Mary Lee Kennedy
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
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.
Milena 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. Milena 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, and also serves as the Director of the Pre-Professional Program.
Jennifer Holbert
Jennifer Holbert has over 30 years of dance experience in tap, ballet and jazz. She is a former member of Clear Lake High School ‘s Falcon Flair Drill Team, where she received 3 MA All American Awards. Jennifer is the former Director of Cheer/Drill youth Little League teams in the Bay Area where she received Innovative Choreography Awards, Top Team Awards, and Best in Class Awards. She continues her dance training by attending yearly dance conventions, and studying under master choreographers and instructors. Jennifer is in her 8th year as an instructor at KDT, specializing in Pre-School Dance Education. She currently teaches Pre Dance, Creative Dance classes, Intermediate, and Graded Jazz level 1. Jennifer is the Special Needs Director here at KDT, and has been featured on FOX News, The Houston Chronicle, and was featured in Dance Teacher Magazine. She is also the Director of KDT’s award winning performing groups the Dancin’ Divas, Jr. Diva’s, Divas in Training, Sassy Taps, Tappin’ Dolls, Tappin’ Tots, & Musical Theatre. Many of Jennifer’s performing groups who have attended the KAR Dance Competition have taken home some of the highest possible awards such as Best Costume overall, three high first awards, and a first place award. Jennifer resides in League City with her husband and two daughters Kayla and Madison.
Camille Myers
Camille Myers has over 30 years of dance experience, and has taught dance at KDT for almost 10 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 is currently the Director of the Graded Jazz Division at KDT, and resides in Nassau Bay with her husband and three beautiful daughters
Emilie Koenig
Emilie Koenig has been dancing since the age of three. She has studied with many notable dancers and choreographers including Debbie Allen, Jason Samuels Smith and Chloe 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. Emilie currently serves as the Director of KDT’s Graded Tap Department.
Crystal Mullen
Crystal Mullen has been a dance instructor for KDT for almost 15 years. Since the age of 18yrs. she has been fulfilling a desire to teach children to dance. 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, she returned to her community and began teaching dance.
Crystal 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, 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. Crystal currently teaches Pre-Dance and Creative Dance classes at KDT. She also serves as the Daycare Director of Dance Tree, overseeing the day to day operations in private schools and daycares throughout the community. 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.
Pam Urban
Pam Urban has over 10 years of dance experience in tap, ballet, and jazz, and 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 Creative Dance and Intermediate classes at the studio, and is also the Office Manager. Pam resides in Pearland with her husband and two children.
April Massei
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 14yrs., and started teaching and choreographing at the age of 16yrs.. 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 also traveled to New York over the years to study at Steps on Broadway and has even taken an intensive with the Rockettes and Destination Broadway. April has also taken classes at the Richmond Ballet as well. She performed in theme parks Paramounts Kings Dominion in Virginia, and Paramounts Carowinds in North Carolina. Before relocating to Houston, April was a member of Influx Dance Company in Charlottesville, Virginia. She has also completed two contracts with Norwegian Cruise Lines on two ships based in Hawaii, performing in their productions. April currently teaches Pre-Dance, Creative Dance, School Age Combo, and Teen classes at the studio as well as directing the “Pink Ladies” Cheer performing group and the Graded Division Lyrical classes. April resides in Houston with her husband Austin.
Katie Allin
Katie Allin danced contemporary and modern dance as a young child, but did not begin her formative dance training until age 12yrs. 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, Katie continued training at KDT and 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, 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. She currently teaches Pre Dance, Creative Dance, & Hip Hop classes at the studio, as well as leading a Free Christian Liturgical class. Katie 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!”
Kyra Carouthers
Kyra has had almost 20 years of dance experience, the first 15 starting here at Kennedy Dance Theatre where she studied ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, hip hop, and lyrical under the direction of Mary Lee Kennedy. Kyra developed her love of ballet dancing for Ballet Mistress Caryn Stoll, and began assisting in the graded level ballet classes at age 14yrs. She also danced for two years with Houston International Ballet Company under Arkaidy Orohovsky and Kathleen Waltz. After graduating from high school, Kyra continued her dance training at Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi on a dance scholarship. She studied ballet, modern, and jazz technique, choreography, production, improvisation, dance history and pilates under well known instructors and choreographers such as Laura Morton, Stephen Wynne, Ravenna Tucker, Caleb Mitchell, Betsy McMillan, Cynthia Newland, Britta Wynne, and Erin Rockwell. During her time at Belhaven she was able to work with several guest artists like Dorell Martin, Steve Rooks, Randy Flinn and Theara Ward. While in Jackson, Kyra had the opportunity to perform with Stephen Wynne’s TALK Dance Co. After graduating with a BFA in dance performance, her experience has come full circle as she returns to her roots at KDT as a teacher and choreographer. Kyra currently works in the office here at the studio as well as teaching School Age Combo, Hippity Hop, Intermediate, Teen/Adult Jazz, and Teen/Adult Ballet classes.
