Tess Wendel was dragged to ballet class at age 7 by a good friend and despite her initial skepticism about tights and leotards, has been dancing ever since. Growing up in Seattle, she studied at Dance Fremont! under Vivian Little and Mary Reardon and performed with the high-school age company Danceworks. Her experience in Danceworks led her to pick a small liberal arts school in upstate New York, Skidmore College, that had a well established dance program so she could further her academic studies and be able to continue dancing on the side.

At Skidmore College, Tess studied dance under Ruben Graciani and Mary Harney and began working as a technician in the dance theater. Her involvement backstage and doing lights, sound and video gave her a new appreciation for dance production as a whole and she remains interested in the artistic side of those somewhat tedious tech rehearsals. In New York, at both SUNY Brockport and Skidmore College, she studied with members of the Limon Company and artistic director Carla Maxwell, performing in Limon's There is a Time and Psalm and Maxwell's Etude. Tess also had the opportunity to work with Elana Jacobs at Skidmore College, founder of Seattle based performance group CabinFever.

Outside her involvement in the dance world, Tess is an avid hiker and climber. She works full time for The Mountaineers getting people outside, learning new skills and building community in the woods and in the city.