Owner/Director/Teacher

Heather Stevens is the owner and director of Spotlight Dance & Performing Arts Center. She grew up dancing at the dance studio since she was five years old. Heather was one of the first four dancers on the competition team "Dance Maine-ia that traveled throughout the United States. She had the honor singing the National Anthem for many National Competitions and in 2002 she was the fourth runner up for the Dancer of the Year Award at the ADA National competition. She grew up falling in love with Tap and Musical Theater and has performed in local community theaters including The Best of Broadway, Lyric Theater and Perform for a Cure.  Her favorite role was Peggy Sawyer from 42nd Street in 2018. She teaches Tap, Jazz, Musical Theater, Lyrical, Mini Hip Hop, Creative Movement, SHiNE and Zumba. Her goal is to help her students discover their love for dance, at any age!

Maegan Laplante has been a member of the Theatra Dance family for over 20 years. She started dancing at the age of three and was choreographing by the age of 15. Maegan was named "Young Choreographer of the Year" at the regional level for her tap number, Neglected and placed second at the ADA national championships. She has a broad base of performance experience including community theater productions of Anything Goes, Footloose and Annie. Maegan has also performed in The Best of Broadway, Perform For A Cure and many Lyric Music Theater open houses. She strives to establish relationships with her students and to be a positive support and role model to all that she teaches.

Ina Brunette is a graduate of George Mason University with a BFA in Dance in 2008. She attended school with a full scholarship and finished Magna Cum Laude. While there, she studied under the watchful eyes of Susan Shields, formerly of the White Oak Dance Project, as well as, the great ballet legend, Mimi Paul. She was a member of the GMU Dance Company and was selected to perform at the regional American College Dance Festival in Colombus, Ohio, in 2006. She has performed the choreography of many well known artists, such as Lar Lubovitch, Mark Morris, Kate Skarpetowska, Paul Taylor, Patrick Corbin, and Eliot Feld. Her passion for dance has lead her to teach at several Maine schools including USM, UNE, and Thornton Academy.

Amanda Preble is a hip hop instructor who has been influenced by her experiences with the college competition and crew scenes throughout the Northeast. She holds her BA in Communications from Quinnipiac University where she was the senior captain and choreographer of a competitive hip hop team. Her performance experience includes many competitions as well as 9 years of dancing for basketball, including 2 years professionally for the NBA D-League. Throughout the years Amanda has trained locally with Michelle Stuckey, Bruce Tracey and Victoria Perreault at Casco Bay Movers. She makes several trips a year to NYC to train at Broadway Dance Center with the likes of Chio, Q, Neil Schwartz, and Sheryl Murakami. While not dancing, Amanda is a promoter for Citadel Broadcasting.

Megan began dancing when she was 4 years old. She first started at the Dance Connection in Fairfield and then enrolled in Bossov Ballet Theatre. While at Bossov, she danced in numerous productions such as Cinderella, The Nutcracker and Scheherazade. Her freshman year of high school she transferred to dance at Studio One with Scott Stevens, where she finished out her high school dancing career. After graduating high school, Megan went on to the University of Maine in Orono where she received a degree in Kinesiology and a minor in Dance. She danced in the UMaine showcase for 8 semesters, personally choreographing 3 pieces, as well as was a co-president of the American College Dance Festival group there. She was a member of the UMaine Dance Team for 3 years, where she performed at the UMaine football games and womens/men basketball games. She began instructing at Next Generation Dance Studio and has loved teaching dance ever since. For the past three years she has taught classes at both Next Generation and Top Hat II in Holden. Classes including ballet, pre-pointe/pointe, jazz and pre-k ballet/tap as well as a stretching class. Being a dance teacher has brought Megan such joy. She loves working with children and watching them grow into such creative individuals through the movement of dance.

Emily fell in love with dance at the age of three when she took her first dance class. She grew up dancing at Fusion Dance Academy in Dover, New Hampshire where she was part of a company that danced competitively. She also attended several conventions and master classes taught by world renowned teachers at Broadway Dance Center, JUMP Dance Convention, Monsters of Hip Hop, and many more.

After high school, Emily attended the University of Maine where she majored in Psychology and minored in dance. She gained experience choreographing and setting pieces for UMaine’s semiannual showcases. She also participated in the American Collegiate Dance Association’s annual festival where she attended master classes and collaborated with other dance students throughout the Northeast.

Along with dance, Emily has a passion for working with children and has experience teaching dance classes at Next Generation Dance Studio in Brewer, Maine. She is excited to be going back to school for Occupational Therapy and hopes to incorporate teaching dance to children in her field of work when she graduates.

Susan Nappi is happy to be back at the studio where she taught for 13 years and working with Heather, a former student, again. Susan began her dancing career at 4 years old and quickly fell in love with classical dance under the direction of Jeannette Thibodeau in Waterville. As a young dancer she landed numerous roles in the Nutcracker including Clara, Reed Flute soloist, Spanish dancer and many others. Susan’s students have been awarded with many regional and national dance awards from the American Dance Awards, where they have placed in the top 10 at the national level. She has performed in and choreographed many productions at local community theaters including Lyric Theater, where she also has served on the Board of Directors. Her other allocates included in her 20 years of choreographing are, The Best of Broadway, for the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, with special performances for George and Barbara Bush, The South Portland High School Musicals, Broadway Celebrations (a youth show chorus), Waynflete summer theater programs, Miss Maine contestants and many different youth and community programs. Susan believes in helping children through adults to unleash their inner soul through dance and other creative outlets.