Meet the Teachers

Meet Mrs. Erin Hancock, Owner and Teacher

"Mrs. Erin" Hancock is foremost a wife and mother. She feels blessed to be raising six children, including two adopted children from the Democratic Republic of Congo and one adopted from China.

Erin’s talents span the fine arts, with many years of experience in dance, theater, and visual arts.  With a masters in art education, Erin taught K-3 art at Murray Elementary School until her first daughter was born. Then, she directed a Mother's Day Out program and began her portrait photography business, Bellamia Photography. In 2008, she fulfilled a dream of opening a dance studio, our Broadway Dance Company.

Erin's dance background includes 15 years of dance training and participation in nationally competitive tap and jazz teams at the former Carol Young School of Dance (now called Next Generation Dance) in Hamilton, Ohio.  Erin also studied ballet several years with Broadway and film dancer Paula Lynn. She has owned her studio and taught dance classes for 13 years, which is by far the best qualifying experience.

Erin’s love for all things Broadway stems from her experience in musical theater.  In addition to school and regional theater, Erin’s stage credits include three roles at the professional level at La Comedia Dinner Theater in Springboro, Ohio.  Erin also danced professionally as various characters for Paramount Productions.  Now that Erin has children of her own, she feels that her most important professional dancing role is to share her love of dance with children.

Mrs. Erin has attended The Dance Teacher Summit in New York City several times for ongoing training.  She has had the opportunity to train with some of the best in the dance world, including Emmy and Tony Award winning choreographers such as Mandy Moore, Mia Michaels, Travis Wall, and Andy Blankenbuehler. She has also attended (and taken students to) Titans of Dance to train with Gabi, Mollee, and Fikshun from So You Think You Can Dance. She has also attended The Rockette Experience, where current Rockettes taught her parts of their Christmas Spectacular! Finally, Mrs. Erin also attends Dance Makers conventions to connect with other dance professionals, continue her dance training, attend seminars from master dance teachers and studio owners, and to stay current in the ever-changing art of dance.

Meet Mrs. Laura Birchem, Dance teacher

Mrs. Laura has been teaching at BDC since high school, and we are blessed to have her continue teaching our students now that she's a college graduate and married woman with a day job in social work! Laura began dancing at age 5 and became a competitive dancer at age 8. She developed most of her beautiful dance technique through her training at Star Dance Academy in Cocoa, FL. One of the highlights of her dancing career was getting to dance for the NASA Space Center astronauts. Miss Laura teaches ballet, jazz, lyrical, private lessons, and ballet en pointe. BDC loves Miss Laura!

Meet Miss Addie Wells, Tumbling/Gymnastics Teacher

We are so proud to introduce our new tumbling/gymnastics teacher, Miss Addie Wells! Addie has a lot of experience in both competitive gymnastics and cheerleading. She was a competitive gymnast for five years in the junior olympics, reaching level 6. Then, she entered the competitive cheer arena with both All Stars and high school teams. Addie has competed at nationals three times and is a UCA National Championship COED runner up! She also holds two State runner up titles with her team. Not only does she love to flip through the air and stand on her head, our beautiful Addie has been an actress in TV commercials and has modeled for multiple boutiques. Most importantly, Miss Addie has a gift for teaching and passing her great training on to others, and has been growing our students remarkably while teaching at BDC.

Meet Mrs. Deanna Jones, 3-4 year old Dance/Gymnastics Teacher

Meet Mrs. Deanna! A familiar face to many of you, Mrs. Deanna was “Dance Mom Extraordinaire” for over 10 years at Broadway Dance Company, before she joined our staff in 2020! Mrs. Deanna, her husband Brian, and her talented dancing daughter Rebecca live on a small horse farm outside of Union City. Mrs. Deanna is a research scientist for Corteva Agriscience and teaches the junior high and high school students at her church. She danced at Union City Ballet as a child and was a high school cheerleader. She has accompanied Broadway Dance Company to multiple dance conventions and special dance trips, and she’s even participated in fun parent dance classes. Mrs. Deanna loves going to dance competitions and helping backstage at recitals, and we are so glad to have her doing such an amazing job with our Littles now at BDC!

Meet Mrs. Sarah Robison, Broadway Babies Teacher

Mrs. Sarah grew up as a dance and theater kid! She brings to the class 13 years of early childhood experience and a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Disorders from Murray State University! After Graduating in 2004 she spent two years working for Early Head start in Hickman, KY providing basic care, early education, parent guidance, and ongoing monitoring of children’s development. After leaving this position she spent the next 11 years working as an Early Intervention Teacher for TEIS (TN’s Early Intervention System). Here, she provided weekly therapy sessions for children ages 0-3 years who qualified for services due to a developmental delay, special need, or a medical diagnosis. In 2014, she took on a new role as a stay-at-home-mom when her son Oz was born. In 2017, their family grew again with daughter Ediee. The last 6 years have been spent doing lots of singing, dancing, and entertaining her children. In the spring of 2020, she taught a small creative movement dance class to children 0-3. This class was for children and their caregivers to learn, grown and explore through song, dance and movement. She loves getting to know each child and her family in her Broadway Babies class!

Meet Miss Gracie Schlatterer!

Miss Gracie is a high energy dance instructor with experience in ballet, lyrical/contemporary, jazz and more.
Gracie began her dancing journey at Bluegrass Academy of Dance in Murray, Kentucky. She began teaching at Bluegrass her junior year of high school and assisted in choreographing her high school musical theater program. Gracie performed in several productions including Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. She also performed en pointe in The Great Russian Nutcracker with the Moscow Ballet. However, Gracie feels her highest accomplishment is seeing her students light up the stage!
With a focus on technique and strengthening, Miss Gracie assists students in expanding their potential. She is so excited to be teaching at Broadway Dance Company!