Meet the Teachers
ASHLEY HEDGCOTH
Ashley is our studio owner and director. She also teaches many classes at DA each week! She has been with The Dance Academy for 26 years and is entering her 21st year owning the studio. Ashley graduated from Hendersonville High School where she trained for 15 years at Jody's School of Performing Arts. She was a member of the New Attitude and New Attitude Two Dance Companies that won numerous competition awards in Tap, Jazz, and Modern dance. For many years, she was a featured dancer in the Conway Twitty Christmas shows. She has performed for numerous awards shows, danced for Garth Brooks Gold Party, appeared in music videos, been a featured dancer in the Nashville Music City Bowl, and appeared in Channel 4 Service announcements. She has taught dance in Nashville Metro classrooms in conjunction with Nashville Institute of the Arts. She has taught technique classes to the MTSU dance team as well as been the choreographer for the Oakland Middle School Dance Team. Ashley graduated from MTSU with a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies and holds memberships in Tennessee Association of Dance, Southern Association of Dance Masters and Chicago National Association of Dance Masters. She has attended multiple conventions to further her dance and teaching education. These conventions include Dance Makers Inc., Southern Association of Dance Masters, Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, Music Works, Dance Teacher Connection, Artists Simply Human, Revel Dance, and other conventions, workshops, and Master Classes from Teachers all over the United States. Ashley is also the director and one of the choreographers for the DA competition teams. She is proud to have won multiple choreography awards and to have led her dancers to win many awards such as High Score Overall, Judges Choice, Dance Again Awards and many First Place Overall Awards. Ashley is excited to have competition team members that have been awarded scholarships to attend Broadway Dance Center, Retter Academy of Dance, and Keith Clifton Dance Project both in California as well as Dance Directive in Arkansas. She has had dancers win scholarships to AMDA college in NYC and LA as well as Southwestern College in Kansas. Her students have performed at Disney World, College Bowl games, and won Scholarships to many National Dance Conventions and Competitions around the country. One of her students was chosen to assist for a National Convention 2 years in a row. Ashley has had many dancers attend and compete at National Conventions. While attending these, her students have been awarded International Dance Titles in Lyrical, Jazz, and Hip Hop. Teen soloists have been awarded the Miss Teen International Dance Challenge Idol and 2nd Overall out of over 120 International dancers. Her students have also been chosen to dance in closing shows at Regional and National conventions. Most recently, her teen/senior competition team was named National Champions with her and Caitlin’s jazz routine “Saved” at Rising Star National Dance Competition. Ashley loves sharing her passion with everyone at the Dance Academy and that she gets to spend every day doing what she loves!
AMANDA EARP
BECCA WILSON
Becca grew up dancing at The Dance Academy where she danced for 19 years. This is Becca's 15th year teaching with the DA. Becca graduated from Blackman High School where she was a member of National Honor Society, Business Academy, Renaissance committee chair and danced in all of the school musicals. While taking classes at DA, she won awards such as Best Overall Dancer and Most Dedicated. Becca was a featured dancer in the Music City Bowl and attended many conventions such as Dance Makers Inc., Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, Southern Association of Dance Masters, NUVO, as well as Master Classes from teachers all over the United States. Becca was a part of the first team of DA competitive dancers during her high school and early college years. The team won many awards at competitions including Nexstar and Talent on Parade. This year Becca will begin her second year choreographing for the newly formed DA Mini Rockstar competition team. She graduated from MTSU with a degree in Early Childhood Education in 2014 and is now entering her 11th year of teaching, ten of which have been in kindergarten. She recently completed an educational endorsement program for certification as a Special Education Interventionist for K-8. Becca currently holds membership with Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, Southern Association of Dance Masters, and continues dance education classes each year. She is a lifelong learner and takes the skills she has learned from her educational background to develop dance classes that support varying levels. She has such a passion for learning from other professionals so that she may better instruct her dance students. This makes her such a great teacher and team member for The Dance Academy. Becca designed and has instructed the DA “Dance with Me” class for young toddlers since 2019 and will be continuing the Tumble Tot program this year that she designed in 2023. Becca is energetic and naturally skillful with teaching our younger dancers, and we are excited she is back again with us for another year!
