The Staff Members at South Carolina Dance Company Value Every Student and Family. South Carolina Dance Company is Committed to Treating Students and Families with the Highest Level of Professionalism, Respect, and Courtesy.
The staff members of South Carolina Dance Company encourage you to let us know at anytime if we are not meeting your expectations or providing you with the level of services you desire. South Carolina Dance Company instructors and staff members have Christian beliefs and support comes from the staff through prayer and ministry by guiding students (young and old). We believe that if we train our children in the way they should go, when they are old they will not depart from it.
Our goal is to provide each dancer the opportunity to grow and learn in all disciplines of the performing arts while providing a safe, happy, and nurturing environment with Christian staff members. Our goal is for South Carolina Dance Company to be the BEST DANCE STUDIO IN THE MIDLANDS!
Danyele Gardner – Owner and Artistic Director of South Carolina Dance Company
Danyele Gardner currently serves as owner, director, instructor, and choreographer of the South Carolina Dance Company. She is excited to be celebrating her 20th year with SC Dance Company in her hometown Lexington, SC. Danyele has trained in all areas of dance, voice, and acting for over 40 years. She has directed and produced many spring concerts, pageant productions, theater/church performances and numerous special events. Some of Danyele’s studentshave been invited to attend Governor’s School of the Arts, New York Programs such as Kids Artistic Revue, JUMP, the Rockettes, Boston Conservatory, AMDA, as well as other intensive training sessions. Her training began as a young student at Calvert Brodie Studios, Stepping Out, and Southern Strutt. She then furthered her studies traveling the southeast taking classes from master choreographers such as Doug Caldwell, Frank Hatchett, Lady Di (tapper), and many more. Her professional repertoire includes Peter Pan, Grease, Crazy for You, Wizard of Oz, Road to Victor, The Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and many more. Danyele’s passion is for the parents, students, and staff to be a part of the best dance education and facility in the Midlands. Along with Ashley Howell Neal, Amanda Burgess, and Shannon Canady, Danyele was awarded Teacher of the Year Awards and Choreographer of the Year, Top Primary, Intermediate and Elite studio and Nationals Grand Champions at Kids Artistic Revue Nationals. Recently SCDC was awarded 4 “Best of the Best” Awards and Nationals. Danyele has attended the Dance Teacher Summit in NYC to further her dance education and enjoys traveling across the country judging for state and national dance competitions. Danyele has a Dental Hygiene Degree, a BA in Elementary Education and Child and family Studies from Columbia College, and a degree in Health Science. She gives all the glory of her creativity to the Lord and desires for God to be honored through prayer. Danyele currently resides in Lexington, SC with her husband Jonathan, and her two boys Jon David and Jonah.
Ashley Howell Neal – Company Co-Director, Instructor
Ashley is starting her 15th season here at South Carolina Dance Company. She began her dance training at the age of 3 at ShaMar Dance Studios with her mother, Sharon Jones. At the age of 10, Ashley was accepted into Columbia City Ballet II and began training under William Starrett and Mariclare Miranda at the Columbia Conservatory of Dance. At the age of 15, she was asked to join the Columbia City Ballet and performed many soloist roles in ballets such as The Nutcracker, Hootie & The Blowfish, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Off the Wall & Onto the Stage Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green. In addition to her ballet studies, Ashley begin training at South Carolina Performing Arts Center for jazz and tap and became a Senior member of Company One, winning top overall awards for solos and groups.
Over the years, Ashley has trained with world-renowned choreographers such as Jason Parsons, Mia Michaels, Mandy Moore, Travis Wall, Chris Dupre, Stephen “Twitch” Boss, Allison Holker, Cynthia Harvey, and David Howard. Now retired from her dance career, Ashley enjoys sharing her love for the art with her students. Her choreography has been recognized at the regional and national level. Along with Danyele Gardner, Ashley was awarded Teacher of the Year Awards in 2012, 2013, and 2015 and Choreographer of the Year 2013, Top Primary Studio 2015, and Elite National Grand Champions 2013 at Kids Artistic Revue Nationals. SCDC was awarded 2 Best of the Best Awards and National Top First Call Studio in Charleston, SC at Applause Nationals Finals. During her time here, SCDC has won over 10 top studio awards. Ashley has attended the Dance Teacher Summit in NYC to further her dance education and enjoys traveling across the country judging dance competitions. In addition to teaching, Ashley enjoys spending time at home with her husband and children Keena and Tobias.
