We are so excited that you’ve found Dance Arts Pflugerville (DAP). We pride ourselves on creating a welcoming community atmosphere for dancers of any age and level. Whether you or your child are a budding dancer, you're an adult looking for a new hobby, or an experienced dancer looking to dust off your shoes, we hope you’ll choose to fulfill your dance goals with us! We pride ourselves on being a judgment-free dance studio, complimented with seasoned dance instructors that will ensure that you’re not only learning some awesome dance moves but also doing it with proper alignment and technique. We offer Pilates and other dance fitness to help you further your dance abilities in a healthy way. We offer a wide array of styles of dance in private lessons, and will host workshops to introduce you to new styles you’ve never tried. Dance Arts Pflugerville owner, Erin Marie Akin-Thomas, fell in love with dance at the age of 2. She grew up dancing in a small dance studio in Northwest Austin, where she received a well-rounded dance education featuring a strong foundation in Ballet. She was fortunate enough to have exposure across the country to master dancers, workshops, and conventions of all varieties of performance. Erin had the chance to perform solos, duos, trios, and group routines, and she fell in love with being a part of a strong ensemble. As a teenager, she had the opportunity to start teaching dance and became a well-rounded dancer with a love for performing and training in all styles of dance. Erin Marie began dancing professionally and had opportunities to travel, choreograph, and perform all over the Austin area with a variety of different dance organizations. Those opportunities included: choreographing for Round Rock ISD show choirs and musicals, joining a professional musical theater group in high school, choreographing for a Swing dance company, and dancing in a jazz company in college. Erin Marie moved to Chicago, IL to pursue her professional dancing and fell into a career that utilized all of her strengths from her dance background in a new realm of dance as a professional Ballroom and Latin dancer. There she learned to dance and teach all styles of social and competitive partner dancing from the Salsa to the Vienesse Waltz. She studied it all. Over the course of her rewarding 20-year professional dance career, Erin Marie charted her own course as opportunities presented themselves. She was fortuate enough to train with multiple world-renowned coaches and judges in the Ballroom & Latin Dance industry and danced in shows and competitions all across the Unites States, England, and Canada. Erin Marie became a champion dancer in many Ballroom & Latin dance competitions across North America. She gained many accolades and became a nationally known professional competitor and teacher based in Chicago and the New Jersey/New York City Tristate area. Her biggest claims to fame are placing 2nd in the Fred Astaire National Professional American Ballroom Championships, placing 6th in the United States in the Professional Open American Smooth Ballroom Championships, placing in the top twelve in the World American Ballroom Championships, placing 3rd in the World American Nine-Dance Championships, placing 5th as a female top-teacher nationally, and dancing with the original broadway cast of the Grand Hotel, including working with Tommy Tune in an off-broadway show. She has become a sought-after coach and trainer of teachers and budding professionals and students of all styles of dance. Throughout her dance career, Erin Marie found that in order to maintain her strength and flexibility, Pilates, both working on a Reformer and on the mat, was instrumental to her success. The onset of the Covid pandemic led to Erin Marie choosing to retire from her own professional dance career, and move back to where she started dance all those years ago. In opening Dance Arts Pflugerville, she is hoping to create a space where anyone, of any age, can realize their potential to dance any style of dance they are interested in. Erin Marie has personally experienced the benefits of pairing pilates with one’s dance training. She believes that all dancers’ bodies and their ability to dance at any level will be enhanced by this practice. As we grow, DAP plans to offer both mat Pilates classes and reformer Pilates private lessons to our dance students to harness their potential and maximize their health and wellness for everyday life, as well. Come explore the world of Dance with us!