Julia Riley

Varsity Lightning Dancers Director

Julia Riley is the Director of the Lightning Dancers and oversees the drill team program and the dance department at Central High School. This is Julia’s 8th year with the Lightning Dancers.

The Lightning Dancers have been honored to perform at Disney World, Disneyland, in Fort Worth’s Parade of Lights, the Stock Show Parade and as the pre-game performance for the Dallas Mavericks. The team has won numerous awards including Best Overall Technique, Precision, and Performance awards, multiple Winners Circle placements and Regional, State and National titles.

Julia graduated from Boswell High School where she was a 2-year officer of the Pure Gold Dance Team. After high school, she became a UNT Dancer. Julia was a 3 year member of the UNT Dancers and Captain her 3rd year. While at UNT, she studied Dance under James Clouser and graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Health Promotions.

Julia started her teaching career in Fort Worth, TX where she was the director and owner of the Dance Gallery. From there she taught dance at Azle High School and Directed the Emerald Dazzlers for 8 years. Following Azle, Julia jumped to the other side of Eagle Mountain Lake and began teaching at Central High School, running the Dance Department and Directing the Lightning Dancers Organization. One of Julia’s favorite rewards as a teacher is watching her students become successful in the world of dance and in life.

Most important in her life is Julia’s faith and family. She has two beautiful children, Gloria who is 14 and a student at Central High School and Dylan who is 12 and a student at Hillwood Middle School. Julia and her Fiance, Ragan, are getting married next summer in Belize. We love planning adventures with our kids and trips exploring!

Tiffany Hill

JV Lightning Dancers Director

Tiffany Hill is the Director for the JV Lightning Dancers and full time dance teacher. She will be starting her 3rd year of teaching at Central High School. The JV Lightning Dancers were awarded National Grand Champions at Showtime Competition for the 2022 season.

Tiffany graduated from Juan Seguin High School in Arlington, TX. She grew up dancing at a studio and also joined the competition team until the age of 16. While there she learned various genres of dance such as ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary and pointe. In high school, she was involved in band all 4 years and was the Section Leader her senior year. She also joined drill team her senior year and was the Social Officer President/ Sr. Lieutenant. Her time on a high school drill team was short but soon she found that it was her passion to teach dance and drill team.

After high school she danced with Rhapsody Movement Company at Tarrant County College under Jamie Perrin for several years. She was able to continue as a performer and went on to different conventions and performed with American College Dance Festival in Louisiana. After TCC, she decided to move to San Marcos to pursue her passion of teaching dance. She graduated Cum Laude from Texas State University with her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance Education.

Family and faith are very important to her. She and her husband, Jonathon, have been together for 12 years and married for 4. They have a son, Leighton, who will turn 2 in September. She also has 3 cats and a german shepherd named Khloe. Together they love watching movies, attending church and cooking out.