Administrative Team
Emily Masters studied ballet, tap and jazz under such esteemed teachers as Charles Ryburn, Terrell Paulk, and Gus Giordano. She was a member of the Appalachian Modern Dance Ensemble while attending Appalachian State University, where she earned a BA in English (dance minor). As a professional ballroom dancer she earned recognition as a "Rising Star" in American 9-dance, American Smooth and Theatrical Ballroom. She earned an MA in English before moving to Nashville in 2000, where she began a career in non-profit fundraising and programming. She founded DancEast in 2008.
Emily Booth Masters
Founder & Executive Director
Lauren Magnifico Melancon has a BA in art history (dance minor) from Saint Mary’s College. She trained at Grand Valley State University under the direction of Jefferson Baum, and she is a certified Progressing Ballet Technique Instructor and a member of the National Dance Education Organization. In 2010, she stepped into the role of co-owner of DancEast, in 2011 founding DancEast Workshop for young dancers. She left Nashville in 2014 and served as a faculty member at Southold Dance Theatre in South Bend, Indiana. Back in Nashville since 2017, Lauren now serves as Education Director for DancEast Collective.
Lauren Magnifico Melancon
Education Director
Lara Kennedy
Operations Manager
Faculty
Megan Barbee earned a BA in Dance Performance and Choreography and minors in Education and Psychology from the University of South Carolina. Upon moving to Nashville, she earned a degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Lipscomb University. Now, in her roles as both therapist and dance teacher, she thrives in ambiguity, embodiment, freedom of expression, and space for exploration. She enjoys combining her passions as an instructor at DancEast.
Megan Barbee
Dance Composition & Improvisation
Denise Eason returned to Nashville after a distinguished 20-year career in Hartford, Connecticut. During her time in Hartford, she was a principal dancer with the Hartford Ballet and, following her retirement, served as an adjunct professor in the dance and theater divisions at The Hartt School, University of Hartford.
From 1989 to 1994, Mrs. Eason was a company dancer with the Nashville Ballet. She returned to the company in 2015, taking on the roles of Ballet Master, company teacher, coach, and faculty member. In her role as Ballet Master, Mrs. Eason worked closely with notable figures such as Artistic Director Paul Vasterling, Victoria Simon (repetiteur for the Balanchine Trust), Jason Fowler (repetiteur for Christopher Wheeldon), and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, to name a few. Her responsibilities included staging ballets, teaching company class, coaching principal dancers, conducting audition classes for the company and Summer Intensive, rehearsing both the main company and NB2, and choreographing for both NB2 and Summer Intensive performances.
In 1994, under the direction of Kirk Peterson, Mrs. Eason became a company member with the Hartford Ballet where she performed numerous principal and soloist roles. Her repertoire included principal roles in George Balanchine’s Rubies and The Four Temperaments, Serenade, Western Symphony, Apollo, and Valse Fantaisie, Martha Graham’s Diversion of Angels, Choo-San Goh’s In the Glow of the Night, Peterson’s Giselle, and American Nutcracker, to name a few. Before her tenure at Hartford Ballet, she trained and danced professionally with the Pennsylvania Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Chautauqua Festival Company, Michigan Opera, and Septime Webre Dance.
In addition to her performance career, Mrs. Eason has been a faculty member at various academies affiliated with professional ballet companies and higher education institutions. With over 30 years of experience in professional ballet, choreography, and teaching, she brings a wealth of knowledge to her students.
Most recently, Mrs. Eason has taught at the Franklin School of the Performing Arts and the Nashville School of the Arts, where she also served as a choreographer. She continues to create dance and movement for the Hillsboro Players, a role she has fulfilled for the past decade. Mrs. Eason remains actively engaged in teaching and choreographing throughout the Middle Tennessee region, continually inspired by the talent, commitment, and dedication of her students.
