Dance Faculty Bios
The dance faculty at WTAMU are all sound academics with strong professional backgrounds that encompass all aspects of the field of dance. Together they have performed and or choreographed in professional ballet companies, modern companies, television, film, stage shows, and cruise lines. They bring this vast experience into the studio, guiding students toward professional careers within the field of dance. The faculty are student-centered, devoted to the development of each student and continue to mentor students long after graduation.
Edward R. Truitt, Professor
Mr. Truitt has an extensive and varied background in dance. He has performed principal and soloist roles in much of the classical canon including Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Swan Lake, Raymonda, and Nutcracker. He has also performed in the ballets Romeo and Juliet, Carmina Burana, Daphnis and Chloe, Cheri, Orpheus, Graduation Ball and many others. He was a principal soloist with the Los Angeles Classical Ballet Company, Santa Barbara Ballet Theatre, Omaha Ballet Theatre and has performed as a jazz dancer in feature films, television and the professional stage in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Tokyo, Paris and Moscow. Mr. Truitt has also been a guest artist for various modern dance companies and has danced in the works of Bill Evans, Jose Limon and others.
Mr. Truitt has choreographed professionally for the stage, film and television, for universities and various dance companies. In June 2003 he received a Fulbright Senior Specialist grant to set his work "Misguided Faith..." on the Kannon dance company, to teach at the International Festival of Contemporary Dance - Open Look, and to consult on the development of a new dance program in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In January 1999 Mr. Truitt was invited to St. Petersburg, Russia where he completed teaching a seminar in contemporary dance forms for teachers, choreographers and professional dancers. The seminar was conducted with the support of the Administration of the Culture Committee of St. Petersburg as part of the Contemporary Choreography Development Program in St. Petersburg, Russia. Mr. Truitt has made seven trips to Russia teaching and choreographing from St. Petersburg to Siberia, and is a very popular teacher at the International Dance Festival, Open Look in St. Petersburg.
Mr. Truitt has taught workshops or master classes at the American College Dance Association, the Northwest Drama Conference, the CSU Summer Arts Program, BYU Summer Dance Workshop, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, the Eugene Ballet Company, Ballet Nebraska, Ballet Lubbock, South Mississippi Ballet Theatre, Tacoma City Ballet, Central California Ballet Company, the WTAMU Summer Dance Camp, the Nebraska Association of Dance Teachers, and at many other schools around the U.S
Mr. Truitt finished his BFA in Theatre/Dance at the University of Nebraska at Omaha while dancing professionally with the Omaha Ballet under Katharyn Horne and Thomas Enckell, and has his Masters in Dance from the University of Oregon.
Crystal Bertrand, Senior Instructor and Dance Program Director
Crystal Bertrand is a native of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where she started her training at a very young age and where she made her first professional stage appearance at the age of sixteen dancing with Lyric Theatre’s production of My One & Only. The following year she was awarded the Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Tap Scholarship and continued her professional career that lead her to perform in several venues across the United States in the entertainment industry for companies such as Greg Thompson Productions, Nanette Barbara Productions Canadian magician, Brian Glow, Magic and Illusions/Blue Moon Productions, Heritage Entertainment and has sailed internationally with Crystal Cruise Lines with some of the world’s best talent. She has choreographed for numerous university dance concerts and for several country and jazz bands such as Light Crust Doughboys, Jim Cullum Jazz Band and the One O’Clock Lab Band.
She has staged choreography for the Amarillo Venom football half-time show, the "Blanket Toss" stunt in the opening ceremonies for the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, the opening ceremonies for the American Bus Association at the Gaylord Texan, the re-dedication of the capital opening ceremonies for Governor Bush in Austin and for the100th Anniversary Neiman Marcus celebration in Dallas and Houston. Locally, she has choreographed for Lone Star Ballet productions, Amarillo Youth Summer Musicals, Amarillo Little Theatre and for the Amarillo Opera. A few of her recent musicals have included, Legally Blonde, White Christmas, Time Steps; Rock of Ages, Cinderella, Oliver, Amhal and the Night Visitors, Candide, The Drowsy Chaperone, Mary Poppins, The Fantasticks, Music Man and Hairspray.
Bertrand is the official show choreographer for the TEXAS Show located in the Palo Duro Canyon State Park in which she has been a part of the production for over twenty years and also works as Outreach and Education Director for the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation in which she has created programs in association with the Windows on a Wider World that are currently being presented in schools all across the panhandle. Previously, she served as Academy Director for Lone Star Dance Academies, the official schools of Lone Star Ballet where she had been involved with the organization for over fifteen years.
Bertrand continues to teach master classes, conduct guest choreography and judge dance competitions for Dance Masters of America and has held memberships including the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, Congress on Research in Dance, and the Society of Dance History Scholar.
Sandra Stegelman Miller, Instructor
Sandra Stegelman Miller embodies the best of dance, historical and new, classical and contemporary, traditional and dynamic, and artistic and analytical. Her training touched the beginnings of classical ballet studying briefly as a child, with a 94 year old teacher who was in Anna Pavlova’s company, expanded with stars of the legendary Ballet Russe, included tutelage under original members of the Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham companies, and continued with the masters that have produced today’s finest dancers. Studying with David Howard in the golden age of dance and sharing the barre with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Markarova, Antony Dowell, Gelsey Kirkland, Cynthia Harvey, Darci Kistler and other resident and rising stars of ABT®, NYCB and the Joffrey Ballet, she absorbed a wealth of knowledge to pass on to her students. Long term experience with teachers who define classical dance coupled with experiential knowledge of the dynamic trends in contemporary movement, Sandra understands the range of dance today.
