Our Team

Studio Owners - Amanda & Nate:   Amanda and Nate became studio owners in July 2018 and purchased the studio @ 567 Elm Street in Biddeford in 2019.   They have been involved with AOD for over 12 years - when their oldest Brianna started dance!  Their involvement grew as Danika and Alexis started dancing too.  Mommy and Me classes turned into Daddy and me ... As Mr Nate was seen Dancing on stage!  Amanda was involved in leading fundraising actives, helping with Nutcracker and Managing AOD, before becoming Owner.  Prior to Owning AOD - Amanda ran an in-home daycare and has a degree in Child Development.  Amanda's passion for children and teaching can be seen and felt in the studio!  She continues to find new ways to keep dance fun and exciting while pushing the dancers to their full potential.  Mr. Nate is also an Engineer for Linde, while not at the studio.  Amanda & Nate welcome you to our Dance Family!

Tracey Garland: Tracey has danced for as long as she can remember whether it be in formal classes or just dancing around the house. Music and movement has always run through her veins. Tracey has taught for a few local studio over her 15 year teaching career and has also choreographed for local high school’s musical productions as well as for Schoolhouse Arts Center. This will be Tracey’s 14th year at Academy of Dance. She has also been a part of the Children’s Nutcracker since its inception. You may recognize her as Mother Ginger or Grandma. Tracey is so excited to be back this year as a studio manager to share her love and passion for dance with all her students!

Hayley Brown: This is Hayley's 11th year teaching at Academy of Dance. Hayley has been dancing since 1993 in the Biddeford area and has been involved in competitive dance since competing in the 1998 Junior Olympic Games where she took home a gold metal. She has trained in and competed up and down the East Coast in Ballet, Tap, Clogging, Jazz, Hip Hop, Lyrical, & Contemporary dance. Formerly an NBA Gatorade League dancer, she has performed as well as choreographed for the Lady Red Claws. 

Liana Constance - Liana began her dancing career at the young age of 2 at a small studio in Burlington, MA.  Her passion for dance flourished as she continued to grow and began dancing competitively in 2002 in various styles including jazz, tap, lyrical, ballet, hip hop, contemporary, and pointe.  While in college working towards her degree in English and Elementary Education, she went back to her roots and taught dance at her home studio.  Liana also participated in Dance Company and Kinetic Edge Hip Hop team at Bridgewater State University.  In her time at BSU on the Hip Hop team, she took the role of secretary of the team and competed at local competitions and at the national collegiate level in Dayton Beach, Florida where her team took 5th place overall!  Of all the styles she’s been trained in, hip hop and contemporary are her two favorites.    

Megan Spooner - One of our newest member of the AOD Staff!

Megan began her dance career at the age of three at a studio in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, and dance has remained a huge part of her life ever since . She is currently in her first year at the University of New England where she will be studying Psychology. She has been trained extensively in tap, ballet, jazz, lyrical, and contemporary. As of this past summer, she is a certified dance teacher through the Dance Teacher’s Club of Boston.  She has been a class assistant for many years, but this will be her first year teaching and she is very ready and eager to begin this new season!  

Maddy started her dancing career at age 5, right here at Academy of Dance! She joined the competition team when she was 8, and danced a total of 13 years before graduating. Maddy competed in Hip Hop, Lyrical, Jazz, Contemporary, and Musical Theatre. Maddy was a teachers assistant for many years, and has been teaching her own classes for 2 years. She has taught Ballet, Lyrical, Hip Hop, Tap, Jazz, Tumbling, and Mommy and Me classes. Maddy is taking a step back from teaching this year and will be in the studio only subbing classes. Maddy is currently going to school at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine in the nursing program. Her goal is to stay working with kids and go into Labor and Delivery or Pediatrics once she graduates as a nurse! 

Alicia began dancing at the age of two right here at Academy of Dance and has continued dancing for 15 years! At age eight, she joined the competition team, competing in hip-hop, jazz, lyrical and contemporary. Since beginning dance, she has trained in many genres including hip-hop, jazz, lyrical, modern, ballet, and tap. In 2017 she traveled with Academy of Dance to perform at Walt Disney World. Alicia has assisted with many classes and loves working with children. She is deeply passionate about dance and particularly loves performing for an audience.  Growing up with a brother on the autism spectrum has made her exceptionally skilled at working and relating to children and adults with special needs.  She plans to utilize her dance skills to help others with movement therapy by continuing her education to become an Occupational Therapist. Currently, she works part-time in a children’s occupational therapy office. 

Danielle discovered her passion for dance at age five that she has pursued ever since, starting her training at a studio in downtown Biddeford. She went on to travel New England as a part of several competitive teams for tap, jazz, lyrical, ballet and contemporary dance disciplines. At the age of nineteen she moved to Atlanta and worked professionally in performance arts. Moving back to Maine in 2015, she discovered a love of flow arts, focusing on hula hooping. This focus on flow arts has aided and enhanced her dance routines, providing a fun and accessible discipline that lends itself well to a variety of dance.