Academy
Faculty
Melanie Kregel
ACADEMY OWNER
Ms. Kregel is the owner of Metamorphosis Dance Academy and Artistic Director of Austin Metamorphosis Dance Ensemble. She began her training in Victoria, Texas with Debbe Busby and continued there as a member of Victoria Ballet Theatre from 1984 to 1993. She also studied with the Boston Ballet and Joffrey, San Antonio. She holds a B.A. in Dance Pedagogy from Butler University graduating with honors in 1997. Her career continued following graduation with the Alabama Ballet. Her career highlights include roles in The Nutcracker, Les Sylphides, Petrouchka, La Viviandière, Swan Lake, Coppélia, La Bayadère, Dracula, Serenade, Giselle, and Johan Renvall’s Between the Lines. She also appeared as a guest with the Indianapolis Opera in Die Fledermaus and on an international tour to Taipei City, Taiwan with the Butler Ballet. She has taught for The Jordan Academy at Butler University and for Exclusively Ballet in Birmingham before returning to Texas where she taught for Tapestry, Ballet Austin, and The Dance Studio. In 2004, she opened Metamorphosis Dance Academy and has been directing and dancing with the Ensemble since its creation in 2003. Under her direction the company has performed Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Cinderella, as well as, debuted many original works of both emerging and seasoned choreographers.
Erin Aviles
Erin was born in Austin, TX. She started dancing at the age of three with D’Ette & Co. Dancers in Bastrop, TX. She studied all forms of dance such as ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, and contemporary. She was trained by Paula Sansom and Jade Greenough who both inspired her in different ways, and she is very thankful for all the love, support, and guidance they gave her as a dancer. She attended the American Ballet Theater Intensive in 2019 and has also taken master classes in ballet and contemporary from well-known artists in the greater Austin area. As a company artist with Metamorphosis Dance, I enjoyed dancing the role of Clara’s sister in the Nutcracker, as well as performing as ‘The Night’ in the ballet ‘Dance of the Hours from La Gioconda’. Ms. Aviles was promoted from student artist to resident artist apprentice in 2021, and full member of Metamorphosis Dance in 2022.
Orlando Julius Canova
Orlando Julius Canova began his ballet training in Southern California with Lawrence and Sarma Rosenberg at the Anaheim Ballet School. At age 16 he moved to New York City to train at the School of American Ballet. There, he received a full tuition merit scholarship and was sponsored by Debbie Allen. Orlando furthered his ballet training with Miami City Ballet School. In 2001, Orlando became an Arpino Apprentice with the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and in 2003 he joined as a full company member. While at Joffrey, Orlando played the part of apprentice in Robert Altman’s movie, The Company. At Ballet Austin Orlando has danced lead roles in The Nutcracker, Cult of Color: Call to Color, Truth & Beauty: The Bach Project, Romeo & Juliet, Nine Sinatra Songs, silence within silence and The Magic Flute. He has worked with such choreographers as Stephen Mills, Twyla Tharp, KT Nelson, Dominic Walsh, Nicolo Fonte, Sonya Delwaide, Toni Bravo, Michelle Thompson, Reginald Harris, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Orlando has also had the pleasure of dancing for Molly Lynch’s National Choreographers Initiative in 2012 and 2013. There he worked with Darrell Moultrie, Melissa Barak, Val Caniparoli, Frank Chavez, Kitty McNamee, and Susan McCullough. In addition, Orlando teaches dance at the Ballet Austin Academy, the Butler Center for Dance & Fitness, Saint Mary’s Hall, Austin City Ballet, and Alamo Heights High School.
Carly Criscoe
Carly Criscoe began taking ballet when she was three years old. Her formal ballet training began with Tanju and Pat Tuzer in 1988. She has had the privilege to receive additional training from Ann Arnoult, Dana Lewis, Danny Herman, and Rocker Versatique. Ms. Criscoe has trained in the Boston Ballet Summer Dance Program, David Howard Summer Dance Program, and the Tuzer Ballet Summer Dance Program. She has performed in various musical theater productions with Garland Summer Musicals, Plano Repertory Theater, and Georgetown Palace Theater, such as “My Fair Lady,” “Brigadoon,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Can-Can,” “The Music Man,” “Will Rogers’ Follies,” and “Pal Joey.” Ms. Criscoe has been a resident artist with Metamorphosis Dance since 2009. She has performed various roles in various productions. Some of these productions include “The Nutcracker,” “Swan Lake,” “Cinderella,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “Alice in Wonderland.” Ms. Criscoe graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in Government and a minor in Spanish. She has been in the accounting and bookkeeping profession since 2007.
Danielle Ehoff
Danielle began cultivating a love for dance as early as 3 years old. Over the years at Inland Pacific Ballet, Danielle was afforded many opportunities to perform in their ballet productions including the Nutcracker, Giselle, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Coppelia, and many others. Her summer intensive studies include Inland Pacific Ballet, The School of American Ballet in New York, San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, and Ballet Austin. After attending a summer at Ballet Austin in 2013, she was invited to stay as a trainee during the 2013-14 season, where she was able to perform with Ballet Austin II and Ballet Austin. Danielle continues to explore the joy of performing and choreographing as a resident artist with Metamorphosis Dance since 2016.
