The Director

Name: Abel Sanchez Jr.

Position: Founder/Director/Choreographer,
Austin City Showgirls

Birthplace: Eagle Pass, Texas

Date: August 24, 1978

Education: University of Texas-San Antonio
Major: Kinesiology
Minor: Dance

Experience: Abel Sanchez Jr., son of Abel and Virginia Sanchez has an extensive knowledge in dance, music, cheer, gymnastics, and fitness. His broad education and experience in these fields has helped Abel gain proficient knowledge for his passion in dance, performance, and entertainment.

He started at the age of thirteen coaching young children in cheerleading. Training gymnastic skills, dance movement, and cheerleading fundamentals. As his talent became apparent thru his athletes, showcasing advance cheer technique and routines, he decided to take his students to the next level, competition.

To do this, Abel began a successful parent booster club which was responsible for funding the cheer group competition expenses. This is where his management, development, instruction, artistic, etc. skills began.

Due to his huge success he was immediately proposed the Cheer Director position at a local health club facility, at the age of seventeen. His responsibilities as the director were to create curriculums for cheer instructors, instruct advance cheer and tumbling classes, and manage an all star cheer squad of 20. While a director at the health club, Abel expanded his interest in fitness by involving himself as a part-time Aerobic Instructor.

Soon reaching the age of twenty, he made a decision to move to San Antonio, Texas where he attended the University of Texas at San Antonio. While studying at the university level on health and exercise and being head cheerleader at the university, he also worked full-time for a cheer and dance company, owned by former NBA Spurs Silverdancer choreographer, Rosalyn T. Jones. Instructing under Rosalyn, his insight in dance grew intensively, learning how to express a persons feeling thru movement and polishing up dance technique. Growing not only as a dancer, but also a choreographer, using his wisdom, Abel was pursued to create opening numbers for local and state pageants.

Fulfilling his childhood dream, Abel made an executive move to New York City, where he studied different genres of dance at Broadway Dance Center, auditioned for musicals like Oklahoma and concert tours like Madonna and Britney Spears. Being laid off from the aviation industry, soon after 9/11, he accepted a job at New York’s Sports Club, becoming the top personal trainer and group fitness instructor. As his love for fitness and movement grew stronger, Abel decided to compete in the Sport Aerobic level. His hard work and training earned him the Gold, Silver, and Bronze USA medals the next three consecutive years.

After living five full years in the New York City Metropolitan area and visiting cultures around the world he came to a decision to move to Austin, Texas, utilizing his collective knowledge to begin organizing his performing arts group, the Austin City Showgirls and Dance Company, commencing a new chapter to his life.