Instructional Staff
Caleb Tullius / Director
Caleb Tullius is a proud El Paso, TX native musician. A graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso, he earned a Bachelor's in Music Education and a Master’s in Music Performance in Conducting. He is currently pursuing a Doctoral Degree in Education from UTEP. While in his collegiate studies, he performed in the UTEP Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Jazz Bands, Mariachi Los Mineros, and the Marching Miners. He studied brass pedagogy abroad at the Domaine Forget Academy in Saint-Irenee, Quebec, Canada. He marched with the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
Caleb is an avid supporter of the marching and musical arts. He has been a high school visual caption head for five years and has been a marching technician for seven. He is currently a band director at Eastlake High School, where he lead the marching band to the UIL State Marching Band contest for the third time. He has also lead several Eastlake chamber ensembles that performed at the International Trumpet Guild Conference, the International Tuba Euphonium Association Conference, and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Caleb is also on the music staff at the Colts Drum and Bugle Corps as a brass technician.
Caleb created and is on the board of Sun City Musical Arts, a nonprofit organization that supports the local marching circuit. He is happy to be a part of the growth of marching and musical arts in the Sun City.
Patrick Ramirez / Assistant Director & Weapons Specialist
Patrick Ramirez is an El Paso, Texas native. He has performed with groups for clinics at the Texas Bandmasters Association and has both marching band and winterguard experience. He is an avid supporter of the performing arts.
He has served the local region with visual design by choreographing and consulting shows for several high school programs locally as a visual technician for 5 years.
He is excited and eager to support the arts with his experience and dedication in SCMA for all of our performing groups!
shekinah velasquez / choreographer & Dance Specialist
Shekinah Velasquez is an El Paso, Texas native and graduated from Eastlake High School. She is in her 8th year performing in Color Guard. She currently helps teach at Eastlake for band and guard. She recently finished marching her first year of world class DCI with Genesis Drum and Bugle Corps. She also competed with Ethereal Winds as the dance soloist. Shekinah has also been on staff for Sun City Independent and Ethereal Winds serving as the lead choreographer.
Shekinah is currently completing her associates degree in Business Management at EPCC. Her plans are to then obtain a Bachelors in Business Administration at UTEP.
Shekinah is a big advocate of the fine arts, as dance is one of her passions. She hopes to share the knowledge that she has learned from all her performing experiences and guide students to express themselves through art.
joel estrada / educational coordinator
Joel Estrada was born in Ciudad Juárez and migrated to El Paso, TX in his early childhood. Joel’s journey in the marching arts began in 2011 at Horizon High School as a trombone player, a drum major, and a color guard performer. After graduating, he began working as a color guard technician in the area.
Joel attended the University of Texas at El Paso where he studied Communication Arts and Dance Studies. Currently, Joel is part of the color guard staff at Coronado High School and is a consultant and choreographer for the UTEP Diamonds.
esther toledano / Dance Specialist
Esther Toledano was born in Ohio, but raised for most of her life in El Paso, TX. She graduated from Eastlake High School where she first began her journey with color guard. Esther performed in the Eastlake Guard on flag, rifle, and saber while competing in different categories throughout the U.S. During her senior year, the Eastlake Guard received a silver medal in the World Championships in Scholastic A Class, which was a huge accomplishment for the new high school.
After graduating from Eastlake in 2015, Esther auditioned for a MASL (Major Arena Soccer League) dance team here in El Paso called the El Paso Coyotes. She was captain for the El Paso Coyotes for four years where she gained knowledge in the dance industry and leadership. Esther is still continuing her dancing career. She's excited to bring her experience and knowledge throughout the years with dance skills and technique in all aspects of color guard.
