Meet Our Staff

Katie Quinn
Owner, Competition Team Director, Instructor

​Katie has been dancing since she was a young girl. She is the daughter of a drill team director and grew up in the gym watching and learning from drill team girls and her mom her entire childhood. 

She graduated from Gilmer High School and was a member of the Stars Drill Team for four years and selected as an officer for three years.  After high school, she was selected as a World Famous Kilgore College Rangerette, Swingster, and Captain. Once her time at Kilgore concluded, she attended Texas Woman’s University and earned a B.A. in Dance. Upon graduating college, her first position was a drill team director for the Fossil Ridge High School Sun Dancers for two years. 

​When she arrived back in the East Texas area, she became co-owner of Elite Dance Center in 2010.  

Katie has done extensive performance work at the Dallas Bath House, Dance for the Planet, MAM and Schlecte Dance, and various other performances and residencies and lecture demonstrations around DFW and the country.  She studied with a graduate of the Alvin Ailey School, Melissa Young, in the Horton Technique.  She also served as a college assistant and guest instructor for the TDEA Convention in Houston, Tx.  She was also a performer in the modern company called Out on a Limb Dance Company.

Katie has been a choreographer for the Kilgore College Rangerettes in their annual spring show, Rangerette Revels, multiple times.
Katie is currently on staff with Encore Creative Productions where she instructs many dance camps across Texas.

​Katie is passionate about bringing the art of dance to the East Texas communities.  These communities accelerate her passion in her own experience as a dancer and performer, but also inspire her to share her experience with others. Katie resides in Longview with her husband, Clint, and their four sons, Jackson, Cooper, Charlie, and Hudson.

---

Lexie Drennan
Owner, Competition Team Director, Instructor

​Lexie has been dancing since she was four years old in ballet, tap, jazz, clogging, hip hop, point, and modern.

​Lexie attended Lufkin High School where she was a member of the Panther Pride Drill Team.  Lexie attended Kilgore College where she was selected as a Rangerette, Swingster, and Lieutenant.

After Kilgore, she attended Texas Woman’s University where she received a B.A. in Dance.  While she attended TWU, she studied under Sarah Gamblin who was a member of the Bebe Miller Dance Company and Mary Williford-Shade who performed under Mark Dendy.

Lexie currently assists in jazz class with the assistant director/choreographer of the Kilgore College Rangerettes, Mrs. Shelley Wayne.  She has also been a choreographer for Rangerette Revels multiple times.

Lexie has been a studio instructor since 2008 and is currently on staff for Encore Creative Productions where she instructs dance and drill team camps all over the state of Texas.  Lexie has danced in Los Angeles at the Millenium Complex Summer Intensive learning from today’s top choreographers.

Lexie also performed with a modern dance company called Out on a Limb Dance Company.  She is passionate about the art of dance and enjoys introducing her students to different ways to perform, create, and learn. Lexie resides in Longview with her husband, Seth, and their two sons, Brooks and Hayes.

---

Megan Holder
Instructor/Competition Team Director

Megan Holder is originally from Garland, where she began her dance studies at the age of 5, and started dancing competitively with her dance company at 9. Former Rangerette Lisa Dalton continued to inspire Megan’s love for dance and drill team during her three years as a South Garland Southern Belle where she served as Captain.
 
After high school, Megan was honored to become a member of the Kilgore College Rangerettes, where she was selected as a member of the specialty Swingster jazz group  and served as a Lieutenant her sophomore year.

Past performances include the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Cotton Bowl, the Marshall Field’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the Indianapolis 500.

At the end of her sophomore year at Kilgore, Megan auditioned and was selected for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. She was a member of the squad and the elite DCC Show-Group for four years, and was honored by the DCC Staff when she was chosen to be a group leader for two years.

Megan has performed with many A-list celebrities including Destiny’s Child; Big and Rich; Neil McCoy; Sheryl Crow; Jason Aldean; Carrie Underwood; and Kelly Clarkson. She has performed in Northern Europe, South Korea, Guantanamo Bay, Puerto Rico, Kuwait, Iraq and Japan.

