Heather successfully juggles to the roles of Director, Choreographer, Teacher and Entrepreneur. As the founder of UCDC, she has had the opportunity to teach thousands of dancers over the last 21 years. Heather began her training in 1976 with Teresa Wilson in South Carolina. Later she attended the Greenville Stage Company where she trained, danced, competed, and performed all over the United States. Heather’s passion for children and dance became a reality at the early age of 20 and now 18 years later, she has one of the most prominent and successful studios in the Southeast. Although she has trained in all areas of dance her entire life; Contemporary Clogging has become her specialty. She teaches and directs UCDC’s eleven competition-clogging teams, and has one of the top clogging programs in the industry. Heather continues her education yearly by traveling extensively throughout the US studying, performing, teaching, and judging at dance and clogging workshops. Her competition dance companies and clogging teams have won thousands of awards both regionally and nationally. Some of her latest accomplishments are being named one of the Top 50 studios on the move in the US by Dance Spirit Magazine, The 2nd most competitive studio in SC by Dancer Magazine, and Upstate Parent 2006, 2007, 2008 Family Choice Award. Heather’s drive and passion is for her students, parents, and staff to have the best dance education and facility in the business. Heather’s Motto: “Do not follow where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
In 1993, Upstate Carolina Dance Center opened its doors and Leslie Adams was near the front of the line. UCDC has been her home for the last seventeen years, and clogging is her passion. Leslie became a member of the Rising Stars clogging team in 1998, and has worked her way through the clogging teams. She is currently a proud member of the Elite Stars. She was a member of the 2004 Overall Junior National Grand Champion Clogging Team. She is also the current 2010 Senior Miss American Clogger. As a student at UCDC she has had an opportunity to train with the most respected clogging instructors in the country including Heather Owens, Blake Bartlett Dunn, Brandon Norris, Shannon South, and Andrew Babbitt. Leslie is currently attending Greenville Technical College with plans to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree in Hospitality. She is thrilled to be part of the UCDC staff and excited to have the opportunity to pass her love for clogging on to the next generation.
Carla Whitlock Arnette began studying dance at the early age of three. It was not until the age 5 she found her true love for clogging. Carla was the youngest member of the award winning Silver Bullet Cloggers under the direction of Simone Pace. She has won many different clogging championships and has trained under many award winning choreographers. Carla is a former Dollywood Dancer and Miss South Carolina Dancer. She has performed many times at the Grand Ole Opray and performed in the show Mountain Legacy. In 1997 Carla won Miss Wade Hampton Taylors Pageant and won a Non-Finalist Talent award at the Miss South Carolina Pageant. Carla currently juggles the duties of being a mom, wife, dancing instructor and working as a Legal Assistant/Paralegal at Nexsen Pruet Law Firm.
Angela began her early training in 1977 with Pat Shepherd in North Carolina. From 1988-1990, she attended the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, SC. In 1990 she attended the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts held at Furman University. From 1990-1992 she danced with the Greenville Ballet and performed in The Nutcracker. In the years following, she was a dancer and choreographer with recording artist Dana Russell. In 1994 she obtained an Associates of Arts degree in Marketing from Greenville Technical College. She was a pre-school/ballet instructor at Harvard Dance Centre until 1998 and became the Director of Dance at West Oak High School in Westminster, SC on a Target 2000 Grant. In 1997 and 1998 she instructed dance at Lakes and Mountains School for the Arts for gifted and talented students through the School District of Pickens County. She was the director for the same program in 1999. Angela was an Artist in Residence in several local schools, teaching dance programs for the public school children in Pickens County. Angela has been teaching pre-school and ballet at UCDC since 1998. Over the past several years, Angela has attended dance educator workshops with Musicworks Unlimited in Indianapolis and Atlanta, and Rhee Gold’s Dance Life Teacher Conference in Orlando. In addition to teaching dance at UCDC, she is also the office manager. She is also the business owner of Teddy Bear Teas, specializing in dress-up tea parties, as well as a pageant judge for local Scholarship preliminaries and high schools pageants. Angela has also taught choreography for the Gettys Middle School chorus department and at Foothills Gymnastics & Cheer Center. She is married and has two daughters, Alexa and Halle.
Kimberlee comes to us from Blairstown, New Jersey where she is known for her versatile choreography. She began her serious dance training at the age of 12 when she won her first dance scholarship to Joffrey Ballet in New York. At the age of 15, she received her second scholarship where she attended the Southwest Ballet. She continued to dance with the Beaumont Civic Ballet and the Beaumont Opera in Beaumont, Texas. She was then accepted into Beaumont’s premiere dance company – Jefferson Jazz Ballet. Later she pursued her career in New York where she also found her love for theater. She is currently the choreographer for all shows at The Greenville Little Theatre and co-director of The Southeast Dance Theatre. Many shows to her credit include; NJ Premiere of A Chorus Line and Tommy, Jesus Christ Superstar, Chicago, Anything Goes, Annie and Oliver. Other credits include the Christmas Spectacular, Oklahoma 1776, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, and many others.
