Niki Jernigan-Watkins, Owner/Artistic Director

Niki Jernigan-Watkins began her training at the young age of 3 with Carol Eason School of Dance and Pritchett-Pippin Studios in Americus, Georgia under the direction of Carol Eason and Judy Dabbs, respectively. She is classically trained in ballet, pointe, tap and jazz. Niki performed for 10 years under Judy Dabbs before joining The Dance Company-Americus to begin her career as a dance instructor. She has traveled professionally all over the world, including Paris, France, to perform. Niki is a graduate of Valdosta State University where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre/Dance.

Niki's professional credits include: The Dance Company-Americus, The Dance Company-Gainesville, Inner-City Contemporary Dance Company (I-CAN), Gerlock Dance Studio, VSU Repertory Dancers, Dance Captain, Buford School of Ballet, Falcons Half-Time Shows, and Pritchett-Pippin Studios. She was chosen to play Helen of Troy in the first original choreodrama, Dr. Faustus, by renowned choreographer Eric Brandt Nielson. In VSU's performance of Dancing Into the Millennium in 2000, she enjoyed a Latin Ballroom piece choreographed specifically for she and her partner. In the same year, she traveled on a Children's Tour of The Magic of Dance where she also served as Dance Captain and was featured for the ballet, tap, jazz and ballroom segments. She enjoys doing guest choreography work with The Dance Company-Gainesville, and also enjoys choreographing and consulting for area pageant contestants. Niki remains a student of dance, and spends her summers traveling to various workshops to learn new material and dance styles to bring back to her students at CDA. She is driven to continue the stellar reputation CDA has earned as "the most elite dance studio in Forsyth County."

A passion for teaching has brought Niki to use her talents throughout her life to make a career out of teaching the magic of dance to students from all over. Niki is known for her outstanding gift of teaching all ages and enjoying it. Most recently, Miss Niki has been nominated to be a part of the prestigious "Leadership of Georgia" team of 2009 and has been named as "Distinguished Alumni" from her dance department heads at Valdosta State University. She resides in Cumming with her husband Lee, their newborn son Henry Casher and their two chiahuahua's Amstel and Lola Rose. Miss Niki, as most know her is excited about her eighth season in quality dance education at Cumming Dance Academy, Inc.!
E-mail: cummingdanceacademy@yahoo.com