With over 35 years of experience, Leslie has studied under many master instructors and choreographers in Jazz, Contemporary, Hip Hop/Funk, Ballet, Tap, Breakdancing, Whaacking, House, and Cardio-Fitness.

Working with children as young as 2 ½ years old to senior adults, Leslie is widely known for her unique cutting-edge dance style, award-winning choreography and unique music mixes with amateur and professional dance/drill team across the U.S. and dance competitions nationwide. She has made a huge name for herself as an instructor and choreographer in Texas for her incredible musicality and creativity in all aspects of Urban dance and traditional styles.

Leslie was the first ever UT Dance Team Coach and now is the Artist Director for the Concordia High School Flight Crew. She owns Cutting Edge Dance and Music as well as her studio company Urban Dance Empire. She is also the creator, director and owner of the 3 time Grand National Award Winning and 5 time National Winning team, 2 Hype Hip Hop Company. Leslie also created past performance teams called Contagious Dance Force and 210 Hype, as well as a choreographer and dancer for Planet Funk Entertainment, Atomic Productions, Urban Dance Movement, Austin Dance Works and 24 Hour Fitness. She was also master instructor for American Ballet Theatre Intensive Program for many years and for the past 15 years has been working independently with school districts in the state of Texas. Leslie works at studios all over the U.S. teaching dance classes, camps, specialized choreography, and judging competitions and try-outs. On top of her dance talents, Leslie also creates specialized music for individual studios, camps, and performance groups for competitions, recitals, and industry shows and has been a local DJ in Austin for many years.

Ms. Eva is originally from Monterrey, Mexico. With many years of training in numerous dance styles, she pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance at Sam Houston State University (SHSU). She has also completed her Mat and Reformer Pilates training through Balanced Body, and is currently earning her Apparatus training hoping to become a comprehensive Instructor within the next year. While working on getting her certification in Pilates, she has found ways to enhance her way of teaching dance technique. Her ambitions to help the community led her to become Vice President (2017-18) and Social Chair (2018-19) of Chi Tau Epsilon, the dance honor society at SHSU. Gonzalez has performed in Mind the Gap and Barnstorm at The MATCH Theatre in Houston, the American College Dance Association (ACDA) Southern Conference, Dana Nicolay’s A Wynne Home Nutcracker and multiple times in Danscape at the Hobby Center in Houston. She has been a dance teacher for seven years and a choreographer for five years, having her choreography win judges awards, teacher awards, and high point awards in regionals and nationals at Dance Showcase USA, Star Systems, Stage One, Starbound, Legacy, VIP, Kids Artistic Revenue (KAR) and 8 Talent dance competitions. She enjoys sharing her love of dance and hopes to inspire and challenge her students while helping them reach their goals! Gonzalez is extremely excited to be a part of the Synergy Dance Family!

Maddie Hall is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and has studied dance for over 20 years.  She competed at a local studio as well as performed on her school dance teams throughout grade school.  She then was a member of the LSU Golden Girl dance line for all 4 years of college and had the honor of serving as a captain for her last 2 years.  Maddie discovered and pursued her passion for teaching dance through her time choreographing and coaching for her captain role; teaching classes at her home studio throughout college; choreographing for school dance teams throughout Louisiana and Texas; assisting with various students’ high school and college audition preparation via private lessons and clinics; and working as a Universal Dance Association staff member for 2 years.  She now continues to teach dance part-time here in Austin – specializing in dance team preparation and jazz choreography and technique.

Ms. Courtney was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, and at the age of 11 began her professional training at Canada’s National Ballet School. After graduating from NBS in 2010, Courtney moved to New York City to continue her training at the Dance Theatre of Harlem on a full scholarship. In June 2012, she was a finalist at the Valentina Kozlova International Ballet Competition. She was awarded a full scholarship to the Banff Centre’s Professional Dance Program where she appeared as a guest artist in the Arts Summer Festival, performing George Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco and Christopher Wheeldon’s Souvenirs. In 2013, Courtney joined Charlotte Ballet II where she performed works by George Balanchine, Dwight Rhoden, Sasha Janes, Mark Diamond and Jean- Pierre Bonnefoux. There she had the privilege to perform featured roles in The Nutcracker and the role of the Autumn Fairy in Cinderella, under the direction of Kennedy Center Honoree Patricia McBride. Since joining Ballet Austin in 2016, Courtney has had the pleasure of dancing several of Stephen Mills’ ballets as well as works by Septime Webre and Pam Tanowitz. She enjoyed performing Justin Peck’s In Creases and was featured in Paul Vasterling’s Peter Pan as Tinker Bell. Courtney feels very blessed to have the love and support of her family and is excited for her third season with Ballet Austin.

Melanie began her dance training at the age of four in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada at one of the top ballet studios in the area, Flora Pigeau Dance Academy. She excelled in many dance genres specfically ballet, jazz and musical theatre. She trained with renowned international teachers and choreographers such at Arnold Sphor, Norbert Vesak, Kent Stowell and Francia Russell. Throughout her dance career she received several awards and was chosen as the British Columbia Provincial representaive for ballet. Melanie has performed lead roles in The King and I at Vancouver’s Theatre Under the Stars, Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre and performed with Harbor Dance Center. She was a member of Vancouver’s CFL B.C. Lions Pride Dance Team, and was a lead performer with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Melanie was with Rob Haynes, one the top Talent Agencies in Vancouver where she was a runway and print model. Melanie began her teaching career at the age of 15, in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada and went on to obtain the Royal Academy of Dance ballet teaching certificate from London in 1995. Melanie has taught in Vancouver, B.C. , Ottawa, ON , San Diego, CA and Austin, TX. Melanie was the Director for the Academy of Dance in San Diego as well as the Ballet Director and Nutcracker Spectacular Artistic Director for Alisa’s Dance Academy. Melanie has now been teaching for 35 years and loves to share her knowledge of dance and teach the art of ballet.

