Faculty

Director Mary Lee Kennedy has been an educator for over 30 years, but has been a dancer all her life.  She began studying dance at age 4yrs. and continued through college on a dance scholarship, where she went on to graduate from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre Education.  Her experience as a movement specialist has included 35 years owning a performing arts studio, 2 years teaching in public school, and 6 years serving as a physical education director of a private school.  Mary Lee has also appeared in Richard Simmon’s Fitness videos, and designed “Jump Jammin Kids,” a children’s fitness program taught in private and parochial schools.  She has served as mistress of ceremonies and choreographer for Peter Lowe’s International Motivation Seminars, and teaches professional etiquette classes.  Mary Lee’s personal favorite style of dance is tap, and she annually combines her dance and theatre expertise to produce a specialty production number for recital.  She continues to train and certify teachers in “early childhood movement education” for in-house programs in private and parochial day schools, and serves as the director of Dance Tree and Kennedy Dance Theatre.

Milena Leben, Ballet Mistress, comes to us from Columbia, South Carolina, where she was the choreographer for the Columbia Classical Ballet. Ms. Leben trained at the Ballet Academy in Yugoslavia, under Russian instructors Nina Kirsonova and Marina Olenina. At the age of 12 she was awarded a scholarship to the Sadlers Ballet Academy (now called the Royal Ballet) in London. At age 13, she studied in Paris with Paris Opera Ballet Master Raymond Franchetti. She danced with principals from Paris Opera Tessa Boumont's company and was accepted into the corps of Zagreb Opera Ballet at age 16, and was promoted to soloist after just one year. Four years later she became the Prima Ballerina with the Croatian National Theatre. Ms. Leben has danced principal roles in almost all the classical ballets including Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, Cinderella, and Don Quixote, among others. She has also danced Balanchine works with Una Kay, principal from American Ballet Theatre. She partnered with Marius Liepa and Peter Brouer of the Stuttgart-Munchen Ballet and many others. Ms. Leben has toured Europe, Japan, United States, Middle East, and India. She was awarded Yugoslavia's Best Dancer of the Year 3 times, and her work as a choreographer has earned her a first prize award in the International Arts Festival in Venice and Prague and was televised throughout Europe. Her choreography for The Nutcracker was voted Best Performance of the Year 2000 in South Carolina, and she was awarded Best Choreographer in 2001. Her students have been awarded 1st and 2nd place in the New York Ballet competitions and received full scholarships to ABT and the Kirov Academy. Her choreography credits include: Giselle, The Nutcracker, Camelot, Madame Butterfly, La Fille Mal Garde, The King and I, Pied Piper, Bolero, Carmina Burana, and Evita. Ms. Milena was also Ballet Mistress for Royal Academy of Fine Arts for 6 years. She now serves as Ballet Mistress for KDT, teaching all of the graded division Ballet classes including Pointe and Ballet Theatre.

April Waller has almost 20 years of dance experience, and has been an instructor at Kennedy Dance Theatre for the past 10 years.  She studied at San Jacinto College South where she performed and choreographed for many of their concerts and shows, including the American College Dance Festival, and received her Associate of Arts Degree in Dance in 2004.  At the University of Houston she studied advanced jazz, ballet, and modern, and continues to attend numerous dance conventions and master classes, including Broadway Dance Center’s Teacher Training workshop.  April currently teaches Jazz in the graded division, Creative Dance, and Hip Hop classes, and choreographs competition pieces for KDT’s Hip Hop Co. In addition to teaching, she serves as the studio’s Marketing Director, handling the press associated with performances and programs KDT offers.

Camille Myers has over 30 years of dance experience, and has taught dance at KDT for over 6 years now.  She began dancing at a very young age since her mother was a dance teacher and owned her own studio, Dance Express in Pleasanton , TX .  At age 14yrs. Camille began teaching her own classes and competing and winning dance competitions, such as Showtime and National Half-time.  She later became head officer of Pleasanton High School ’s Pacesetters dance team.  When she was 16yrs. she made the All Star National Dance Team and performed at the European Indoor Soccer Championship in Vienna , Austria .  While attending college at the University of Texas San Antonio , she continued her dance training and opened her own studio, Camille’s Christian Dance Academy .  She currently teaches the Jazz in the graded division, as well as teaching  Intermediate, School Age, and Creative Dance classes.   She resides in Nassau Bay with her husband and three beautiful daughters. 

