Without further ado, a few of Carissa’s wonderful qualities:

• She’s an Austin native with a younger sister who was and still is the tomboy to her girly-girl.
• Carissa got an early start in gymnastics but became addicted to dance in middle school. She went on earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance from the University of North Texas. She’s now teaching dance in Cedar Park to kids age 8 through high school and is a member of the Kathy Dunn Hamrick dance company. “I feel so comfortable dancing for Kathy. I’ve discovered I really love modern dance. It’s athletic and free-flowing, not so structured. Kathy encourages me and the other dancers to be unique individuals, not clones of one another,” she says.
• When she’s not in the dance studio, she likes to be one with nature. She enjoys hiking, swimming, and camping (non-tent, please). One of her craziest outdoor adventures involved what should have been a short hike back from Sculpture Falls 10 years ago. Carissa got separated from her buddy and made a wrong turn on the way back to the car. “I ended up hiking the Green Belt alone for four hours. The trail I followed spit me out in a West Lake neighborhood. I was in tears — calves killing me. I knocked on someone’s door to use the phone. I can laugh about it now, but it was terrifying at the time,” she says.
• She’s quirky. Carissa’s friends like to tease her by forcing her to empty the odd contents of her purse. I, of course, demanded she rummage through her bag. She pulled out two mismatched socks, old programs from a dance performance, an old grocery list, granola bar wrappers, and one earring.
• Carissa looks super young (jealous?). I could have sworn she was 23. Turns out she’s 29. Maybe if I get to know her better, she’ll spill her anti-aging secrets!

At this point in her life, Carissa is footloose and fancy-free, and she likes it that way. “I hope to keep doing what I love and to continue progressing in the dance and fitness industries,” she says.