Staff
MoveNation Dance Academy was founded out of a passion and need for sharing the owner's expertise and passion for dance to the youth and adults in Houston Texas.
Houston is now the third largest city in the United States and we are excited to contribute to the development and growth of the performing arts in our city!
Jennifer San Miguel - Owner/Director
Ms Jennifer San Miguel received a minor in Dance a major in Entrepreneurship & Strategic Management from the University of North Texas for the express purpose of owning a dance studio. While at UNT, she studied under Ballet Master Arleen Sugano where she honed her technique and performed in the contemporary ballet "X=10". She also gained great appreciation for improvisation and modern dance. Prior to that she was a Senior Company Dancer at Joy's School of Dance in Waco, Tx where she had the opportunity to dance with the Austin City Ballet in the Nutcracker, attend TATD and LA Dance Force Conventions, open for the Texas Special Olympics, and much more. Jennifer also danced as a Dance Management major at Oklahoma City University under the direction of Jo Rowan, Lyn Crammer, Liz Retter, and other inspiring master teachers.
Her teaching career has been a balancing act with raising and supporting a family. She has taught private lessons in Denton and Houston, taught a jazz dance school program in Waco, was a ballet, tap and jazz teacher at Rodriguez Academy of Dance in Houston, and held various substitute positions in Oklahoma City and Houston throughout the years.
Dance will always be her passion and she has shared that passion with her three children. Her daughter was colonel of her high school dance team and they both recently traveled to New York to take classes at Alvin Ailey, Broadway Dance Center, and Steps on Broadway. She enjoys sharing her technique and passion for dance with others.
Ms Jennifer has continued to retain and improve her ballet technique through master classes with Master Teacher/Dance Scientist Arleen Sugano and then share this knowledge with MNDA students.
Check out a recent article on Miss Jennifer @ https://gosolo.subkit.com/jennifer-san-miguel/
Bethany Meyferth - Pre-School Ballet and Tap Instructor
Ms. Bethany started dancing at age 3 when it was the only way her mom could get her to overcome her shyness! She has since done many styles of dance including ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, liturgical, musical theatre, and ballroom. While Ms. Bethany studied elementary education in college, she also took several dance classes in Movement Fundamentals and Contact Improvisation. She also participated on the competitive ballroom dance team with her now-husband as her partner. After college, she taught first grade and kindergarten in the Spring Branch school district. She is very excited to bring together her love of teaching and her love of dancing with the MoveNation Dance Academy family!
Christian Leal - Hip-hop Instructor
A Houston native and graduate of Westside High School, Christian has returned to Houston after graduating from the University of Texas Austin with a BFA in Dance. His experiences include performing with the Inertia Dance Company and UT Repertory Theater. He has wrangled our Boy's Club and Beginning Teen Hip-hop classes since January 2021.
Keyana Manning - Preschool, Jazz, Contemporary Instructor
Ms Keyana recently obtained her Dance degree from Stephen F Austin University and joined MNDA as a Contemporary teacher in Summer 2021. She has studied Ballet, Modern, Contemporary, Jazz and Hip-hop. She continues to dance and perform and looks forward to being more involved with the studio.
Ryan Whitlow - Contemporary and Hip-hop Instructor
Dancing has been Ms Ryan's passion since the fourth grade. She was a competitive dancer for nine years and a dance coach for two. She has studied ballet, hip hop, contemporary, belly dancing, jazz, and acro. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree at the University of St Thomas in Applied Sports Psychology in addition to holding a full time position as a second grade teacher.
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Lindsey McElvany - Dance Instructor (all genres)
Miss Lindsey McElvany joined MNDA in Feb 2022 and has been dancing for 18 years. She is trained in ballet, pointe, pas de deux, tap, jazz, and contemporary. She performed with pre-professional dance company, BalletForte, for ten years portraying various roles in The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, and more. She has been teaching since 2016 but began choreographing full pieces in 2015. In 2018, her piece “Reflections” was chosen to open Regional Dance America Southwest’s Legacy festival. She was also chosen as a choreographer for National Choreography Intensive.
Johnnique Nunez - Hip-hop Instructor & Preschool Assistant
"I was a dancer before I was born. I was destined for it. I was dancing in my mother's womb. I grew up watching my mother practice routines in our living room and I was mesmerized by how beautiful movement could be. How could an extension of an arm tell a thousand things?" Johnnique made her debut into dance class via a Mommy and me (afrocuban) class in Manhattan at the age of 3. At the age of 8, she was selected to perform at an all adult production because of how amazed her instructor was with her talents. Johnnique was slated for a future of touring and getting special training when she moved to Texas. She was then introduced to her hiphop instructor. "What a beautiful soul. A tall muscular man taught me to strut and become confident within myself and inspired me to want to make a difference in someone's confidence one day." Johnnique danced throughout high school and was H.O.L.A (latin dance club) choreographer her senior year. Johnnique is a patient and energetic instructor with a passion for dance that is a great fit with MoveNation Dance Academy.