Ingrid Kessler
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 licensed to teach Basics 1 and 2, Zumbatomic (Zumba for Kids), and Zumba Toning. Ingrid also substitute teaches cardio, kickboxing, step, and power flex at local gyms in the Clear Lake Area. Recently Ingrid was chosen to be a Zumba Jammer, one of only 150 chosen around the world to be a Zumba Fitness ambassador. Ingrid currently serves as the Director of the Zumba, Zumbatomic, & Zumba Toning program at KDT, and resides in Clear Lake with her husband and two children.
Kelly Felix
Kelly Felix began ballroom dance lessons as a high school student in Boston, MA. 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, Kelly traveled and coached amateur and professional competitive dance couples. She has been seated on numerous judging panels including United States Ballroom Championships. Kelly has also performed as choreographed for television including History of Dance for PBS. She currently is the Director of the Ballroom/Salsa program here at KDT.
Vicki Reichle
Vicki Reichle grew up in the West, TX area where she raised her two beautiful children. She worked as an Interior Decorator in Odessa, TX for almost 23 years before moving to Houston, and went on to become the Office Manager for Royal Academy of Fine Arts for 6 years. Vicki is currently the Business Manger here at KDT, and is also in charge of the KDT Boutique, Scholarship Program, and assists in costume design for all of KDT’s shows and recitals. In her time away from KDT she loves taking care of her two adorable grandchildren Sydney and Kingston, and lives with her wonderful husband in Dickinson.
April Waller
April Waller has almost 20 years of dance experience, and has been an instructor at Kennedy Dance Theatre for over 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 has attended numerous dance conventions and master classes including Broadway Dance Center’s Teacher Training workshop and Dance Olympus. April has taught almost every level of Creative Dance, School Age, and Intermediate classes, as well as teaching Jazz in the Graded Division, Adult Hip Hop, and serving as the Director of KDT’s Hip Hop Competition Teams for almost 5 years. She currently serves as KDT’s Marketing Director, handling advertisements, television appearances, and press releases for performances and programs KDT offers, as well as managing the studio’s website. April lives in Friendswood with her wonderful husband.
Laurie Blackshear
Laurie was raised in Houston, TX where she herself grew up tap dancing, and graduated from Clear Creek High School. She went on to attend Lamar University where she received her Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Medical Technology. Her three daughters have been dancing at KDT for the past 15 years, and for the past 10 years she has assisted with music editing and costume alterations at the studio. Laurie served on the Board of Directors for Ballet Ensemble of South, TX for 2 years, and also assisted with costuming for their performances. She currently serves as Costume Mistress for “The Nutcracker,” Ballet Theatre, and the Pre-Professional Program here at KDT. Laurie resides in League City with her three beautiful dancing daughters.
Courtney Camp
Courtney Camp is 23 years old and graduated in May with a Bachelors Degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). She has been a dancer for 11 years and a competitive cheerleader for 5 years. She loves working with children, shopping, being outdoors, and of course dancing! Courtney is also one of our Dance Tree teachers and teaches Pre-Dance and Cheer classes at KDT.
Sarah Foster
Sarah Foster began her training twenty-six years ago at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. She studied various disciplines of dance such as ballet, tap, jazz, modern, variations, character, musical theater, and pointe. Sarah has performed in many of their productions such as: The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Giselle, Dracula, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Coppelia, A Touch of Broadway and The Contemporary Series. Following college Sarah then worked in the field of psychology and eventually became a certified special education teacher. Sarah is very excited about returning to her passion of dance and is looking forward to being an integral member of Kennedy Dance Theatre and Dance Tree’s family. Sarah is the Office Manager for the Dance Tree Day School business and teaches School Age Combo and Graded Jazz at KDT.
Julia Kelly
Julia is originally from Brisbane, Australia where she was born and raised and danced exclusively for the Brisbane Ballet Company, One Star Dance Studio and Marilyn Culpitt’s School of Dance. Upon entering her high schools years, she re-located to Round Rock, Texas where she took up continued training in ballet, tap, jazz and modern at Dance Dimensions and auditioned and made the Stony Point High School Tiger Dancers. Julia progressed through her senior year, making Head Captain, a three year member of the jazz company, and a two year member of the Funky Company. Continuing her education, Julia attended Texas State University where she was the Texas State Strutter Head Captain and four year member of the Jazz Elite Performance squad. While at Texas State Julia pledged with the Delta Zeta sorority and also excelled academically as well as maintaining a position on the Dean’s List her entire college career. During her tenure of being a Strutter, Julia was permitted to embark on performance tours to Italy, Paris, Spain, Chile, Germany, New York, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Julia has studied under many top choreographers such as Brian Freidman, Mia Michaels, Wade Robson, Cris Judd, Laurisann Gibson, Dave Scott, Dyce Diorio, Gil Dildulao, Joe Tremaine, Jeff Amsten, Keri Lagrand, and Ben Schwimmer. Julia was also selected as one of the fourteen Strutters to perform on “America’s Got Talent,” where they progressed through to the live shows and semi-finals. Since concluding her college career and graduating Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Dance Education, with a Dance Certification and PE certification, she has been the Assistant Director for Deer Park High School. As well as working with KDT, Julia is enjoying her fifth year as a teacher/instructor/adjudicator/ choreographer for Showmakers of America. KDT is excited to have Julia on their faculty directing the KDT All Stars Dance Team!