Preschool associate, Shan has been teaching at UCDC for 16 years. She began studying dance at the age of 4 from LaBruce Heist of Greenville. She has performed in Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina with the adult cloggers. She has performed at the National Clogging Convention and competed in competitions all over the southeast. Her former clogging teams won numerous awards including platinums, golds, and first place at nationals. Shan loves working with the mom n tots and the preschool program watching your wonderful children learn and grow. Shan’s greatest accomplishment is her daughter Alexandra who is now taking her 5th year of dance here at UCDC. She is enjoying watching Alexandra’s love for dance grow and is excited for her daughter to experience all of the wonderful opportunities and family here at UCDC.
Adelaide Kiefer began her clogging career at age 10 here at Upstate Carolina Dance Center where she was a student for nine years and a clogging competition team member for seven years. She was a member of the 2004 Overall Junior National Grand Champion Team and won numerous other awards with the Shining and Elite Stars. Adelaide began teaching in 2006 and thoroughly enjoys passing on her expertise and passion for clogging to her students. She is a 2006 graduate of Easley High School and a 2010 graduate of Clemson University.
Becky is a former dancer and company member of UCDC. Becky began dancing at the age of 11 under a scholarship at the Greenville Ballet. After dancing and competing for a few years, Becky found her dance home here at UCDC. While a member of the UCDC Senior Company, Becky competed and won numerous Platinum and Gold metals, as well as a scholarship with Tremaine Dance. Becky also trained intensively for three summers in Los Angeles under numerous professional instructors in LA including; Wade Robson, Dan Karaty, Doug Caldwell, Mark Meismer, Dave Carter, Jackie Sleight, Tina D’Amato and others at PAC, The Edge, and The Millennium Dance Studio. Her disciplines include Ballet, Tap, Hip-Hop, Lyrical and Jazz. In high school, Becky was the captain of the EHS dance team and in 2002, her graduating class voted her as the Most Talented female at Easley High School. Upon graduating high school in 2002 Becky moved to Rock Hill, SC where she completed her BS at Winthrop University in Family and Consumer Science. Becky performed in many choreographer showcases while attending Winthrop University, and was also a member of the all girls Winthrop University Cheerleading Squad in 2003. She currently is a document and data management tech at Fluor Corporation.
Rhonda Allen-Murrey began her training in Auckland, New Zealand with Bernice McGough, Philip Chatfield and Rowena Jackson. Upon her arrival in the United States she continued her studies with the Dallas Ballet Academy and Booker T. Washington High School for the Arts. Professionally she has danced many leading roles as a principal dancer with New Jersey Ballet, Carolina Ballet ( Raleigh, N. C.), and Dallas Ballet, and has also performed with the Royal New Zealand Ballet in a gala performance for Prince Charles and Princess Diana. She has danced along side members of American Ballet Theatre for Broadway Fights Aids benefit performances as well as appearing on the Today Show in New York City and on PBS-TV’s Great Performances. Ms. Murray has worked with numerous choreographers and artists such as Christopher Wheeldon, Elaine Kudo, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Fleming Flindt, Eleanor D’Antuono and Robert North. She is currently on faculty at the South Carolina Governors School for the Arts and Humanities.
Staci Quinn began dancing at the age of 3. She has been a member of the award winning Jazz Company at Upstate Carolina Dance Center for the past twelve years. She has traveled extensively across the U. S. training and competing. She has also spent the past six summers in California training under many well known choreographers. Staci has had the opportunity to work with Mark Meismer, Brooke Lipton, Jocelyn Dowling, Chonique and Lissette and many others. She currently is a teacher at Upstate Carolina Dance Center and has been teaching for four years.
Staci has also performed in many of the South Carolina Children’s Theatre productions, such as Peter Pan and Music Man. Some of her other accomplishments include dancing as a principle dancer in the Miss South Carolina Pageant.
Staci will be attending Tri County Technical College this fall.
Terrie, our front desk coordinator, has been at UCDC for 17 years. She manages our students and parents on an everyday basis. Terrie has been surrounded by dance for the last 19 years, as a dance mother and afternoon office manger. If you ever need to know something about UCDC or have a question she has all the answers.
Carolyn is going on her 11th year at UCDC. She is our studio monitor and maintenance supervisor. Carolyn has become a safe face to parents and students of UCDC- while keeping everything clean, neat, and in working order.
Brooke is a full time clogging teacher at UCDC. Brooke directs 3 competition clogging teams and teaches all the recreational clogging classes. Brooke was a student at UCDC for many years and clogged on the competition teams. She was a member of the 2004 Overall Junior National Grand Champion Clogging Team. She graduated from Easley High School in 2004. She then attended Anderson University, where she was crowned Miss Anderson University and won overall talent. She graduated from Anderson in 2008 with a bachelor degree in Elementary Education. Brooke is also married to Travis Williams and has two handsome sons Micah and Kobe. Brooke loves to teach clogging and share her excitement with her students. She wants all of her students to have the same life changing experience that she has received from clogging!
Mary is currently attending Tri-County Technical College in the University Transfer Program to Clemson University where she will be majoring in Psychology. She recently graduated from Wren High School. She has been a student at UCDC for the past nine years and competed on the UCDC Clogging Team for nine years. She has traveled across the Southeast competing in many competitions and has won many awards. Mary is excited about being involved with the clogging program again this year !
