Lisa Racina-Torre, Owner Director

Lisa Racina-Torre is a native of Denton, Texas, and holds a BFA in  Ballet from Texas Christian University.  She started Denton Dance Conservatory in 1988 and continues as DDC’s Owner/Director.  In 1991, she  founded and is the Artistic Director of the Denton City Contemporary Ballet, a non-profit dance company and it’s youth outreach company, DCCB II.  Over the past 30 years, Ms. Racina-Torre has choreographed extensively for the company as well as Denton Community Theatre, the Music Theatre of Denton, UNT Drama Dept., Wichita School of Performing Arts and others. In addition to her studio and company,  Her company sponsors the Annual COLLAGE: Denton Dance Festival, holiday production, “A Gift for Emma,” and most recently, “Peter & the Wolf.”  Ms. Racina-Torre has spent two summers on the faculty at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, served as an adjunct professor of Ballet at the University of North Texas, and was selected as one of only 20 choreographers in the U.S. to attend the Regional Dance America Craft of Choreography workshop in the summers of 2001 & 2003. She formerly served on the Scholarship Selection Committee and Board of Directors of the Dance Council of North Central Texas. Her students have been accepted to highly respected summer dance and university programs all over the country, as well as winning awards in several dance competitions. Ms. Racina-Torre took the Denton City Contemporary Ballet on its second European tour to Austria as part of the Young Tanzsommer Festival in June 2014, and has also taken her company on an educational tour of New York City in June 2017!

For the past 30 years, Ms. Racina-Torre has trained, nurtured, mentored, and guided young dancers into college dance programs and dance careers across the country!  Her enthusiasm for ballet technique is infectious, and her understanding of the challenges a young ballet student faces continues to develop dancers that are not only technically proficient, but who are also independent, responsible, focused, and driven to be successful in anything they want to accomplish.