2011-2012
Instructors

Melissa began dance at the age of three taking classes in tap and ballet, and later in jazz and baton. During her Junior High school years, she taught dance and baton for the Beverly Hills Youth Football League. In High School, she was a member of the Huntington High Pony Express Majorette Corps for 2 years and the Slight Touch Dance Team for 3 years. She began teaching again while attending college at Marshall University.  In the fall of 2002, she opened Premiere Dance Studio. Melissa's primary focus is with preschool and elementary children teaching Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Hip Hop, Baton and Mommy & Me. She also enjoys choreographing outside the studio for theater and high schools. She currently is working with First Stage Theater and Fairland High School. Melissa and her husband, Aaron, have two wonderful children, Katelyn and Ryan. Melissa is from Huntington, WV.

Tonya Farley Parker (Instructor - Twirling, Tap, Jazz)

Tonya has been dancing since she was 4 years old. She took lessons in jazz, tap, ballet, and pointe from Summersville Dance Theatre. She was a member of her High School Dance Team and was captain for 2 years. Tonya began twirling when she was 7 years old. Growing up in Summersville, WV, she was a member of the Summersville Missyettes. While attending Nicholas County High School, she was a member of the majorette corps from 1986-89 and was named Head Majorette for the 1987-89 seasons. Tonya was also a Marshall University Majorette from 1989-90. Tonya has both instructed and choreographed routines for several high school majorette groups. She was a judge at the Governor's Cup Marching Championship in Summersville for many years. Tonya has been employed as a Preschool Teacher for the past 5 years.  After noticing how much her preschoolers enjoyed Creative Movement, she wanted to extend that program into the studio and offer a class for boys. This year, she is excited to be teaching Boyz Beat – a new addition to PDS classes – aimed for boys ages 3 – 6.  A graduate of MU, she is married to Dicky and has two children, Madison and Ben. Tonya begins her 9th year at PDS teaching baton, tap, preschool combo, and boy’s classes. 

Tori Craft (Instructor – Ballet. Tap, Hip Hop, Jazz)

Tori began dance in first grade and continued through high school taking classes in tap, modern, ballet, jazz, and lyrical from the Princeton Dance Studio. She is a graduate of Princeton Senior High where she danced on the Princeton High Dance Team serving as its captain her Senior year. From 2002-2006, she performed with the Princeton Performing Arts Company (PPAC) traveling and performing at various competitions and conventions. In the summer of 2008, she worked as a contemporary jazz instructor for PPAC. Tori danced for 4 years on Marshall University's Dance Team and is studying Photography as her college major. She plans to graduate in 2011 with a degree in Art and open her own photography portrait studio.

Lisa Hernandez (Instructor - Modern, Hip Hop, Ballet, Pointe)

Lisa danced with the River Cities Dance Company and with several other area studios for the past 10 years. She has performed all over the tri-state and has taught dance for 5 years teaching ballet, Hip hop, and Contemporary. Lisa is a sophomore at MU majoring in Biology and a minor in Psychology. She hopes to attend Medical School in the future and continue teaching dance for as long as she can.

Alyssa Hall (Tap/Jazz/Baton/Lyrical)

Alyssa began dance at the age of 3 years taking tap and ballet. She later took classes in tap, jazz, pre pointe, and hip hop. She is a graduate of Huntington High School where she served as a member of the HHS Highlander band on the Dance Team. Alyssa is a freshman at Marshall University majoring in Nursing and is a member of the MU Marching Thunder Color Guard. 

Katelyn McGuffin

Katelyn is a Senior at Huntington High School. She enters her 15th year of dance having taken classes in Ballet, Pointe, Tap, Jazz, Baton, Hip Hop, Modern, and Lyrical. She has been in several community theater musicals including Carnival and Annie as well as many in her church and schools. She has directed choreography for New Baptist Church's youth and children and for Premiere Dance Studio's Summer Dance classes. Katelyn assists with our Combo and Hip Hop classes.

MaryBeth Freeman (Instructor – Baton, Tap)

MaryBeth began dance at age 11yrs taking Jazz and Baton at Nancy’s School of Dance in Huntington, WV. In 1990-93, she attended Barboursville HS where she twirled as a Majorette and was named Head Majorette her Senior year.  After graduation, she attended Marshall University where she received a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education and a Master’s in Learning Disabilities. She also was a member of the MU Thundering Herd Majorette Corp in 1993-94. She currently teaches 4th grade at The Village of Barboursville Elementary School. She and her husband, Don, have 2 children, Robbie and Jillian.

Misty

Misty began dancing at the age of 3 at Charlotte’s Dance School in Morgantown, WV.  She took classes there for 13 years taking tap and jazz.   Misty earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology from West Virginia University and a Master of Science Degree in Forensic Science from Marshall University.  She currently is a Forensic DNA Analyst at the Marshall University Forensic Science Center as well as an adjunct faculty member in the MU Forensic Science Graduate Program.  She is married to Todd and they have a daughter, Marra.

Hailey Lara (Assistant)

Hailey started dance at the age of three with classes in ballet and jazz. She then went on to dance study lyrical and modern and compete with on Elite Dance Academy’s dance team. Hailey assisted in Creative Movement classes while at Elite and then taught her own Creative Movement classes at The Dancer Within. She is currently attending Marshall University working on a degree in Communication Studies. She is part of the Thundering Word, the MU speech team. Her hope is to go on and study law. This is Hailey’s first year at PDS.

Taylor Carey (Instructor – Tap, Jazz, Ballet)

Taylor began dancing at the age of 3 with the Turning Pointe Dance Studio. She took classes there for 11 years taking ballet, tap, jazz, and lyrical. She then took class at Elite Performance Academy in 2003, competing in their senior dance company with Pointe, jazz, tap, and lyrical and assisting in their Creative Movement classes. She later taught Creative Movement at The Dancer Within. Taylor is in her second year of Graduate School at MU studying Communication Disorders. She will graduate as a Speech Pathologist and hopes to work with adults in that field. She has a son, Max, whom she hopes to spend lots of time with after school is finished.