Pam Urban has over 10 years of dance experience in tap, ballet, and jazz, and she has been an instructor for Kennedy Dance Theatre & Dance Tree for almost 10 years. While in high school she was a Clear Lake High School Cheerleader for one year, and a Falcon Flair for two years.  While on the drill team she performed at many exciting events including the Blue Bonnet Bowl held in Dallas .  During her time with Dance Tree she was able to further her dance education by taking classes at Dance Masters of America.  While teaching at Kennedy Dance Theatre she has taught in numerous day schools all over the Houston area, as well as special performing groups.  One of these special performing groups was the Tappin’ Tots, who were invited to showcase their talents at several local events as well as performing in many dance competitions.  She has also led a group of adults interested in religious interpretive dance, a Christian Liturgical Dance Class, who were asked to perform in numerous community events as well as churches in the surrounding Houston and Galveston area.  She currently teaches Pre Dance, Creative Dance, and Intermediate classes at the studio, and is also the Assistant Office Manager.  Pam resides in Pearland with her husband and two children.

Crystal Mullen has been a dance instructor for KDT for the past 12 years. Since the age of 18yrs. she has been fulfilling a desire to teach children to dance. Ms. Crystal began dancing with a youth drill team in La Marque called the “La Marque Tigerettes,” and later went on to dance in high school with the La Marque Mam’sells, obtaining the highest score out of approximately 50 candidates upon auditioning for the team. After attending college, Ms. Crystal returned to her community and began teaching dance. She became the director of the La Marque Tigerettes for 5 years where she won numerous awards. Soon after that, she created and organized a dance team called “Glitz Dance Team,” that consisted of 7 young girls who performed at large community events, half-time shows for the Houston Rockets, and competed in several dance competitions. Before long she went back to the community and began teaching dance in Texas City with the Mainland Express “Silver Dolls”. While in Texas City she won first place in competitions back to back (1993 & 1994) for her originality and uniqueness in pom, jazz, and prop. In 2002 she took a Dance Tree tap performing group to Show Stoppers and to the Kids Artistic Revue and won first place. In 2004 & 2005, Mrs. Crystal began choreographing dance routines for the League City “Gold Rush” where she specialized in novelty routines such as “Shark’s Tale” and “Scooby Doo,” and won the super sweepstakes and the judge’s award. Ms. Crystal currently teaches dance in the Creative Dance division at the studio, and teaches Creative Dance & School-Age classes in KDT’s daycare program Dance Tree. She also serves as the Daycare Director of Dance Tree, overseeing the day to day operations in the private schools and daycares throughout the community. Ms. Crystal continues to volunteer her time in the community serving as Treasurer to an AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) non-profit organization. She resides in Friendswood with her husband Ron, and two children Colby and Chase.

Ingrid Kessler grew up in Miami, FL,  but her roots are in Nicaragua, Puerto Rico. She speaks both Spanish and English fluently, and also has her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing. Ingrid is a certified Zumba instructor and also teaches cardio, kickboxing, step, and power flex at local gyms and studios in the Clear Lake Area. She is in charge of Zumba, a Latin dance fitness program, at Kennedy Dance Theatre, and resides in Clear Lake with her husband and two children.

Kelly Felix began ballroom dance lessons as a high school student in Boston. She was associated with Fred Astaire Dance Studios for over twenty years as a teacher, regional dance director for New York and Pennsylvania, and Assistant Dance Director. As a member of the national Dance Board, Ms. Kelly traveled and coached amateur and professional competitive dance couples. She has been seated on numerous judging panels including United States Ballroom Championships. Ms. Kelly has also performed as choreographed for television including History of Dance for PBS. She is excited to be teaching the ballroom and salsa here at KDT!

