Kenzi Payne
Kenzi has been dancing since she was three. She grew up in Tyler, Texas where she attended Artistic Dance Concepts for fourteen years. While training in various areas of dance, Kenzi was on their performance companies from six to eighteen years old and competed at Radix, Nuvo, Jump, Velocity, Talent on Parade, and Dance Showcase USA. She danced multiple lead roles for ballets in Tyler. With Artistic Dance Concepts she took multiple classes from esteemed choreographers that were with conventions including Jump, Nuvo, Velocity, Radix, and many more. Kenzi extended my dance training and performance portfolio to New York City at Broadway Dance Center in 2017.
She attended Stephen F. Austin State University from 2017-2020 as a part of their dance program. Kenzi performed in and choreographed for DanceWorks every semester from Spring 2018 to Fall 2020. She was on SFA’s Repertory Dance Company for two years and performed at the American Collegiate Dance Association (ACDA) at Texas A&M University. She was picked for multiple guest artists’ performance pieces and was selected for two dance for films under the SFA dance faculty. Kenzi performed with SFA’s Theatre program in Tales of Neverland on its tour to Edinburgh, Scotland for the fringe festival and in their production of Oklahoma. She performed with Dimension Contemporary Ballet in 2019. Her senior choreography project, Raison Dêtré, was based on research on the different rhythms and beat patterns of the heart. She is the first within the program to be chosen to present my research at the Undergraduate Research Conference (URC). Her research is currently on display at the School of Honors. Kenzi was placed on the dean’s list her final 2 years of college and served as Vice President of Chi Tau Epsilon Dance Honor Society. She graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in December 2020 with her bachelor in science for dance performance and choreography with a minor in human health fitness.
Kenzi had the honor of working with former teachers and students backstage for her hometown studio, Artistic Dance Concepts, as a runner and on headset. For 3 summers she taught dance at an East Texas summer camp where she also worked with children as a camp counselor. Some unique teaching experiences Kenzi has include performing in a virtual dance concert to benefit an East Texas family in need, teaching a heels class for Chi Tau Epsilon, and performing at a Day of the Dead festival to teach community symbolism through dance.