Denise Eason
Pre-Professional/Professional Division Ballet
Holly Cannon-Hesse began her studies at Middle Tennessee State University, where she majored in Speech and Theatre with an Education emphasis (dance minor). She studied under Anne Holland, Nancy Turpin, and Rossi Turner in a variety of disciplines, including Modern, Ballet, and Choreographic Technique. She has been a member of Blue Moves Modern Dance Company since 1993, and she has been teaching dance to children for more than 20 years. In addition to teaching at DancEast, she is a Teaching Artist for the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s many outreach programs.
Holly Cannon Hesse
Creative Movement &
Acrobatic Dance
Kaylee Lane is a professional dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She has been dancing for 23 years — training in ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, modern, hip hop, and more— and she is in her second year of teaching. Kaylee received her B.A. in Dance from Western Kentucky University and now is a member of DancEast Company. She also frequently dances with Found Movement Group. Kaylee’s choreography has been showcased in Nashville’s Kindling Arts Festival, for the TN Arts Commission, and by DancEast Company.
Kaylee Lane
Adult Tap
Amanda Reichert is a freelance dancer and choreographer originally from Lawrence, KS. She holds a BFA in Dance Performance from Chapman University, where she was recognized as the Donna Cucunato award winner for outstanding contribution to dance. She has since worked as a freelance artist in both New York City and Nashville, collaborating on projects with Holly Johnston, Mike Esperanza, Suku Dance Lab, Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup, and MersihaMesihovic/CircuitDebris, among others, and credits the artists she has danced with along the way for both brief and deep influence on her creative process.
She has presented work for the Young Choreographer's Festival at Symphony Space and Center for Performance Research in NYC, the Kindling Arts Festival, The Barbershop Theater, and COOP Gallery in Nashville, TN, at Festival Nómada in El Salvador, and b12 Dance Festival in Berlin. She is a recipient of a Metro Arts THRIVE award and is currently collaborating with Metro Parks Dance Division and Animata Arts alongside Sarah Salim and Kathryn Wilkening to help curate residency opportunities for artists in Middle Tennessee. She is also a co-founding member of the Garage Collective, a Nashville-based improvisation group.
Amanda Reichert
Choreographers’ Lab Facilitator
Shabaz Ujima first studied dance at Nashville School of the Arts and Nashville
Ballet. He continued his training at New World School of the Arts in Miami and
went on to dance in Nashville Ballet’s Second Company before enjoying a
successful career in contemporary dance with Cleo Parker Robinson Dance
Ensemble and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company under his stage name,
Hershel Deondre Horner III. Shabaz has performed works by choreographers such
as Alvin Ailey, Donald McKayle, Milton Myers, Matt Maddox, Susanna Linke, Jose
Limon and Christopher Huggins. He currently works as a teaching artist and
choreographer, and he teaches mindfulness and yoga to local youth in the
Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center.
Shabaz Ujima
Level 3/4 Modern & Open
Level Modern
Marcela De La Vega Luna, originally from Mexico City, began her career as a professional dancer in 1996, dancing with Danza Conteporanea XXI and Púrpura Danza-Teatro. By 1999, Marcela became a member of “Escueadron Jitomate Bola” theatrical, comedic, circus troupe under the direction of Anatoli Lokachtchouk, in Mexico City. She went on to perform the role of “Queen of the Wind” as a featured dancer in “Zumanity” by Cirque Du Soleil in Las Vegas. She added to her experience by becoming a Pilates instructor in 2007 and a Reiki Master in 2014.
Marcela de la Vega Luna
Pre-Professional/Preprofessional Division Contemporary & Pilates
Quincy Ellison (aka QKong) started breaking in 2001 and was traveling the South, East Coast, and Midwest extensively by 2002. He won a number of jams, including Loose Screws, NBL, Get Rooted, and Atlanta Street Jam. He is a founding member of Illville Crew (established 2003) and co-started Bashville - now one of the largest jams in the South - in 2004. QKong started dabbling in house dancing around 2005, devoting himself more seriously in 2011. He’s been a member of Digital Nativez since 2013. He founded 615 House of Dance in 2013 as a community resource for all levels of dancers.
