HSDC Instructors
Owner/Director
Suzanne Krause
Suzanne Krause, began her formal training in Germany at the age of 5 and continued with the Dance Arts Centre Performing Arts Company in Duluth, Georgia.
She has performed throughout the Southeast, taking part in many regional and national dance competitions before accepting a scholarship to attend Brenau University, having earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance Pedagogy.
Suzanne studied under the professional training of Carol Smiarowski, Vincas Greene, Jolie Long, and Diane Callahan. She also performed with the Brenau Dance Ensemble and the Gainesville Ballet Company. After graduation, she accepted an invitation to attend the Summer Dance Institute at Binghamton University in New York, where she studied under the direction of Danita Emma and Anthony Salatino.
Suzanne was also a faculty artist/instructor with Arts Connect, a federally funded program through the Atlanta Ballet, which is designed to incorporate the arts into early and middle grades education.
Suzanne performed as a member of BigHouse Dance Theater, an auditioned company specializing in contemporary dance.
Dance & Company Instructor
Allison Fleming
Allison began dancing at Hot Shots at the age of
4 years old and continued her lessons in Dance,
Baton, Cheer and Flag for 15 years.
Allison competed regionally and nationally as a member of HSDC's Competition Dance Team throughout middle school and high school. She also
worked as an Assistant Dance Instructor at HSDC for several years while attending high school.
While in middle school and high school, Allison participated in Cheerleading and was a member of Competition Flag Team, serving as a Captain of the team during her senior year.
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Cheer Team Stunt Coordinator
Amber Owensby
Amber began cheerleading in the 3rd grade with recreational cheerleading.
While in middle school, Amber participated in All-Star cheer in Anderson, SC, continuing with Palmetto All-Stars during high school.
Amber continued cheerleading at Reinhardt University doing Sidelines, and was a member of the competition team, competing in cheerleading nationals at Daytona Beach.
Amber has worked numerous Varsity Cheerleading programs and cheer camps for both middle school and high school level teams.
HSDC is thrilled to welcome Amber as she shares her experience and passion for cheerleading with our cheer teams.
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Cheer Instructor
Arissa Camel
Arissa began her cheer career with Pop Warner Youth Cheerleading from age 5 to 13. During that time she also danced with Tip Toes Dance Studio. She then went on to cheer for her local middle school and high school and was cheer captain her senior year. Each year she went to UCA cheer camp where she was awarded All American.
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Her gymnastics training, through level 3, comes from her local YMCA, Brandon All Stars and Edge Cheer.
During her time as a Marketing Undergraduate student at Florida State University, Arissa was a part of many philanthropic endeavors such as yearly cheer and dance competitions - FSU Cheers For Children and Line Dance. She also added some dance classes into her curriculum whenever possible and was enrolled in Hip Hop & Contemporary.
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Baton Instructor
Anna Richardson
Anna has been twirling for 18 years and has been a Baton instructor at Hot Shots Dance & Cheer during her summer high school and college breaks from 2018 - 2022.
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Anna has competed at both the regional and national level. She was a majorette at Hart County High School and was feature twirler her junior and senior year.
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Currently, Anna is the feature twirler at Furman University going on the 4th year!
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Hot Shots is excited to have Anna as a member of our HSDC family.
Dance Instructor & Dance Company Director
Baylee Davenport
Baylee Davenport graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a minor in Human Development and Family Science. She received dance training across the East Coast in various styles and techniques, such as ballet, tap, jazz, musical theater, modern, and contemporary.
While at the University of Georgia, Baylee appeared as a performer in several shows, including the Spring Dance Concert (2018-2020), Young Choreographers Series (2017-2020), and CORE: Contemporary and Aerial Company Concert (2019). She has also appeared in works from guest choreographers, such as “Stair, Chairs, and Squares” by Ellen Cornfield.
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Baylee showcased her own choreographic works in the Young Choreographers Series Concert (2018-2020) and served as President of the UGA’s Young Choreographer Series in 2019.