Melissa Glouchkova
Melissa Glouchkova has been teaching ballet since 1986. Her teaching experience includes Corpus Christi Concert Ballet, Ballet Academy, Texas Ballet Concerto, Fusion Dance, Premiere Dance Center, Tapestry Dance Company and Academy where she was a company member for 10 years, Westwood High School’s Fine Arts Academy, Chula Vista Fine Arts Academy in Corpus Christi, TX, Rodnichok Vorkuta, Russia (guest teacher) and Metamorphosis Dance Academy which she considers home. Originally from Corpus Christi, Texas, Melissa began her classical training under Nancy Sulik, Artistic Director of Corpus Christi Concert Ballet, and attended summer intensives at Ballet West, Houston Ballet, Compania Nacional de Danza Classica, Mexico and the Joffrey School of Ballet, NY as well as received many scholarships to prominent schools such as Boston Ballet, The National Ballet School, Canada and Academie de Danse Princesse Grace, Monaco. In 1991, Melissa was one of five dancers chosen to participate in the Kirov Ballet’s “Glasnost Buddies”, a program which allowed her to take classes with the Kirov Company. Her professional dance career includes wonderful roles in productions such as The Nutcracker, Raymonda Pas de Dix, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, Coppelia, Beauty and the Beast, The Red Shoes, Stayin’ Alive, Sign of the Times, and Swinging Then and Now. In addition to teaching ballet, Melissa is a certified pilates instructor and owner of Center Pointe Pilates in Round Rock. She was a Master Pilates trainer at Castle Hill Fitness for 16 years, holds a BA in Interior Design, is certified in the Cecchetti Method of ballet, has a secondary education certification in Dance.
Lauren Hawkins
Lauren Hawkins was born in Austin, TX and primarily trained at The Austin City Ballet. There she had the wonderful opportunity to perform in Ballet productions starting at an early age. Some of her favorite Ballets include La Bayadère, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty and Coppélia. She has been dancing since the age of three and has attended Summer Intensives at The Virginia School of the Arts, Houston Ballet, Richmond Ballet, and Ballet Austin. She has trained with the Richmond Ballet in their Trainee program, and performed with their company in their annual Nutcracker, Stoner Winslett’s Windows, Malcolm Burn’s Romeo and Juliet and George Balanchine’s “Who Cares?.” During her years in college, she danced and taught for Ballet Lubbock and Austin City Ballet. After transferring from Texas Tech, Lauren graduated from Texas State University with a degree in English and Mass Communications. She is incredibly grateful to have worked with some of Austin’s finest that have shaped the dancer she is today. Those women are Carol D’Avila, Terry Lynn Wright, Arletta Howard Logan, Dana Lewis, Paula Sansom, Vlada Sheber, Melanie Kregel and Melissa Glouchkova. She currently is the Academy Administrator for Dance Institute, teaches for House of Dance and has performed with Metamorphosis Dance as a Resident Artist since 2017. Lauren not only has a passion for dance, but for marketing as well. With that passion, she also works behind the scenes, managing Metamorphosis Dance’s social media platforms and marketing.
Katrina Kutsch
Katrina Kutsch, a native of Austin, Texas, began her dance training at the age of three under the direction of Lucretia Lomax Alvarez at The Dance Studio. There she studied Ballet, Jazz, Tap, and Lyrical and was blessed to receive training from Svetlana Krylova, Brenna Kuhn, and Amanda Booth-Neidhardt. In 2004 she expanded her training to include Ballet and Jazz at the newly established Metamorphosis Dance Academy, under the direction of Melanie Sistrunk Kregel. In 2006 she received the Senior Best All Around Scholarship at Texas Association of Teachers of Dance (TATD), and in 2008 she received the TATD Merit Scholarship to continue her dance education. Katrina graduated Magna Cum Laude from Southern Methodist University in 2012 with a BFA in Dance Performance and a Minor in Psychology. While at SMU she performed a wide variety of works, including George Balanchine’s Serenade, Robert Battle’s Battlefield, Danny Buraczeski’s Pithecanthropus Erectus, Martha Graham’s Panorama, Adam Houghland’s Five Preludes, and Jessica Lang’s Prayers to name a few. In 2013 and 2014 she attended the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Summer Intensive and is very thankful for the life changing experience. In 2012 she returned to her hometown and became a Resident Artist with Metamorphosis Dance. While with Metamorphosis Dance, she has performed roles such as Snow White, the Sugar Plum Fairy, and the Mad Hatter highlighting her talents in contemporary, ballet, and tap. She is incredibly grateful to all the teachers she has had throughout the years and hopes to share her experience, knowledge, and love of dance with the next generation of artists.
Heather Meeboer
Originally from Atlanta, Heather trained at The Georgia Ballet and Atlanta Ballet’s Centre for Dance Education. She continued her dance studies in college under merit scholarships, attending both Brenau University and Point Park University before graduating Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in Classical Ballet from Radford University under the direction of Inessa Plekhanova. Heather performed with several Atlanta-area companies, including SIDEWAYS Contemporary Dance Company and Georgia Dance Theatre, before moving to Austin and becoming a Resident Artist with Metamorphosis Dance in 2012. Some performance highlights include Pas de Quatre, 3rd Shade in La Bayadere, Little Cygnet and Black Swan in Swan Lake, Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, and Kara in The Red Shoes. In addition to performing, Heather serves as Executive Director and is an Assistant Artistic Director and regularly choreographs for the company. Heather has taught Pilates and private neuromuscular reeducation sessions on the Redcord apparatus since 2009 and is the owner of Redcord ATX. She credits both Pilates and Redcord with keeping her injury-free throughout her dancing career.