Margene Conde graduated from the University of Utah where she studied both Modern Dance and Early Child Development. She was the recipient of the prestigious Elizabeth R. Hayes Scholarship.

Miss Margene has owned and directed a Modern Dance Studio, which produces bi-annual dance concerts, a Musical Theatre Company and an Educational Pre-school since 1976. She has choreographed for many community theaters in Utah over the past 20 years, including West Valley City, West Jordan City, Murray City, and Taylorsville City. Her repertoire includes “The Nutcracker”, a unique Modern Dance interpretation of this Holiday Classic that gives many children the opportunity to dance. This has been produced for fifteen years by her own Dance Company and co-sponsored by the West Valley City Arts Council.

Other productions include Twelve Dancing Princesses, Promised Valley, South Pacific, Annie Get Your Gun, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Music Man, Dude Ranch, Cinderella, Oklahoma, Fiddler On The Roof, Bye, Bye, Birdie, The King and I, The Sound Of Music, Brigadoon, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Carousel, Peter Pan, and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Members of Miss Margene’s Creative Generation Dance Company danced in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, participating in both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, Olympic Village, Olympic Square Parades and Street Shows. These talented dancers and singers have performed and toured all over the United States, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Disneyland and Disney World, Nashville, Branson, Las Vegas, Oahu and Maui, Hawaii, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Margene served on the West Valley City Arts Council from 1992 to 2006 as the dance and theater specialist. She served as co-chair for two years and also served as chairman for two of those years. In 1992 Miss Margene received the George Washington Gold Medal of Honor from the Freedoms Foundations at Valley Forge for her accomplishments with children. In the year 2000, Mayor Gearld L. Wright of West Valley City awarded Miss Margene with the “Mayor’s Citation of Excellence” Award for a decade of service and fostering the Arts in West Valley City. Her groups have been featured on ABC4 for the Community News Segment “A Person you can Count On”, KSLTV5 “Arts in West Valley City” and FOX13KSTU “Big Buddha” Cool School of the Week.

Miss Margene is married to Kevin Conde and they are the proud parents of three accomplished children and grandparents of eleven grandchildren. She devotes her life to enriching the lives of our youth through positive teaching experiences, through performance opportunities as well as supporting all other cultural art forms. Many of Miss Margene’s students in dance and music have become accomplished dancers, actors and dance scholarship recipients at Utah universities going on to get their BA in dance from those institutions.

For the past 34 years, Miss Margene’s has had an average enrollment of 300 students per year taking 1 or more of the classes offered. Over 10,000 children’s lives have been touched by the “Magic of Miss Margene”.

Born in Salt Lake City and raised within the walls of Miss Margene’s Creative Classroom, Tracee started dancing with Miss Margene as soon as she could walk. To this very day she has continued in Miss Margene’s footsteps.

Tracee received the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Modern Dance from the University of Utah. In conjunction with this degree she completed a certificate in Secondary Education. While receiving her dance education she was awarded the Fine Arts Scholarship. During her career she has enjoyed performing with the Performing Dance Company, Repertory Dance Theater, and in concert with Kaye Richards. She was also casted as a lead dancer in the Opening Ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics. Here she had the honor of working with the acclaimed Kenny Ortega.

While she loves to be on the stage and express herself through movement, teaching is her passion. She has been a choreographer from the time she was in high school, involved as a guest choreographer for various high school dance companies and musicals, along with coaching the Skyline High School drill team. She has choreographed many community theater productions including, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story, The King and I, Nunsense, Footloose, and many more.

Tracee has been a teacher and director at Miss Margene’s Creative Classroom now for 15 years. She took a slight break when she moved to Cleveland, Ohio and opened her own dance studio in 2005. It was there that she was fortunate enough to have taught over 100 children. In 2008 she rejoined Miss Margene’s Creative Classroom where she loves to teach more and more each and every day. Her teaching techniques include a strong focus in modern, jazz, and ballet.

“I strongly believe in teaching my students to have a strong technical foundation, and a conditioned core and overall body. I wish to help all of my students find a passion for movement that will allow them to capture an audience. I feel honored and truly blessed to be able to teach so many wonderful human beings. I have learned something new from each person I have taught throughout the years and I look forward to many more years of teaching, from my sweet 2 year old classes all the way up to my brilliant college aged company. When I am not teaching dance I am busy managing my husband’s dental office, 'Walker Family Dental’ in Holladay, UT. My reason for living however, is my sweet husband, Bradley Walker, and our 6 amazing children."

