Danelle Afflerbaugh - Artistic Director 
Danelle Afflerbaugh has more than three decades of dance experience.  Throughout her career, she has studied tap, jazz, hip-hop, cheer and ballroom, but focused primarily in ballet.  Danelle studied under Melinda Shaner in Southern California as well as Paul Maure, former dancer with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. During her eleven-year tenure as the Head Cheerleading Coach at the University of Redlands, her teams competed and earned rankings in regional and national competitions.  In addition to her work at DRD, Danelle has a passion for theatre, working locally with Millennium Repertory Company as a choreographer and director. Her work has been seen in such productions as Singin' in the Rain (2018), Chicago (2019), White Christmas (2020), A Chorus Line (2021) Cabaret and Hello Dolly (2022). Her choreography for Newsies (2019) won a Broadway World Award for Best Choreography.  Danelle serves as the Vice-Chairman of the board of directors at the Manchester Arts Center, as a member of the board of Millennium Repertory Company. She has also been a member of TAD (Tennessee Association of Dance) and attends First Baptist Church in Manchester with her husband and daughter.

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Tricia Hiers - Instructor 
Mrs. Tricia Hiers is one of Duck River Dance’s ballet instructors, and the 2023-2024 season will be her eighth year teaching at DRD. Over the years, she has taught ballet classes from pre-ballet to adult, beginning jazz, and beginning tap. Growing up, she danced for 14 years in the styles of ballet, lyrical, tap, and jazz. Some of her dancing roles include The Sugar Plum Fairy (2016), The Snow Queen(2017), and Shepherdess (2019) in DRD’s The Nutcracker. Tricia is also involved in community theater and has directed, performed, and choreographed for many musical productions at the Arts Center of Cannon County and the Manchester Arts Center. In her free time, she enjoys running, playing clarinet, and spending time with her husband, daughter, and poodles.

 

 

 

Rachel Spangler - Instructor

Rachel is a Manchester native and legacy employee at AEDC. She has served our community as both the children and teen theatre coordinator at the Manchester Arts Center for over 15 years, as well as being a board member of several related non-profit organizations. A soccer player in her school years, Rachel found her way into dance as an adult. Alongside her husband, Landon, and other dear friends, she joined the DRD family for it’s inaugural season in 2015. Since then, she has studied Ballet, Jazz, Musical Theatre and Tap, eventually joining the staff to teach both children and adults. She enjoys cultivating the arts in our community and encouraging other adults to embrace their own inner dancer. 

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Ansley Hall - Instructor

Ansley Hall, a native of Opp, Alabama, is a 2021 graduate of The University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance and a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology. Her Kinesiology concentrations are fitness, nutrition, and health promotion. She grew up dancing at the Dorothy Rainer Sellers School of Dance, Andalusia Ballet, and Enterprise School of Dance. While her career is just beginning, Ansley has been an avid student of both baton and dance since the age of 3 years old. Ansley has experience in all forms of dance, but her collegiate training concentrated heavily on the jazz, hip hop, modern, and contemporary styles. She has won numerous awards in both baton and dance. Some of her most favorite include Miss Majorette of Alabama beg.16+ 2016, ESD Dance Student of Year 2016, numerous Twirltacular Champion titles, and UDA All American where she got to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. While Ansley enjoys performing, her true passion lies in choreographing and teaching dance and baton routines. She has been teaching since the age of 15 and has spent many hours over the last 5 years choreographing and instructing high school dance and majorette lines. She has also taught many private lessons in both baton and dance. Being a person of strong faith and believing that God has a special purpose and plan for each of us, Ansley hopes to share her love of these arts with others while encouraging them to be their best selves.

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Gianna Afflerbaugh - Instructor

Gianna began dancing in 2008 with Pearl Wardlow at Dance Spectrum in Beaumont, CA.  Upon her move to Tennessee, she trained locally at a studio in Murfreesboro.  Miss Gianna became a student-instructor at DRD in 2018 and has since graduated to the position of instructor.  She volunteers much of her time at the Manchester Arts Center as a choreographer for their WAG, TAG and MRC productions.  Her choreography has also been seen in WMS productions as well as on stage at Motlow College. In addition to her position as instructor at DRD. Miss Gianna also serves as the lighting design technician for Millennium Repertory Company, First Baptist Church, and for all of DRD's productions. A student in Ballet, Tap, Jazz and Contemporary, Gianna feels especially drawn to the discipline of Contemporary dance, both as a student and as an instructor.

 

 

 

Carrie Barton - Instructor

Carrie Barton began dancing with DRD at its opening in 2015. During her tenure as a student and instructor, she danced the roles of Alice in Alice in Wonderland, both the Snow Queen and Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker Ballet, as well as the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty.  Carrie was also a founding member of the DRD Company dance team. A 2019 graduate of CCCHS, she moved on to the University of Tennessee at Martin, earning a degree in Health and Human Performance.  Miss Carrie returns to DRD to bring her passion for ballet to our Pointe students. 

