Michelle Coomer

Director & Instructor

MICHELLE COOMER was born in Southern California. She started dancing at the age of 3. She trained in jazz, ballet, lyrical, contemporary, and gymnastics. She enjoyed performing and competing in many dance competitions. In 1998, she won the title of Junior Miss Dance of Southern California at the Dance Masters of American Competition for her classical ballet technique. Soon after, she attended the summer programs of The School of American Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and The Houston Ballet Academy.

At the age of sixteen, Michelle was asked to join the Houston Ballet Academy’s prestigious year-round training program on full scholarship and stipend. During that time, Michelle represented the Houston Ballet Academy in The USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. There she was a finalist and received the Heinz-Bosl Foundation Scholarship award.

In 2002, Michelle joined the Houston Ballet. In 2007, she was promoted to Demi-Soloist.  Some of her classical and contemporary repertoire includes Frederick Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardee, Mark Morris's Sandpaper Ballet; James Kudelka's Firebird: Jiří Kylián's Forgotten Land and Falling Angels; Christopher Wheeldon's Carnival of the Animals, Rush, and Carousel; Trey McIntyre’s Peter Pan, Hans van Manen's Five Tangos; Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Manon and Gloria; Jerome Robbins' The Concert; Twayla Tharps' In the Upper Room, William Forsythe’s In The Middle Somewhat Elevated, Harald Lander’s Etudes, George Balanchine's Serenade, Four Temperaments, Western Symphony, Serenade, Jewels, Apollo, Symphony In C, and Theme and Variations; Ben Stevenson's Don Quixote, Cinderella, Dracula, Coppélia, Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, and The Sleeping Beauty; Stanton Welch's Swan Lake, Divergence, Indigo, Play, Velocity, Tu Tu, Madame Butterfly, Red Earth, Four Seasons, Cinderella, Falling, Doll's House, Marie, and La Bayadère. She performed many principal roles including the Snow Queen in The Nutcracker and Gamzatti in Stanton Welch’s La Bayadere.

After 9 years of dancing with the Houston Ballet, Michelle retired to focus on starting her family. She and her husband, Houston Ballet first soloist, Christopher Coomer, have 3 beautiful children. For the past several years she has taught around the Pearland and Houston Area. Michelle is thrilled to be able to share her knowledge and love for dance with young dancers in the area.