Instructors

Charlie Caroutth 

Charlie Carrouth was a student at the Center for Dance Education for 10 years. During her time as a student, Charlie was able to learn and perform many styles of dance, including ballet, jazz, modern, tap, Irish step, musical theater, and hip-hop. Charlie has participated in many Summer Intensive Programs throughout the country, where she has had the experience to train under a variety of incredible artists and teachers from around the world. Currently, Charlie is working to get her bachelor's degree in Psychology at University of South Carolina while also dancing as a Professional Company Dancer.

Michelle Cuneo 

Michelle began dancing at the age of 3 at Niagara Dance Centre in Niagara Falls, NY under the direction of Amber Storr, where she studied tap, jazz and lyrical through her teenage years. Upon entering college, Michelle was a member of the Orchesis dance troupe at Grove City College in Grove City, PA. She also became a choreographer for the troupe and was selected to be both the Junior and Senior Director. She organized the spring performance, auditioned choreographers and choreographed. After graduating college, she moved back to the Western NY area to earn a Masters Degree in K-12 school counseling at the State University of NY.  While taking graduate classes, she became a teacher at Niagara Dance Centre.  She instructed students from the ages of 6 to 76 in tap, jazz and lyrical.  Upon moving to Spartanburg, Michelle joined the Tap Dames and Dudes in 2009 and has been dancing in the group ever since.  She began teaching jazz and tap for Adults in 2015 and was thrilled to assist in choreographing a tap number for the Ballet Spartanburg Production of An American in Paris. Michelle has a tremendous passion for the art of dance and is honored to be a part of Ballet Spartanburg's Center for Dance Education.

Charlotte Lanning 

Charlotte began her ballet training at age ten at the Washington School of Ballet under the direction of Mary Day and Rebecca Wright. She then went on to study at the American Dance Institute on scholarship with Michael Bjerknes. She continued her ballet education with Dawei Zhang, former Ballet Master of the Shanghai Ballet and with Elizabeth Shipiatsky of the Mariisnky Theatre. Her professional career started with the Colorado Ballet, performing in such ballets as Swan Lake (Petipa), the Sleeping Beauty (Petipa), Theme and Variations (Balanchine), and The Nutcracker (Fredmann). She then moved to Madrid, Spain to dance with the Victor Ullate Ballet before joining Ballet Spartanburg in 2015, where she enjoyed dancing principal and soloist roles. After a summer season with American Contemporary Ballet, she joined the Sibiu Ballet Theatre in Romania, dancing a wide range of classical and neoclassical ballets throughout Europe. She is very excited to be dancing with Ballet Spartanburg as a Professional Company and as a CFDE instructor. 

Marian Norman
In loving memory. 
Marian Norman is a professional dance instructor from Spartanburg. She is trained in major ballroom dances such as Foxtrot, Waltz, Tango, Swing, Cha Cha, Rumba, Samba, Merengue, Mambo, as well as Shag – South Carolina’s official State dance. Marian taught for 14 years at the Spartanburg Ballroom Studio. She represented the Studio in Pro/Am competitions with her husband, Dean. During her career she was also responsible for outreach which involved teaching and presenting programs and performances in schools, colleges, churches, clubs and for charity functions. She recently coached and choreographed two entries in the very successful Spartanburg “Dancing with the Stars” competition.

Pamela Pierce McGuiness

Pamela Pierce McGuiness grew up in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland. She started dancing like most Irish children at the age of seven. Pam found her stride at age eleven after meeting and working with Kevin Massey. Kevin inspired Pam and helped her to develop her love of Irish Step Dancing. 

 

Analay Saiz

Born in Matanzas, Cuba, Analay studied at the National School of Ballet in Havana, Cuba. She was part of the Ballet of Camaguey and the Pro-Dance Center of Cuba. In 2010, she arrived in Quito, Ecuador to join the National Ballet of Ecuador. In 2011, she participated in many different events including being a special guest judge at several ballet festivals in Brazil. She was also invited as a special guest to teach at the Ballet of Olinda Saul, Ballet Helly Batista and School of Ballet Blanche Torres (Brazil). In 2012, she joined the Ballet of Monterrey, Mexico and also became a ballet teacher at the Dalyris Studio De Danza. A year later, she arrived in Miami to join the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami as a ballet dancer and teacher. She is currently residing here in Spartanburg, SC. She was a Ballet Spartanburg Professional Company Member for 5 years and has been a Center for Dance Education Faculty Member for 8 years. 

