Lisa Luiken-Woxell

Lisa began dancing at the age of three under the instruction of Connie Jo Wilson. She continued her training with Janet Morse, Robert Thomas, the Des Moines Ballet School, and Central Iowa Dance. Lisa has been teaching since 1987 and is a Dance Master Certified Instructor. She has taught at Connie Jo Wilson's School of Dance, The Dancer's Workshop, the Newton YMCA, Carol Tetmeyer Dance Studio, and Stacey's School of Dance. She has performed with the Iowa Dance Theatre, the Nutcracker Ballet (CY Stephens), the Neuman Project, the Barnstormers Flightline, and with Dance Olympus on tour.

Maureen McGrath

Maureen McGrath, a native of Des Moines, graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Science in Dance and Apparel Design. Before joining the Dancenter, she taught jazz, tap, ballet and tumbling in Des Moines for over ten years. She began teaching for the Robert Thomas Dancenter in 2000 and has been in charge of the Dancenter Dancers competition team since 2001. Since assuming the competition program, Maureen has taken the Dancenter Dancers from a team of less than 20 dancers to over 60 dancers from Ames, Iowa Falls, and Fort Dodge. Under her direction, the team has won numerous first place, high point, top soloist, and top team awards at competitions in Des Moines, Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Kansas City, and Omaha. This year, the team will compete over 70 solos, duets, group, and production dances in jazz, tap, lyrical and musical theater categories.

In addition to creating the choreography, Maureen designs the competition costumes and has won numerous awards for both choreography and costuming on both the regional and national levels. Two of her solo dancers have won first place honors in the large school division of the Iowa State Drill Team Association Solo Contest, competing her choreographies against over 75 dancers from all over Iowa. Maureen also teaches all levels of jazz, tap and combination classes in the Ames, Iowa Falls, and Fort Dodge studios. She has choreographed the Russian and Arabian parts in the Iowa State Center Nutcracker for the past four years.

Maureen continues her personal dance education every summer, training in New York City with Master Teachers including Suzi Taylor, Joe Lanteri, Doug Caldwell, Joe Tremaine, Mike Minery, Jason Parsons, Frank Hatchett, and Michele Asaf. She is a certified instructor and by Dance Educators of America.

Rob Tebben

Rob Tebben has been dancing for about 2 years. He started with breakdancing, but has added hip hop and ballroom to his repertoire. He placed in regional competitions as a member of the ISU Competition Ballroom Dance Team. Rob is also active in the Ames High Drill Team, and has danced on the All-male and Co-ed routines. In his free time he loves to play footbag, and he breakdances whenever he can. Rob loves music, and plays trap set in jazz band.

Allie Arends

Allie Arends of St. Charles, Illinois, has studied Irish Dancing since the age of 4. At the peek of Allie,s career, she competed at the regional, national and world level, and won several titles throughout her 11 years as a competitive Irish Dancer.

Allie received her training under Ann Lavin-Cassidy, a former British National Champion, and Emma Lavin, a 4-time World Champion. Ann and Emma run the Lavin-Cassidy School of Irish Dance in Palos Heights, IL.

After competing successfully for 11 years, Allie began teaching at The St. Charles School Of Dance at the age of 15 until she left for Iowa State in the fall of 2005. Along with teaching Allie traveled and performed with several Irish bands, including New York based Lenahan.

Today Allie is a Journalism Major at Iowa State University, and is an Irish Dance instructor at the Robert Thomas Dancenter in Ames IA.

Ellen Mullen

Ellen (Crawford) Mullen started teaching Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, and combo classes at the Robert Thomas Dancenter 25 years ago! She has taught all ages at all levels. An Ames native, Ellen started dancing as a child under the instruction of Ann Dirksen; her training continued and passion for dance grew under the instruction of Terry Thomas and, especially, Robert and Miyoko Kato Thomas at the Dancenter. She was later a Ballet major at the University of Utah, studying also in New York City, at Ballet West, and the Joffrey Workshop at the U. of Iowa. Ellen was in the first cast of the Iowa State Center/Dancenter's Nutcracker Ballet and continues to relish the opportunity to share the joy of dance with her students. It must be genetic, because her daughters now study at the Dancenter and help her teach! Ellen also teaches for the College of Business at Iowa State University, holding a Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the University of Minnesota.

Inna Kuznetsova

When I dance I feel the warmth of the desert sand and the light of the Egyptian sun.

Hello, my name is Inna Kuznetsova and I am an Oriental Dance instructor. I am originally from Saint Petersburg, Russia. My dance education includes: Ballet, Latina, Jazz, and of course Oriental. Oriental Dance, which is often called Belly Dancing or Middle Eastern dance, is the style of dance that attracts me most. I studied and performed in Russia, Turkey, Egypt, and Germany. My teachers are Anasteisha, Alevtina Suvorova, and Irina Popova. I have taken different workshops and classes with Mahmud Reda, Nour, Amir Thaleb, Aida Nour, Beata and Horacio Cifuentes.