Suzie rosales / weapons specialist
Suzie Rosales is 27 years old. She was born in Anaheim, California, but raised in El Paso, Texas since the first grade. In the 3rd grade, she had her first taste of dance when she did ballet for 1 year and folclórico for 2 years. Suzie graduated from Eastlake High School in 2015 where she performed and competed with the Eastlake Guard on flag, rifle, and sabre. She competed in the WGI World Championships Scholastic A Class for 3 years in a row. On the 3rd year, Eastlake received a silver medal in A class resulting in them being bumped into Scholastic Open Class, which was a major goal for the brand new school.
After 2015, she continued to spin with Americas Independent and also assisted as a tech for the Eastlake High School Guard. She went to back to WGI World Championships as both an Independent A competitor with Americas Independent and a tech for EHS. Suzie is excited to get back to her roots and bring all the knowledge and technique she picked up through the years of working with the best in the industry.
Jacque Pearson / Guard Technician
Native to El Paso TX, Jacque Pearson’s love for the sport of the arts began as a member of Franklin Focus High School color guard where she competed in WGI regionals and in WGI World Championships. After graduating Franklin High School in 2008, she spent her college career as a Flag Instructor and Choreographer at New Mexico State University while completing her undergraduate degree.
Currently, Jacque is the Colorguard Director for Anthony High School. She is also the Coach and Choreographer for the UTEP Diamonds color guard, where she shares her passion for precision and artistic expression with dedicated performers.
Heidy Medrano / Guard Technician
Heidy Medrano was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. In 2014 she found passion in dance and it wasn’t until 2016 that she got her first taste of color guard as a member of the Horizon High School Color Guard. After graduating high school she made her way back with the Horizon Guard in 2019, this time as a technician and short after became director of the program. During her time at Horizon she has led the guard to many accomplishments such as, a WTCA championship and promotion in 2022 which was a huge success for the program. She has choreographed, designed and directed various Winterguard shows for Horizon High School.
Ms. Medrano studied Organizational & Corporate Communications at the University of Texas at El Paso. Currently, she is part of the Horizon High School Band & Guard program as their Colorguard Director. She is excited for not only sharing her passion and knowledge with the Allure staff, but also for the SCMA programs in providing amazing opportunities for all students in the area.
Sarah Pichardo / Consultant
Ms. Sarah Pichardo was born and raised in El Paso, TX where she graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a degree in Multidisciplinary studies in 2017. Sarah’s colorguard career began in middle school at Walter E. Clarke and continued at Americas High School where she and her team were numerous Bands of America finalists and Winter Guard International regional and championship finalists. After high school, Ms.Pichardo went on to perform with the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps based out of Denver, Colorado from 2011-2015 and served as color guard captain in 2014 and 2015. She also participated in numerous independent winter guards including FeniX Independent from Arizona State University in 2014 and Americas Independent 2015-2017, Black Gold 2019-2020 and most recently with Origins Color Guard based out of Austin.
Along with performing, Sarah started teaching right out of high school at Walter E. Clarke Middle School from 2011-2013. After two years, she then went on to teach at Franklin High School from 2013-2018 where she was first a technician then moved up into the director position. The program saw great success both locally and nationally under her direction. In 2018, Ms. Pichardo moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area and served as director at J.J. Pearce High School through 2019. From 2019-2020 she was a technician and choreographer at Wylie East High School, Flower Mound High School and McKinney Boyd High School. She was the color guard co-director and dance instructor for Terrell ISD, director at McKinney North High School and is currently the director at Wylie East High School. Sarah is super excited to be a part of the program.
Casey Snead / Show designer
Casey Snead has been sharing his passion for the marching arts for the past 15 years working with many locally and nationally competitive programs. Casey loves to combine the artistry found in WGI with marching band. He is a drill writer, program coordinator, and choreographer as well as the owner of Artistic Motion, a marching arts company.
He had the opportunity to march as a color guard member of the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps in 2008 and has been a multi-year veteran of Black Gold IW, both as performer and staff member.
Besides pageantry, Casey loves fitness, working on multimedia projects, online gaming, and spending time with his wife Kelly, son Grey, and pet huskies Ava and Kenna.