Meet our Director

The Dance Conservatory of Louisiana is a new professional level ballet school opening in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Offering a curriculum comparable to programs associated with professional companies. Owner and Instructor Katelyn Chargois is a Southwest Louisiana native committed to bringing the highest level of dance education to Lake Area students. Katelyn’s dance training began in Lake Charles at Lady Leah Lafargue School of the Dance. She joined the Lake Charles Civic Ballet and was promoted to principal at the age of 14. Notably, Katelyn performed as Princess Aurora in LCCB’s full length production of The Sleeping Beauty as well as performing Flower Festival with New York City Ballet principal Daniel Ulbricht. During her formative training, Katelyn participated in Summer programs with Houston Ballet, School of American Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and Kansas City Ballet. 

Katelyn attended The University of Oklahoma where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ballet Performance. While attending OU she danced for Oklahoma Festival Ballet under the direction of Mary Margaret Holt as well as Contemporary Dance Oklahoma under the direction of Austin Hartel. Classical works performed include La Bayadére, The Nutcracker, Raymonda, Firebird, Pulcinella, and guest performing for the School of Music’s production of Eugene Onegin. Katelyn worked with many choreographers who created new works for the University. These artists include Jock Soto, Sonia Dawkins, Raymondo Rebeck, Ilya Kozadayev, Jeremy Lindberg, and Francia Russel. Katelyn studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain at the Centre de Dansa de Catalunya under the instruction of Roser Munoz. She had the incredible opportunity to perform an excerpt from The Great Mass by Uwe Scholz and Stranglehold by Austin Hartel at the XVIII Cita con la Danza in Benicàssim, Spain. Katelyn was awarded the Helene C. Lottinville Fine Arts College Award in 2016 by OU. During her last year at The University of Oklahoma, Katelyn was asked to guest perform with Ballet Arkansas in their production of The Nutcracker and with Tulsa Ballet in their production of Swan Lake. 

After graduation, Katelyn accepted a position dancing for the Tulsa Ballet. During her two seasons with the company Katelyn performed classical ballets such as, Don Quixote, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, and The Sleeping Beauty. Repertoire also consisted of world-renowned pieces such as Kurt Jooss’s The Green Table, the United States premier of Derek Dean’s Strictly Gershwin, Nacho Duato’s Rassemblement, and Ma Cong’s World Premier of Tchaikovsky: The Man Behind the Music. Katelyn was featured in many new ballets created specifically for the company. She worked very closely with choreographers such as Penny Saunders, Price Suddarth, Jennifer Archibald, Andy Blankenbuehler, Karen Castleman, Yury Yanowsky, and Joshua Stayton. After leaving the Tulsa Ballet, Katelyn began her graduate studies at Lamar University, earning a Master of Science in Kinesiology. During this time, she also became a certified Pilates instructor through Pilates Instructor Academy and completed a teacher training workshop for Graham Dance technique through the Martha Graham School. 

Through her training and educational pursuits, Katelyn has always made time to share her knowledge and passion with students around the world. In recent years, she has provided guest dance instruction consistently in Southwest Louisiana, Southeast Texas, and Oklahoma. She has taught large groups, private lessons, virtual classes, and choreographed works on youth of all ages. Her love for the art and athleticism of dance runs deep and she is determined to help young dancers reach their full potential. Katelyn believes the discipline, strength, and grace learned through a strong technical ballet training program will benefit every dancer, today and in their future.