Katelan Kranz - Studio Owner / Tap Director

Katelan is happy to serve as studio owner, director, instructor and choreographer for Stepping Out Dance Studio as of June 2014! She began her dance training at age four under the instruction of Rhonda Marchant. She was a member of the Stepping Out Dance Company for over fifteen years as an award winning group and tap soloist. Katelan has been a successful choreographer and teacher of tap, jazz, lyrical/contemporary and musical theatre for the past nine years. She offers the most sought after and highest quality of tap dance instruction in South Carolina! Her choreography is recognized for its innovation, creativity and unique style and has won numerous awards and achievements in the regional and national competition circuit including "Elite Highest Score of the Day." She has choreographed several talent winners in pageants and most recently choreographed and coached South Carolina's Distinguished Young Woman's overall talent winner of 2015. She enjoys traveling to studios to teach master classes and setting choreography for groups and soloists!

Katelan graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations and a minor in dance. Her and her husband Logan have two children, Lily and Reece!

Katelan has a unique way of connecting with her students to share in her passion for the art of dance and helping them become the best dancers they can be.  Having been involved in every aspect of Stepping Out her whole life, she is ready and excited to take this studio to the next level! 

Patti Carson - Competitive Team Director

Patti's love of dance started at age three at Dee Crump School of Dance where she studied tap and jazz for fifteen years. She received her license as a Veterinary Technician from Tri-County Technical College and studied Animal Science at Clemson University. She became involved in the dance again with her daughter and began teaching over four years ago and has enjoyed teaching several award wining competitive groups. She is excited to assume the role of Competitive Team Director at Stepping Out. 

When not at the studio, Patti enjoys spending time with her husband Tom, spending time at the lake, gardening, and watching the Tigers play.  Admittedly her greatest accomplishment is being Mom to Turner and Jayna who both love to be on stage! She loves to teach and share her enthusiasm and love for the art of dance with all students.

Dini Tetrick ​- Ballet Director, Acro

Nadine (Dini) was born in Romania and grew up in Ontario, Canada where she received her early training from Canadian Children's Dance Theatre. She continued her training as a scholarship student at Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts, spending the summers training in New York at American Ballet Theatre. She later joined The Joffrey Ballet School as a full scholarship student, performing throughout New York City and the surrounding areas. In 2008 she received her first professional contract with The Sarasota Ballet, dancing many roles choreographed by the esteemed Matthew Bourne, John Cranko, Dame Ninette De Valois, Sir Peter Wright, and Sir Frederick Ashton, among many others. In 2011 Dini moved to South Carolina to join Columbia City Ballet where she performed many featured roles like Chinese in The Nutcracker, The young girl in Twas The Night Before Christmas, and The Crab in The Little Mermaid, among various others. In 2012 Dini joined Columbia Classical Ballet expanding her classical repertoire. In 2013 she rejoined Columbia City Ballet. Other highlights of her professional career include performing Giselle with guest stars Alina Cojocuru and Johan Kobborg and guesting with The Joffrey Ballet School in the role of Kitri from Don Quixote. 

Dini received her teacher training from The Joffrey Ballet School and has been teaching since then at numerous schools across the east coast. She will be offering ballet classes with knowledge passed down from George Balanchine, Robert Joffrey, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gelsey Kirkland and many other masters of the art. Dini is so excited about joining the team at Stepping Out and sharing her passion, love of dance and knowledge with all the students.

Michelle Nienhius - Tap, Combination Classes, Tutu Cute, Mini Team

Michelle's love of dance began at age 3. She completed 15 years of dance (tap, ballet, clogging and jazz) with Lexington School of Dance, Lexington Dance Studio & Stepping Out. Michelle had the opportunity to "come back" to the dance world when her daughter, Ashley, began dancing 11 years ago. Being a dance mom is fun, but she also enjoys teaching tap and ballet at Stepping Out. 

Michelle also serves SC as Prevention Coordinator for the SC Dept. of Alcohol & Other Drug Abuse Services. She has worked with this prevention system in SC for for more than 14 years in various roles. She is married to her husband, Nathan, & they have 2 children, Ashley and Jeremy.

Michelle also teaches aerobics at the Lexington Leisure Center two evenings a week. She enjoys teaching low impact aerobics, step aerobics, and cardio/strength training. 

