Artistic Director
Molly Koon Quist
Having grown up as a solosit for the Oak Ridge Civic Ballet, Mrs. Quist has served as ORCBA's Artistic Director for more than 20 seasons. She studied under many talented teachers and directors, including Anna Marie Holmes, David Holmes, Suzanne Skeel, Steve McBride, Leslie Swazee, Cristian Addams, Jill Hollingsworth, Bruce Alan Ewing, Bill Martin-Viscount, and Southwest Ballet Center. Mrs. Quist holds a B.A. from the University of South Alabama (where she attended on scholarship), and a M.S. from the University of Tennessee. She was a dancer on the University of South Alabama Dance Team. Mrs. Quist is the owner and director of The Dance Centre of Oak Ridge. Her dancers have received many awards over the years in both regional and national competitions. Mrs. Quist resides in Knoxville with her husband, Knoxville attorney Brian Quist, and their three children (Katrina, Andy, and Alex).
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Assistant Artistic Director
Katrina Quist Rouse
Katrina was born and raised in her mother's dance studio in Knoxville, TN. As her love for dance started at the age of 3 years old, she has experienced much in her dance career. She is a long time member of the Oak Ridge Civic Ballet Company, where she still dances as a soloist. She began teaching dance when she was in high school, at the same time she was a member of the Farragut Varsity Dance Team. Her 11th year in school, her team placed 6th in the nation in jazz at the UDA National Dance Team Championship in Orlando, FL. She was Knoxville's Junior Miss 2008 and went on to win the physical fitness and talent categories at the Tennessee Junior Miss Pageant. She has practiced as a registered nurse since 2012. She graduated from the University of Tennessee in 2018 with her MSN, and is now a board certified family nurse practitioner.
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Rehearsal Mistress/Choreographer
Courtney Lynne Wills

After studying Classical Ballet at Point Park University's Conservatory of Performing Arts, Courtney has returned to Knoxville to teach and choreograph. She began dancing with ORCBA in 2007 performing lead roles in Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Into the Woods & Firebird and is now First Principal. As a long time member of GO! Contemporary Dance Works she‘s performed lead roles in The Barbarosa, Persephone, Alice, Unsung Heroes: The Women of World War II, Runaway, among others. She’s trained under Lisa Hall McKee, Laura Shields, Denise Njuguna, Keisha Lalama, Svetlana Novodran, Girard Holt, Peter LeBreton Merz, Cynthia Ridler, Parker Esse, Christopher Mohnani, Greg & Laurie Merriman, among others; & attended various dance intensives, including TN Governor's School for the Arts. As a classically trained soprano & advocate for the arts in her community, she’s performed with the Oak Ridge Playhouse in Hairspray, The Music Man, & 1776; and you can occasionally hear her sing the National Anthem at UT games. Courtney received her BS in Marketing from the University of Tennessee and is currently employed as the marketing associate for Lewis Group Architects in Knoxville. In her spare time she continues to teach ballet at A Dancer's Place in Knoxville and The Dance Centre of Oak Ridge.
REHEARSAL ASSISTANT
Jenny Collins Flatford Jenny Collins Flatford, rehearsal assistant and soloist with ORCBA, has been dancing for 29 years and studied under the direction of Molly Quist, Sharon Cousins, Julia Moisseeva, Stacy Calvert, Buff Edmonds, among many others. She was an active participant in The Dance Centre's competition team for many years, and an annual participant in the former Knoxville City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. She has taken part in several 3-week summer workshops in Roanoke, Virigina; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Columbia, South Carolina. Jenny has been an active member of ORCBA for 28 years, dancing the roles of Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Bluebird and Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, as well as Cinderella in Cinderella. Jenny received her BA in English from the University of Tennessee, and currently works as an Event Coordinator at UT's College of Architecture and Design. She and her husband, Daniel, welcomed their daughter, Remington Rose, into the world in February 2018. |