Our Staff
Christy Crosswell Williams
Owner and operator of Swansboro Dance Studio since 1982, Ms. Williams has studied and taught ballet, pointe and tap for more than 23 years. She has a bachelor of arts degree in English from East Carolina University and is a certified teacher. While at ECU, she studied dance under the world renowned Mavis Ray and Pat Pertallion, former head of the ECU dance department.
Hazel Starks Collins
Ms. Collins has over 35 years of combined dancing and teaching experience. A Swansboro Dance Studio instructor since 1990, she was a dance major at the Lenard Davis Center for Performing Arts, City College of New York, and a modern dance scholarship student of Merce Cunningham. She has trained with Martha Graham and Lester Horton and is a former member of the Chuck Davis African-American Dance Ensemble.
Allison Cornett
Ms. Cornett has been teaching hiphop in Wilmington studios for the past 2 years. "Ali" was the debuting choreographer for UNCW's spring concert , " A Night Under the Stars" and also choreographed for the city stage, " Tick. Tick.. Boom". She has also choreographed for dance teams such as, "Tremor" , "Next Step" and "T.I."
Ali's love for theater began as a child when she perfomed in "Worthy is the Lamb" at the Crystal Coast Amphitheater. She continued that focus graduating from UNC-Wilmington with a degree in theater.
She starred as "Lulu" in her senior production of "The Birthday Party". Ali has studied the Hagen and Meisner techniques of acting.
Colleen Cummings
Colleen Cummings is teaching a elementary hiphop
class for SDS/EI studio this year. Following her love of teaching Colleen
is a rising sophomore working on her teaching degree. Colleen has danced
since the age of two with us. She auditioned and made the dance team at
Elon University and was a varsity cheerleader in high school. She was the
Sugar Plum Fairy and the Dewdrop in our production of The
Nutcracker. The students already adore her and we are pleased she will be
with us.
Heather Gupton
Heather has taught tap, ballet, pointe, and jazz for every age, for several years. She has taught at private studios in Durham and Wake Forest. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance Performance, with a concentration in jazz, at East Carolina University. While attending ECU, she studied under Tommi Galaska, Elie Lazar (from the Joffrey Ballet), Joseph Carow, Timour Bourtansenkov (Carolina Ballet principal), and world renowned Galina Panova. Heather has also had the opportunity to perform in "Sharing the Legacy" in New York, at the American College Dance Festival in Ohio and Florida, and perform as a Miss North Carolina Pageant dancer for 4 years.
Christina Hardy
Christina Hardy joins the staff of Swansboro Dance Studio from her hometown of Jacksonville FL, where her dance career started as a student and later instructor for the Marta Jackson School of Dance. Knowing that dance was her passion, and her ability to teach was a way to display her passion, Christina chose to attend Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana where Christina earned a BA in dance pedagogy. While dancing as a soloist with the Butler Chamber Dance, Christina attended two international outreach tours to Poland and Russia and dancing with Butler Ballet she performed such principle roles as "Sugar Plum Fairy" in the Nutcracker and "Princess Aurora" in Sleeping Beauty. She has been a guest artist for Dance Kaleidoscope, Sawnee Ballet, Clay Ballet Theatre and was a dancer for the Indianapolis Opera from 2004=2006. In 2006 Christina's adventure continued to the Eastern Shore of Virginia, where for the last 4 years she was the Director of Dance for Arts Enter Cape Charles, a non-profit Art Organization. During her tenure Christina directed, choreographed, and produced for full length dance adaptation of classic children's novels, to include; "Charlotte's Web", "Cat in the Hat", "Alice in Wonderland", and "Where the Wild Things Are?". Other accomplishments while at the Arts Enter Cape Charles include resident actress, choreographer and vocal coach for productions of "Annie", "Willy Wonka Jr.", and "The Wizard of Oz." Christina is excited to start a new chapter in her life in Jacksonville, where she can spread her passion for dance and the performing arts to the community.
Jennifer Kelly
Ms. Kelly studied at Washington School of Ballet and the School of American Ballet in New York. She danced with the Dutch National Ballet for 13 years. She was a guest teacher at the Elicott City (Md.) Ballet Guild and was rehearsal director at the College of Liberal Arts and in Amsterdam, she was the assistant choreographer of Voortman/DeJong Produtions of Rotterdam.
Kristen Paulsen
Kristen Paulsen has studied theatre since the age 3
beginning at Beck Little Theatre in Cleveland, OH. She studied with
Broadway for Kids as well as worked in commercials. She plays piano,
violin, sings and studied ballet for 10+ years. Kristen has trained with
Robert Keller and has been featured in shows Done to Death, Our Town, Dirty
Work at the Crossroads. She has Directed, written scripts, been Stage
Manager and Crew and had leads in Oklahoma and Peter Pan, as well as many other
plays. She was inducted into the International Thespian Society in 1992
and was then named International Thespian Society Scholar in 1993.
Although she continued her passion for the arts by studying music and theatre in
college and internationally travelling, she received her BS in Business
Management and Fashion Merchandising/Design from Brigham Young University.
She has taught children in different capacities for over 20 years in swimming,
preschool, art, basketball, soccer, violin, piano, voice, theater and
Kindermusik music and movement classes. Her greatest joy comes from being
a mother to her 3 children and wife to her incredibly hard-working husband who
currently serves in the USN. Kristen is excited to be able to teach
children about Backstage from script writing, set designing, improvisation,
theatre terminology, staging, props, etc.