Sole Talk 18: Sara Wilson, Founder of Dance Services by Sara
Sara Wilson began dance at the age of 2 in Plano, TX. She joined a competitive team at age 10 as she trained in ballet, jazz, and tap. She was on the back-to-back national champion team, Plano Dance Force, where she was ADTS regional solo winner and scholarship recipient, was named to the All-American Drill Team, and was one of 8 out of 500 to be named to the All-American Dance Company.
Sara received her BFA in Dance from UT Austin in 2002. During her time there, she was a 2 year member of the department’s modern dance company (serving as soloist the second year), was selected to perform with the internationally-touring David Rousseve Company, received an American Ballet Theater work/study scholarship, and was named to Dean’s List numerous semesters. During college, Sara also had the privilege to take classes from Holly Williams (Mark Morris Dance Co.), Lyn Wiltshire (The Wiz, Alvin Ailey), Christine Spizzo (American Ballet Theater), Kirk Peterson (American Ballet Theater), and Betsy Cooper (New York City Ballet) to name a few.
After graduating, Sara taught at studios in the Dallas area and choreographed a large part of the North Texas Youth Ballet’s “Nutcracker”. In 2003, Sara joined the American Drill Team School staff where she traveled all over the country teaching, judging, and choreographing. In 2004, Sara was the Junior Varsity drill team director at Akins High School in Austin, TX where she led the team to earn state champion in the military division.
In 2006, Sara finally found her way here to Houston where she was the drill team director at Houston ISD’s Lamar High School. During her 7 years at Lamar, Sara took the team from 11 dancers to over 80. Her team earned countless accolades and acknowledgements including two - time Alamo Bowl halftime performers, Houston Rockets pre-game performers, two-time Houston Texans halftime performers, numerous solo awards, a number of special judges’ awards, and three-time Team Overall Grand Champion. Some of Sara’s students have gone on to teach in studios, join HTE instructional and choreography staff, become Captain and President of UH Cougar Dolls as well as other collegiate teams, become Director of A&M Fade 2 Black Dance Company, and Houston Texans Cheerleaders.
In addition to teaching in the Houston area, Sara was a 2010-2011 Houston Aero Dynamics Dancer and a 2011 Houston Texans Cheerleader finalist. Currently, Sara is loving being a guest teacher for schools throughout the Houston area, being on staff at TopFlight Dance Center, and serving as a judge for Crowd Pleasers, in addition to being a mom to her two kids and wife to her incredible husband.
Check out her dance journey!
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