Southern Association of Dance Masters

A Nashville native, Manning received her B.F.A in Dance from the Ohio State University. As a sophomore, her duet with Tadas Varaneckas, Blended Hues, premiered at the 2015 Midwest American College Dance Festival Conference. Her senior choreographic work From Four to Two, won the 2016 BellaMoxi Emerging Choreographic Artist Festival in Chicago, Illinois and an interview in Dance Informa Magazine.

More recently, Manning presented her duet, Bum One, at Big River Dance Festival in West Virginia and then later reset it as a short dance film which premiered at the Nashville Film Festival in 2019. She has set work for Seven Dance Company, The Collaborative Dance Project, Susan Petry & The Gift Project, Found Youth, and Found Movement Group. Manning was the Associate Director of Found Movement Group for four years and during that time collaborated on, choreographed, & directed many different projects. For Found's 14th season, Manning present her first full evening length work titled the way i see it. She collaborated on creating and directing Nashville’s first long standing immersive dance theater performance title Obsession which was in residency at Flamingo Cocktail Club. Her latest work was a collaboration with Nashville’s public transit system, WeGo. 

Most recently her dance film aloneliness premiered at Dancecentric Dance Festival and BiteSize Film Festival.

Other endeavors include teaching for SADM and other studios in the middle Tennessee area as well as having been a Guest Lecturer for Watkins College of Art and Design for Dance Film. For the past few summers Manning has ventured to LA to train with Jacob Jonas the Company and artists such as Madison Olandt, Mike Tyus, & Katherine Helen Fisher. She has also trained with Jermaine Spivey, Spenser Myles, Tillman Odonnell and Erica Sobol through Sobol’s Gypsy Project. Manning is currently the resident choreographer and co-creative director for Phenix Red Music, and has choreographed and worked with multiple other artists for lyric videos, music videos, and movement coaching.

Manning dabbles in photo and video work as well as choreography. She has done video work for American Dance Festival’s Winter Intensive at NYU Tisch & has been engaging in a year long photo series called Found Objects which sheds light on the ‘tossed away toys of the dance world and finding beauty where beauty is not normally seen.’ While in New York performing for Jodi Kaplan’s Bookings Dance Festival in January 2020, Manning shot and edited a short film entitled FOUNDunderground: a play off of the photo series exploring movement and guerilla styled film-making in the subways of New York City. 

Jess Stafford is a native New Yorker and graduate of NYU Steinhardt's Dance Education Master’s Program. She also has her BFA in dance performance from UMASS Amherst. Following her gypsy life as a professional dancer, Jess now teaches and choreographs nationally and internationally, bringing her love of movement and creating to all her classes.

Jess’ performance credits include: The National Tour of Guys & Dolls, The European Tour of Grease, West Side Story, Cabaret, Sweet Charity, Salute to Dudley Moore at Carnegie Hall, guest-dancer with the World Famous Pontani Sisters and IMPULSE Modern Dance Company. Jess has been on facultyfor the Perichild Program at Peridance, New Dance Group and 92nd Street Y in NYC and was Company Director at Steffi Nossen School of Dance. In 2008 Jess traveled to Uganda where she taught creative-movement and was a featured instructor at the Queen's Kampala Dance School. She has conducted workshops for the cast of LA REVE at the Wynn, Las Vegas and has been on faculty at the IDS International Dance Teacher Conference at The Royal Ballet, MPower Summer Dance Intensives and annual Dance Teacher Web Conferences.

Jess has been adjunct faculty to the Rutgers University Dance Dept. and has also served as Master Teacher & adjudicator for various dance competitions. She is the Chief Editor for the Dance Teacher Web blog and is also faculty member and contributing writer.

Her latest passion project includes becoming a 500HR RYT and is the founder and creator of 44 Yoga + Movement. 

Dr. Tegan Jemma Reeves is a seasoned dance professional with over 20 years of movement instruction and 15 years of dance adjudication. Tegan has extended her work into research studying the mind/body connection. The former Executive Director of USASF Dance and The Dance Worlds, Tegan spent her adult career dedicated to competitive dance. Her background at Iowa State University studying dance, as well as her diverse array of movement education modalities, fueled this passion and led to her current pursuits. Earning her doctorate studying embodied literacy and yoga in 2018; Tegan is now studying the instruction and impact of movement and teaching yoga and acrobatics in Memphis, TN.