Meet Our Staff

Summer Howard

Summer began her dance education at 2.5 years old in Michigan, and continued taking classes all through high school. She studied Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Hip hop and Pom. In middle school and high school, she was a member of the competition team and extreme team. In college, she was a member of a performance team that had 2 showcases per year. Her favorite styles are Lyrical and Hip hop. Summer started assistant teaching in high school and teaching during college. She has choreographed for her college performance team, high school competition routines, studio recital routines, and musicals. Most recently, Summer had the opportunity to choreograph a music video for a local artist. Summer has received several judge’s awards and choreography awards, and her routines have placed at the regional and national levels. She is a member of Dance Masters of Wisconsin and is certified in Ballet and Jazz. Summer continues her professional development by regularly attending conventions and workshops. Summer is the former head coach of the Shawano High School Varsity Dance Team. In addition to teaching at POD, Summer is a choreographer for the Tigerton Theatre department, a school district student services member, a wife and a mom!

Payton Nickels

A longtime member of the Power of Dance family, Payton danced at the studio for 15 years. She started in Dance Expressions and then joined POD’s first-ever Tiny team at the age of 5. She continued as part of the All-Star program and later joined POD’s first-ever Youth Kick team. As a senior team dancer, she competed with POD at Dance Worlds from 2022 through 2024, helping earn a second-place finish for their kick routine Beautiful People. Payton’s favorite dance styles to perform are hip hop and kick. Through the studio’s Junior Faculty program, Payton served as a volunteer student helper for five years, assisting with both Academy classes and All-Star teams. During her senior year of high school, Payton began teaching classes at the studio and especially loves working with the early elementary dancers and tumblers. Payton is a student at UW-Madison, where she is majoring in Elementary Education with a minor in Dance Education.

Emmalee Biehl

Adissyn brings a unique blend of creativity, organization, and a genuine love for people to her role at the studio. With experience coordinating large-scale community events, assisting with domestic and international travel, and supporting a wide range of administrative and organizational projects, she has developed a passion for creating experiences in which people feel welcome, valued, and connected.
She believes the strongest communities are built when people genuinely care for one another, and she loves helping create spaces and experiences where people feel right at home.
Outside of work, Adissyn loves spending time with her husband and their two daughters. Still relatively new to Wisconsin, their family enjoys exploring their new home, discovering fun places to visit, and finding their next favorite adventure together.

Addy Koehler

A longtime member of the Power of Dance family, Payton danced at the studio for 15 years. She started in Dance Expressions and then joined POD’s first-ever Tiny team at the age of 5. She continued as part of the All-Star program and later joined POD’s first-ever Youth Kick team. As a senior team dancer, she competed with POD at Dance Worlds from 2022 through 2024, helping earn a second-place finish for their kick routine Beautiful People. Payton’s favorite dance styles to perform are hip hop and kick. Through the studio’s Junior Faculty program, Payton served as a volunteer student helper for five years, assisting with both Academy classes and All-Star teams. During her senior year of high school, Payton began teaching classes at the studio and especially loves working with the early elementary dancers and tumblers. Payton is a student at UW-Madison, where she is majoring in Elementary Education with a minor in Dance Education.

Emily Samuelson

Emily has been connected to dance for most of her life. She began training at age 7 and competing at 11 with Foursis Dance Academy in Waterford. She later competed with her high school dance team, including multiple State appearances, and continued dancing as a member of the UW Oshkosh Hip Hop Dance Team. Emily trained and taught in several styles throughout the years, with hip hop always being a favorite, and also gained experience teaching and choreographing.

Emily homeschools her two children, Easton and Mila, and has always had a passion for working with kids. She believes children are incredibly capable and loves giving them the space to be themselves while also challenging them to grow. For Emily, teaching is as much about getting to know the kid in front of her as it is teaching the steps. She loves making room for the conversations, laughs, and fun that help kids feel comfortable being themselves while still encouraging them to work hard and be proud of what they accomplish.

Emily’s connection to Power of Dance began as a parent, with her daughter Mila dancing at POD for several years and participating in its competitive program. Being part of the studio as a parent has given Emily a firsthand appreciation for the care and intention POD puts into developing the whole child. She is proud to be part of a studio whose values so closely align with the way she strives to raise and educate her own children.

In addition to dance and homeschooling, Emily owns and runs her real estate business in the Green Bay area. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh with a Bachelor of Business Administration, double majoring in Finance and Human Resource Management.