 

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Anne Louise Brasfield - Instructor

Anne Louise has over 15 years of dance experience in ballet, pointe, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, musical theatre, and hip hop. Beginning at the age of five, Anne Louise trained at the Paula Duff School of Dance in Cleveland, TN which later became Cleveland City Ballet and Bang-A-Rang Productions. Anne Louise was a part of the senior company and studied under Monica Coulter and Frank Hay with the Chattanooga Ballet as well as Teri Seier of New York City.  Anne Louise’s passion for lyrical, contemporary, and jazz lead her to then train and study under Nisa Rayburn Hooper of Cleveland Dance and Performing Arts Center competing and winning at dance competitions across the southeast. In addition to studio dance, Anne Louise was also the captain of her high school dance team where she lead and choreographed countless dance routines for the football and basketball seasons. Throughout her collegiate tenure, Anne Louise choreographed and directed award-winning routines for her sorority’s campus wide competitive dance performances which included step and hip-hop. Anne Louise looks forward to bringing her experience, passion and fresh choreography to Duck River Dance.

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​Stephanie Whiting - Instructor

Miss Stephanie began dancing in 1998, and continued to her training at various studios in the Murfreesboro area until 2007. From there she continued to further her dance education and started attending classes at the school Nashville Ballet, where she was given many performance opportunities, including Gonzalo Espinoza‘s Halloween Special at the Schermerhorn with the Nashville Symphony, and Paul Vasterling’s the Nashville Nutcracker for four years. She continued to further her training at Dance Theater of Tennessee, and AREA of Atlanta. She has previous training in Cecchetti, and RAD, and Vaganova methods. Stephanie tries to stay active and enjoys being involved with local community theater projects. Stephanie is so excited to have the opportunity to share her love of dancing with dancers in the Manchester area!

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Jaxen Waggoner - Instructor

Miss Jaxen began her dance career as a young girl in the Murfreesboro area.  She began dancing with DRD in 2017 and studied in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Musical Theatre, Contemporary and Lyrical.  She began her career as an instructor at DRD after high school while she attended Motlow Community College.  Miss Jaxen also serves at the Associate Director of the DRD Company, acts as a choreographer for our productions of The Nutcracker Ballet, and serves at the director of our summer camp programs.  During her tenure at Motlow she served in student government, and she was recently named the 2023 Community College Student of the Year for the state of Tennessee.  Miss Jaxen is an active member of student ministries at First Baptist Church as well as serving on the board of directors at the Manchester Arts Center.  In the fall of 2024 Miss Jaxen will begin attending ETSU to pursue her degree in Education.  While away at ETSU, Jaxen will continue to serve DRD as a choreographer for our Christmas performances and act as our summer camp director. 

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Eliza Griffey - Instructor

Eliza Griffey has been dancing since she was three years old and has been a student at Duck River Dance for the past six years. She specializes in tap, jazz, ballet, contemporary, and musical theatre styles. Miss Eliza has been a member of the DRD company team for several years, and on the elite company for the last two. Her other passion besides dance is studying voice and singing. She is heavily involved in theatre at St. Andrews-Sewanee School and in community theatres, especially Millennium Repertory in Manchester and the Arts Center of Cannon County in Woodbury. Her training includes several summer intensives: The Performing Arts Project, Southeastern Summer Theatre Institute, International Thespian Festival, and Songbook Academy. Miss Eliza enjoys working with kids of all ages and is honored and proud to join this team of the best instructors in the business! 

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Brylee Haithcock - Instructor

Miss Brylee began her dance career at a studio in Huntsville, AL. She moved to Manchester and began dancing with DRD in 2016. She enjoys studying Tap, Jazz, Musical Theatre, Contemporary and Lyrical, and her favorite style, Hip Hop! She has danced on the high school dance team for the last 4 years and is beginning her senior year of dance team this year. She is excited to share her fun-filled, high-energy Pom dance style with her students at DRD. During her years on the dance team, she was selected as UDA All American in both her junior and senior years. For her junior year she represented her school dancing in the New Year’s Day parade in London, England. She enjoys attending dance clinics at colleges all over the country to gain experience and insight to the many styles of dance at the collegiate level. She has choreographed solo dances in the form of jazz and hip hop. One of her numbers won top 10 honors in a national competition.

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Kaylee Hensley - Instructor

Miss Kaylee began dancing at the age of four and has been dancing at DRD for eight years. She enjoys taking classes in the styles of Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Contemporary, Musical Theatre, and Lyrical. While she loves all genres, she is the most passionate about Tap! She was a founding member of the DRD company team and is currently a senior member. Miss Kaylee has spent the past few summers as a camp assistant for our summer dance programs. Kaylee takes every opportunity to participate in master classes and dance conventions to further her knowledge of dance. She also enjoys performing in musicals and has danced in The SpongeBob Musical and Frozen Jr. at the Manchester Arts Center. Miss Kaylee loves interacting with the younger dancers and is excited to begin her teaching journey!

 

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