Erin Marie Akin-Thomas

Founder/Artistic Director & Teacher

Erin Marie, an Austin native, is thrilled to be the founder and artistic director of Dance Arts Pflugerville! She began dancing at age 2, in Austin, Texas. From that moment on she realized that all she wanted to do was dance. Erin studied ballet, tap, jazz, modern, and lyrical dancing throughout her childhood. She performed in Dance Spectrum, a children’s dance company, and later became their Dance Captain. Erin also trained at Ballet Austin, performing in their Nutcracker, with the Texas Youth Ballet, Dancer’s Workshop, and spent a summer at the Virginia School of the Arts. In her teenage years, she won many honors and awards in different styles of dance and trained on both the east and west coasts, avidly pursuing her career.

As a young adult, Erin performed with Austin Musical Theatre, appearing in Oklahoma, The Music Man, Jesus Christ Superstar, and many variety shows. She taught and choreographed for a variety of dance companies, musical theatre groups, choral groups, and swing companies in Austin. She then joined a budding professional company, Verge Dance Co., on her way to a career as a professional dancer.​

In 2002, Erin moved to Chicago to pursue her performance and teaching career. There she taught Ballroom and Latin dance at Chicago Dance. Through good fortune and determination she has become a knowledgeable technician and teacher, as well as a competitive professional dancer, ranking the 5th place female Ballroom and Latin teacher in the US, in 2005. She has taken students to competitions locally, nationally, and internationally to Blackpool, England.

While living in Chicago and New Jersey Erin managed many Ballroom studios between 2005 and 2015 and even owned one herself from 2015 to 2017.​From 2004 to 2020, Erin danced professionally in competitive Ballroom and Latin dance. In that time, through 5 long-term professional partnerships, Erin was an Open Professional Latin, Smooth, Nine-dance, and Showdance Champion. Her highest professional rankings were in American Ballroom: second in Fred Astaire National Dance Championships, sixth in the U.S. Championships, and top twelve in the World Championships.​

In New Jersey, Erin taught Ballet, Jazz, Tap, and Lyrical for the Wyckoff School of Dance, Miss Patti’s School of Dance, and the Unique Performing Arts Center. Erin continues to hone her skills as a teacher and dancer through continued education. She became a certified Pilates instructor in 2018 and took Ballet at the University of Texas at Austin in 2021. Erin teaches Pilates for us and in Austin. She has always sought out local ballet classes to take whenever possible and has studied Alexander Technique extensively to challenge and improve herself.

Erin Marie taught for Begin Ballet for one year before opening Dance Arts Pflugerville and licensing the Begin Ballet program. She hopes to grow the studio, increasing options for all ages and levels, offering many more dance styles and dance fitness, all for the whole family to enjoy.