About Us

Christine Mills has been dancing and performing on stage since she was a child. Her extensive training includes ballet, modern, character, African, jazz, flamenco, and tap. As a young dancer, Christine was among those chosen in the Los Angeles area to perform in the New York City Ballet’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Nutcracker, the Bolshoi Ballet’s production of Ballet School, the Leningrad Kirov Ballet’s Cinderella, and was a soloist with Burch Mann’s American Folk Ballet for ten years. In 2003, Ms. Mills founded the Cedar City Junior Ballet and later the Les Bois Junior Ballet in Nampa, ID.

Christine has returned to Cedar City to continue teaching ballet in its purest form. Her teaching technique utilizes the I.S.T.D. (Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing) graded ballet syllabus. This syllabus combines classical techniques from French, Russian, and Italian in a logical progression of learning, with a very strong emphasis on technical excellence, musicality, and each student’s creative expression. In addition, all of the choreography taught for the first four ballets in Cedar City Junior Ballet’s productions is the original work of the ballet’s creators, with adaptations by Ms. Mills. Christine’s original works include Hans Christian Anderson’s The Puppet-show Man and the beloved story of Mary Lennox - The Secret Garden. Other classical works in her repertoire include The Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, Cinderella, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Peter And The Wolf, and Les Patineurs (The Skaters).

Elisha fell in love with dance at age three, beginning with ballet and tap. She explored dance, gymnastics, and sports throughout her youth, eventually joining the nationally award-winning American Fork High School Colorguard. Training under Laurel Shelley and Kellie Benson, she served as Flag and Dance Captain her senior year and performed at the Rose Bowl Parade, Disneyland, and numerous statewide events.

Elisha studied under Toni Bosch at Snow College, earning a dance scholarship and serving as student choreographer for the faculty concert. She completed her education at SUU with a degree in nutrition while studying ballet, character, and modern under Gwen Grimes, Kay Anderson, Paul Ocampo, and Shauna Mendini, and also spent a semester in the University of Utah Ballet Program.

Continuing her training with Chris Mills and Lise Mills Arias, Elisha danced for many years with Cedar City Junior Ballet, performing roles including Swanhilda in Coppélia, Bluebird, Sugar Plum Fairy, and featured soloist roles in Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Secret Garden. Most recently, she performed as the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Community Nutcracker’s 2025 production.

Elisha began teaching ballet in 2003 and has since led ballet programs, taught classes, and choreographed at multiple studios, including Dance Magic and The Point in Cedar City. She continues her professional development through summer intensives and has taught character ballet at Ballet West’s Art Emotion Summer Intensive since 2022. Passionate about ballet and community arts, Elisha is proud to be part of Festival Ballet and its mission.

Kristena Hunsaker’s love for ballet began early while growing up on a farm in Price, Utah with three older brothers. Wherever there was space, she found a way to dance—at home, in studios, and even in the aisles of a store. Her passion led her to train with multiple studios and perform with the Dino Dynamics drill team, laying the foundation for a lifelong devotion to classical ballet.

That devotion soon blossomed on stage. Kristena performed en pointe at the Capitol Theatre during the Miss Utah Pageant as the reigning Miss Carbon County, and later returned as a director, creating the Mini, Little, and Junior Miss divisions to introduce young performers to the stage. One of her most meaningful experiences came through a Dreams Come True program, where she taught ballet in an assisted living facility and organized a special showcase—reinforcing her belief that ballet is for everyone, at every age.

Kristena fell in love with The Nutcracker through Carolyn Gwither and the CEU Repertory Ensemble, dancing alongside college students while still in junior high. There, she performed her dream roles of Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy, cementing ballet as her artistic home. She has now taught ballet for over 15 years and is currently on faculty at Legacy Dance Studio, where she is especially passionate about nurturing young dancers. For the upcoming production of Alice in Wonderland, Kristena will focus on guiding the youngest performers, helping them discover imagination, confidence, and storytelling through ballet.

Her creative work includes writing and directing The Polar Express, helping launch the Castle Valley Civic Ballet’s Nutcracker, and sharing her artistry through the Community Nutcracker. This year marks her 10th Nutcracker, a milestone she cherishes deeply. A proud mother of three daughters, Mckinley, Brielle, and Melody, Kristena treasures sharing her love of dance with her family and is grateful for her husband, Regan, whose support allows her to pursue her dreams. Through ballet, she continues to create beauty, purpose, and a lasting dance family.

Jennie Grimes is a dedicated dance educator, performer, and mother of five. She is currently the dance teacher at Canyon View High School (CVHS) where her dance program is a chapter school for National Honors Society for Dance Arts (NHSDA). She also serves as a board member for the Cedar Valley Community Theatre (CVCT) and the Utah Dance Education Organization (UDEO). Jennie is the high school representative for the Florence Dance study abroad program in Florence, Italy with the AlambradoDanza company.

Jennie holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Dance Performance and Education with a minor in Theatre from Southern Utah University (SUU), where she later became an adjunct professor. At SUU, she received training from renowned instructors such as Kay Anderson, Gwen Grimes, Shauna Mendini, and Lise Mills. She was selected to perform works by José Limón under the direction of Risa Steinberg from Juilliard, as well as pieces from the American Folk Ballet founded by Burch Mann.

Throughout her career, Jennie has trained under legendary artists in various dance styles and competitive gymnastics and has performed with several prestigious companies, including Arabesque Ballet Company, Ballet Repertory Dance Company, Eagle Dancers, Orchesis Modern Company, Junior Jazz Dancers, and AlambradoDanza in Florence, Italy, where she also worked as a choreographer. She has been a principal dancer for St. George Dance Company and the original Cedar City Junior Ballet, under the direction of Lise and Chris Mills.

In 2023, Jennie was nominated for the Sorenson Legacy Awards for Excellence in Arts Education, recognizing her outstanding contributions to the field. She is passionate about teaching, performing, and sharing the art of dance with others.

Jami Lyn Niles has been immersed in the world of ballet and costuming from a young age. She began dancing with Cache Valley Ballet Co. before moving to Cedar City, where she had the opportunity to dance with Cedar City Junior Ballet during its inaugural year under the direction of Chris and Lise Mills. What began as sewing costumes to help pay tuition quickly grew into a lasting vocation, leading her to work closely under the mentorship of Lise Mills for the next 18 years.

Through this experience, Jami discovered her love for sewing and creating beautiful, stage-ready costumes. She has since become a trusted costume director and designer, providing costuming for multiple local dance studios as well as the Community Nutcracker, where her creativity and attention to detail help bring each production to life.

Jami has been married to her husband Jason for 20 years and is the proud mother of three children, all of whom danced ballet at some point—her son included. She especially enjoys watching her children and young dancers perform, finding joy in supporting the art form both onstage and behind the scenes.