Jodi Nickels

Jodi had been with Power of Dance as a parent since the studio opened in fall 2007 and joined the staff in 2023. She took ballet, tap and jazz classes as a child, was on her high school dance team, coached middle school dance for four years in Pulaski (where she first met Elizabeth), and choreographed PCMS and PHS musicals. She has long since abandoned any dance pursuits and instead has replaced them with nerding out on technology, organization, color palettes and font pairings. Jodi’s role includes advertising and promotion, website maintenance, social media management and other communication needs. Besides her job at POD, Jodi is a French teacher at West De Pere High School and proud POD parent. Her daughter Lauren took academy classes for many years, and her daughter Payton danced with POD for 15 years.

Sophie Berendsen

Sophie has been a longtime member of the Power Of Dance for over ten years now. She started in Dance Expressions and eventually moved on to Ballet, Jazz and Pom. Sophie started competing on POD’s tiny level team at age 8 and really found her love for dance. She continued competing and also joined POD’s Kick teams, as well as Contemporary/Lyrical small groups. She got the opportunity to compete with POD’s senior team as a reserve (dancing Pom) before joining the senior team the following year. As a senior team member she competed at Dance Worlds from 2024 through 2026 helping earn a third-place finish for their kick routine Ballroom Blitz in 2026. She also got the opportunity to participate in the invite-only Dance Majors 2026 in Louisville. Sophie has always had a love for the dance style of Pom, but she also really enjoys Hip Hop and Kick as well. She found her love for coaching and teaching when she joined the studio’s Junior Faculty program as a volunteer student helper. She helped out with both Academy classes and All-Star teams over the course of three years. Sophie has always loved getting to work with kids and being able to teach them the sport she loves most.

Bethany Bowers

Bethany grew up with dance, starting classes at a local studio in Wausau. She danced two years on her high school varsity team, and two years with a competitive team at DDH Dance Academy. In college, Bethany taught ballet and jazz at Dance Education Center in Stevens Point for one year before moving to Green Bay to continue her hospital internship as a Medical Laboratory Scientist. Bethany found the opportunity to teach with the Power of Dance Studio in 2016. Bethany coached All-Star teams and instructed Pom and Jazz classes for three seasons, before stepping back. She has since returned to the studio to work with the youth all-star teams. Outside of teaching, Bethany enjoys judging dance competitions. She is a certified judge for WACPC and NDCA, and a certified Legality Official for USASF.

Chloe Hansen-Dunn

Chloe first coached acro with POD from 2015 to 2017 after graduating with her undergraduate from UWGB. After a couple of years coaching out of state, Chloe relocated back to Wisconsin and was thrilled to find a way to make POD fit back into her life in 2021. Chloe has surrounded her life with the sport of gymnastics since 2006 in both private gyms and Parks & Recreation programs with experience of coaching competitive teams Levels 1-8, recreational classes, and two high school teams. Chloe received her Masters of Public Health degree from Indiana University-Bloomington in 2021. She loves her role as the Recreation/Senior Services Manager for the City of Menasha. In her downtime, Chloe enjoys reading, playing board games, relaxing with jigsaw puzzles, and being outdoors with her wonderful husband and dogs. She enjoys teaching acro as it brings gymnastics to a different creative level. She can’t wait to help your dancer love it too!

Jasmine Butler

Jasmine officially started coaching acro for the Power of Dance in 2022. She previously helped POD as a sub and enjoyed it so much she decided to continue in a more formal role! She grew up in Mukwonago, WI loving all athletic activities but particularly gymnastics, cheer and horseback riding. Upon graduating she attended the UW-Green Bay where she met her husband, Josh. They loved the area and decided to make it home. Jasmine taught preschool for 5 years, and then decided to be a stay-at-home mom and coach gymnastics part-time in the evenings. She absolutely loved being able to help children learn gymnastics skills and grow, not only in their athletic abilities, but also as people. She has nine years of experience in coaching both recreational and competitive team gymnastics and has attended national and local clinics throughout the years to learn the latest techniques in coaching. Jasmine is also a former POD parent, as her older daughter Maddie competed on POD teams through her high school years and also loved ballet. Jasmine spends her free time reading, enjoying the outdoors and hanging out with her family.