Quincy Ellison
Breakdance
Kelly Heyman is originally from Southern California, but has lived in the greater Nashville, Tennessee area since 2000. She’s been dancing since the age of 13, starting in hip hop and moving into the world of ballet, jazz, contemporary, pointe, modern, and jazz-funk, competing in dance competitions. In 2019 she completed her BFA in Theatre and Dance from Austin Peay State University, training with renowned names such as Elaine Husted, Ellen Werksman, Marcus Hayes, and Laquimah VanDunk to name a few. She continued her training in 2021, taking intensives with the renown Martha Graham Dance Company, working with former company members Peiju Chein-Pott and Amelia Benard. Further, she developed her hip hop skills with Kyle Hanagami’s intensive the same year. Kelly is excited to be part of the DancEast team after teaching in Clarksville, Tennessee, choreographing award-winning competition numbers ranging from hip hop to jazz to musical theatre. She is so exciting to be a part of the DancEast family!
Kelly Heyman
Creative Movement & Primary Dance
Claudia Monja was born in Havana, Cuba. At age 3, she began practicing rhythmic gymnastics, which she did until beginning her ballet studies at age 9. After studying at the Elemental Ballet School and the Cuban National Ballet School, she began her professional career with the Cuban National Ballet. Shortly after, she joined the Ballet de Camagüey, where she performed as a soloist for six years. In 2012, she became a Principal Dancer with Joburg Ballet in South Africa, where she performed works like Giselle, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, La Traviata, Spring Waters, Flames of Paris, and Gamzatti. She has worked with choreographers such as Redha Benteifour and Corey Baker and has danced in internal tours to Italy, Ecuador, Colombia, and China and credit these experiences to her growth as an artist. Monja is passionate about empowering youth and exposing them to the beauty of ballet. In addition to dancing on stage, she has worked as a ballet instructor, composed her own productions, and both prepared and judged students in competitive competitions.
Claudia Monja
Level 3/4 Ballet & Pointe
Caroline Seamons
Primary Dance, Primary Tap &
Level 1/2 Modern
Kyrstin Young
Hip-Hop
Delaine Dobbs is a dancer and choreographer whose work spans across live performance and film. Her style fuses the elegance and grace of classical techniques with the innovation and storytelling of contemporary forms. She began dancing at a young age in Nashville, TN before moving to NYC as a teen to study at The Joffrey Ballet School. She later went on to graduate from the Ailey School and spent the next few years dancing professionally between NYC and LA. She is now back in Nashville, dancing with DancEast Company and teaching for DancEast School.
Delaine Dobbs
Creative Movement & Level 3/4 Tap
Stacie Flood-Popp started her dance education in Paris, France, dancing with Jean Claude Marginale’s Tout En Danse company. She worked closely with world renowned choreographer Andre Fuentes and danced with Collide Dance under Erica Sobol upon her return to the United States. Stacie has taught dance for the last 18 years and has developed many dancers who have gone on to dance professionally.
Stacie Flood-Popp
Open Level Contemporary & Choreographers’ Lab Facilitator
Whit Hill grew up in New York City where she studied dance, theater, and music. She spent many years living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she was the artistic director of an acclaimed dance company, People Dancing--Whitley Setrakian and Dancers, choreographing more than 60 dance and dance/theater works. She toured the country as a backup singer for a band, began writing her own songs, then formed her own band, Whit Hill and the Postcards. That band released two records: We Are Here and Farsighted. Whit and her husband, award-winning blues artist Al Hill, moved to Nashville in 2008. In 2016, Whit released I Dug it Up: an album of songs inspired by metal detecting; she is currently developing a musical by the same name.
Whitley Hill
Written Words and Dancing Humans
Timberlake Pieper was a dancer at DancEast from when she was 9 until graduating high school. She has a BA from Bennington college where she studied Dance and Psychology, focusing on how dance impacts child development. Timberlake is passionate about incorporating dance into classrooms, and now works at a local Montessori school. She has worked with children as young as 6 weeks old, all the way through 6th grade. She was delighted to return to DancEast as a Creative Movement instructor!