Oriental Dance lets me feel feminine, beautiful, sexy, fit, and confident. I have a very good control over all of my muscles; my moves are smooth and graceful. Oriental Dance is an ancient dance; women danced it many centuries ago. It is not an easy dance to learn as many tend to think. A good Oriental dancer has a ballet background, as ballet is the foundation for most dances. Oriental Dance is the perfect dance for everyone. It doesn't matter if you are young or old, big or small, male or female, short or tall. You can dance Oriental Dance. If you like ballet, lyrical, modern or folklore you will love Oriental Dance. In my class my students will learn different styles of Oriental Dance including: Raks Sharqi (classical Oriental), Baladi (purely Egyptian), Saidi (dancing with a cane), Turkish style, dancing with a veil, swords, daggers, candles, and cymbals. My students in Russia always performed and I hope to have a team here that would like to perform as well. The costumes for Oriental Dance are gorgeous! I am looking forward to seeing you in my class!

Innah (Inna Kuznetsova) is a professional Egyptian dancer and an Oriental(Egyptian, Arabic) Dance teacher from Saint Petersburg, Russia.

She started dancing ballet when she was 5 years old and since then dancing has always been a part in her life. Innah has studied the art of Oriental dancing with master teachers from Russia, Egypt and Germany.

Oriental dance originates in the Middle East. Innah dances Egyptian Raks Sharqi style of Oriental dance which was established in Egypt in the beginning of the 20th century as a mixture of ballet with classical Oriental moves.

Innah goes to Egypt every summer to participate in Ahlan Wa Sahlan Festival, a major event for Oriental dancers from all over the World.Innah has participated in many festivals in Russia, Germany, the USA, and Egypt. She won the third prize in Berlin Oriental Dance Festival in 2006 and got an award for the Egyptian category in the Oriental Dance Festival in LA in 2007.

Clare Blodgett

Clare Blodgett of Dubuque, Iowa has been Irish dancing since 1993 when she joined the Claddagh School of Irish Dance in her hometown. She has competed and performed across the Midwest as well as performed in places such as Disney World, Six Flags: St. Louis, Ireland and with Irish bands Gaelic Storm and Altan. After 10 years with her school she began teaching.

She recieved instruction from Ann Schroeder and Barbra McNulty (TCRG) who founded the McNulty School of Irish Dance in Chicago, Illinois. Between Schroeder and McNulty there are over 450 enrolled in Irish dance in northern and central Illinois as well as Iowa.

Clare is currently a sophomore at Iowa State University majoring in Political Science.

Leah Phipps

Leah Phipps is a state certified sign language interpreter for the deaf. Leah worked the past four years with the Des Moines Public Schools and is currently an educational interpreter at Boone High School.

Leah has been involved with tumbling most of her life, doing both recreational and competition power tumbling and trampoline. Not only has Leah been involved with recitals, half-time shows, and grand openings, she has also competed all over the state of Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, and Florida. Leah was tumbling state champion two consecutive years and won national champion at Disney Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida in 1996.

Leah coached tumbling throughout high school taking a break during college. In 2004 Leah picked back up her coaching career for Robert Thomas, during which time she has attended all annual USTA National and State Congress meetings.

Leah has her Bronze, Silver, and Gold certifications in levels Sub Beginner-Elite in tumbling, trampoline, and double-mini and is CPR certified. Leah has completed courses such as; Tumbling Upper Level Skills, with Thomas Hamblin, video training courses on What Judges Look For, with certified judge and USTA executive chair, Patty Lingenfelter, Taping and Wrapping Injuries and Prevention, with Jason Diepen, and has taken several 'hands on' tumbling spotting courses.

In August of 2008 Leah Phipps and Melissa Hocking bought into the company re-naming it X-Treme Tumbling and Trampoline. As part owner Leah plans to help make your experience with XTT one to remember.

Melissa Hocking

Melissa Hocking is a Science teacher at Webster City High School. Melissa is a 1995 graduate of Iowa State University and is in her 14th year of teaching.

Melissa is the co-owner and head trampoline and double mini coach at X-Treme Tumbling and Trampoline. Melissa has a lot of experience as a coach, coaching High School cheerleading for several years. Melissa has been coaching trampoline and double mini at Robert Thomas for the past three years. She has her Bronze, Silver, and Gold coaching certification to coach all levels of trampoline and double-mini.

Melissa has attended many coaching courses for trampoline and double mini such as; Skill Progressions, Somi Positions, videos on What Judges Look For, and hands on spotting training. Melissa has trained under clinicians such as Bobbi Grant-Beggs, former world champion, Patty Lingenfelter, USTA Executive Chair, and Thomas Hamblin.

Melissa has coached children of all ages and skill levels. In her coaching career she has help train 9 state champions, and two national champions. Melissa is excited to be a part of X-Treme Tumbling and Trampoline and looks forward to the new competition season!