Brianna Tate

Brianna grew up in De Pere, and began her dance training at the age of two at Shirley Van’s Dance Studio. A few years later, she was introduced to the Power of Dance, where she went on to compete on their All-Star teams at the Youth, Senior, and Open levels. While dancing at POD, Brianna found her love for working with dancers of all ages by assisting in and leading various classes at the studio, including Music and Movement, Dance Expressions, Youth All-Stars, and Acro. Over nine years, she and the various teams she was a part of were awarded the title of National Champions numerous times in different styles. Brianna was lucky enough to end her All-Star Dance Career as a Bronze Medalist in Senior Large Pom, Silver Medalist in Open Kick, and a 2019 World Champion in Senior Small Coed Hip Hop. Brianna has officially been coaching at POD since 2023, working with both Academy Classes and All-Star teams. In addition to teaching at POD, Brianna earned her B.S. in Early Childhood Education from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the spring of 2023. She is a Collaborative Full Day Head Start Teacher for the Green Bay Area Public School District.

Marissa Schuettpelz

Marissa grew up in Weston and began training at the age of three at Judy Peterson Dance Studio. In high school, Marissa danced with the D.C. Everest Dance Team and held the title of captain her senior year. After high school, Marissa attended UW–Stevens Point where she danced on the school dance team for four years, serving as captain for two years, during which UWSP placed in the top half at UDA Nationals (UWSP Dance Team was one of only two captain-led teams to compete at UDA). While in college, Marissa also choreographed for Ben Franklin Dance Team, Everest Youth Dance Team, and Stevens Point Area High School, in addition to countless routines for UWSP. Marissa taught at Expressions Dance Institute in Weston for three years before moving to the Green Bay area. Her favorite styles of dance are pom and lyrical.

Maddie Butler

Maddie was only 18 months old when she first began gymnastics. She made her way on the competitive team and won the state championships many times. She began coaching competitive gymnastics at age 14, doing so all through high school. While continuing coaching, she competed successfully, making it all the way to level 8 before deciding it was time to try something new. Maddie began at Power Of Dance as a member of their All Star Teams back in 2018. A year after that, using her own experience of gymnastics, she began assisting in acro classes.

Maddie has traveled to Dance Worlds for two years and was a part of the team that brought home the gold for Open Kick in 2021. Since then, Maddie has continued to coach acro at Power Of Dance, choreograph camp routines and competitive gymnastics floor routines for local gyms, and has danced for her collegiate team.

After attending the University of Kentucky for a degree in Digital Media and Design, she now attends the Savannah College of Art and Design for her Master of Fine Arts in Animation.

Nicholas Powers

Nicholas has been with Power of Dance since the beginning, starting as a dancer in 2007 when the studio first opened. Over the next 16 years, he was trained in a variety of styles and represented POD at national and global competitions, including competing on the Dance Worlds stage a total of 16 times over six years. He has been the recipient of numerous prestigious personal awards such as DX ‘All American’ and ‘Performer of the Year’ champion, as well as the first place USASF scholarship awarded at Dance Worlds.

While still a student at POD, Nicholas took on the role of student helper in ballet, acro and technique classes. Since his high school graduation in June of 2023, he has been teaching summer classes at the studio. He teaches and assists in ballet, acro and technique classes, and he also gives private technique lessons to individual students.

During the school year, Nicholas is found studying Kinesiology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, hoping to work as a Physical Therapist or a Doctor of Sports Medicine. Nicholas returns home between the months of May and August to teach, continuing his passion of dance and helping others find joy and beauty through movement as well.

Tanya Robinson

Tanya has been working with the Power Of Dance since 2008, teaching nearly all styles and all ages, including Adult Dance. Tanya started her dance journey at 2 years old and continued to train throughout the years in a variety of styles. She has been trained in classical ballet, pointe, lyrical, contemporary, jazz, tap, hip hop, modern, musical theater, pom, and acro. Tanya performed for many years as an adolescent and as an adult in local and national ballet companies. She was also the captain of her high school dance team. In college, she continued to study dance as well as theater and musical theater. Tanya also performed with the Danceworks program while attending UW-Eau Claire. Tanya loves choreographing for competitive dance and her routines have been recognized both locally and nationally, with many of her routines making it to the Worlds competition in Florida. In 2017 and 2020 Tanya was recognized as the National Dance Coach of the year from the Dance Xtreme USA organization, and in 2023 she was inducted in their Hall of Fame. Tanya also choreographs for the Luxemburg-Casco High school musical theater department. She has enjoyed working with the high school students on over a dozen musicals over the years. Tanya has always had a love for photography. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Photography from UWGB and a minor in theater arts. In addition to dance, Tanya is a talented seamstress, making and altering many of the all-star and studio costumes. She loves spending time with her family, boyfriend Steven, and her amazing daughter Ava.