Timberlake Pieper
Creative Movement
Lily Sekeres began her dance training with DancEast at age 4. Her expertise spans genres - from Ballet to Jazz, Contemporary to Tap, Modern to Acrobatics. As a teen, she participated in multiple intensives, including Perry-Mansfield, New Dialect, and Nashville’s Metro Parks Dance Division. She took advantage of opportunities to expand her learning by taking open classes at Middle Tennessee State University and Western Kentucky University, and she co-choreographed and performed an original work at the Going Dutch Festival in Elgin, IL. She has been a member of DancEast Company since its founding in 2022.
Lily Sekeres
Creative Movement & Level 3/4 Tap
Board of Directors
Amia Butler
Amia Butler
Meharry Medical College
Tracee Perrin
Tracee Perrin
Launch TN
Curtis Thomas is a performer, educator, and creative consultant originally from New Orleans with deep heart strings in Nashville. With a performing career that has spanned both concert dance and theater, he has worked with artists such as Camille A. Brown, Banning Bouldin, David Dorfman, Kayla Farrish, and Margot Gelber as well as in the cast and creative team of the hit musical Waitress. Most recently Curtis has danced in the Metropolitan Opera’s productions of Carmen and Fire Shut Up In My Bones co-directed and choreographed by Camille A. Brown. Curtis is also a creative and curricular consultant working with data scientists, choreographers, and young learners to merge the worlds of computer programming, education, and dance.
Curtis Thomas
Freelance Artist
Chelsea Norman is the Board Chair of DancEast Collective and the founder and CEO of Rise Wins, a woman-owned public affairs firm based in Nashville, Tennessee. Established in 2019, Rise Wins specializes in inclusive, intersectional, and modern campaign building, offering strategic community engagement and communications services to clients nationwide.
Under Norman’s leadership, Rise Wins has become a trusted partner for organizations seeking to build impactful, equity-driven campaigns. Her innovative approach to public affairs has earned her recognition, including being named one of Nashville Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 honorees in 2024.
Chelsea resides in Nashville with her two dogs, Liberty and Justice
Chelsea Norman, Board Chair
Rise Wins
Sara Pruneski has over 15 years of experience, Sara has helped nonprofits, foundations, and companies of all sizes find their voice, connect with their audiences, and drive meaningful change. As a director at Hall Strategies, one of Nashville’s top public relations firms, she leads with strategy and creativity, supporting clients through thought leadership, advocacy campaigns, and sharp, effective messaging.
Sara’s love of movement and storytelling began in the dance studio, where she trained from a young age in every style from ballet to tap. She earned her degree in history from Skidmore College in upstate New York, with minors in dance and government. At Skidmore, she immersed herself in the arts, performing in student showcases, training with celebrated faculty, and dancing with the student-led tap ensemble Stompin’ Soles.
She lives in Nashville with her husband, two kids, and their high-energy Australian Shepherd.
Sara Pruneski
Hall Strategies
Johanna Young
Johanna Young, Board Treasurer
Calvetti Ferguson
Tony Perrin, With over forty years as an visual and performing artist, Tony brings a lifelong commitment to movement, storytelling, and the transformative power of the arts. Trained at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Fashion Institute of Technology, his work bridges performance, visual design, and education. He's taught in both public schools and private settings, advocating for equitable access to the visual and performing arts. As founder of Lock and Key Jewelry, he creates handcrafted jewelry that honors fine art and the slow-made process. Based in Nashville, he has proudly collaborated with organizations like Friends Life and Fashion is for Everybody, supporting inclusive, art-centered communities.
Tony Perrin
Lock & Key
Lindsay Fine Smith has been choreographing and teaching dance for 20 years. She has a BFA in Theatre Arts with an emphasis in Dance from the University of Mississippi. She lived in Los Angeles for several years, where she furthered her dance training and teaching skills. She later returned to Oxford, MS where she taught at the University of Mississippi and co-founded Hinge Dance Company. After years of dedication to the dance community in North Mississippi, Lindsay moved to Nashville in 2015, where she is an instructor for DancEast School and choreographer for DancEast Company.
Lindsay Fine Smith
Move with Lindz