MEEt the Team
Coach D
After graduating from Abilene Christian University, Coach D began his career as a dance teacher at a local studio in Missouri City, Texas. In 2016 he made the decision to venture out on his own and start something new. The Artz was born. Having done aerial since 2014, a second location opened in 2017 dedicated to circus and aerial. Since then he has continued to grow the studio and the brand to service many students each year.
Coach T
Her journey as an aerialist began in 2014 after I discovered aerial arts at LSU. Despite her background in accounting, she found herself increasingly drawn to the world of circus and performance. She soon realized that there was a whole new world of creativity, expression, and artistic excellence waiting to be explored. Today, she helps run The Artistic Realm of Talentz, with her husband where she shares her passion and helps others discover their own creative potential.
Toni M.
Branding, production, writing and fashion styling led Toni to create and launch her career molding all four elements. She values working with businesses in assisting them in reaching their highest potential. While still working with brands, Toni has taken on many other roles in her growing career. Public speaking to audiences on branding, business leadership and public relations is now a true love of hers. Toni continues to show how others can turn their brand into a lucrative lifestyle while doing so with style.
Kawani H.
Her name is Kawani but she goes by Coach K. She was born and raised in California and moved the Texas in 2017. She has a background in Dance, Theater, and Cheer. She's been dancing since she was six and is classically trained in jazz, ballet, contemporary, lyrical, and hip-hop. She has coached dance teams and cheer teams in all ages. She loves working at the Artz and bringing inspiration to the children.
Olivia A.
Olivia was born and raised in Houston, Texas and loves her city very much. She has a new found passion here at The Artz in which she refers to as "an excellent company." Olivia is currently on the path of a degree for Business Administration.
Lyon R.
Lyon Ramsey performs and teaches Aerial Silks and choreography. He has over 20 years of dance experience and has been training on Silks for the last ten.
15060 Highway 6
In 2012, after graduating and moving back to the Houston area, DeMarco started working at a local dance studio in Missouri City, Texas. He worked his way up from dance instructor, to After School Assistant Director, and eventually to Studio Creative Director. After serving the community for 4 years, DeMarco had a vision to do more. He began his search for mentors and started with the ones he admired the most. After planning out what could be accomplished and holding focus groups, in May of 2016, Cre8ting Your Imagination, LLC signed their first lease for 1,500 sq ft of space in a small shopping center in Rosharon, Texas. While he finished his duties at in Missouri City, he would work in the mornings painting, cleaning and getting the new studio ready to open. On June 4, 2016, DeMarco held his last concert for the studio he had grown to love over the last 4 years. On June 6, 2016, The Artz opened to its first summer camp to 24 students and from there The Artz had a great future to look forward to. The studio grew from 24 students to have 70 students year around and in 2017, they received a great offer.
The offer
While working at the first studio in Missouri City, DeMarco and his now wife took up classes at a local aerial studio. After taking classes for a number of years, DeMarco took the teacher training as he had plans to bring aerial to his side of town. Soon after completing the training he was offered a position to teach kids at their studio and he accepted. He grew his following and began to grow the kids program one student at a time. After seeing his passion for kids and how well he worked as an employee, the owner mentioned that if she were to ever sell her business that he would be the first to would call. Soon after this DeMarco had to take a break from teaching aerial to focus on his newborn daughter. In early August 2017, he received the call that he had been waiting for and an official offer to take over the studio was presented. In November of 2017, The Artz had two locations.
A New Start
In 2019, after a great start in Rosharon, TX, DeMarco made the tough decision to close the Rosharon location and focus on the Houston studio. When they took over the Houston studio, the attendance was low and on a steady decline. After talking with former teachers that had gone to other studios and conveyed his vision for the studio to encourage them to come back, the studio grew from fewer than 10 adults coming on a weekly basis to over 50 with many of them taking more than one class. The kids program grew from 2 students to over 200 coming on a yearly basis and it continues to grow. With our pre-professional performance company of over 40 students and our 501(c)(3) nonprofit, YÜTH United Through HeARTZ which dedicated its time to providing a safe, fun, and educational atmosphere for youth to learn more about the arts, career paths in the arts and other important life skills, we believe that we have much to offer our community for many years to come. Since growing over the years, The Artz has set its sights on bigger and better things.