Dawn Schirmacher

Dawn does not have a dance background, but she is the one person in the studio that every single parent and child knows. Dawn started with Power of Dance when they opened in 2007 as the Directors’ Assistant and has been the welcoming face, the cheerful ambassador, and the source of (nearly) all knowledge since then. Dawn knows just about every child at the studio by name and hardly ever misses a competition or studio event. When the studio was about to open in 2007, Theresa called on her friend Dawn to help get the building ready, then help with first week registrations, and then hired her to handle all the administrative tasks as well as the store. Dawn is usually found at the front desk and handles most questions and communication, class registration, merchandise sales and general studio management.

Theresa Perenick

Theresa Perenick is an accomplished dance coach, choreographer, educator, and founder of Power of Dance (POD), which she established in 2007, with her sister Elizabeth. With over three decades of experience, Theresa has coached and choreographed for dancers and athletes of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds in a wide range of styles, including jazz, hip hop, pom, kick, Acro, contemporary/lyrical, ballet, and tap. Her expertise extends beyond choreography to strength and conditioning, skill enhancement, technique, flexibility, and athletic performance. Theresa has been named AmeriCup’s National Coach of the Year three times (2010, 2021, and 2026) and was inducted into the UPA Dance Coach Hall of Fame in 2014.

Theresa’s choreography and coaching have earned countless Judges’ Choice and choreography awards, as well as top-five finishes at local, state, national, and international competitions and multiple bids to The Dance Worlds in Florida. Alongside her co-coach Elizabeth, Theresa has helped lead teams to numerous top-10 finishes at Worlds, including World Championship titles in Small Co-ed Hip Hop (2019) and Open Kick (2021), along with two silver and two bronze World medals in Kick and Pom. She has also directed and performed with three professional dance teams and has taught everyone from toddlers in movement classes to adult dance classes and fitness programs.

While Theresa is passionate about excellence and competitive success, her greatest focus is developing the whole individual. She believes every person deserves to feel valued, included, and capable, regardless of age, experience, or ability. Her approach emphasizes compassion, patience, inclusion, and meeting dancers where they are while encouraging them to continually challenge themselves and reach their individual potential.

Theresa holds a B.S. in Psychology and Human Development and Master’s degrees in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in School and Community Counseling—an educational background that continues to shape her approach to mentoring, communication, and helping each individual reach their unique potential.

Elizabeth Powers

Elizabeth’s dance career actually started in cheerleading or “cheer-dance” in middle school. She was captain of both her State Champion high school and college dance teams and danced for two adult semi-pro dance teams after graduation. Elizabeth has a degree in Biology and Natural Science with an emphasis on education and taught science at Pulaski High School while coaching the school’s State Champion dance team from 1999-2007. In 2007, she opened the Power Of Dance with her sister Theresa.

Elizabeth has continued to take classes in coaching/teaching methods, choreography, music mixing, strength/conditioning, skill enhancement, and technique in all styles of dance since she started coaching. Her teams have won countless Regional, State, National and Worlds titles. A few of her personal honors include numerous best choreography awards, UPA National Dance Coach of the year (2004), UPA’s National Coaching Hall of Fame (2006) Who’s Who of US Dance Directors, 3x WACPC Conference presenter, WACPC Coaching Hall of Fame, and 2x DX National Dance Coach of the year. Elizabeth (along with her sister Theresa) coached 2 teams to Dance Worlds Gold Medals in Hip Hop and Kick as well as 2 silver and 2 bronze medals in Kick and Pom. She is also a state-certified judge in pom, hip hop, jazz, and high kick.

Through it all, Elizabeth’s passion remains teaching kids. And while most of her career has been with teens and young adults, the fact that she now gets to work with the littlest dancers at the studio is a precious gift. Elizabeth believes in being involved in her community and you can see her giving her time back to the HSSD school district where her 3 kids attended school.

Learn more about Elizabeth!

Elizabeth Powers

Learn more about Theresa!

Theresa Perenick

Learn more about Dawn!

Dawn Schirmacher

Learn more about Tanya!

Tanya Robinson

Learn more about Marissa!

Marissa Clarke

Learn more about Brianna!

Brianna Tate

Learn more about Bethany!

Bethany Rowe

Learn more about Summer!

Summer Howard

Learn more about Addy!

Addy Koehler

Learn more about Sophie!

Sophie Berendsen

Learn more about Emily!

Emily Samuelson

Learn more about Jasmine!

Jasmine Butler

Learn more about Chloe!

Chloe Hansen-Dunn

Learn more about Jodi!

Jodi Nickels

Learn more about Adissyn!

Adissyn Chastain

Learn more about Payton!

Payton Nickels

Junior Faculty