Instructors

All of our dance instructors are dedicated to provide the best training and technique while mentoring and supporting the dancers. Dance is an expression of the soul!

Abbie Rich

Owner/Company Director

Abbie has been dancing since the age of five. She has trained and performed in Singapore, Malaysia, Scotland, Arizona, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas and Hollywood. She graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a degree in Dance Production and Choreography. Her training includes ballet,contemporary, jazz, lyrical, tap, modern, and hip hop. She has been teaching for 19 years. Her choreography has won the highest adjudicated awards in competitions around the nation. She danced with Sesame Street Live in the Asian tour of “Everyone Makes Music” as Grover and Baby Bear and the National tour of “1, 2, 3, Imagine” as Baby Bear. She has also danced in trade shows, industrials and conventions around the nation. She is a Certified Personal Trainer with six national certifications and also trained in gymnastics and cheerleading. Abbie loves teaching and wants to see all of her students grow in dance and self-esteem.

Suhmer Zeiter

Dance Instructor

Suhmer Zeiter graduated from UNLV with a Bachelors in Fine Arts for Dance. She danced and choreographed professionally for the Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls NBA teams. Suhmer danced in shows on the Las Vegas Strip. She has judged local dance competitions and has been teaching dance since she was 14. Suhmer has traveled to Germany to Dance in a World Festival. She has choreographed prize winning numbers, along with entire recitals, musicals, Choral choreography for choirs and high school dance teams. Suhmer has had the opportunity to be the dance director in Las Vegas for two dance academies and was awarded Best Choreography at a National level competition. As a kid She won a national championship for her high school. She was captain 4 years on her dance and cheer teams. One of her fondest memories is when she had the opportunity to dance/competed on televisions “Ed McMahon’s Star Search.” Currently she is raising her three kids and happy to have found her new dance family at Dream Dance Center.

Vicki Fink

Dance Instructor

Vicki has been dancing since the age of five and is trained in ballet, tap, jazz, and drill team She is also trained in classical piano and flute. She competed in all disciplines in the St. Louis area and won High-Point Award her Senior year. She spent 3 years on her high school drill team and served as captain her senior year. Vicki’s love of teaching began early. She started teaching dance while in high school and continued in college. While attending Baylor University, she earned a spot on the Baylor Cheerleading Squad and was selected as a finalist at her cheer/dance training camp in Santa Barbara, CA. Graduating with a B.S. in Education from Baylor University, Vicki has taught the elementary grades for over 20 years in the DFW metroplex with additional teaching in area churches. She also is a certified Group Exercise Instructor and has taught in Fitness Clubs for 10 years. Vicki has 3 children and resides with her husband in Lucas, where they enjoy being active in gardening, camping, and attending church. Vicki is thrilled to be a part of Dream Dance Center as a Cecchetti instructor and enjoys imparting her passion and life-long benefits of dance to the next generation.

Zara Trumbauer

Dance Instructor

Zara Trumbauer has been taking classes at Dream Dance Center for five years. She is a Grade 4 Cecchetti ballet student and also takes pointe and tap. She has assisted in classes at Dream Dance Center for two years. She was a part of Dream’s Ballet company for three years, attending Cecchetti seminars yearly, and taking part in conventions exploring all styles of dance. She was chosen as a Dream Girl for the 2019-2020 Dance Company Season, and has won Excellence Awards from Ms. Laurie Massey. Zara enjoys watercolor painting, singing, studying her Bible, playing piano, and dancing, all for the glory of God.

Katie Wilson

Assistant Company Director/Dance Instructor

Katie has been dancing since the age of two and began competing at age five. She is classically trained in ballet, lyrical, contemporary, jazz, modern, tap, hip hop and acrobatics. She is from Rhode Island and grew up training and performing all across the United States. She graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a degree in Psychology. She also had the chance to travel to Hawaii where she spent a semester studying the diverse dance techniques of different cultures. She holds various titles and was invited, on multiple occasions, to represent the United States at the IDO Dance Olympics held in Germany. She was also on Season 6 of the show, "So You Think You Can Dance" where she spent time training under many nationally acclaimed choreographers such as Mia Michaels, Travis Wall and Tyce Diorio. She has been teaching for over 10 years and has received many accredited choreography awards from national competitions. She has also danced and taught at various conventions/master classes across the US. Katie loves teaching children, of all ages, and enjoys watching them learn and grow under her care.

Laurie Massey

Ballet Director/Dance Instructor

Laurie, a native of Washington state, received her training at the Tri-Cities Academy of Ballet under the tutelage of Debra Pearse Rogo. Her education includes classical ballet, creative movement, character, pantomime, jazz, and tap.  She began teaching at the Academy in 1987.  In 1992 Laurie began her professional dance career.  She has performed with the Joffrey Ballet, Atlanta Ballet Tri-Cities Academy of Ballet, Mid- Columbia Regional Ballet and Boston Ballet. After retiring from professional ballet dancing in 1994, Laurie continued her career in competitive Smooth & Latin ballroom.

In 1999 Laurie opened her own school, “A Time to Dance”, where she trained young to old in ballet, tap, jazz, and Latin & Smooth dancing (ballroom), turning it into a pre-professional company in mid 2000.  From 2001 to 2012 Ms. Massey, then Laurie Marshall, was a dancer, performer and instructor with the In Motion Dance Company, Concepts Performing Group and the Sabor Dance School, all located in Bermuda. Traveling around the world to compete as a salsa dancer, and dance with the before mentioned companies in ballet, modern and jazz.  Upon moving to Texas in 2012 Laurie has continued to teach around the North Texas area, guest teaching around the US and continuing her own education to further increase her understanding of each discipline, anatomy of the developing dancer, and new way of strengthening a dancers’ body.  Laurie is a very proud mom of two wonderful teenagers.  They reside in Prosper and are active members at First United Methodist Church in Celina, Texas.

