Meet our Teachers & staff

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 received her training from the Myrtle Beach School of Performing Arts, where she was trained and examined in the Cecchetti Method of Ballet. She was a member of the Strand Ballet Theatre and Karavan Moving Company. She has been a member of Dance Masters of America and the Southern Council of Dance Masters since 1999.  She is currently the past president of Chapter 44 and director for the Solo title competition. Nancy has also been a member of the Cecchetti Council of America since 1993 and is the current registrar of the South Coastal Committee. Her students have won numerous awards at regional and national competitions, and some have gone on to continue their dance profession teaching, judging, and performing throughout the country. She is the proud teacher of Petite Miss Dance of SCDM 2009, Mr Dance of America 2013, Mr Dance of America 2016, and Petite Miss Dance of SCDM 2017. 

Brenna has been involved in dance for over 30 years. She began dancing at the age of four and fell in love with the art. She started her training at Bonnie’s School of Dance, where she later moved to a “DMA studio”.  She then began broadening her training by taking master classes and workshops. After feeling comfortable enough with her knowledge of Dance, She became Co-Owner of Planet Dance Center of the Arts in Summerville, SC and has devoted the last 16 years to teaching at the studio.  Brenna is often asked to judge various competitions, and is a member of The Cecchetti Council of America and Dance Masters of America. She has been a member of Dance Masters of America for fifteen years and is honored to be elected as a National Area Director at this past National convention. She is also the proud teacher of Petite Miss Dance of SCDM 2009, Mr Dance of America 2013, Mr Dance of America 2016, and Petite Miss Dance of SCDM 2017. 

   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.   

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.   

 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.  

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. 

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.

Janice Oliver was born in Spartanburg, SC. She graduated from Spartanburg High School in 1981 and eventually moved to Charleston, SC in 1985. She worked retail for several years then was a veterinary technician at Patrick Veterinary Clinic for 13 years. Janice has two children, Kristen and Kodi. She has been a team mom for softball and dance over the years. Janice graduated from Charleston Southern University in 2008 with a teaching certificate. She has worked in Berkeley County School District for 23 years and is currently teaching preschool at College Park Elementary in Berkeley County.

Alex is a Charleston native and is so excited to be a part of the Planet Dance family! Alex grew up in the arts and before running restaurants for the last few years she spent her time working for multiple theatre companies and stage-managing productions all over the Charleston area. She is currently the Production Manager for Ignite Dance Competition and is so excited to work and learn with Planet Dance to be able to see the other side of the world of competitive dance!