Meet Our Instructors
Stephanie Ledwig
Director/Instructor
Stephanie Ledwig is a native of Victoria, TX. She started dancing at the age of two and has been teaching dance for more than 15 years. She loves working with children and sharing her passion of dance with them. In 2013, while still working to earn her bachelor’s degree, Stephanie founded Ledwig Dance Academy. She graduated from the University of Houston-Victoria with a Bachelor of Science in Communications in 2015.
Stephanie has training in several dance styles including classical ballet, tap, jazz, modern, pointe, lyrical, hip hop, and contemporary. She’s trained under local instructors as well as some from various parts of the country – Joe Tremaine, Doug Caldwell, Keri LaGrand, Melissa Glouchkova, and Desiree Robbins, just to name a few. Stephanie has been to New York City several times and taken classes at Broadway Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, and private classes instructed by Broadway performers. She continues to travel outside of Victoria to expand her knowledge.
Stephanie has choreographed several musicals for the Victoria ISD Fine Arts Department including The Wizard of Oz, The Music Man, and Little Shop of Horrors. She is also a frequent instructor and choreographer for the Victoria East High School Golden Saber Dance Team.
Stephanie never stops learning. She continues to train by attending dance conventions yearly, taking dance classes, and adding to her certifications. In 2015, Stephanie became a member of the National Dance Education Organization where she takes online classes to learn more about her craft. Stephanie is a certified Acrobatic Arts Instructor and certified Alixa Flexibility instructor. Both programs are world renowned and provide dance instructors with unique curriculum.
In 2021 & 2022, Stephanie was voted Best Youth Sports Coach, alongside the studio’s other wins - Best Dance School and Best Women-Owned Business – in the Victoria Advocate. Stephanie believes that you should never stop learning and striving to do better.
Laura Grahmann-Vajdos
Curriculum Coordinator
Instructor/Choreographer
Laura Grahmann started dancing at the age of 14 years old. She was on the Victoria East Golden Saber Dance Team for four years. Her junior and senior year of high school she was the head officer of the team; the only one to be head officer for two consecutive years. Ms. Laura started working at LDA while attending Victoria College. After a year at VC, she transferred to Texas State University to pursue a BFA in Dance Education. In December 2019 Ms. Laura completed her degree and became certified to teach dance. While at Texas State, she continued to choreograph for Ledwig, performed in many student choreographed dances and shows, along with professor pieces created by Misti Galvan, Amanda McCorkle, and Nicole Wesley. During the summer of 2017, she traveled to the University of Bedfordshire in England to perform. While there, Ms. Laura took classes and participated in the creation of a dance that was later performed at Texas Tech University. During her last year at Texas State, Ms. Laura completed her certification to teach yoga. She also is certified by Acrobatic Arts, Progressing Contemporary Technique, and Progressing Ballet Technique to teach their programs.
Mrs. Laura resides in Victoria with her husband and two pups!
Hannah Guerra
Instructor
Hannah Guerra took dance classes as a young student. She took time off and went back to dance during junior high. She started with hip hop and then added ballet, jazz, and lyrical. She took dance classes at Ledwig Dance Academy under the instruction of Stephanie Ledwig and Chelsea Diebel. All throughout high school she continued her training and even became a student assistant in high school.
After graduation from high school she decided to continue taking classes. She attends the University of Houston-Victoria while teaching at the studio.
Miss Hannah teaches creative movement classes as well as elementary age classes and company. She is great with the kids and her outgoing personality is welcoming in the dance room.
Emily Weaver
Instructor/Choreographer
Emily Weaver is from Victoria, Texas and she has been dancing since she was four years old. She has had training in ballet, tap, lyrical, modern, hip hop, contemporary, pom, jazz, kick and military. She was a St. Joseph Starlighter all four years of high school and she was an officer three out of her four years. She was a co-captain her senior year along side her twin sister, Leann. As an officer, she also choreographed dances. She has won awards at many competitions and she is a National Champion Dancer. Emily has danced on drill team and competition teams. At competitions she has competed with solos, duets, officer ensembles, group dances, co-ed dances and show productions.
Miss Emily started working at LDA in 2016 after graduating from high school. After attending Victoria College for two years, she decided to transfer to UTSA where she is currently working towards her Bachelor's degree. She spent the last semester working as an intern in the College Program at Walt Disney World in Florida.
Ms. Emily works at the Children's Discovery Museum full time while teaching at LDA. We are so glad she's back in Victoria and back on our team.
Kaitlyn Haschke
Instructor/Choreographer
Kaitlyn Haschke has been dancing since she was three years old and has been teaching for eight years. Sharing her love for dance is a huge passion. She took classes and taught at Busby Dancenter until Mrs. Busby retired in May 2022. She is excited to continue teaching dance with Ledwig Dance Academy.
Kaitlyn has trained in ballet, pointe, modern, tap, contemporary and jazz. She has experience teaching all ages and levels of learning. From tots to adults and experienced dancers to those just starting out. She was a company member with the Victoria Ballet Theatre for over ten years and performed lead roles such as Clara and Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker, Cignet in Swan Lake, Fairy of Generosity and Jewel in Sleeping Beauty, Spring Fairy in Cinderella and many many other ballets and mixed repertoire shows. She is currently on staff with VBT choreographing pieces and assisting with rehearsals. She has attended many RDA (Regional Dance America) conventions training under master teachers and has had her choreography performed for RDA as well. She has trained under, been in pieces choreographed by and/or taken master classes with Debbe Busby, Brenda Tally, Kelli Klein, Thom Clower, Dominic Walsh, Nathalie Marrable, Nao Kusuzaki, Lauren Anderson, Christine Spizzo, Susan Trevino, Jorge Cano, Joshua Peugh, Lee Wei Chao and Chet Walker just to name a handful.