Katie Allin danced contemporary and modern dance as a young child, but did not begin her formative dance training until age 12. At that time, she received a foundation of classical ballet and jazz under the tutelage of Christine Fossemalle (former Paris Opera Ballet company member) at Fossemalle Dance Studio in Santa Ynez, California. She also studied with Stephanie Carsello and Susan Manchak, and was a teaching assistant at the studio. During her classes there, she also was a committed member of Santa Ynez Valley Performing Arts Company, and danced in numerous productions as both a corps and featured dancer. After her family relocated to Houston in 2005, she continued training at KDT and at Houston International Ballet Academy with Kathleen Waltz. She performed locally with KDT and Ballet Ensemble of South Texas before becoming a founding member of League City Ballet for the year of 2007. Throughout the years, her performance credits have included soloist roles in The Nutcracker, Giselle, CATS, and selections from Onegin, La Bayadere, La Parisienne, and many more. In 2006, Miss Katie felt led to begin a Christian dance team at her church, and with the Lord’s help, began teaching both hip-hop and lyrical to inexperienced dancers, as well as choreographing and directing their various performances. Miss Katie recently graduated Summa Cum Laude from Alvin Community College with an Associate of Arts degree in Teaching, and is now finishing her Bachelor's degree at the University of Houston Clear Lake.  She currently teaches Pre Dance, Creative Dance, & Hip Hop, and also offers Free Christian Liturgical classes to the community. She is so excited to be teaching at KDT and says her philosophy is simply: “To share the joy of dance with every one of my students and teach them to share that joy with their audience!”

April Massei has 19 years of dance and performance experience.  She comes to us from Ann Catherine Cross School of Dance located in Mechanicsville , Virginia . She competed on a regional and national level for 11 years winning numerous titles, scholarships and awards.  She started assisting in dance classes at the age of 14 and started teaching and choreographing at the age of 16.  She has choreographed solos, duets and group numbers for competition.  She has trained under many well known and incredible teachers such as: Mia Michaels, Andy Blankenbuehler, Joe Lanteri, and Luigi.  She has gone to New York over the years to study at Steps and has even taken an intensive with the Rockettes and Destination Broadway.  April took classes at the Richmond Ballet as well.  She performed in theme parks – Paramounts Kings Dominion in Virginia and Paramounts Carowinds in North Carolina .  Also, before relocating to Houston , April was a member of  Influx dance company in  Charlottesville , Virginia .  She completed two contracts with Norwegian Cruise Lines on two ships based in Hawaii , performing in their productions.  April resides in Houston with her husband Austin.

Emilie Koenig has been dancing since the age of three. She has studied with many notable dancer/choreographers including Debbie Allen, Jason Samuels Smith and Chloé Arnold.  She has performed professionally in Debbie Allen’s Pepito’s Story, the Debbie Allen Dance Academy’s Summer Showcase 2004 and 2005, Terry Beeman’s Bound II, The Nutcracker with Eugenia Keefer and Cassie Lund (principles at California Ballet Company), and participated in Savion Glover’s Dancing On Water.  Emilie has been an instructor for a variety of studios and companies including New West Ballet, Svetlana’s Dance Academy, Melea Dance Studio, and Anaheim Ballet Company. She has also worked behind the scenes as an assistant to the directors of the Los Angeles Tap Festival (2003 – 2004), an organizing director and instructor of an inner-city arts education program for the Los Angeles Community Development Commission (2004 – 2005), and as an assistant at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy (2003 – 2006). In addition to her dance career, Emilie has studied World Arts and Cultures and English at UCLA and English at the University of Houston.

Amelia Brame has been dancing since she was 2 years old, and is brand new to Kennedy Dance Theatre. While growing up in Arizona and Utah , she was trained in ballet and jazz. In high school she was on the drill team, and decided that being involved with dance throughout her life would be her goal. She danced her way into college and continued her dance studies at Brigham Young University . There she performed and traveled with the International Folk Dance Ensemble, as well as taking part in many student choreographed projects. As a new graduate she seeks opportunities wherever she goes, including teaching folk dance to an all women's gym, guest teaching at summer dance camps, and choreographing for children's theatre and more. She is excited to be a part of the KDT family!