With a BFA in Ballet and an MBA from Texas Christian University, this highly educated teacher has the analytical expertise to back her innate teaching skills, and as a principal dancer in the Ft. Worth Ballet (now TX Ballet Theatre) she has the professional artistic experience to pass on to her students. She trained at the schools of the Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey, American Ballet Theatre®, Washington Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, and Maryland Youth Ballet. She has worked with luminaries such as Arthur Mitchell, James Clouser, Erik Bruhn, Fernando Bujones, Francisco Martinez, Mark Schneider and Fernando Schaffenburg dancing classical productions and work created for her. Ms. Miller has been the Artistic & Executive Director of a regional not-for-profit dance company, the Artistic Director of three regional ballet companies and co-directed a semi-professional modern dance company. A highly imaginative choreographer, her works range from classical to contemporary, whimsical to thought provoking, repertory to full length. Augmenting her educational and artistic background is a Pilates certification and 25 years of experience yielding a contemporary anatomically correct approach to training, and a physical rehabilitation basis to injury prevention. Sandra is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 7 & Partnering of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.
Through her 30 year teaching career, Ms. Stegelman Miller has trained students that have gone on to dance with Ballet Austin, Kansas City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet, LA Dance Project, CityDance Ensemble, City Ballet of San Diego, CompanyE, and on Broadway. The owner of Balance Pointe Training Solutions, her entrepreneurial ventures included a dance and Pilates studio, business consulting, teaching, coaching, directing and choreographing for studios, and movement, alignment and technique analysis workshops. Her dancers have been accepted in to the schools of ABT®/NY, Houston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Washington Ballet, Complexions, Boston Ballet, UNCSA and Juilliard. She was a faculty member at the acclaimed South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, and has taught at Ballet Austin, Tulsa Ballet, Ballet Spartanburg, the Greenville Fine Arts Center, Booker T. Washington School of the Arts in Dallas, Schaffenburg Ballet Academy and Texas Christian University. Ms. Miller was also honored as one of a small international group of teachers who have had the most number of students accepted into the Juilliard School.
Adjunct Instructors:
Stacy Clay Hall
Staci Clay Hall began dancing at the age of three. She began competitive dance at theage of ten and was crowned Dance Masters of America Teen Miss Dance of Texas Ch. 35 when she was sixteen. Staci went on to compete in New York, NY on a national stage. Due to her dedication and desire to be challenged, Mrs. Hall traveled seven hours, round trip, twice a week her Junior and Senior years of high school in order to take part in a highly competitive team that won the 1st place Starlight National Title in 2003. While attending the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, she taught dance for four years at Karen's Kids Studio of Performing Arts in Midwest City. Throughout her years at UCO, she performed in the Kaleidoscope Dance Company. Staci graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma in the fall of 2007 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance Performance. After graduation in 2007, Staci moved to Amarillo, TX and opened a dance studio, The Edge Amarillo. They are now in the midst of their eleventh season, and were recently awarded the honor of being named "Amarillo’s Best" dance studio. She teaches forty-five hours weekly, and loves every minute. The Edge currently has around three hundred students on competitive, and recreational tracks. Over the years, her students, and pieces, have won numerous regional, and national titles, choreography awards, and scholarships in the competitive dance arena. Mrs. Hall strongly believes in continuing her education, taking workshops, master classes and seminars from New York to Los Angeles to bring her dancers the best possible training. She is certified Acro dance instructor, and has worked setting pieces, as well as guest teaching at numerous studios. In fall of 2018 she began teaching as an adjunct faculty member for Jazz in the dance Department at West Texas A&M University. Staci hopes through her experience, teaching, and sheer love of dance, she will further the discipline and spread the joy of dance in the Texas Panhandle!
Kaylee A. Morrison
Kaylee A. Morrison, MA, embarked on her dance journey as a child studying under the tutelage of Madeline Graves in Pampa, TX, Sullivan Dance Studio in Rock Hill, SC, and Karen's Kids Performing Arts Center in Midwest City, OK. Her talent and commitment led her to secure various titles as both a soloist and group member to compete and study dance at a national level.
Kaylee's performance repertoire includes two seasons of "TEXAS" the outdoor musical drama and performances with the Lone Star Ballet. She also performed with the West Texas A&M University Dance Ensemble, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. Post-graduation, she was selected as a San Antonio Spurs Silver Dancer. As a Silver Dancer, Kaylee performed on one of the largest stages in sports, the NBA Finals.
Moving from performer to educator, Kaylee has taught at several studios in the Texas Panhandle, San Antonio, and Dallas/Fort Worth areas, acquiring recognition for her choreography at state-wide dance competitions. In 2013, she established the Palo Duro High School dance program and formed the school’s first dance team, the Don Diamonds. In the spring of 2020, she was hired to employ the first full-time dance program for Amarillo High School and direct the Amarillo High Dance/Drill Team, The Sandie Steppers. In a few short years at AHS, Kaylee elevated the Steppers to become a top-scoring dance team at both regional and national dance team competitions.
Kaylee's passion is advocacy for dance in public education, especially in her home region, the Texas Panhandle. Her passion inspired her to obtain a Master of Arts in Dance Education from the University of Northern Colorado. Kaylee's master's thesis, "Preparing Future Dance Educators for Diverse Student Populations," was the impetus of the newfound WTAMU Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Education Degree. Kaylee hopes this degree will help grow dance education programs in the Texas High-Plains region.