Miss Brittney Ann S. Benson

Owner and main dance instructor at Modern Movement Dance Studio.   
 
Miss Brittney Ann started to dance at a very young age.    
 
" At the age of two I would put Brittney in the play pen in front of the TV.  As soon as music came on she started to dance all around with a great big grin on her face. It was a great way to occupy her time. She was born to dance!"~ Joann Benson (Mother)
 
BIOGRAPHY
At the age of 4 she started to take dance classes. She has 35 years of dancing experience and over15 years of teaching.  Her passion for dance grew into a passion for the theater as well.  She started to act professionally at the age of 9 at the Carousel Dinner Theater.  She has been in numerous theater productions and has been involved with several outreach programs such as The North Canton Playhouse and KDE.  Miss Brittney is a graduate of Miller South Performing Arts School where she performed with the Cleveland Opera Tour.  She is an Alumni of Kent State University.  She earned her BFA degree in Dance Performance from Kent State University in 2007. She was a member of the Kent Dance Ensemble Dance Company for two years.  She performed in many concerts at KSU such as Fall Faculty Dance concert, Student Dance Festival and BFA Senior Project.  Brittney is not only a teacher and performer but a choreographer as well. Her BFA senior choreography piece was chosen to perform at ACDF at the University of Buffalo NY.  She was also a member of the Kent State Dance Team for 5 years, finishing as one of the senior captains for her squad.
Brittney is recently and currently a teacher at Tallmadge Recreation Center.   In the last few years Brittney jumped into the movie industry and has worked on numerous movies and with prestigious actors such as Willem Dafoe, Stephen Doff, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen, and Tyler Perry, just to name a few.   Since that time she has worked as a model, an actress, and has taught dance classes.
 
Brittney has wanted to follow her dream of teaching and owning her own studio.  She is thrilled to be teaching a wide variety of dance genres and exercise classes for all ages. In the next few years Brittney hopes to create a competition team to travel and compete.   
 
Modern Movement Dance Studio is her life's dream in meeting this goal.  She guarantees that those who join will leave each session feeling better about themselves, as well as their movement and performance.   It will also be a great way to add fun into your life!



 
OTHER

STAFF 
 

COURTNE
BENSON -CARTER

Assistant & Master Class Instructor Theater, film & TV
 
BIOGRAPHY

Courtne started her dancing career at age 4 which she pursues to this day. At age 12 she started performing in community theatre productions at such venues as Goodyear and Quirk Theatre. She also performed with Canton Players Guild and Cleveland Public Theater. At 16 she landed her first role at the Carousel Dinner Theatre in Unsinkable Molly Brown and continued to perform on the Carousel stage for South Pacific and Fantasy Spectacular 97 and 98 including Broadway Cares. At 17 she broke into the film industry dancing with Kevin Bacon in Telling Lies In America. Other on screen film credits includes Contagion, Freerunner, Maternal Pride, and Dog Eat Dog. Not including her numerous commercial roles and Indie film credits. In 2010 Courtne started work behind the scenes with Corbin Bernsen on 25 Hill. Soon afterwards she was working steadily on major motion pictures for Paramount and Warner Brother Studios, to name a few. Other film credits include Take Shelter with Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, 3 Day Test with Francesca Capaldi, Fun Size with Victoria Justice, Chelsea Handler and Johnny Knoxville, With This Ring with Eve and Regina Hall, Love Finds You In Charm with Trevor Donovan, Love Finds You In Valentine with Ed Asner and Lindsay Wagner, Wake with Bruce Willis, Sir Ben Kingsley, and Ellen Burstyn, In Search Of Fellini with play write Nancy Cartwrite, and Dog Eat Dog with Nicholas Cage, Wilum Dafoe, and director Paul Schrader. Courtne is a member of IATSE which is The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees in the Art Dept. A graduate of The University of Akron with a Bachelors of Arts in Theatre, Courtne is ecstatic to continue her career by teaching at MMDS, and working on and off screen and stage.  



Courtney Paolini

Gymnastics Instructor & Cheer Coach 

Courtney started dancing when she was 3 years old.  This included tap, jazz and hip hop.  She joined competitive cheerleading when she was 7 yrs. Tumbling came natural since she was always on her trampoline as a child teaching herself new tricks.  She has cheered for Springfield Jr High School for 10 years and has done ALL - Star cheerleading for 6 years where she found her love for tumbling.  She has 11 years coaching experience.  Throughout school she  began teaching youth cheerleaders and once graduated, began coaching for Springfield Jr. High. Miss Courtney has been teaching/ coaching for MMDS for 2 years.  She loves to teach and make connections with her students.  Coach Courtney loves being a part of the MMDS family.  







Cherrie Portmann 

Tap Instructor 

Cherrie starting dancing at the age of 3 and has been with Modern Movement Dance Studio for the past 7 years.  She has 36 years of dancing experience and 6 years of teaching.  She started dance classes at Jean Shepperd Dance Studio in Akron, where her father and aunts grew up dancing as well.   Her mother was a teacher and her grandma was a seamstress .  At the age of 8 Cherrie and her mother started dancing at Judy Canes Dance Studio in Portage Lakes.  As a child she tried all types of dance but quickly realized that tap was her passion.  As an adult Cherrie was a member of tap cats dance troupe along side her mother.  Based in portage lakes this group performed at nursing homes, hospitals and other charitable events. There goal was to bring smiles through people’s faces through tap dancing.  She has a Bachelor degree in communications from Kent State University and a Masters in communications from Hawaii Pacific University.  Miss Cherrie loves teaching all age groups and being a part of MMDS family.  



Dana Dotson
 
Baton Specialist 

Dana Dotson grew up dancing at Carole Cain Dance School, focusing on Jazz and Lyrical.  Dana continued as an adult instructing ballet, Jazz, Tap lyrical, Baton and Cheer.  She has 8 years teaching experience and is her 2nd year at Modern Movement Dance Studio.  Dana is a graduate of Kent State University.  Dane loves teaching children and being a part of MMDS.  










Shirley Lohr 

Preschool Instructor 
Kinder Ballet & Kinder Tap 

Shirley has had a love for children since she was 16 years old hostessing birthday parities at Chuck E Cheese.  She was a majorette as a child and took NJROTC in high school.  She made the competition color guard team her first year and the drill team her second year.  As her children were growing up she was always involved in their sports teams as a team mom, score keeper and competition cheer coach.  Her love for working with kids has brought her to MMDS as our Triple Talented Dance Instructor.  Her love for dance and the little makes it the perfect combination.  Shirley is also a certified individual and group fitness coach.  She has been a Beach Body Coach for 5 years and enjoys instructing yoga, dance & exercise classes, and one on one fitness.  She is also certified in CPR, AED and First Aid.