Amanda Burgess – Company Assistant, Instructor, Office Staff
Born and raised in Columbia, SC and a graduate of Spring Valley High School, Amanda began studying ballet at the age of four with the Columbia Conservatory of Dance. She has trained under Mariclare Miranda, William Starrett, Serge Lavioe, Kerrie-Anne Dunn Sparks, Ashley Howell and Kimberly Langley. She danced on stage with the Columbia City Ballet beginning at the age of five, became a member of CCBII, the junior company, at the age of seven and continued until she became a full company member at age 17. She danced professionally with Columbia City Ballet for 5 years. While with Columbia City Ballet she has performed in numerous Ballet productions since 1997 totaling over 60 roles, her favorite being the Pas De Six from Sleeping Beauty. Amanda began competing with Columbia Conservatory Dance Company when she was 12, first in Ballet then in Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary and Musical Theatre winning numerous solo and group awards. Amanda has attended summer programs at the Boston Ballet and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre where she had the privilege of taking classes with Li-Chou Cheng, David Howard, Gelsey Kirkland, Dennis Marshall, Laura Young among many others. Amanda has attended the Dance Teacher Summit in New York City to further her teaching education. While teaching with SCDC for over a decade, Amanda has truly enjoyed passing along her love of dance with her students. Not only have many of her students won top awards, but they have also placed in the top five regionally and nationally. Amanda is extremely honored to continue teaching at SCDC year after year! In addition to teaching, Amanda loves spending time with her husband, Griffin and their son Hunter whom they welcomed in January 2022.
Shannon Canady – Company Manager, Instructor
Dance has been an important part of Shannon’s life since she was three years old. She began her dance training studying ballet, jazz, and tap. She danced in Community Theater, local and regional dance competitions, and decided to further her studies earning a BA Degree in dance from Columbia College with an emphasis in Teaching and Performance. While she was there, she worked with dance masters and choreographers such as Liz Lerman, Marcus Alford, Dan Wagoner, Libby Patenaude, Martha Brim, Wrenn Cook, and Patty Graham. Since then, she has led dance programs in Richland and Lexington One, organized and led the Tri-district Dance Consortium After School Dance Program in Lexington One, taught workshops in ballet, jazz, tap, and modern dance throughout the state and served on curriculum and grant writing committees. She earned her National Board Certification in Career and Technology Education and served as the Lead Dance Teacher for Lexington One, a Coaching Teacher with the USC Dance Education Majors, and was a Mentor for new teachers in Lexington One. She attended the Broadway Teaching Institute in New York City to further her dance education. She was the Lexington Varsity Cheerleading Coach for 27 years and won two state championships and numerous runner-up titles. Shannon retired from teaching dance and musical theater at Pleasant Hill Middle School in 2022 but still coaches the Pleasant Hill Middle Dance Team. At SC Dance Company, she is now the Company Manager and works with the South Carolina Dance Competitive teams and recreational programs. She is very excited to be a part of the SC Dance Company staff once again this year.
