Ms. Rachel has over 23 years of dance and teaching experience in ballet, pointe, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, modern, and tap. Past instructors who helped mold Ms. Rachel’s dance education range from Ballet Mistresses of the Denton Ballet who studied under George Balanchine (founder of the School of Amercian Ballet and co-founder of the New York City Ballet), former professional ballerinas, to founders of critically acclaimed professional modern companies such as the Ewert-Pittman Company, and distinguished alumni from SMU. During Ms. Rachel’s high school and college years she auditioned for (and made) many companies and programs such as the Plano Metropolitan Ballet Company, Paul Taylor Modern Company Intensive in New York, The Rock School, Ballet Austin, Pacific Northwestern Ballet, and many more. She also performed solo and variation pieces for multiple ballets such as “The Sugar Plum Fairy” from The Nutcracker, Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid, Don Quixote, Cinderella, and much more. During her last two years of performing Ms. Rachel danced en pointe for an average of 30-40+ hours per week.
Ms. Rachel’s students have gone on to major in dance at college, attend summer intensives and workshops, and join prestigious programs such as the Kirov Academy of Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Chamberlain School of Performing Arts, Tuzer Ballet, Texas Women’s University’s Dance Program, Sam Houston State’s Dance Program, University of North Texas’ Dance Program, The San Francisco Ballet, University of Texas’s Dance Program, Oklahoma University’s Dance Program, Dallas Conservatory of the Arts, SMU’s Meadows School for the Fine Arts, Kilgore Rangerettes, just to name a few.
As a teacher and choreographer Ms. Rachel has been awarded and recognized at multiple competitions. Her competition team and choreographed pieces have won awards at the regional and national levels such as “Best Technique“, “Best Costume“, ” “First Place Overall“, “Best In Jazz“, “Best in Ballet“, “Best in Contemporary“, in the Petite, Junior, Teen, Senior and Adult age divisions for solos, duets, trios, small groups and large groups, invitations to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and SMU half time shows, cash awards, scholarships, and “Best Dance Studio” overall.
Each year Ms. Rachel attends classes, conferences, conventions and workshops to further her dance and business education with many amazing business owners, keynote speakers, studio owners, choreographers and master teachers such as Misty Lown, Darren Hardy, Austin Roberson, Denise Wall, Ray Leeper, Mark Meismer, Dana Foglia, Chebar Williams, Stacey Tookey and Anthony Morigerato.
Ms. Rachel’s lifetime goal is to make a positive impact through her studio in every individual (students, parents, their families, community members, vendors, etc.) she comes in contact with. There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing the moment a dancer lights up because they have learned something new, overcome their fear of the stage, or when they (finally!) have their splits!! Ms. Rachel’s biggest goal is to pass on her passion and love for dance to each and every student and to help her teacher’s retain and grow that same passion within themselves.