GWINNETT SCHOOL OF DANCE - Key Persons
Donna is the former Associate Artistic Director of Carol Walker Dance Academy, Inc. and Co-Artistic Director and Founder of Dancers Company One Performing Arts Company for 16 years. Donna began her dance training at age 3. Her studies included ballet, pointe,
Lexie Greene has been training, dancing and performing in the entertainment world for over 12 years. Although she has been dancing with Gwinnett School of Dance the whole time, her drive, ambition and tenacity has lead her far and wide! She was a recipient of a summer ballet Scholarship from the world renowned Joffrey Ballet. She has danced at the summer program with Debbie Allen's Dance Academy in Los Angeles for the past four years. She has been an actress on the Netflix Series "Stranger Things", "Chicago's Launch Showcase" and also for "Disney's Premier Showcase". She then stepped into the role of choreographer for Atlanta Hip Hop Artist "B Cupits" music video " Déjà vu". If that is not enough , she performed as a featured dancer in local Atlanta pop music artist Macy Todd's video "Bump That ". And that is not all, she is also signed to MPC Models International in Florida. And now we are proud to have her, one of our own, on our GSD Junior Teaching Team.
Nina is a veteran of not only Dance but of the entertainment industry as a whole. Music and Dance have always been in her life. In dance, she received a scholarship to the The Houston Ballet at the age of 17 and went on to have a very successful career as a professional Dancer. She has performed on stages across the country in roles in The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and many more. She has worked with such notable companies and choreographers such Ben Stevenson (Houston Ballet), Patsy Swayze (Houston Jazz Ballet), Oleg Tupine, Frederick Strobel (Northern Virginia Ballet), Oscar Antunez (Ballet El Paso) just to name a few.
She then moved to LA and fell into a career in the music industry. She fronted bands as a lead vocalist/ guitarist while working as a production assistant for "rock royalty" Ms. Stevie Nicks. Nina became the Studio Manager at Image Recording in Hollywood where she hosted sessions for mega-artists such as Michael Jackson, Kenny Loggins, Whitesnake, Night Ranger, Starship and Guns & Roses…too many to name here.
After 10 years in LA Nina moved to Arizona where she founded a dance and theater company, The Arivaca Performing Artists, in partnership with the Tucson Pima Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts. There she held the titles of Founder, Artistic Director and Choreographer for over 8 years. By utilizing her music, theatre and dance backgrounds the company was able to produce original dance pieces, plays and many full length musical productions. Her performing arts company was so widely received and successful that the arts commission built her a fully functional theater facility and her program was used by the Arizona Arts Commission as a model and pilot program.
Family brought her here to Georgia in 1997 where she has been a fixture in the music community for 20 years. She was the Studio Manager of Tree Sound Studios for 9 years and enjoyed working with many of music's biggest stars such as Elton John, Whitney Houston, Matchbox 20, Dave Mathews, Collective Soul, Jamie Foxx, Outkast and many more. Upon leaving Tree Sound, she launched her own Consulting company for local artists where she managed 7 successful local bands and was recently focused on Country artist Miss Emily Vance. While under Nina's tutelage Emily garnered 2 GA Music awards! Nina herself also recieved a GA Music Award for Best Video for the Music Video "Something Stupid", which she co-wrote, directed and edited for Emily.
But dance never left her life and she had also taken the reigns at the Gwinnett School of Dance as Artist Director in 2011 all the while continuing her musical pursuits. The school has been so successful it is now enjoying a beautiful new facility in Grayson. Nina has one son Taylor, the "light of her life", who is now a music producer himself. If you ask Nina what she loves to do she will say " I love working with really talented people! Whether it's dance or music. " and she loves living in Georgia and running GSD!!!