Faculty
Heather Wanner | Owner/Director
Shoreline Dance Academy opened its doors June 2004 with the under the direction of Mrs. Heather Wanner. Shoreline Dance Academy trains dancers ages 3 to adult utilizing various instructors and technical approaches throughout the year. Shoreline Dance Academy strives to create an environment where the student can feel secure and confident as a dancer.
Born and raised at the Jersey Shore, Heather's dance experience began at the age of five. She studied under many choreographers, directors and dancers from companies including The Dance Theater of Harlem, Alvin Ailey and Thommie Walsh. Heather performed in various dance competitions and honed her craft at Joanne Reagan Dance Studios, The Jersey Cape May Dance Academy, several New York Dance conventions and The Summer Arts Institute of New Jersey. Heather spent many of her younger years commuting to Manhattan for numerous auditions. Heather's training involves, theater vocal and dance. Appearing in several productions including Pippin, 42nd Street, Annie, The Sound of Music and A Broadway Baby, Heather is Actor's Equity eligible.
Mrs. Wanner's educational background consists of a B.S. in Elementary Education and a minor in Dance Education. Heather attended East Carolina University where she was a member of the Pure Gold Dancers, a competition squad, ranked fourth in the nation during her involvement. Dance has always been a part of Heather's life and she has been able to share that passion with students at dance studios in Pittsburgh, P.A., Cape May, N.J., and public schools throughout North Carolina and New Jersey.
Chelsea Glenn Arensdorf
Chelsea attended Jacksonville University and graduated cumlaude with a BFA in dance. Throughout her years at JU, she worked with choreographers such as David Parsons and Take Ueyama. She also got the chance to perform at the prestigious White Oak Plantation! After graduation, Chelsea had a few performance opportunities with Naganuma Dance and BodyStories. She’s been teaching and choreographing here at Shoreline since 2011, and has been recognized and awarded at multiple competitions for her work.
Stacy Bascom
Stacy grew up dancing in Hamilton Township, N.J. She attended Mercer County’s Vocational High School for dance at MCCC and went on to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA to study dance performance.
After leaving college, Stacy performed, choreographed and taught all over New Jersey, eventually settling in Red Bank, where she founded the dance department at Red Bank Catholic High School. Throughout her career she has worked with kids of all ages, teaching creative movement, ballet, tap, jazz, modern, contemporary and yoga.
After 17 years directing the program at RBC she left, two years ago, to spend some quality time with her daughter, homeschooling her during the pandemic, pursuing a certification in kids’ yoga and helping her husband with his business.
Stacy is extremely excited to be returning to Shoreline to teach dance and is really looking forward to working with all of the amazing students!
Emily Caputo Brown
Emily recently graduated with a Dance Education K – 12 Certification from Roger Williams University. During her four years she performed repertoire from various choreographers and danced and choreographed for the American College Dance Festival Association. Currently, Emily holds the positions of Dance Advisor, Color Guard Director, and Director of the Performing Arts Center at Neptune High School.
LeaAn Ciavatta
LeaAn Ciavatta has been an employee of TenderCare Nursery School in Ocean Grove for over 10 years. She was previously an elementary teacher in Northern New Jersey for 10 years. She has three boys, two who were Shoreline hip hop students. She is excited to be working more than the recitals this year, and can’t wait to help out in any way needed.
Katie Hegarty
Katie started dancing at Shoreline in 2006. After graduating in 2014, she assisted numerous classes with our youngest dancers. Katie also helped in the office and has become a valuable asset to our staff. She now teaches a wide range of students in various dance styles.
Cathy Jarmon
Cathy studied at the Joffrey Ballet in NYC and the Princeton Ballet School in NJ, earned a certificate of dance from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center’s Certificate Program. She danced as a student with the Ailey Company in a piece entitled "Memoria" and was a member of the Staten Island Ballet.
Erin McEvoy
Erin began her dance journey with Shoreline Dance Academy in 2008 and graduated in 2018. She specializes in Musical Theater, Tap & Rockette style dance. She received her associate degree in education from Brookdale Community College and is currently attending Rutgers University as an education major.
Caitlin Monroe
Caitlin has been part of the Shoreline family since we opened in 2004. Caitlin now works in our office and there is nothing she doesn’t do here. We thank her for the tireless hours she spends building our slideshows and movies as she has managed to capture each dancer for our holiday shows and year end recitals. We are very fortunate to have Caitlin on staff with us as she keeps us organized and on task.
Mary Neil
Mary is a Shoreline alumni, who studied various disciplines of dance. Spending many years focusing on Tap, Hip Hop and other Street styles, and Contemporary she also completed her studies in the R.A.D. Syllabus. She continues her studies at various studios in New York, mostly virtually, and is thrilled to be a part of the Shoreline team!
Shannon Summers
Shannon Summers trained at the Robin McGill School of Dance. She graduated from the Red Bank Regional Dance Department, and studied at the Catholic University of America for early childhood education. She returned to her childhood studio as a staff member. She has been teaching dance for 12 years.
Jeanna Tanner
Named after her grandmother Jean who was an accomplished dancer, Jeanna Tanner began dancing at the age of 3 in Claremore, Oklahoma. She studied Modern Dance at the Oklahoma Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain from 1987-1989 and continued to return to Quartz Mountain for multiple summers as a Modern Dance liaison. It was here that she worked hand in hand with Clay Taliaferro, former José Limón member and Jacquelyn Buglisi, former Martha Graham dancer. Jeanna went on to study Modern Dance Performance at University of Oklahoma and then received a Bachelor of Science at University of Central Oklahoma on a full dance scholarship. Jeanna has been sharing her passion teaching modern, tap, ballet, jazz and creative movement at Shoreline Dance Academy since 2005.
Darika Ukurchinova-Leggett
Darika a former student of classical ballet at the National Academy of Ballet: Kyrgyzstan and The Moscow Academy of Ballet. Darika performed as a principal dancer with the National Academy of Ballet.
Rachel Wasser
Rachel is thrilled to be back at home with her Shoreline family. Rachel taught jazz and musical theater from 2008 to 2019 before she took a hiatus to travel and invest in a variety of creative pursuits. She now runs her own photography business and is so excited to be back in the classroom working with dancers again!