Heatherly Ahern is a dance educator with 17 years of professional teaching experience, working with competitive students of all ages. She has studied ballet for 22 years and expanded her training to include jazz, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary, musical theater, modern, and belly dance.

She earned her AA in Physical Education K–12 from the College of Southern Idaho in 2011, funding part of her education through a scholarship from the CSI Golden Girls Dance Team. She continued her studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she received a dance scholarship and participated in master classes with the Russian National Ballet Theatre, Martha Graham Dance Company, Momix, and the touring companies of Chicago and Memphis. A highlight of her college years was working with Elizabeth Streb to prepare choreography for the STREB pre-show in her senior year. During this time, she also danced with Acapriccio Dance Company of La Vista, Nebraska. She graduated with her BA in Dance in May 2014.

In 2015, Heatherly’s family moved to Okinawa, Japan, where she became manager and team director at FootLoose Dance Studio. Her teams, FootLoose Elite and FootLoose Stars, earned multiple awards, including top placements at the 9th Ryukyu International Ballet Competition. She continues to work with many of these students through virtual lessons and choreography.

Since moving to Lynchburg in 2019, Heatherly has taught at several notable dance studios and served as an adjunct instructor for musical theater dance at Randolph College. She enjoys spending time with her husband, Sean, and their two young dancers, Elyanna and Koa.