Our Staff
Karena Brock-Carlyle
HHDS Co–Founder, Artistic Director, ABT® Certified Teacher
Karena Brock-Carlyle was named principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre in 1973, sharing roles with such stars as Natalia Makarova, Cynthia Gregory and Carla Fracci, while being partnered with male stars such as Rudolph Nureyev, Ivan Nagy, Fernando Bujones, Ted Kivitt and Mikhail Baryshnikov. She has danced throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America, the United States and Canada and has performed at the White House for two presidents. She has taught Master Classes from coast to coast. Born in California, Karena, at age 14 joined San Francisco’s Ballet Celeste and immediately after high school she became a soloist with the National Ballet of the Netherlands. She then returned to the United States to join the American Ballet Theatre in New York. She and her husband John are the founders of the Hilton Head Dance School
Karena is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 7 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.
John Carlyle
HHDS Co–Founder, Artistic Director, Teacher
John Carlyle was born in Swindon, England but began his training in Atlanta at City Center Dance Theatre under the direction of Robert Archard. In New York City, he studied with Robert Scevers on full scholarship at the Harkness School of Ballet. While in New York, John studied with some of the finest ballet instructors in the world, including Melissa Hayden, Robert Denvers, David Howard, Edward Villella, and with Bill Carter at The School of the American Ballet Theatre. He has danced professionally with City Center Dance Theatre, The Tampa Ballet and The Savannah ballet; roles include Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, the Cavalier in The Nutcracker, Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Rudy in Le Baiser de la Fee. John has been a guest artist with Columbia City Ballet and the Lexington Ballet. John and Karena have a son named Timothy.
Wendie Perry
Teacher
Wendie Perry is a graduate of Dean College with an Associate Degree in Dance including creative movement for children, classical ballet, tap, jazz and modern dance. Wendie moved to Hilton Head in 1993 from Massachusetts where she danced under the instruction of Mary Tolland at the Natick School of Ballet, an affiliate of the Royal Academy of Dance and former Rockette, Janet Miles. Wendie and her husband Bruce have two children, David and Matthew.
Kathleen Watkins
Teacher
Kathleen Watkins moved to the Hilton Head area after spending three years with the Broadway Company of Fosse as a performer and Dance Captain. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Kathleen trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts and at the University of Utah with Ballet West. She has performed extensively in New York and around the United States and Canada in such shows as Cats, Anything Goes, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Fosse and many regional theater productions. She appeared in Hilton Head Music Theater's production of A Chorus Line. She also co–choreographed Sweet Charity for the Austin Musical Theater and Fame, Grease and the Wiz for the Hilton Head Community and Youth Theater. Kathleen and her husband, Jeffrey, have two sons, Caleb and Dylan.
Katie Girardi
ABT® Certified Teacher, Ballet Mistress
Katie took her first ballet class at Hilton Head Dance School in 1987 and continued there until her graduation from high school in 2001. During her senior year she had the opportunity to dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker and Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. Katie attended Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA and graduated with a major in Dance and a minor in Arts Administration. After graduation she danced with the Connecticut Ballet and soon returned to the Lowcountry to teach with John and Karena.
Katie is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 7 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.