Sharon Jones – Instructor, Accounts Manager
Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Sharon is no stranger to the dance world. With over 30 years of teaching experience, Sharon trained at local studios through high school and continued taking dance classes in college at the University of South Carolina with Susan Anderson and a local studio with Wrenn Cooke. In 1989, Sharon took over Sha-Mar Dance Studios in Irmo, South Carolina and went on to own it for 7 years. In 1999, after a short hiatus from teaching, Sharon joined the staff of the Columbia Conservatory of Dance. In 2002, she was appointed head of the Tap Department and in 2003 took over as Artistic Director of the Columbia City Tap Company. In 2005, to expand the Tap Company she and her daughter Ashley created CC Dance Company- a company that grew to over 60 members who competed in jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical, hip hop and musical theatre. Many of her students have taken top honors at regional and national competitions in the southeast. She is a judge for Kids Artisic Reveue National Dance Competition and Rainbow National Dance Competition. Sharon is formerly the Director of the award winning Columbia Conservatory Dance Company. She has also served as the Children’s Regisseur for the Columbia City Ballet. Sharon’s former students have danced with the Columbia City Ballet, Robert Ivy Ballet, and on Broadway. Current students can be seen in local theatre productions as well as local and national television commercials. Sharon’s stage credits include “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat”, “The Wiz”, Mrs Stahlbaum in The Nutcracker and Berthe in Giselle. To stay aware of the latest teaching methods and dance trends, Sharon attends local and national dance conventions and workshops.
Lauren Smith – Instructor
Lauren Smith has been a dancer for her entire life. She started out at age 5 at Linda Watkins’ School of Dance in Roanoke, Virginia, where she danced as a lion to music from the Lion King in her first recital. Lauren trained in ballet, tap and jazz and completed regionally for Linda Watkins until she graduated from Hidden Valley High School in Roanoke, VA where she was also on the dance team. From there, she went on to study at Virginia Tech, where she was a choreographer and the Event Planner for Fusion Dance Team. Lauren graduated in the spring of 2012 from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor’s degree in English and proceeded to work full time in Roanoke. She also taught ballet, tap, and jazz and coached the competition team for LWSD. She has choreographed many jazz, contemporary, and lyrical pieces that have been performed and competed by LWSD dancers, many placing in Top 5 at regional and national level competitions. Lauren moved to Lexington, SC in 2014 and immediately began teaching part time at SC Dance Company. She worked as an event planner for the Five Points business district in downtown Columbia for four years, and in 2018 left that job to work full time at SC Dance Company as Marketing Manager, planning studio events and teaching. When not at the studio, Lauren enjoys spending time with her daughters Ellie & Remi and sharing all there is to love about Lexington with them. Lauren is incredibly excited to be in her 11th year teaching at SC Dance Company and continue sharing her passion with dancers of all ages!
Rebekah Keisler – Instructor
Rebekah started dancing at the age of three at Gilbert Studio of Dance Arts and began competition dance at five years old. Moving to South Carolina Dance Company in 2009, she was trained primarily by Danyele Gardner and Ashley Howell Neal in ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, contemporary, lyrical, hip hop, and musical theater. She danced on the competition team at SCDC for eleven years. At SCDC, Rebekah has had amazing opportunities to take master classes from many fabulous dancers including Daniel Gaymon, Stephen “tWitch” Boss, Allison Holker, Cyrus “Glitch” Spencer, Todd Flanagan, Chryssie Whitehead, Regina Willoughby, Katie Smoak, Antoine Olds, Jordan Casanova, Jeremy Hudson, Chase Hudson, Caroline Lewis-Jones, and many others. In 2014, she performed with Columbia City Ballet in “Dracula”. In 2016, Rebekah attended the five week summer dance program at The Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, SC that helped solidify her love for ballet. She has also had the opportunity to choreograph several shows for the local theater, On Stage Productions, while serving as their Youth Choreographer. Rebekah was honored to perform the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Dew Drop in South Carolina Dance Company’s “Land of Sweets” Christmas Show her senior year of high school in 2019. She was ecstatic to reprise the role of Sugar Plum Fairy for South Carolina Dance Company’s Christmas Show, “A Christmas Spectacular” in 2023. Also in 2023, Rebekah had the opportunity to perform with a local professional dance company, Unbound Dance Company, in their show “Unbeing”. In 2024, Rebekah completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science and minor in Dance from the University of South Carolina and she intends to pursue her Master’s Degree in Occupational Therapy. She has been able to use her knowledge in anatomy and exercise to enhance her teaching. Rebekah has been blessed to be an instructor at South Carolina Dance Company for nearly a decade! She has fallen in love with teaching dance and enjoys planning fun, educational activities with her students.
