Oviedo, Florida and performer with an Improvisational based company, NAO Dance Collective, in Orlando, Florida. As a dancer she started her training with a strong ballet, improvisation and contemporary foundation and expanded to both codified and non-codified art forms in college. For example, graham-based technique, Horton, Limon, African, contemporary, improvisation and more.

She first earned her A.A in Dance performance at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida while performing with Valencia Dance Theatre and working her way up to Principal dancer with the company she traveled across central Florida, Arizona and Rhode Island to perform set works and Kitri’s variation from Act III from Don Quixote. In addition, worked with guest artists from The Nikolais Dance Theatre, Lehrer Dance and visiting professors from a variety of colleges. In addition to performing, Megan Deshotel also premiered a choreographic work of her own for the Valencia College stage for “Choreographers’ Showcase” titled, Maestro. Upon graduating Megan Deshotel continued her education at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida where she earned her B.F.A in dance, focusing on individuality, artistry, dance conditioning, dance film making and more. This is where her love for dance and fitness grew. Alongside dancing, she was a part of Alpha Omicron Pi and took part in Philanthropic work. Following her love of dance fitness, she continued her education at the State University of New York College at Brockport in Brockport, New York and earned her terminal degree, M.F.A in Dance. The scholarly research for the thesis focused on cross-training for collegiate dancers to improve strength through weightlifting. In addition, creating choreographic works each year for the freshman college dance students. She was a graduate assistant teaching college level courses to experienced and non-experienced dancers. For her thesis work she put on her own performance called Quintet and followed up with a Q & A session about the specialized strength training program she created.

As a teacher and instructor, her philosophy is to incorporate improvisation and strength training. The approach includes movement explorations utilizing both structure and freedom by prioritizing excellence for each unique individual dancing body while interweaving strength training tools. The use of imagery gives freedom to movement practice with imagery and improvisational scores. Megan Deshotel describes the practice as individual explorations because even though the class is communal, there is still a priority of individual discoveries. The purpose is to investigate one's own body. As a mover she strives to encourage the idea of bringing dance science and fitness into the curriculum or class. Dancers’ benefits of cross-training include, but are not limited to, eliminating muscular imbalance, balance, confidence and overall strength.

Megan Deshotel is not just a teacher but a mentor and inspiration to her students, encouraging them to reach their fullest potential by catering to their individual needs. With a passion for dance and fitness she strives to leave a lasting impact, one student at a time. 

Hallie Driggers began her dance journey in Charleston, South Carolina at age 2 where she trained extensively in many styles of dance. Starting to compete at age 5, she went on to win numerous regional and national titles for the next 16 years. She was on the Pre-pro team at Creative Edge Dance Center where she competed, assisted with classes, taught, and choreographed. After graduating, Hallie went on to spend 10 months at the CLI Conservatory under direction of Teddy Forance in Easthampton, Massachusetts. She was able to take from well over 100 notable choreographers, perform in their “Last Dance” showcase, and be apart of Wade Robson’s film entitled “Element.” Hallie has gained so much knowledge that she can’t wait to share with dancers all over the community!  

Gingham Hoover is originally from Florence, SC. She has been teaching cheerleading, acrobatics and tumbling for over 25 years. As a cheerleader at Francis Marion University, Gingham worked with Action Cheer and Tumble teaching classes and summer camps. She was also a member of the NRH dance team, the SC Fire-ants.  In 2000, she started her own company, Ms. Gingham’s Tumbling, before moving to the Charleston area in 2010. She has worked with Dance Studios, martial arts students, double Dutch teams and All-Star competitive cheerleaders to help them strengthen their acrobatic skills and reach their tumbling goals. Many of her students have gone on to cheer for teams including the NFL’s Carolina Panthers Topcats, Coastal Carolina University, USC Gamecocks, College of Charleston and Charleston Southern University. In addition to teaching acrobatics and tumbling, Gingham is a Biology teacher at Hanahan High School. She is excited to be returning to Planet Dance this year as an acrobatics instructor. 

   Janine Kaiser grew up in Sumter where she began dancing at the Freed School of Performing Arts at the age of 2 1/2. She became part of the Freed Spirit Dance Company for 3 years before graduating high school.  At Freed’s she studied ballet, pointe, lyrical, jazz, modern, and tap under Andrea Freed Levenson.  She then attended Coker College where she obtained a Degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in Ceramics and a minor in dance. She was also a part of the Coker College Dance Team, took a study abroad session in Europe for dance, and has had the opportunity to dance in pieces set by the Amy Marshall Dance Company and The Wanda Project. During her years at Coker she taught at the Brenda Cranford’s School of Dance, where she taught tap, ballet, and jazz to all ages. At Brenda’s she got introduced to hip-hop and has since included it with her other favorites, modern and jazz.   

 Avery grew up in Saratoga Springs, NY, and is a new Charleston resident! Growing up in upstate NY, Avery began dancing when she was 3 at her home studio, Dance Force. She joined her studio's competition dance team when she was 8. Avery took classes in jazz, lyrical, hip hop, contemporary, and ballet.  Avery found any excuse to stay at the studio, like working the front desk or teaching. Avery started assisting teaching classes at 13, and taught until she was 18. Avery also was able to showcase her love of dance as an Empress for the NAL Albany Empires. She performed hip hop, jazz, and pom style routines. Avery attended Coastal Carolina University where she choreographed hip hop and jazz productions for the Homecoming talent show and "Chant Rock" (a fundraisingGreekk life dance competition). After graduation, Avery was able to teach summer and fall classes at a competition school in New Jersey where she reignited her love for teaching and choreographing. Avery could not be more excited to begin teaching at Planet Dance!

 Brittany Priester is from Charleston, South Carolina. She started dancing at the age of three and has competed at the state, regional, and national levels in dance competitions with Planet Dance Center for the Arts. Her dance training includes jazz, acro, hip-hop, lyrical, contemporary, modern, ballet, and tap. Her favorite style of dance is hip-hop, and her first ever hip-hop class was taught by Twitch. She has performed on Carnival Cruise Lines, in Charleston Ballet Theatre’s Nutcracker, and Christmas at Northwood. In 2018, she served as the President of the Junior Southern Council of Dance Masters Chapter 44 after serving in 2017 as the Vice President of the organization. Currently, she is the Program Chairman of the local scholarship program Distinguished Young Women of Berkeley County, and she owns her own business, Brittany Priester Graphic Design. She is a Senior at Charleston Southern University where she is the Captain of the Buc Angels Dance Team. She will graduate in the Fall with Honors and a double major in Business Entrepreneurship and Graphic Design.