Christina Burress began showing passion for dance as early as a toddler. Her parents share countless stories of Christina or “Christy’s” amazing ability to move rhythmically since she could stand.  She has always had an intense passion for the fine art of dance and even began planning her own dance studio at the tender age of 8.

Christy Burress began formal dance training at the age of three.  She was carefully developed by Cincinnati’s finest, Rita Goldhoff.  Christy was extremely fortunate to study under Ms. Rita for several years before she retired.   In 2008, Ms. Rita passed away leaving a lasting impression on Christy.  After Ms. Goldhoff’s retirement, Christy continued training at other Cincinnati studios in ballet and tap; later adding, jazz, pointe, hip hop, lyrical, and Broadway jazz.  When Christy was 16, she began competing in tap, jazz, and Broadway jazz.  During three short years of competition, she earned 20 first place awards and numerous overall awards.

After only one year at a new studio, Christy proved to possess such a gift for the art of dance that she was offered an internship at the early age of seventeen.  With only six months of delicate, yet intricate, mentorship the owner found her exceptionally talented and mature enough to conduct unsupervised classes.  The opportunity created many open doors for her career.  Christy was also selected over many prospects, to oversee, instruct, and facilitate the prestigious dance program of St John the Baptist Catholic Elementary School in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Due to her incredible talent and expertise, the program’s student participation increased by fifty percent!

During the first year of teaching Christy soon developed several award winning competition teams, as well as, choreographing numerous award winning routines.  That same year, she formed a tap trio that not only earned first place in their division, but also the Top Overall award for the 12 and under category.  It was evident that she was born to not only dance, but to empower other dancers.

After only a few short years as a dance teacher, one of Christy’s dancers auditioned, and was accepted, into the Cincinnati Ballet.  Christy had the privilege of seeing her perform in the Cincinnati Ballet’s production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.

As Christy’s career flourished in Ohio, she found and married Technical Sergeant Joseph Burress.  After having the first of their two daughters, she placed her career on hold in order to support her military husband in his Air Force Career.  Shortly after moving to Utah, Christy was able to resume her teaching career until her second pregnancy was jeopardized and she made the decision to once again place her career on hold.  As the dream of establishing a dance studio consumed her, she pursued and conquered a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management.  She graduated from Troy University with honors.  All the while she felt something was missing from her life but couldn’t figure out what it was.  “Once dance gets into your soul it becomes who you are and if you can’t release that creativity it’s like taking a fish out of water, you just flap around trying to find your way home.”  It wasn’t until Christy opened A Step Above Dance Company in September of 2011 that she finally realized what had been missing from her life for all those years.  “You can take the dancer out of dance, but you can’t take the dance out of the dancer.”

Christy and Joseph have been happily married for twenty-three years.  They now reside in Hawkinsville, Georgia where Christy finally realized her dream, A Step Above Dance Company.