Cellise Brown began her dance education studies at The University of Texas at Austin within the UTeach dance studies program under the direction of UT professor Dr. Tina Currin. During this time, Cellise formulated her teaching philosophy in preparation for receiving her Texas Dance Educator Certification. During her last year at UT, Cellise did her student teaching at Cedar Vally Middle School’s dance department under the Direction of Allyson Popov and Cedar Ridge High School’s dance department under the direction of Stevie McCall.
After Graduating in May 2022, she was offered the position of Assistant Dance Team Director at Weiss High School in Pflugerville ISD. As a first-year director, she led a team of 30 dancers with head Director Elise Padilla in growing their technique individually and collectively through football, contest, and spring show seasons. Working collaboratively with the Fine Arts Department on Campus, Cellise curated her dance classes with an emphasis on teaching young individuals the importance of movement lineage, vocabulary, and the intersection between one's kinesthetic experience when dancing.
After her year at Wiess High School, Cellise then completed her substitute teacher training in Round Rock ISD, where she was the long-term substitute for head dance team director Stevie McCall at Cedar Ridge High School. During her time at Cedar Ridge, she worked alongside Assistant Director Amanda Lowin in leading the Royalty Drill team through football season. Cellise also taught Dance 1 classes and Drill prep to the students at Cedar Ridge.
In the Spring semester of 2023, she then was hired as a consultant to be the Assistant Director of the JV dance team, Dragon Pride, at Round Rock High School. Here, she worked alongside Head Director Gabrielle Aufiero. During her time at Round Rock High School, she helped Aufiero polish dances in preparation to allow the team to feel prepared for contests and spring shows.
Within teaching in the public school system from May 2022- May 2024 Cellise also worked full-time at Performing Arts Studio in Georgetown, TX. Where she taught Ballet and Contemporary classes to the company students, at PAS, she choreographed several group dances, trios, duets, and solos. Throughout her time at PAS, she discovered a passion for sharing her artistic voice and an abundance of joy that comes with teaching young dancers the importance of how we, as artists, are capable of researching our movement quality and how that can be discovered with structure and open vulnerability.
While at UT, she also started working for Crowd Pleaseres Dance Company, where she assisted guest choreographers for officer camp and led team camps for various High Schools in the Houston and Austin Surrounding areas.
Cellise is now a freelance choreographer and teacher performer in the Austin area.
Teaches Ballet, jazz, and Contemporary at the Dance Academy in Leander, Texas, where she also is the assistant company director.
And On the judging panel for Crowd Pleasers Contest Season.
Cellise enjoys setting choreography and teaching master classes for studios and dance teams! Please don’t hesitate to contact Cellise for any choreography, Master class, and or judging needs!
Let us create a space where we can grow to our fullest ability as continuous learners together... YAY DANCE!!
