Alexandria Havelka is a first year teacher here at Lively Middle School. She teaches Dance Wellness and directs the Lively Dazzlers Elite and Royal Blues JV dance teams. She graduated from Texas State University with a BFA in dance education with a minor in technical theatre. There she did the Creation in Motion Touring Ensemble for Young Audiences program, a performance ensemble for dance majors and minors.
Havelka wasn’t planning on being a dance teacher until her senior year of high school when she auditioned for the dance program at Texas State University, then performed for elementary and middle school students. She discovered Lively at the AISD Career Fair after originally looking for high schools to teach at. She is very happy she ended up at Lively because she loves the students and says they’re very talented.
Her main source of inspiration is the people that surround her, like her fiancée, best friend and coworker Samantha Gang, and some of her dance friends who have inspired her to keep on creating. She’s also inspired by her students, their potential, and their accomplishments. Seeing her students grow, not just as dancers, but as people is her favorite thing about teaching.
If Havelka could enroll in another teacher’s class at Lively to learn from them, she would be in Gang’s theatre class because she learns so much from her and Gang is a phenomenal teacher. “She’s really passionate about what she does, and so, just seeing that inspires me,” said Havelka.
Outside of school, Havelka enjoys swimming and playing video games with her fiancée. Her dream vacation would be going to the Maldives.
If she could give her students one piece of advice, it would be to be in the moment and be yourself. “That’s so cliché, but, in reality, I wish I would have been more outgoing… and just caring about being with my friends and finding the value of that instead of worrying about what everyone else thinks about me,” said Havelka.
Havelka is an incredible teacher and director who cares deeply about all her students. This may be her first year at Lively, but we hope there will be many more to come.