Nicholas Cendese is a Utah native who grew a beard in 2012 and his life has never been the same. Before the birth of bearded Nick, he started dancing in 6th Grade with Children’s Dance Theatre. Years and years of dance training culminated with his graduation from the University of Utah with a BFA in modern dance in 2001 and a job with Repertory Dance Theatre – where he performed professionally for 11 years. In 2012, he transitioned from the stage to RDT’s office where he now works full time as an Artistic Associate and Development Director.

Over the years, Nick ran his own independent dance company, Raw Moves, with Natosha Washington; owned his own dance studio, South Valley Creative Dance, which he sold in 2020 but still teaches at each week; and has taught at Miss Margene’s Creative Classroom for more years than he can remember.

As a teacher, choreographer, and mentor, Nick is still deeply rooted in the Utah dance community and works hard to not only train dancers to only understand the power and artistry of their bodies but encourage each student as a creative thinker, problem solver, and artist. He is continually amazed and in awe of the dancers and students he gets to work with and is often just exhausted enough to get misty eyed and very emotional when watching them dance their hearts out – which reminds him how lucky and fortunate he really is.

Miss Courtney is thrilled to be a teacher in the studio where she grew up! Since she was three years old, Miss Courtney, a resident of Salt Lake City, has participated in preschool, dance, and musical theatre while studying dance under Miss Margene and Miss Tracee. It has been an honor to dance in the Nutcracker as the Spanish Queen (2008), Mouse King (2009), Sugar Plum Fairy (2012, 2015), Snow Queen (2018), and Drosselmeyer (2019). Miss Courtney has also traveled around the country. performing and singing with Miss Margene's Musical Theatre.

She continued to dance throughout middle school, high school, and finally at Snow College, using the training she had acquired previously. Miss Courtney danced with the Snow College Badgerettes while pursuing her degree in early childhood education, serving as Captain her sophomore year. During her freshman and sophomore years, the team finished third at Nationals, which was an exciting moment.

Miss Courtney has cherished being a part of her "second home," her "safe haven," and her "happy place" for so many glorious years. Miss Courtney first met Kenny within the walls of Miss Margene's Creative Classroom, and they have been together ever since! Their love story began dancing and singing together and in 2015 he proposed on stage. They have been happily married for eight wonderful years and have two amazing children, Emiko Joy and Kaito! Emiko Joy, Miss Courtney's daughter, dances under the same instruction Miss Courtney did, thrilled to carry on the legacy.

Isabel Keetch was born and raised in Tooele, Utah. She is a teacher, performer, and creator. She grew up a starry-eyed dancer at Miss Margene’s Creative Classroom and has been a teacher there since 2014. Miss Isabel has performed on stage at Miss Margene’s in the roles of Clara (2008), Sugar Plum Queen (2016), Mouse King (2016), Drosselmeyer (2018, 2020), and many more.

Isabel graduated from Utah Valley University in 2021 with a BFA in Modern Dance Performance arts, a BS in Dance Education, and her teacher’s license. She has participated in Utah Valley University’s collegiate dance company, Synergy, and was a co-president of the company in 2019.

Isabel feels so blessed to be teaching at Miss Margene’s and hopes to continue teaching dance to children for a long time to come.

Miss Sue has always enjoyed working with and teaching children. She began her experience working at a daycare during high school where she learned early child care, and how to nurture and teach children. She graduated from Snow College with an Associate degree.

Sue and her husband have been married for thirty years. Their three adult children have all taken part in Miss Margene's dance classes, musical theater productions, and preschool programs. Sue had the opportunity to work and volunteer at her kids' schools while they were younger. There, she also assisted several children with special needs.

Sue loves spending time and taking vacations with both her immediate and extended family. She enjoys cooking, reading, listening to music, traveling, and learning new things. Miss Sue has been privileged to work as Miss Margene’s preschool teacher for more than a decade, and she has appreciated every unique experience that comes with working with young students. She really feels fortunate to be able to help teach and looks forward to many more years doing so.

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