Heather began dancing at the age of seven at Filippetti's Acadamy of Dance in Horseheads, NY. Throughout her teens, Heather choreographed solos and group numbers, as well as performed in stage productions at Horseheads High school - earning her the Elmira Little Theatre Outstanding Performer Award in 2002.
In 2004, Heather began teaching, under Amy Bush, at Dancer’s Alley in both Horseheads and Corning. In 2006, she graduated from Elmira College with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Musical Theatre. During her time at Elmira College, Heather helped choreograph and run the student organization, Orchesis Dance Group, which held two shows every year.
Heather continues to perform onstage in numerous productions in the local area as well as professionally. She also continues to learn more every year by taking classes from several professional dancers, including SYTYCD stars Tyce Diorio and Lauren Gottlieb, Disney Choreographer Nancy O’Mera, and Hip Hop Star Barry Youngblood. Heather has also attended classes at STEPS and Broadways Dance Center in New York City.
In 2010, Heather opened Stage Door Performing Arts Center. She continues to teach and train all over the North East, but her heart always remains at home with her SDPAC family.
Heather Haskins
Danielle Butler
Miss Danielle began dancing at Stage Door during its opening year in 2009, training in ballet and tap. As time went on, she fell more in love with dance, leading her to train in additional styles and become a teaching assistant in 2011. She joined the Stage Door Performance Team and competed until graduating high school in 2018, from which she attended SUNY Brockport to study psychology.
During her time in college, she was a member and officer of the Brockport Dance Team. After graduating with her Bachelor’s in 2021, she returned home to teach at Stage Door, both recreationally and competitively. Since 2021, she has taught ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, and hip hop across all age levels. She has received numerous choreography awards across SDA and other accredited competitions. Her favorite part of teaching is making meaningful, lifelong connections with students. Dance is about more than learning steps and technique; it’s about building community.
Lauryn Smith
Bio Coming Soon
Colleen Donovan
Colleen has been dancing for well over 20 years. She started her dance career in competitive dance while living in Utah, and began dancing here in New York at Dancer's Alley. She recently graduated from Niagara University with a degree in Early Childhood/Childhood education, with a minor in dance. At Niagara she was able to deepen her studies in ballet, jazz, tap and musical theater.
Colleen has studied all types of dance, although her favorite is routed in musical theater (thanks to Miss. Heather). She has taught for stage door sporadically since the beginning, however is more than excited to begin having her own classes this upcoming dance year. As a previous student of Miss. Heather's she is so excited to finally be teaching alongside her. She looks forward to a great dance year!
Paige Kennedy
Miss Paige is a Senior at CPPHS and is entering her second year teaching. A longtime SDPAC dancer, Paige has traveled and trained with Embody Dance Conference as well as a part of the CLI Conservatory Summer Intensive this past year. We are lucky to have Paige teaching and sharing her love of dance with our youngest dancers!
Lexi O’Connor
Miss Lexi is a Junior at CPPHS with years of dance experiece and training with a focus on ballet and lyrical. She has been active as an assistant teacher for many years with Miss Colleen and our Junior 2 Combo classes and is happy to be jumping into her own class this year! SDPAC is lucky to have Lexi and her smile walking into the studio each day, bringing the love of dance and laughter to her classes and students.