Tawni Newman

Dance Instructor

Tawni was born and raised in the Frisco/McKinney area.  She began dancing at the age of seven.  She has trained in hip-hop, jazz, contemporary, lyrical, musical theater, ballet, pointe, drill, and pom dancing. Tawni danced on her high school’s drill team for all four years of high school where she served as a Sergeant for 2 years and Senior Lieutenant. On drill team she was able to hone her leadership skills and grow her love of choreographing and teaching. Tawni’s hip-hop choreography helped her team win 1st overall at ADTS Nationals.  Her choreography has placed and won in regional and national dance/drill competitions. She has performed in the Macy’s Day Parade and Dallas Cowboy’s half time. Tawni was a drill company director and helped her team win 1st overall at regional competitions. Tawni has choreographed for studio company teams and drill teams the past 3 years. She is currently a member of the Texas Legends Dance Squad where she is continuing her training and performs under the direction of Jen Contreras.  She is also a student at Collin College where she is preparing to enter the pre law program at University of North Texas.  Tawni also serves as the 4th-5th Grade Elementary Director at Cottonwood Creek Baptist Church in the children’s ministry. She is excited to share her love of dance with the students at Dream Dance Center.

Trinity Elliott

Dance Instructor

Trinity has been dancing since she was 7 years old.  She has trained in jazz, tap, ballet, contemporary, lyrical, musical theatre, acro, drill and hip hop.  Over the past 4 years she has chosen to focus solely on various styles of hip hop and this will be her second year on Dream Dance's Hip Hop Crew.  She has danced competitively for 6 years and has received numerous awards and scholarships.  She has performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, The Nutcracker, World of Dance, Prestonwood's Gift of Christmas and Fall Follies Productions as well as The Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Mavericks, Texas Legends and Allen Americans Halftime Shows.  She is a Senior at Prestonwood Christian Academy North and is a Captain on the Cheer Team.  She is passionate about teaching dance to young children and inspires them to use their unique gifts to glorify God through dance.  She is always smiling, brings positivity and encouragement to each dancer to simply do their best!

Emily Luther

Dance Instructor

Emily Luther began her training in Orange County, CA at the Hirschl School of Dance, where she studied ballet, jazz, and tap. When she turned her focus to ballet, Emily began training at Long Beach Ballet Arts Center under the direction of David Wilcox and Shani Englert. As a member of the performing company, Long Beach Ballet Theater, she had the opportunity to attend Regional Dance America. She also participated in summer intensive programs annually, including LA Classical Ballet and American Repertory Ballet in Princeton, New Jersey. Emily’s performance experience includes roles in The Nutcracker, Coppelia, and Swan Lake, as well as company dancer and flying angel roles in both productions of “The Glory of Christmas” and “The Glory of Easter” at the Crystal Cathedral. Emily was also a member of the Christian ballet company, His Grace Dance Ministry, for over ten years. She has been teaching ballet in the Orange County and San Diego areas for the past twenty years. Emily received her certification in Progressing Ballet Technique(PBT) from Marie Walton-Mahon in March of 2017. Most recently, Emily is an ABT Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary though Level 3 of the ABT National Training Curriculum.

Katherine Jones

Dance Instructor

Katherine has been dancing since the age of 4. Her training includes ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, modern, drill team and acrobatics. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance Studies from Texas Woman's University. She has trained under Melissa Young, Mary Williford-Shade, Glenda Norcross, Amy Sleigh and Lesley Snelson. She danced professionally with Muscle Memory Dance Theater, a modern dance company based in Denton, TX. In 2009, she returned to the studio she grew up in and took over as owner while also assisting for the local high school drill team.  Katherine has taught and choreographed for several schools and teams in the DFW area. In 2017, she moved to Prosper where she resides with her husband, Cameron, 3 beautiful children and 3 rescue dogs. 

Haley Sanders

Dance Instructor

Haley has grown up in a dancing family and started competing around the age of 13. She received her dance training from her grandfather, who taught at Arthur Murray Dance Studio, and at Next Step Dance and Performing Arts. Her education includes Lyrical, Contemporary, Jazz, Ballroom, Musical Theater, Ballet, Pointe, Modern, Tap, and Hip Hop. Haley has competed all over Texas with many titles under her belt including a national championship solo title and summer scholarships. She has learned from multiple well known choreographers and dancers like Alison Holker, Twitch, Randy&Hefa, Jess Hendricks, Francisco Gella, Jaci Royal and more.  

In 2019 she made the Texas Legends Dancers, increasing her knowledge of the pro dance industry. Haley was on the team for 3 years and performed at many events, one being a Dallas Cowboys halftime. Haley is also a full time student pursuing her business management degree, and she spends her free time on the Hope Fellowship Church worship team. Haley loves showing her passion for dance and music through her teaching, and she is so excited to be a part of Dream Dance Center. 

Cali Rich

Dance Instructor

Cali has been dancing since the age of 1. She has trained, competed and performed in Atlanta, New York, Las Vegas, Nashville, Arkansas, Missouri, California , Florida and all over the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. She performed on stage at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland. She also danced in the music video “Together” with For King and Country. Cali has performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and has danced the role of Clara in the Nutcracker. She has also performed at the Dallas Mavericks game and in both the Texas Legends and Allen Americans half time shows. Cali has won several awards for her solos at various competitions including first place overall and Title winner. Her favorite dance style is lyrical. She hopes to continue to pursue a career in dance in her future as well as pass down her passion to the next generation.