Will Scott 

Will Scott began his dancing career in Woodstock Georgia at Dancentre South. After high school, he attended the University of Alabama and earned his Bachelors of Fine Arts in dance, performing lead roles in Swan Lake, Flames of Paris, La Bayadere as well as contemporary works choreographed by Sarah Barry, Cornelius Carter, Qianping Guo, and Rita Snyder. Will then joined Ballet Spartanburg as a company dancer and completed four seasons with them, performing lead roles in multiple classical ballets such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and The Nutcracker, as well as many works choreographed by Carlos Agudelo, Nelson Reyes, Lona Gomez and many more. Will then began teaching and choreographing full time in Atlanta while also performing multiple performances a year. Will enjoys dancing as a Professional Company Dancer and teaching as a CFDE instructor. 

Susan Woodham
Outreach Director/Creative/Pre-Ballet/Ballet

Susan Woodham is Dance Specialist for Pine Street Elementary School and Outreach Director and Instructor for Ballet Spartanburg. She earned her BA in psychology and her MEd in Elementary Education from Converse College. She is certified in elementary education and in dance. She has served as facilitator for Curriculum Leadership Institute in the Arts for over 10 years and on the team to rewrite the SC Academic Standards for the Visual and Performing Arts twice. She served as president for the SC Dance Association twice. Ms. Woodham also serves on the advisory council for the SC Dance Education Organization. She is the developer and coordinator of Ballet Spartanburg’s City Dance, a dance program for inner city students. She was named SC Dance Association’s Dance Educator of the Year for 2000-2001 and has been honored with a Career Achievement award from Converse College. She is a member of SC Dance Association, Ballet Spartanburg, SC Arts Alliance, SC Alliance for Arts Education, SC Dance Education Organization and the National Dance Education Organization. In addition to dance, Ms. Woodham enjoys reading, being an advocate for arts education and contra dancing.

Abby Inglett

Originally from Wisconsin, Abby grew up doing a wide variety of styles of dance including ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, and contemporary classes for 13 years in La Crosse. Quickly discovering her passion for ballet, she joined the pre-professional Ballet La Crosse where she studied with her late mentor and teacher, Kennet Oberly (Stuttgart Ballet) and his wife Larissa Oberly (Estonia National Ballet.) She became a rehearsal assistant for Ballet La Crosse, interned with Children’s Dance Theatre of Rochester, and began teaching when she was 17. Abby spent her summers dancing with the Classical Ballet Academy of Minnesota, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, The Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts, and the University of Utah, her alma mater. While studying at the University of Utah, Abby taught a wide variety of classes at Utah Dance Artists including ballet, pointe, variations, jazz, contemporary, lyrical, improv, and stretch/strengthening. She also choreographed several award winning solos for students in UDA’s Conservatory and Varsity competitive programs. In the spring of 2021, Abby graduated magna cum laude with her BFA in Ballet and minor in Disability Studies from the University of Utah, and she moved across the country to dance professionally with Ballet Spartanburg for her first season! Abby loves giving students the tools and knowledge to improve their technique, while helping them discover their personal artistry. She is thrilled to be working with the CFDE students during her second season with the company!

Ying-Chi Lu

Ying-Chi Lu is originally from Taiwan and started her dance training at the age of 5. She first started teaching ballet and modern dance classes at her home studio in Taipei, Taiwan. While studying at the University of Cincinnati, she took ballet instruction courses. Lu had the opportunity to teach musical theater majors ballet and in the College-Conservatory of Music preparatory program. During season 2021-2022, Lu taught with Ballet Spartanburg's outreach program. She is thrilled to be teaching with the Center for Dance Education! 

Glen Gordy

A native of Augusta, GA, Glenn Gordy has always had a love of music and dance. In 1986, he moved to Spartanburg, SC to work for Spartan Mills at their Corporate office as a Programmer/Analyst. Glen started taking Ballroom dance lessons at Dancers Ltd. in 1988, and eventually was asked to complete the teacher training. He was trained and taught under the direction of Peter Eanes who was the owner and operator of Dancers Ltd./Spartanburg Ballroom from 1990 to 2001.In 2006, Glen decided to continue his Ballroom Dancing education with The Ballroom Dance Center, and in 2019 began teaching with them. He has been active in competitions where he has done very well under intensive training with Emilie Tobias and Val Ganiev.

He is very active in the Spartanburg Ballroom Dance Community. Glen has been a member of several dance clubs and participated in Dancing with the Spartanburg Stars as professional from 2007-2019. He also has performed in Ballet Spartanburg’s production of The Nutcracker as a Party Parent since 1996.

Glenn currently divides his time between Spartanburg and Augusta. In 2017, he started assisting Marian Norman with her Monday night Ballroom Class at Ballet Spartanburg’s Center for Dance Education. He is looking forward to being on faculty this coming year.