You could say that Texans Cheerleader of the Week Kristen knows a thing or two about dancing. Aside from being a Texans Cheerleader, she boasts 20 years of dancing experience.
"I've been dancing since I was three years old, and I love it," she says. "I'm so glad my mom put me in dance; I don't know what else I would be doing. I definitely can't sing; I'm not a singer."
Nor is she a loud talker. Kristen is admired by her teammates for her humility.
"Kristen is probably one of the most humble dancers I have ever met," Summer says. "She's amazing when she dances; she's amazing when she performs. But she's so quiet about it. You will never hear her, but you will definitely see her perform."
There are, in fact, many people who hear Kristen talk about dancing, but they're not her teammates or adoring fans. They're her students at Dickinson High School, where Kristen is an assistant drill team director.
She has a special tie to the team that goes beyond her four years dancing for it while she was in high school: she founded it.
"It was my freshman year in high school," she says. "We didn't have a drill team and we always did the studio dancing and I wanted to be on the drill team. So I went to my principal and I talked to him and told him that I really wanted to be on drill team so he said, 'Well get a few girls together.'"
The rest is history. Kristen did get a group of girls together with a female teacher who had drill team experience and was a Houston Oilers Cheerleader. The squad was formed and started performing at basketball games in as soon as its first year.
At Kilgore College, Kristen joined the Rangerettes, which was the first drill team in school history. She then went on to become a member of the dance team at Sam Houston State. And of course, she is now a third-year veteran of the Houston Texans Cheerleaders. Kristen returned to Dickinson High as an assistant director back in January, and she hasn't looked back.
"It's been really neat to come back and see the team built up," she says. "And (the current drill team instructor) came in and set the bar even higher and made them even more amazing. I am so glad to be here, and all the girls are so amazing, and I love it."
You'd think that Kristen knows everything there is to know about dancing. She has, after all, been dancing for longer than any of her teenage students have been alive. But Kristen isn't resting on her laurels; she has an ultra-competitive nature that was a catalyst in her early devotion to dancing and that still drives her today.
"I'm still learning," she says. "I'm still trying to advance with my style with being on the cheerleaders, so I still feel like I'm growing as a dancer."
That tireless work ethic pays off, and it has made Kristen one of the most well-respected dancers among the Texans Cheerleaders.
"Kristen is a phenomenal dancer," Crystal says. "She has excellent technique and an awesome background in dancing, and you can see that when she dances."