Megan was selected as the DCC representative for the 2007 Pro Bowl in Hawaii where she performed and appeared on behalf of the Dallas Cowboys Organization.

Megan’s television appearances include Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders – Making the Team (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009); Queer Eye for the Straight Guy; FOX News with Sheppard Smith;  NFL Thanksgiving Day Halftime National Performance 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and Inside Edition, Good Morning Texas, and House Hunters in addition to various commercials. Megan’s most recent television appearances include Dancing with the Stars and Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? and Fox & Friends morning news broadcast.
Megan is currently teaching at Pine Tree High School and continues to work with drill teams throughout the metroplex and now in East Texas.  Megan and her husband, Jacob, have two wonderful children, Hannah and Jude.

Laycen Peralez
Instructor/Competition Team Director

Laycen grew up in Kilgore, TX and began dancing as a young girl. She is a graduate of Kilgore High School where she was a four year member of the KHS Hi-Steppers and served as Lieutenant her junior and senior year.  

Laycen attended Texas State University where she was a four year member of the Texas State Strutters, Jazz Elite Performing Squad, and Pom Squad. While on Strutters, Laycen served as Sophomore Lieutenant, Junior Captain, and Head Captain her senior year. With the Strutters, she performed at Disneyland Paris, the McDonald’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Chicago, the 2016 Presidential Inaugural Parade, and the 2016 Texas Black Tie and Boots Gala in Washington, D.C. Laycen graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Dance. Upon graduation, she moved back to East Texas and began her career at Tyler Legacy High School where she served for three years as the Assistant Director of the Southern Belles Drill Team. In 2020, Laycen began teaching at Pine Tree High School where she was the Director of the Pine Tree Precision Drill Team. She is now back at her alumni and is currently the Director of the Kilgore High School Histeppers. Laycen choreographs and judges for schools around the East Texas area. 

Laycen is married to her high school sweetheart, Hector, and together they have two dogs: Remi and Blaze. 

---

Lauren Murry
Instructor

Lauren is a true East Texas girl, graduating from Pine Tree High School and continuing her studies at Tyler Junior College where she became a part of the Internationally Famous Apache Belles.  She served as Freshman Representative and then Head Dance Captain.  She finished her education at Stephen F. Austin State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Dance.

Once finishing her degree, she had the opportunity to serve as the Assistant Director at Marcus High School in Flower Mound with the Marcus Marquettes.  She also began the Junior Varsity Drill Team, the Silver Stars, which she directed for five years. Lauren was also the assistant Director for the Gilmer High School Stars for 6 years.

Lauren has been married to her husband, Jeff, for 11 years and they have three beautiful children together, Lilly, Landry, and Jackson. Lilly and Landry are current students at Elite Dance Center!