Sammie Sturgill – Instructor
Sammie Sturgill is an actress, dancer, and singer. She has been dancing for sixteen years, training in tap, jazz, hip hop, clogging, ballet, lyrical, and jazz funk. Dancing in competitions for almost ten years, she placed first overall many times, both as a soloist and group participant. After competing, she began her professional career as a choreographer/instructor, specializing in tap. She moved to Los Angeles in 2017, signed with an agency and management company, and began training and working in the west coast. She has received dance instruction in all styles from some of the industry’s top choreographers, including Kyle Hanagami, Matt Steffanina, Hamilton Evans, Greg Poland, Simone Posey, and others. While auditioning in LA, she also trained many actors, some with credits including Disney and Nickelodeon, in dance, and was even a choreographer for an IMDB-credited short film. After gaining some experience in Los Angeles, she moved back to the east coast in 2021, gained agency representation in Atlanta, and has continued to audition and work while teaching at various dance studios. She got married and moved to Columbia in April of this year and can’t wait to share her passion of dance here!
Isabella DeRienzo – Instructor
Isabella’s dance career started at the age of 4 when SC Dance Company began as Pointe of Grace. She then continued dancing with Ms. Danyele as SC Dance Company. Isabella joined the competitive team at the age of 7. She competed with SC Dance Company until she graduated high school in 2021. During her competitive years she competed in jazz, acro, tap, ballet, contemporary, hip hop, and lyrical. Isabella was SC Dance Company’s first-ever youngest national champion soloist. She has also won numerous team national titles as well as national grand champion. Isabella has been blessed to be taught by many guest teachers and choreographers. Her favorites included Twitch, Antoine Olds, Ryan Kirby, Sawyer Newsome, Landon Monroe, and Sara Brendel. In addition to dancing at SC Dance Company, Isabella danced at member Pleasant Hill Middle School and was a 4-year dance honors student at Lexington High School. She was also a member of the dance national honor society. After Isabella graduated high school she continued her dance career at Charleston Southern University where she was a division 1 dance team member of the “Buc Angels”. After two years of being away, she decided it was time to come home and transfer to the University of South Carolina. She is now focusing on her degree in Public Health and is so excited to officially back home with her SC Dance Company family. She is so happy to share her passion with the next generation of dancers!
Jolie Bermas – Instructor
Jolie has been dancing competitively at the South Carolina Dance Company for 10 years and is currently on the Senior Company competition team. She is trained in jazz, contemporary, acro/tumbling, ballet, pointe, lyrical, tap and hip hop. This is Jolie’s second year teaching at the South Carolina Dance Company, where she served as an assistant for 7 years, developing valuable teaching skills and a love for sharing dance. Jolie is a graduating senior at River Bluff High School and a member of the Gator Dance Team. Jolie will be graduating in 2026 and she plans to major in Dance at college and pursue a career in Commercial Dance and Choreography. Jolie was selected as the Studio Ambassador in 2022 where she promoted the studio in the community and was a role model for young dancers. She was also honored to be selected as the 2023 Encore DCS Cover Model. Jolie has been a KAR Protege for the past 3 years and will be a Pro Reveler for 2025-26. Jolie has won numerous regional and national dance awards, both individually and with her team. Jolie has taken master classes from world renowned choreographers. Last summer, Jolie took classes at the Broadway Dance Center in New York. This summer Jolie participated in Revel and NYCDA Nationals in Orlando and Phoenix, Arizona, to earn college scholarships. Jolie is looking forward to sharing her love of dance with your child this year!
