Meet our Dance Instructors!

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Meghan Burgess 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 had the chance to train with choreographers such as Stacy McConnell, Mia Cunningham, Meg Griffin and many more. Meghan led multiples 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 also serves as a judge and master class teacher for Precision Arts Challenge Dance Competition.

 Born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, Daequan developed an early passion for dance and performing. With hard work and dedication, he auditioned and was accepted into Berkeley Center for the Arts. He was able to learn from many teachers, building a solid foundation in dance. while still perfecting his craft, Dequan choreographed and starred in a commercial for JC Penny. He competed and won the title of Mr. Dance at Southern Council of Dance Masters in 2017, and competed in Dance Masters of America’s national competition in Anaheim, California. Daequan has won multiple competitions with his choreography. A regular face at the PDCA studio, he has choreographed numerous routines for our dancers.  

Katie was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina where she received her dance education. In her early age, she was a competitive dancer in many regional dance competitions. She has trained in Ballet, Modern and Jazz techniques. She studied with the late Robert Ivey at the Robert Ivey Ballet where she fine tuned her technique and his charisma sparked more life into her heart for dance. She attended the South Carolina Governor ’s School for the Arts. While at the school she took daily classes with Stanislav Isseav & Irena Ushakova bringing her training to new heights. She also had the pleasure to work with many industry leaders including Alonzo King, Hernan Justo, Robert Barnett, Sandra Neels, Lloyd Withmore and many more. principal roles in numerous ballets and contemporary works.

A familiar face at PDCA, Katie has worked with our dancers in summer workshops, conditioning, and technique master classes. She continues to teach with Coastal Ballet USA & Charleston Ballet Center for dance education working with dancers on technique classes along with stretching and strengthening. She has worked with numerous studios across the low country working on both performance and competition pieces. She has received numerous awards like A Breath of Fresh Air and Stunning Choreography for her modern works. She continues to travel as guest artist and teacher through out the country for summer intensives, choreography, and private coaching. 

  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 has lived in Summerville for the majority of his life. Starting dance at the age of 9, he realized his passion and enthusiasm for the art for. His training commenced with Metro North Dance focusing on ballet. He trained with the Cecchetti Method of ballet and as a student-tested with the Cecchetti Council of America. Avery has been teaching for the past 8 years. Avery was an assistant coach for Goose Creek Gymnastics and Olympia Gymnastics. He has experience doing choreography for Cane Bay High school and the Flowertown Players in downtown Summerville. Avery is excited to be a part of the Planet Dance Team and share his love and passion for dance with our students.

Gabrielle Smith grew up training at Planet Dance in all styles of dance. She is a Planet Dance competition team alumni and is excited to teach our some primary and bit bop classes this season! As a recent high school graduate, she has moved into her teaching career and looks forward to teaching young girls and boys to dance while watching them grow and evolve in an art form that she has always loved.