Granger was born, raised, and trained in Austin. Since the age of 13 Granger has trained in ballet, jazz, modern, hip hop, and commercial choreography. Using these skills he has traveled with the LA Dance Magic company as one of there Pro-Track furthering is education in commercial choreography and industry dancing. He now wants to bring what he has learned to young Austin dancers in the hopes of growing the thriving community.

Maureen began her classical ballet training at age eight with the Santa Rosa Ballet Company in Santa Rosa California. She studied with Julien Herrin, Russian trained and a former soloist with the Imperial Ballet and San Francisco Ballet, and Emily Stubbs, an accredited R.A.D. instructor. Maureen passed all her children’s level exams up to Professional Intermediate and this blend of Russian and R.A.D. training is the foundation of her instruction. During her teenage and young adult years, she was a member of The Santa Rosa Ballet Co., Ballet en Ronde and Redwood Empire Regional Ballet. Maureen also has a strong Jazz dance and Musical Theatre background having studied in Los Angeles with Joe Tremaine, Bob Banas and D.J. Daniels. Maureen has been a dance instructor for over 25 years and is also an accomplished actress often involved in theatrical productions in the Austin area.

My name is Alyssa and I am excited to be joining Synergy Dance Studio as a full time instructor and SDC assistant director this year! I moved to Austin from Seattle, Washington, where I was born, raised and danced for 17 years. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with the dancers here, as dancing is a passion I have had for as long as I can remember.

I come from a family of dance. My mom was a dancer growing up, so naturally I entered my first dance classes right at the age of three and began dancing competitively at the age of 12. In the peak of my competitive career, I was training and competing in the styles of Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical/Contemporary, and Hip Hop.

I attended Washington University and was a member of Crimson Girls Dance Team and upon graduation relocated to Austin and taught 5th grade.

I started teaching dance in my final year of high school, which led to teaching at a studio in my college town, and now to Austin! I truly am so excited to have found a place in Austin to continue growing and sharing my passion for dance with younger dancers. I understand the importance and weight of my role in these dancers’ training but also in their character development. I have had many coaches in my dance journey leave a very lasting, positive impact on my life, so I hope to do the same for the kids here. Dance has taught me many valuable skills that I know have helped give me as I begin navigating life on my own, and more recently, in a new city. Dance taught me discipline, determination, how to proceed after failure, and what it means to truly love what you do. I look forward to creating an environment where your dancers can learn these things too!

Sarah Vasilas danced professionally in New York City for 10 years before moving to Austin. She has performed and taught dance throughout the U.S., Europe, The U.A.E. and Africa, and has debuted her own work Off-Broadway. Some of Vasilas’ dance credits include: Cirque Du Soleil, West Side Story, Beyonce, Broadway Cares, Princess Cruise Productions, The Middle Eastern International Film Festival, Ne-Yo, Hip Hop Film Festival, and NYC Fashion Week; Print/Commercial credits include: Dance Spirit Magazine, Time Life Music, Dodge Ram, Pepsi, Dell, and H-E-B Super Bowl/World Cup commercials.

In Austin, Vasilas has performed with ZACH Theater in productions of Les Miserables as Assistant Choreographer/Ensemble and in Cat In The Hat, as Thing 1; has played the role of Zeta in The Adventures of Zoeby children’s show; and has performed in Dancing With The Stars Austin for 3 seasons. Vasilas is also Co-Owner of Dapper Sounds Entertainment, booking dancers and entertainers in NYC, Las Vegas, and Austin.

Sarah’s passion for dance led her to teach children with programs such as The National Dance Institute, Wingspan Arts, Creative Outlet Dance Theater and The Downtown Community Center youth dance program. She has also run hundreds of dance parties for children ranging from ages 2-15. Her mission is to share the magic and joy of dance with her students.

Camille Wiltz is an emerging artist and performer who recently graduated from UT Austin with her B.F.A. in Dance with a Minor in Arts Administration and Management. She grew up attended Dance Industry Performing Arts Center in Plano, Texas training with Mark Caserta and Mikey Morado’s Thriving Artist Project. In Austin, as a member of UT Austin’s Dance Repertory Theatre (DRT), Camille performed works by Erica Gionfriddo, Gesel Mason, and Stephanie Martinez. Camille served as a production coordinator on the board of Dance Action; a student organization dedicated to supporting choreographic risk on campus. She also served as Jesse Zaritt’s rehearsal assistant for his work, Contronymic Living, at DRT’s Fall For Dance.

Recent credits include SoulEscape’s Ph1losophize Your F1gure, Jen Pendleton’s Soliloquy, A Recipe For Action, ARCOS Dance, Dance Action’s SEED, The Cohen New Works Festival, and Score for 7 Solos at the Visual Arts Center by Madeline Hollander. This past summer Camille danced and toured with Justin Giles’ company Soul Escape and is a member of Valleto Professional Contemporary Dance Company in Austin. In the future, Camille hopes to continue her artistry in Austin, TX as an activist for the arts and educator for the next generation of movers.