Katie Tribble - Jazz Director, Acro

Katie began her career in Columbia, South Carolina studying ballet, tap, and jazz under the direction of William Starrette and Columbia City Ballet. At age twelve, Katie auditioned and was accepted into the pre-professional and conservatory based ballet and modern dance training program at the residential high school, the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities (“the Governors School”), in Greenville, South Carolina. There, she received mentoring and coaching from Stanislav Issaev, Irina Ushakova, and Miriam Barbosa. The ballet program follows the eight-level Vaganova technique system while the modern program provides students with training in the Graham, Horton, Limon and Cunningham techniques. While studying at the Governor’s School, Katie became a soloist and then later a principal ballerina. After graduation, Katie attended the University of South Carolina and began studying Balanchine technique under the direction of Stacy Calvert and Susan Anderson. After college, she attended law school and co-founded the Charleston Dance Alliance, a Personal Relations and Fundraising organization centered on promoting dance in South Carolina. Currently, Katie is a department head and the dance teacher at Lexington Middle School where she leads their Dance Program and the Musical Theatre Program. She also coaches the Lexington Middle Dance Company (LMDC) and the new River Bluff High School’s Gator Girls Junior Varsity. In the summers Katie has directed the Lexington 1 Dance Spark program and Kershaw County Tri-Dac program. Outside of Lexington 1 Katie is the residential choreographer for OnStage Theatre Productions where she most recently choreographed Oliver and Little Mermaid. Her repertoire includes La Bayadere, Les Sylphides, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, Le Corsaire, Serenade, Theme & Variations, the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Gissell, Coppelia and many more. Katie’s passion is to ignite others’ passions for dance through mentoring and coaching young dancers

Stephanie Turbeville - Combination, Tutu Cute, Tap, Mini Team

Stephanie has grown up in Lexington and started dancing at the age of 3. She is a graduate of Lexington High School and the University of South Carolina. Stephanie has worked in the Lexington community as a preschool dance teacher, recreational youth sports coach, children’s recreational camp director, and elementary school teacher. Stephanie enjoys being a part of the Stepping Out Dance family by helping support and develop the youngest dancers and working behind the scenes to support the Stepping Out Competition Teams.

Abby Boone - Ballet, Competitive Teams, Tutu Cute

Abby has been dancing at Stepping Out since the age of 3 and has been competitng since the age of 5. She has trained in tap, ballet, pointe, jazz, contemporary and musical theater. Abby has also been a part of numerous ballet productions through Stepping Out, having the honor of portraying main roles such as Alice in Alice in Wonderland and Toto in the Wizard of Oz.

Throughout competing she has earned numerous scholarships to train through out the country as well as being given the Star of Excellence award for the 2019-2020 dance season. She was also recognized as Dance of the Year for 2020-2021 season.

She is excited to teach and inspire dancers in reflecting the same Stepping Out spirit and love of dance that her teachers and teammates have emulated in her dance training!

Hannah Wood - Competitive Teams, Hip Hop, Tap, Jazz

Hannah Wood is excited to continue as on staff at Stepping Out Dance Studio! She has been a student at Stepping Out Dance Studio for 15 years, as well as an assistant and teacher for combo classes, summer camps, and recital classes! Hannah has choreographed winning competitive groups and solos and has loved teaching this year! She loves watching the kids learn and grow! Hannah was a member of the River Bluff Dance Company. She is a student at the University of South Carolina Honors College.

Kiaria Williams - Hip Hop, Jazz, Lyrical, Competitive Teams

Hi, I’m Kiaria Williams and I’m excited to be with Stepping Out! I’ve been dancing for 19 years and have loved every minute of it. I’m a recent graduate from the University of South Carolina with a BA in Elementary Education. I’m continuing my education by pursuing my Masters in Literacy and Reading. During my free time, I love spending time with family and friends, binge watch shows on Netflix and reminiscing all the good shows on Disney Plus. 

Teaching dance is one of the things that I absolutely love doing. I want nothing more than to share my passion with young dancers to help them grow in doing what they love most. I am so excited to join the Stepping Out family to work with such amazing students and teachers.

Madi Reed - Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Competitive Teams

Madi Reed is excited to join the Stepping Out family this year! She grew up in Rock Hill, SC where she danced competitively for ten years at Just Dancin’. She trained in the styles ballet, contemporary, jazz, lyrical, musical theatre, pointe, and tap. She also began her dance teaching career at this studio, she started as an assistant in sixth grade and then began teaching her own classes when she got to high school. Madi is a recent graduate of the University of South Carolina where she received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology. This year she is working as a fourth-grade teacher at AJ Lewis Greenview Elementary. She plans to pursue her Masters in School Psychology starting next summer. Throughout the years, Madi has gained experience teaching all ages of recreational and competition dance. She even taught the adult dance classes at her home studio. When not at the dance studio, Madi enjoys hanging out with her roommates and cat Binx. She loves to read and listen to music and loves to be outdoors. Madi is excited to teach and help inspire our dancers and push them to grow further in their dance career.

Kenley Grace Spears - Ballet, Combination, Tutu Cute, Pom Hop

Gracie Anderson - Acro, Jazz

Kathy Kneece - Receptionist

Kathy has been a part of the dance world for the past 30 years as a dance Mom and now a dance Mimi! She helps us all stay on track at the front desk, sews, rhinestones, crafts, makes props and does anything else that is asked of her to help keep the studio running smoothly.