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Now, Baylee is exploring her career as a dancer and choreographer by teaching and choreographing works in Northeast Georgia, and she hopes to continue her education and passion in dance for years to come.
Dance Instructor
Haleigh Daniel
Haleigh began dancing in the fourth grade, training in jazz and lyrical. At the age of 12, she added contemporary, ballet, and pointe to her repertoire. Haleigh danced at Studio Dance Academy in Athens, GA, during middle school. She continued in ballet, pointe, lyrical, and jazz in high school, where she danced at Pointe of Grace Dance Academy in Madison, Ga. Upon high school graduation, Haleigh took pointe and contemporary classes at Dance FX Athens during her college career.
Haleigh participated in many performance opportunities during middle and high school, dancing in multiple roles in various productions of the Nutcracker, including Snow, Waltz of the Flowers, Arabian, Sugar Plum, and Dolls. Haleigh also performed a Bollywood routine during an Arts Exhibition, a jazz piece for Dancing with the Madison Stars, as well as ballet routines in several community variety Christmas shows. During her senior recital, Haleigh starred as Pocahontas.
Haleigh graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with her Bachelor's degree in Child and Family Sciences. During her college education, Haleigh volunteered with the Foothills Pregnancy Care center.
Haleigh has several years of experience teaching ballet, jazz, creative movement and lyrical.
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Director of Tumble/Instructor
Kim Carter
Kimberly Carter started gymnastics at the age of 9 with Tina Washington at Bishop Park in Athens, Georgia. Shortly after, she began competing in USA Level 5 gymnastics under Coach Jay Clark, the former Assistant Head Coach for the University of Georgia Gym Dawgs.
In 2008, Kim started working at Hot Shots Dance Company and is now in her 13th year coaching. Kim was also the team coach for the YMCA Hartwell Twisters in 2013.
Kim is certified in AAU and USA certified. She has coached students in levels 1-5. Many of her students have competed all over Georgia, Florida, and Michigan. Kim is excited to be teaching at Hot Shots Dance Company and looks forward to many more years.
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Cheer Director & Instructor
Tara Bowers
Tara began taking gymnastics at the age of 3 and completed her training through level 8. In addition to gymnastics Tara was also a cheerleader in both middle and high school.
At the age of 16, Tara began coaching gymnastics. She spent 4 years at the YMCA and was promoted to Head Coach and Director of the YMCA Gymnastics program, followed by 2 years coaching at Georgia Elite Gymnastics while cheering with the UGA Competition Cheerleading Squad.
After college, Tara spent time in New Jersey coaching at gymnastics camps and led her team to a First Place finish at the Northern Division Championship.
Tara returned to Hartwell taking the position of Head Coach & Director of the YMCA. She led her teams to many State and Regional Championships, as well as National 1st place championships on all individual events and All Around placing. Two of Tara’s students scored perfect 10s at Nationals and two gymnasts qualified for The Junior Olympics, finishing in the top 3 for their age division.
After taking a job offer from Charlotte, NC , Tara became Gymnastics Director and Head Coach at Lake Norman YMCA. During her 5 years there, she coached gymnastic teams that qualified and competed in State and National Championships.
Assistant Dance Teachers
Hot Shots Dance Company offers an Assistant Dance Instructor Program that gives current students a hands-on experience towards becoming trained dance instructors.
Each year a limited number of HSDC students are selected to participate in the program based on technical ability, level of efficiency in their own dance training, and maturity.
Our assistant dance instructors are held to high standards of dance training and are involved in Company and Dance Competition programs.
Assistants work side by side with a teacher and are in the classroom to help the teacher, help the students, and be an extra pair of eyes
The HSDC Assistant Dance Instructor Program strives to ensure that our assistants gain leadership experience, learn valuable teaching skills and receive instruction on developing choreography.
Addison
Aubrey
Natalie
Kaylie