emily@danceacademydance.com
Emily danced with the DA for 17 years and this will be her 13th year as an instructor. She graduated from Oakland High School where she was voted Most Talented by her senior class, a member of her dance team all 4 years, and captain her junior and senior years. She was the OHS dance team choreographer for 5 years and was proud to have led her team to be named Grand Champion by getting the highest score two years in a row at the AmeriDance dance competition as well as placing State Runner Up in the state of Tennessee at the TSSAA State Dance Championship in 2015. Emily graduated from MTSU in 2017 with a degree in Elementary Education. She was an elementary school teacher for the past 6 years, but is now entering a new role as a stay at home mom to her newborn son. Emily was also a member of the DA Competition Team where she won many awards as a soloist and with her team including Judges Choice awards, High Score Awards, and many other First Place trophies. She has been awarded numerous scholarships for dance that include Keith Clifton's Dance Project in California and TOP Starz dancer at Talent On Parade Dance Competition. Other scholarships include Dance Directive master classes in Arkansas and a college scholarship to attend Southwestern College in Kansas. In 2015, Emily attended Broadway Dance Center in New York to take master classes. She was awarded these classes through a scholarship by an audition at the DanceMakers Convention to further her dance education. She was also named the Charity Dance Down Champion for Dancers Against Cancer two years in a row as well as TOP Entertainer in her solo category at the Talent on Parade Competition. Emily has also been a choreographer for our DA competition team. She has been awarded Choreography awards, Judges Choice Awards, and won first overall with her dances at many competitions. She has had dancers win scholarships to National Conventions and to Power Pak Convention and Showcase at Disney World. She has also had dancers chosen to dance in many Closing Shows for Regional and National Conventions. Emily is currently studying to take her membership exam to join the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters and Southern Association of Dance Masters. In 2017, Emily auditioned for the world renowned Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders where she made it to the finals. The DA is so proud of her and is always excited to have her back teaching on our team!
caitlin@danceacademydance.com
Caitlin is starting her 6th year as an instructor at DA this year! She completed two years in the teen assistant program at DA as well as the two year student teaching program that we offer at our studio. She has danced at the DA for 16 years. She is a graduate of Blackman High School where she had academic excellence in Math, English, and History. She was also a member of Beta, Deca, Best Buddies, Epic, and Rho Kappa. She was a member of the Blackman High Dance Team for 4 years and served as captain her senior year. Caitlin has been trained in styles such as ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary, tumbling, and pointe, and was a member of our competition team for 11 years. She has won numerous awards as a soloist and with her team such as first place, highest scoring routine, judges choice, top 5 overall, and top 10 overall. She has won scholarships to the Dance Directive Master classes in Arkansas and The Dance Awards in Las Vegas. Caitlin has attended many dance conventions and competitions learning from master teachers all over the country to further her dance training and education. These include: Dance Makers Inc., Starpower, Southern Association of Dance Masters, Stage One, Revel, Shock the Intensive, Talent on Parade, Rising Star, Excel in Motion, Nexstar, Artists Simply Human, Top 10 Dance Challenge, Nuvo, International Dance Challenge, and more. Caitlin is proud to have been awarded the Center Stage Award at the International Dance Challenge Competition in 2015! She has been asked to perform in and auditioned for special performances such as a promotional music video for Trep Kids and a hip hop performance in the closing show at Revel dance convention. Caitlin is also a choreographer for our DA competition team where she has had routines win numerous top overall awards, judges choice awards, scholarships, and first place adjudications. Most recently, the teen/senior competition team was named National Champions with her and Ashley’s jazz routine “Saved” at Rising Star National Dance Competition. During her time as a student at DA, our staff awarded Caitlin with the Leadership award, Lyrical and Hip Hop awards, and our top dance award given at recital titled "Dancer of the Year". Caitlin is currently an online student at the University of Tennessee Knoxville majoring in Accounting. We are so excited to have her teach with us at DA again this year and be a part of our staff!
