• Directors

    crackel 

    Mrs. Becky Crackel
    Dance Teams Director 
    bcrackel@newcaneyisd.org

    Becky Crackel is in her 34th year as a Dance Educator and Dance Team Director.  This will be her 30th year as the Director of the Award-Winning New Caney High School Bluebonnets and 23rd year of the NCHS Break Dance Team.  Prior to New Caney High School, she was the Director of the Hargrave High School Drill Team in Huffman, Texas, for 4 years.  Before becoming a high school teacher, she taught 5 years at private dance studios.  She has a grand total of 39 years as a dance teacher.  

    Mrs. Crackel is a graduate of New Caney High School where she served as a 1st Lieutenant her junior year and Colonel her senior year.  She had always aspired to be a teacher and during her last 3 years of high school, inspired by her director, she attended Sam Houston State University to fulfil her dream.  During college, she was a member of the SHSU dance company, a member of the Alpha Delta Pi Sorority, a little sister for the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity and a member of the Eta Sigma Gamma National Health Organization.  She also started teaching dance at Texas Academy of Dance and Twirl, where she continued to teach for 22 years.  Mrs. Crackel was the owner of the Texas Elite and Texas Steppers Dance Companies and directed them to numerous awards.  She graduated from Sam Houston State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance and Health Education.

    During her tenure with the Bluebonnets, Mrs. Crackel has directed her team, officers and soloists to numerous awards including Winners Circle, Best in Class, Best Overall Platinum, Grand Champions, State Champions, 1st place soloists, Biogime Sportsmanship award as well as Academic Champions.   In 2001 Mrs. Crackel created the NCHS Boys Break Dance Team.  This is the 23rd year for the team and the 22nd time for the team to compete.  They also have won numerous awards including 1st place soloist, Winners Circle, Best in Class, Best Overall Platinum, Grand Champions, State Champions and Ring of Champions, the 1st ever WOW Performance Award from ADTS as well as Academic Champions.  Under her direction, both teams have traveled for competition and performance trips.  Her teams have competed in New Orleans, Dallas, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Orlando.  Performance trips include international cruises, New York City, Los Angeles and Walt Disney World in Florida.  Special team performances include Halftime for the Houston Rockets, Astroworld Amusement Park, Carnival Cruise Lines, Super Bowl XXXVIII Pre-game with Willie Nelson, Toby Keith and Aerosmith and Super Bowl LI Halftime with Lady Gaga.

    Mrs. Crackel has personally won TDEA Distinguished Director Service Award, The Curtain Call Outstanding Director Award, Teacher of the Month, as well as Teacher of the Year nominee several times and serves as the Department Chair for Fine Arts.  Her favorite award is not a trophy or a title.  Her favorite moments are hearing from former dance students and how she helped them become who they are today.   These are the most gratifying rewards any teacher/educator can receive! 

    Mrs. Crackel has been married to her amazing husband John for 32 years.  They have a son, Jordan, daughter-in-law, Kora and grandson, Casey.   

     

     

     

    Ms. Courtney Knight 
    Assistant Dance Teams Director 
    cknight@newcaneyisd.org
     

     

     Courtney Knight is in her third year of teaching at New Caney High School. She is from Kingwood, TX where she spent her time dancing at Rowland Ballard School of Ballet, Monell Dance Interstate and as a Kingwood Strutter at Stacey’s Dance Studio.  She graduated from Kingwood Park High School where she served as a two-year dance officer for the Silver Stars Dance Team. While at KPark Courtney performed at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii and also traveled to New York City to take classes at Broadway Dance Center and learn from Radio City Rockettes and Broadway dancers. 

           After high school Courtney tried out and made the 78th line of the World Famous Kilgore College Rangerettes. During her time at Kilgore she spent two weeks in Basel, Switzerland performing for the Basel Military Tattoo. Courtney did a lot of traveling at Kilgore! She has performed at two Cotton Bowls, Disney World, ESPN Wide World of Sports, Houston Texan halftimes, the Texas State Fair, Minutemaid Park and several parades as well as special appearances for government officials and members of the Dallas, Houston and East Texas communities. As a Rangerette, Courtney opened the second coldest Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in history alongside SYTYCD’s Nappytabs and World of Dance’s Meghan Sanett! Courtney was selected to be a member of Industry Dance Company in the Kilgore College Dance Department. Industry Dance Company is an elite modern and improvisation dance group. With Industry, Courtney attended and performed at multiple dance festivals such as American College Dance Association and the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival. She also had the opportunity to teach and assist at multiple schools across TX and at TDEA as a member of Industry Dance Company.

            Courtney is a graduate of Sam Houston State University with a Bachelor's of Science in Kinesiology with a Minor in Dance. During her time at Sam Houston she was an active member of the dance program as well as the health science program. Courtney previously taught as a competitive studio dance coach and recreational teacher in Magnolia, TX at Extreme Performing Arts Center. At the studio, she taught ages 2 - 19 tap, ballet, jazz, lyrical, modern/contemporary, hip-hop, acrobatics/tumbling, musical theater and several drill team intensives specializing in the local schools: The Woodlands College Park, Magnolia, Magnolia West, Oak Ridge, Grand Oaks and The Woodlands High School. Courtney is a former TDEA Collegiate Assistant and is on the dance staff for MA Dance Company. She has choreographed routines for multiple high schools, middle schools, and dance studios. Courtney spends her summer choreographing and teaching camps. Courtney spends time outside of New Caney ISD judging for studio tryouts, team and officer tryouts, solo competitions and working camps and dance competitions for MA Dance Company as well as teaching masterclasses. 

          Apart from her time teaching dance, Courtney resides in The Woodlands, TX where she spends her time with friends, her cats Stanley and Sophie, and her fiancé Zach! She is looking forward to this upcoming season with the New Caney Bluebonnets and Breakers as her last year as being Ms. Knight (soon to be Cabrera)!

     


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