Ms. Amy Kotara - Owner and Artistic Director

Miss Julie has been dancing since the age of three. She has been trained in ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, pointe, and hip hop. Julie was a four year member of the Abilene High School Gold Rush Drill Team, where she served as Captain during her senior year, and is currently a part of the Hardin-Simmons University Spurs Dance Team. Throughout her years of dance, she has had the opportunity to work with many notable figures such as Michael Dameski, Terrill Mitchell, Alex Wong, Teddy Forance, and many more.  Miss Julie teaches all things jazz and contemporary, as well as trains our competitive dancers. Julie loves working with our families at TPDA and is so excited to share her love of dance with her students!

Ms. Rachel began dancing at the age of 5 and has been with Turning Pointe since 2005. She joined the teaching staff in 2008. Her primary discipline is ballet, but she also has experience in modern, contemporary, lyrical, and tap. She enjoys helping students strengthen their technique in our leveled ballet program and working with the TPDA performing companies. Rachel specializes in early childhood dance and holds a certification in Toddler and Preschool Dance Education. She loves working with our littlest dancers and teaching dance concepts through imaginative play. When not at dance, Rachel teaches at Cisco College with most of her courses focusing on anatomy and physiology, making her well versed in the development of the body.

Miss Lexi began teaching at Turning Pointe Dance Academy in 2012 and has been dancing since the age of 3. Lexi specializes in lyrical and tap, and has years of experience in ballet, jazz, and other modern styles. Miss Lexi has taken part in many projects outside of the studio as well, including The Moscow Ballet’s Abilene performance of The Nutcracker in 2009 and HSU’s operatic rendition of Orpheus and Eurydice in 2010. Lexi is currently finishing her MA in Communication, and holds a BBA in Marketing from ACU.

TPDA will always be home for Miss Lexi, and she wants anyone who joins the TPDA family to feel like it’s their home too. 

Missouri has been dancing at Turning Pointe since the spring of her freshman year in high school. Before she started dancing, she was involved in tennis, volleyball, gymnastics, and any other sport she could get her hands on. She was also on the Corsicana Junior Cloggers travel performance team in elementary school. Last year, she was in the Senior Performance group and on the Elite Competition team here at TPDA. She has taught tap, jazz, ballet, and acro during her time with us. She also runs her own business teaching piano lessons and has done that since 7th grade. She loves watching her students improve and enjoy themselves in her classes!

Kaylee began her dance training at the age of 4 at Dance Warehouse Studios. She has been trained in ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, musical theater, hip hop, breakdance, and pointe. She has performed as a recreational dance student and performed with Dance Warehouse Studies Company Werhre W, where her teams received many overall scores as group hip hop dances.Kaylee has taught several classes such as hip hop , jazz , ballet , and tap . Kaylee has auditioned for many different dance opportunities including the outdoor musical TEXAS and pom, where she experienced and learned important life lessons that have given her a foundation to build on to become a better dancer and teacher. Kaylee has performed with her High School team in many competitions and recitals . She is a self taught choreographer. She has choreographed several solos that she has performed and competed with,winning high ratings and has received two division one ratings as a soloist. Kaylee will be major in Pre-Physical Therapy then on to her doctorate of Physical Therapy.