Hannah Jones – Instructor
Hannah began dancing at 12 years old and it quickly became her passion. After a year of recreational classes she joined the competitive team at Dance World and started taking advanced classes at Irmo Middle School with Ms. Ashley Evans. She danced competitively for two years with the Spring Hill Dance Company and finished her High School Career with the Irmo Dance Company. She has experience with Athletic Training and was a captain of both the training team and Softball team her Senior year. Musical Theater became a huge part of her life in 5th Grade and she began accepting dance roles at 13. Since then, she has continued to learn from Mrs. Meredith Boheme and perform as a featured dancer in several shows within the Columbia area. She has experience in costuming, stage managing, set/creative designing, and choreographing group and solo numbers for ICRC Children’s Theater, which is where she first learned how to dance! In the Spring of 2024 she became a proud graduate of Irmo High School and received the Irmo Dance Company Senior Dancer of the Year award. She then made the Dance Team at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, NC. Although she enjoyed her time in North Carolina, she decided she needed to come home and pursue opportunities back in Columbia. She is currently attending the University of South Carolina and majoring in Early Childhood Education with plans to be a Kindergarten teacher. Hannah became an instructor at Chapin Academy of Performing Arts in 2023 and has enjoyed teaching dance, musical theater, and acting summer camps. Dancing gives her so much joy and she can’t wait to share her love and passion for dance with her students!
Ansley Cato – Instructor
Ansley Cato is a second year member of Senior Company. She has been taking dance since she was 3, and been dancing competitively at South Carolina Dance Company for 11 years. She is a junior at River Bluff High School. She is trained in jazz, contemporary, ballet, tap, lyrical, and hip hop. This is Ansley’s first year teaching after 2 years of assisting.
Ansley was the studio ambassador in 2024. She worked with her ambassador sisters to represent the studio and began an initiative to share positivity at competitions. She has won many awards at competitions for solos, duets, trios and team dances. She has received scholarships from KAR, Encore, Revel, Jump, and Intrigue for her performance in classes. She was recently named Ansley is super excited about her first year of teaching hip hop!
Adam Devenport – SCDC Acro Instructor
Adam Devenport is a Professional Tricker and the founder of “Shapes of Tricking.” He’s an instructor of all types of movement from tumbling, gymnastics and dance to Parkour, martial arts and Tricking. Adam has been teaching movement for 12 years and travels all around the country hosting seminars and tricking battles for his community. He’s a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, cheered for ACX’s elite world’s team for two years and has performed demos for NBA half-time shows, Redbull and the Karate US Open live on ESPN. Adam is a social media influencer signed with the management company “1DS Collective” based in LA and has partnered with brands such as Pair of Thieves, Zen Wtr, Jed North, Fresh-n-Lean and many more. He strives to advocate authenticity, positivity and continuous personal development in every aspect of his life. His favorite part of coaching is getting his students new skills, encouraging their self belief and teaching them ways to expand their capabilities physically and mentally. Since graduating from Dutch Fork High School in 2012, Adam has been actively involved in his community and continues to encourage, teach and mentor kids of all ages across the Midlands.
Staff headshots are courtesy of Clark Berry Photography.
The Student Teaching Assistants for South Carolina Dance Company
Jolie Bermas
Keena Neal
Ansley Cato Aubrey Herod Aubrey Guarino Isabel Messer
Caroline Messer
Brinon Snead
Gracie McDowell
Aubree McKenzie
Brayla Long
Farah Long
Harper Miller
Aubrey Herod
Autumn Goodman
Eleanor Reeside
Bela Sengupta
Shelby Smith
Ryleigh Jones
Avery Phillips
SCDC Office Staff
Dorie Bermas – Customer Service
Melissa Greenlee – Office Assistant & Studio Coordinator
Amanda Burgess – Recital Costumes and Office Assistant
Sharon Jones – Accounts Management
Hilary Miller – Projects Manager
Allison Rusling – Office Assistant
Amber Gunter – Office Assistant
Anna Reeside – Projects Manager & Seamstress
Gina Horton – Office Assistant & Welcome Committee
Shannon Canady – Company Manager
Ashley Neal – Accounts & Company Manager