---

Tena Scalco-Novy
​Instructor

After 34 remarkable years of owning The Dance Studio in Longiew, Ms. Tena has stepped into a new chapter with us at Elite Dance Center! Ms. Tena began her ballet training at age 7 with Veronica Gaw from England, and continued her primary training with mentor, Pat George Mitchell, founder and director of Longview Ballet Theatre.  After becoming a Longview Ballet Theatre charter member at 12, Ms. Tena continued her training attending summer workshops at Texas Christian University working with such teachers as Arthur Mitchell, Dance Theatre Of Harlem founder and director, and New York City Ballet Principal Dancer, and Royes Fernandez, American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer, and Ballet Theatre teacher.  At ages 14 and 15, she was awarded a Ford Foundation Scholarship for summer study in New York for 6 weeks at The School Of American Ballet (SAB), the training ground for New York City Ballet.  At 15, she was invited to study year round at The School on full scholarship, and did so for the next two years finishing high school at Professional Children's School.  While training at SAB, Ms. Tena was blessed to study intensely six days each week with such famous teachers as Stanley Williams (Bournonville method), Suki Schorer (Balanchine technique), Muriel Stuart (discovered by and trained with Anna Pavlova, and Enrico Cecchetti), and legendary Russian Ballerina Alexandra Danilova.  After an ankle surgery at 17, Ms. Tena left New York and attended Texas Christian University on one of the two Nordan Fine Arts Scholarships where she also danced as a soloist with Ft. Worth Ballet under the directorship of Fernando Schaffenburg, and received training in  Graham Technique with Jerry Bywaters Cochran.  She was a member of the Kilgore College Rangerettes 1979-1981, and is a member of Rangerettes Forever.  Besides guesting with Longview Ballet Theatre on several occassions, she has had the privilege of commissioning works for the company, and has had the honor of choreographing for Rangerette Revels.  She has choreographed many, many pieces for students over her past 28 years of teaching.  She has taught ballet classes at Kilgore College, worked with The Longview Arts Council bringing dance into the public schools, and has had the joy of watching students get dance degrees, become wonderful teachers, found company's, become drill team directors, Ballet Magnificat Trainees, several students who went on to become Rangerettes themselves, as well as those who continued their training at various summer intensives such as American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, Ballet Magnificat, Austin Ballet, Ballet Academy Of Texas, Texas Ballet Theatre, and Texas Christian University, but mostly, she has been privileged to see so many  treasured students grow into amazing people making beautiful contributions to life.  From the beginning, it has been an honor for Ms. Tena to be a part of Blue Jeans And Ball Gowns, the annual fundraiser benefiting the children who are a part of CASA.  Ms. Tena's greatest blessings came from raising her four amazing children, and now she has the incredible joy of being a part of the lives of her six grandchildren. 

---

---

Misty Lewis
Office Manager

Misty was born and raised in Kilgore. She graduated from Texas A&M in 2001 with a bachelors degree in marketing. She taught business at Kilgore High School from 2001-2007. After some time away, she came back to teaching Accounting and Marketing in 2019 for Kilgore High School. Her girls Kyleigh (started fall of 2010) and Alyssa (started fall of 2014) both attend Elite Dance Center.

Ryan Wayne
Instructor
​Ryan was born and raised in Kilgore, Texas and has had a lifetime connection to dance. As the daughter of the Assistant Director and Choreographer of the Kilgore College Rangerettes, Ryan grew up taking in all aspects of dance and drill team from a very early age. Growing up she took dance from Mrs Tena and Elite Dance Center and was also a member of our competition team. 
Ryan is a graduate of Kilgore High School, having spent all 4 years as a Hi-Stepper, and serving her junior and senior year as the Captain. After graduating high school, Ryan went on to become a Kilgore College Rangerette on the 78th line. During her two years at Kilgore College, she was selected to be a Swingster her freshman year, and served as the Left End Lieutenant her sophomore year. Ryan was also selected as a member of Industry, the modern dance company within the Kilgore College Dance Department. 
​Ryan’s performances as a Rangerette include the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Contest of Champions in Orlando, a Houston Texans halftime, the Basel Tattoo in Switzerland, and the Italian Bowl in Milan, Italy. 
After Kilgore, Ryan attended Texas Christian University, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Strategic Communication. Upon graduating from TCU, she moved to New York City and worked in Production Management for MTV Entertainment Group. 

​Ryan currently resides in Kilgore and frequently assists the Rangerettes with choreography and various creative projects. She is also on staff with Encore Creative Productions and does freelance choreography and costume rhinestoning. 

---

   Sarah Fritz
  Instructor
  Sarah was born and raised in Longview where she took classes from Mrs.  Tena in all genres. After she graduated high school she learned from Mrs. Angela Aulds at the Kilgore College Dance Department for 2 years.  After growing in ballet, jazz, and modern she made the Tyler Junior College Apache Belles where she served as historian her sophomore year. Being apart of that team was an absolute blast and brought her many opportunities such as performing in the Dublin, Ireland’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, performing at an army base in Puerto Rico, and performing and opening for the Houston HEB Thanksgiving parade.  She graduated from Tyler Junior College with a Degree in dance and a Degree in business with a focus in managing.  Sarah also received her Acro certification from Acrobatic Arts. She currently lives in Longview where she has taught Jazz and Acro at Mrs. Tena’s Studio, The Dance Studio Longview.

---