Kaitlyn has choreographed many dance pieces herself ranging from pointe and contemporary to tap. She also has choreographed and taught dance for Theatre Victoria. Matilda, Frozen Jr and Grease just to name a few. She also teaches every year at their T3 (triple threat) summer camp.
During the day Kaitlyn works at the Vine School where she works with special needs students. She is always trying to continue growing and learning and is currently working on getting her yoga teaching certification.
Candis Meyer
Instructor/Choreographer
Candis Meyer is a native of Victoria, Texas. She started dancing at the age of three at Jan Moore School of Dancing and continued her dance training there for over twenty years. She became an instructor at sixteen and taught ballet, tap, jazz, pointe, and lyrical for over ten years. She choreographed many dance routines and performed many solos for the studio’s annual recital.
Working with children has always been something that Candis has loved to do. She graduated from the University of Houston-Victoria with her Bachelors in Interdisciplinary Studies. She has been a certified teacher for VISD for thirteen years. In 2017, she was named Teacher of the Year for her elementary school and continues to teach for VISD.
Mrs. Candis has been married to her husband Clayton for thirteen years. They have a beautiful daughter named Lexi, who is currently a dancer at Ledwig Dance Academy. Watching her daughter perform at her first recital, inspired Candis to get back to teaching dance. She is excited to share her passion of dancing with others again!
Kaila Spiller-Medrano
Instructor
Kaila Spiller began dancing at age 4. She danced with the Hermann Sons Dance program in Dacosta for 14 years. She has studied ballet, tap, contemporary, jazz, hip hop and lyrical. She became the assistant dance teacher in Dacosta in 2012, head instructor for the Hermann Sons program in Dacosta in 2013, and is now the head instructor in Ganado since 2014. Some of Kaila's favorite dance moments with Hermann Son's over the years have included playing "Annie" in the jazz piece "It's a Hard Knock Life" and dancing the lead in a contemporary jazz number "Circus".
Kaila has also danced at her church as she and her sister, Kelsy, performed an interpretive dance to the Worship Choir piece "God Thou Art Love" in February 2013. In 2013, Kaila was the choreographer for a local drama companies production of Rodger's and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music". Kaila also danced the part of the 'Mamma" in "The Lonely Goatherd" in that same production. Kaila loves dancing and enjoys working with dance students and watching them explore different dance styles as they accomplish learning new techniques and stretching their abilities as dancers.
Kelsy Spiller
Instructor
Kelsy Spiller begin dancing 'officially' at age 3 but actually began dancing much earlier while watching her sister's classes. She could hardly wait to join in! She has studied ballet, tap, contemporary, jazz, hip hop and lyrical in her 14 years at Hermann Sons Dacosta School of Dance. One of her favorite moments was dancing the lead in honor of cancer survivors and in memory of those who lost their battle to cancer in the contemporary piece "Home" in 2011. Kelsy also danced, sang, and acted in her role as "Brigetta" in the ADD production of Rodger's and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music" in 2013. Kelsy has also been very active in her church dancing as Shirley Temple in 15 performances of the 2009 Victoria Christmas Pageant, "Hooray It's Christmastime", and dancing alongside her sister in February of 2013 in the interpretive Worship Choir piece, "God Thou Art Love". She also served as head cheerleading intern for the mission & outreach Upward Sports Flag Football & Cheerleading program in 2013 & 2014 where she coached 21 and 24 girls, respectively.
Kelsy attended DanceWorks Unlimited in 2015 and was a student there for five years. Within those five years she attended classes including ballet, pointe, contemporary, and tap. She was a teacher/assistant there for four years. Teaching ages from 3-12 she taught ballet, tap, jazz and hip hop. In 2018 she participated in CrossPointe Dance Project's performance, The Anti Bully Dance Project and performed it once again in 2019. Kelsy has such a passion for dance and is so blessed to be able to teach dance to young and excited new dancers. Kelsy finds great joy in dancing and in teaching and leading students as they discover their love for dance as well.
Ireland Davis-Hughston
Instructor/Choreographer
Ireland Hughston is a native of Victoria, Texas and began her dance training at the age of two. She has attended several studios in Victoria which has helped her dance background. Ireland is trained in all dance styles including ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, hip hop, contemporary, modern, and competitive dance.
She joined the competitive dance team at her studio as a young dancer. Shew grew to love dance even more and was able to get more experiences.
Ireland attended St. Joseph High School where she joined the Starlighter Dance Team. She was an officer on the team for two years.
After an injury, Miss Ireland had to stop dancing herself. She has devoted her time and energy to the students at Ledwig Dance Academy since then. The students love her style of dance and she has enjoyed working with them this past year.
She loves being involved at the studio sharing her passion with others.
Ireland recently got married and graduated from the Victoria College dental assistant program. She works for a local dentists office in Victoria.
Kathryn Herrington
Guest Instructor/Choreographer
Miss Kathryn danced competitively from 5th grade through high school with Dance Unlimited in Buda, TX. She competed with their company teams in jazz, lyrical, and contemporary pieces. Miss Kathryn also danced with the Hays Highsteppers drill team during high-school holding the position of Junior Lieutenant and Lieutenant Captain. She was able to teach ages 3-8 at Dance Unlimited during her junior and senior years of high school, as well as worked the front office and store.
Miss Kathryn majored in dance at Texas Tech University, graduating with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance. She was involved with the University Dance Company and served as Vice President of the student organization Vitality Dance Company during college. She worked as a lead teacher as well as assistant teacher at The Dance Gallery School of Dance Arts in Lubbock, Texas for 5 years. Miss Kathryn taught classes from ages 3 through high school seniors in ballet, tap and jazz, as well as assisted with the Junior Ballet Company, and the Starlets Dance Company.