BROOKE BENNETT (ACRO, TAP)
Brooke Bennett grew up dancing competitively in Garner, North Carolina before dancing on a performance team with Quality Music and Dance in Chesapeake, Virginia throughout her high school years. She has been teaching for the last five years and has experience teaching and choreographing ballet, hip hop, jazz, musical theater, lyrical, and more! Her favorite styles to teach are tap and acro, and she is certified in both Acrobatic Arts (Levels 1-6) and Tap Roots. She graduated from Virginia Wesleyan University in 2024 with a double major in marketing and music, which she loves to incorporate into my dance classes through music theory, creative rhythms, and musical expression. Brooke loves dance because it builds confidence, refines character, and creates lifelong friendships. I believe that dance is for everyone, and it is never too late to start!
Tori JoLayne Nahouse, is a West Virginia University graduate
with degrees in Psychology and Dance. A proud West Virginia native from Greenbrier County,
she has been dancing since 2010; receiving the bulk of her pre-collegiate training from Valley
Dance Studio. Tori has studied Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, Modern, Acro, Contemporary and Tap
techniques, as well as extensive psychological studies in areas of Early Childhood Development
and more. In college, Tori was an active member of the WVU Dance Program and performed in
many peer and faculty-choreographed pieces. She was also student choreographer for their
concerts and assisted the program when hosting the Mid-Atlantic South ACDA conference in
Morgantown. She is very proud to have had the opportunity to teach Special-Needs Dance
Classes while studying abroad in France in 2016. Her senior year, she taught dance/movement
classes in most of the schools in the Morgantown area; students ranging from elementary after-
school programs to high school dance teams. She has taught and choreographed locally, both for
competitive and recreational dance, receiving multiple awards for choreography and more.
Throughout her dance career, Tori has had the opportunity to travel and take many classes
and workshops all across the East Coast, including completing teacher training in 2019 with the
Dance Masters of America in Buffalo, New York. Tori is continuously moving forward with her
dance education in order to best-share her passion of the arts for the next generation of young
movers.
Tori believes in the importance of blending both of her degrees when teaching her
classes, building confidence inside and outside of the studio for all ages: from toddlers to adults.
She enjoys sharing her love of movement through teaching, choreographing and helping each
student reach their individual goals, finding their true potential. In Tori’s eyes, “Everyone is a Dancer"
TORI NAHOUSE
(STUDIO MANAGER, TEACHER, CHOREOGRAPHER)
ELEANOR LUCE (HIP HOP + ASSISTANT EXTRAORDINAIRE)
Eleanor Luce grew up in the Greenbrier Valley and has always loved dance. She started dancing at the age of 3 with Valley Dance. She enjoys all dance styles and has trained and has attended multiple dance camps and performed on various platforms. Eleanor graduated high school in 2023 and is excited for the opportunity to be able to continue to have dance in her life with Valley Dance and to be able to share her love of dance with the students there.
Eleanor adds, ”I love dance so much! I have been dancing for 15 years and I can’t wait to keep dancing my heart out.”
Liana Brooks (Teacher, choreographer)
Liana Brooks is a recent graduate from West Virginia University, where she received a
dual BA degree in dance and multidisciplinary media studies with a focus on entertainment
media, strategic social media, and advertising. She is from Lewisburg, West Virginia, and has
been dancing since she was four. Liana first danced at Next Step School of Dance and continued
training at Valley Dance Studio from 2014 through her senior year of high school. She grew up
attending and performing at the West Virginia Dance Festival in Charleston and has competed in
various dance competitions throughout her career. Liana has trained in multiple genres, including
ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop, pointe, modern, contemporary, lyrical, acro, and Kathak.
Since starting college, she has had the privilege of competing at the National Dance
Alliance (NDA) in 2024 with WVU’s Hip-Hop Dance Team, placing 8th in the D1A Hip-Hop
division. She also attended the American College Dance Association (ACDA) Mid-Atlantic
South Conference in 2023-2025, and the Mid-Atlantic East-Central Conference in 2026, where
she performed in adjudicated student pieces selected for the Final ACDA Gala. SHe also
attended the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in 2025 and 2026, where
she performed student pieces that were studies for research. She returned to the West Virginia
Dance Festival with WVU in 2022 and 2026 and served as the Social Media Chair of the Student
Dance Association (SDA), producing videos and photos for SDA, the WVU Dance Program, and
the College of Creative Arts and Media 2023-2026.
Liana has performed in every WVU dance production since 2022, including Celebration
of Dance, Dance Now!, and the Spring Showcase. She choreographed her first piece, Become a
Mountain, in 2023, followed by Just For One Day in 2024, which was chosen for Dance Now!
and was restaged for several different dance studios.
In Summer 2025, she studied abroad in Belgium, visiting Leuven, Ypres, Brussels,
Bruges, Genk, and Amsterdam, gaining fresh creative perspectives. In 2025, she represented
WVU at the Mid-Atlantic Dance Initiative (MADI) in Charleston, re-staging Just For One Day
and mentoring dancers as a Summer Dance Academy counselor in 2024-2026. Passionate about
blending dance, media, and storytelling, Liana continues to create meaningful, inspiring work
that celebrates creativity in all its forms.
Cate is from Jefferson County, WV. She has studied Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Pointe, Lyrical and Tap techniques for over twenty years. She traveled and competed extensively as a young adult with Tari Jo’s Dance Company in Berkeley County, WV. She has received national recognition through Dance Olympus/Dance America for her hip-hop choreography in Las Vegas, NV. She graduated from West Virginia University in 2008 with degrees in Broadcast News and Dance. During her time at WVU, she was a 4 year West Virginia University Dance Company member and a 3 year Dance Company Choreographer. While at WVU, she received extensive training in Ballet technique with a concentration in the Cecchetti method, Jazz, and Modern techniques with concentrations in Graham, Limon and Horton techniques and Choreography Concepts.
Cate has worked with renowned choreographers such as: Frank Hatchett: Broadway Dance Center, Ginger Cox, Bob Durkin, Teresa Chapman, and Jenny Rocha: Rocha Dance Theatre. She is certified in Zumba Basics 1 and 2 and is a certified Pilates Mat I and II Instructor. She was the Director for the Greenbrier Valley Junior Cotillion, a youth program that teaches etiquette and social protocols to children. She is a graduate of the prestigious Protocol School of Washington in Washington, D.C. Cate has completed grades 1, 2 and 3 of Dance Masters of America Teachers Training School at SUNY Buffalo in NY. Cate will attend the Shannon Mather Dance Company Teacher Training in July 2026 in Orange County, California. She hopes to teach many years of classical, creative dance and grow the next generation of healthy, intelligent dancers!