began studying dance & gymnastics when she was 3 years old. Quickly, she moved on to Ballet, Pointe, Lyrical, Jazz, Acrobatics, Hip Hop, Modern, and Tap. Under the direction of Alyson Veit, Jenna discovered she truly loved Modern dance and was awarded 5th place at nationals for her solo Mad World. She also discovered she had a knack for choreography and, as a senior at Dublin Scioto High School, got the honor of choreographing many school musicals such as Stepping Out, High School Musical, Singing in the Rain, and the non-profit production, Broadway Cares. Jenna is an Industrial Design major and Dance Education minor at The Ohio State University. Her life long goal is to work as a Designer while still being able to study and teach dance. Recently, Jenna spent her summer studying and backbacking in Florence, Italy, with Accademia Italiana for Art, focusing on drawing and photography.

graduated from Wittenberg University with a B.A. in Psychology & a Dance minor. During her years as a Wittenberg Dance Company member, Alyson choreographed numerous works including Number 4, El Jardin de Aquarila, Bane, and Weather, which was taken to the American College Dance Festival in 2001. After graduating, Alyson attended The Ohio State University as a graduate student in Clinical Counseling. In 2006, Alyson opened her studio with the support of many, many friends, family, & dancers. Her dream is to provide an ever-improving, healthy, environment for children & adults to learn the many joys of dance. Her passion is Modern dance and she has trained in various forms including Graham, Cunningham, Taylor, & Horton. As a teacher, Alyson presents her students with the basics of Modern using contraction, fall & release, momentum, and internal connection. As the students gain confidence in class, improvisation is incorporated and eventually becomes a staple in class & advanced student choreography. Through improvisation, students develop their own unique way of moving through space; students develop a sense of their own body's true, genuine dance. Her choreography has been recognized & awarded at regional and national level competitions. Alyson and her husband Corey live in Powell and enjoy spending time with their 2 year old son, Beau David.

Candi began her training at the age of 3 in Vienna, Ohio, studying tap, ballet, jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, and acrobatics. As a competitive dancer, she not only won innumerable awards at both regional and national competition levels, Candi also had the opportunity to travel internationally with her team to performances in Australia, Italy, Mexico, and Jamaica. After high school, Candi was awarded her teacher training certificate through Dance Educators of America. While attending Youngstown State University, she owned and directed Footwork Dance, a recreational and competitive dance studio in Cortland, OH. Candi’s competitive students performed in locations such as Honolulu, Hawaii, and Walt Disney World, and were featured at venues such as the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, TN and at halftime for the Cleveland Cavaliers. During these years, Candi was also coach for the Sharon High School Dance Team in Sharon, PA, taught classes at Arena’s Dance Centre in Moon Township, PA, and performed as a member of the YSU Dance Ensemble. After graduating with her B.S. in Business Administration, she focused on establishing her career in her degree field. Candi is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the teachers & students at Powell Dance Academy.

Gavin Mark McNally started his training with Fort Wayne Ballet at the age of eight. He furthered his studies at Interlochen Arts Academy performing lead roles in The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty, he then went to Indiana University to train with Violette Verde. He joined the Kansas City Ballet where he performed works including Todd Bolender’s Danses Concertante, Twyla Tharp’s As Time Goes By, and George Balanchine’s Stravinsky Violin Concerto.  Mr. McNally returned home to the Fort Wayne Ballet performing roles including Oberon and Theseus in a Midsummernight's Dream.  He spent a year in New York City dancing with various companies and furthering his movement studies.  He is excited to be returning to the Midwest, dancing his first season for Columbus Dance Theatre & teaching at Powell Dance Academy.

Beth’s dance training began in her hometown of Dayton, Ohio. She has studied various forms of dance, including ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, hip hop, hula, and Tahitian among others. She grew up attending dance conventions and competing on dance team. Beth enjoys all dance styles but is particularly fond of tap, and thus, she began focusing her energy on rhythm tap in 1996. Beth studied with members of Dayton, Ohio’s professional tap dance company “Rhythm in Shoes” for approximately eight years and was an understudy for RIS’ production of “Nova Town” in 2000. When she moved to Columbus in 2005, Beth began studying tap with Becky Hoag. She joined the Columbus Tap Project! one year later and performed with CTP! in “Tappy Holidays” in New York City in 2006 and 2007. Beth has taken tap classes from many master teachers including Brenda Bufalino, Buster Brown, Jimmy Tate, Jason Samuels Smith, Sarah Savelli, Ayodele Casel, Jason Janas, and Lynn Schwab. In addition, she has choreographed high school productions of “The Sound of Music,” “The Music Man,” and “Bye, Bye Birdie.” Beth’s previous teaching experience includes teaching at Mitchell Aaron Productions Centre of the Arts, Rhythm in Shoes, Becky Hoag, and dance studios in the Columbus area. Beth currently dances with Hoofin’ Rhythms and is thrilled to join the staff at Powell Dance Academy to teach its talented students.

Jennifer Wade has earned her teaching degree from Ohio University with a minor in dance. Jennifer has studied with Joanne Morscher, Dee Hillier, Troy McCarty, David Strobbe, Ana Lobe, Lynn Tabor, Mary Jo Rimke, Josh Widick, Kenya Woods, Sean Curran, Earl Mosley, Joanna de Souza, Zelma Badu-Younge, Paschal Yao-Younge, American Theater Dance Workshop in NYC, the faculty of Ohio University and many others. Jennifer was a company member of Azaguno African Contemporary Dance Company from 2005 to 2009 which has allowed her to perform in Princeton, New Jersey, Athens, Ohio, Sacheon, South Korea, Bologna, Italy and Taiwan, China. Jennifer had her last tour with the company in Oct. 2009. Jennifer has also been highly trained in ballet, jazz, modern, lyrical, theater dance, Indian dance and African drumming and dance and continues to keep up her training. She has worked in studios in the Cleveland area for 4 ½ years and she is also a teaching artist for Dancing Classrooms Northeast Ohio which brings ballroom dance to 5th and 8th graders in their schools. Dancing Classrooms has begun to change the Cleveland area and Jennifer is blessed to be a part of this turn around. Most recently Jennifer was a guest dancer in the company Marquez Dance Project and plans on dancing with the company again in the near future. Jennifer’s competition teams have won numerous awards and, in 2011, Jennifer earned Best Choreography for her dance REDEEMED. She is very excited to start working with the students at Powell Dance Academy and can’t wait to see what is to come.