Best for a Carroll or Dawson middle schooler who wants to dance for the Dragons.

PomJazzLyrical
Group classesIndoor & outdoorSession-basedTryout requiredFall seasonSpring season
southlakedragongems@gmail.com
Operates out of Carroll Middle School, 1800 Kirkwood Blvd, Southlake, TX 76092
Pricing not published — contact the studio for current rates.
A dance and drill team for seventh and eighth graders at Carroll and Dawson Middle Schools,

Schedule

A dance and drill team for seventh and eighth graders at Carroll and Dawson Middle Schools, selected by tryout each spring for the school year that follows. The 2026 cycle ran:

  • Parent information meetings: March 30 and April 16, 5:30pm
  • Tryout clinics: March 30 and April 2, 9, 13 and 16, 5:30-7:30pm
  • Learn the tryout dance: April 20, 5:30-7:30pm, Carroll High School gym
  • Learn the tryout kick: April 23, 5:30-7:30pm, Carroll High School gym
  • Tryouts: April 25, 1:00-3:00pm, Carroll Middle School

Venues move between cycles. The clinics opened at 1040 Mustang Drive in Grapevine and shifted to Studio 12 on Greenbriar Drive in Southlake for the April 2 and 9 prep classes, which also pushed later to 6:45-8:45pm.

The performance season starts in August and runs through the school year, at Dragon Stadium and at pep rallies for both middle schools. The first performance of the 2026 season was August 13 at Dragon Stadium. Because dates and venues move, current ones go to the Dragon Gems Band group, and sign-ups are by email rather than through a website.

Our take

Dragon Gems is the dance and drill team for seventh and eighth graders at Carroll and Dawson Middle Schools. Dancers try out in the spring. There is a parent meeting first, then clinics to learn the tryout dance, then tryouts. The squad that comes out of it performs through the following school year, at Dragon Stadium and at both schools' pep rallies.

They dance kick, jazz and lyrical, with separate routines for the officers. The choreography comes from current and former Carroll Emerald Belles captains, and the team says its job is to get dancers ready for the Belles.

It is a team, not a studio. There are no open classes and no published tuition. You join by trying out, and you commit in the spring for a season that starts in August.

Local Tips

The schedule does not live on a website. The address on the team's Instagram does not work, and the feed itself is mostly announcements. Dates and venues go out through the Dragon Gems Band group, and that is where families get sent when plans change. In spring 2026 the clinic schedule was reissued partway through tryouts because the location moved.

Tryouts are in April for a season that does not start until August. A sixth grader who wants this is deciding a year ahead.

Carroll ISD Connection

The tie to Carroll ISD is direct. The team is drawn from Southlake's two middle schools, Carroll and Dawson, and it performs at both campuses' pep rallies and at Dragon Stadium. Its stated aim is to prepare dancers for the Emerald Belles, the Carroll High School drill team, so it works as a middle school feeder into that program.

It is not run by the district.

Credentials

Aspen Meadows directs the team. She is a former Captain of the Carroll Emerald Belles and a former member of the UT Pom Squad. Jenn McManus is also named as a director. She is a former Kilgore College Rangerette and a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.

Individual routines are credited to Emerald Belles captains Lily Fraga and Sydney Fraser, and to Jennifer Nix McManus.

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