Nutcracker wouldn’t be Nutcracker without the local Children’s cast! Dancing alongside the full international professional cast are local Nashville children from Dance South Performing Arts. Dance South Performing Arts is proud to include the AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE® National Training Curriculum, a breakthrough nine-level program that combines high-quality artistic training with the basics of dancer health and child comprehensive set of age-appropriate, outcome-based guidelines to provide the highest quality ballet training to dance students of all ages and skill levels. We are the only certified studio in Robertson, Sumner, and North Davidson County. Pre-Primary through Level 5 will be taught by ABT® Certified Teacher, Tiffany Payton and Pre-Primary through Level 3 by Rachel Flores. Both have successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive of the ABT ® National Training Curriculum.
Offering classes in classical and contemporary ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, lyrical/modern, hiphop, and tumbling, Dance South focuses strongly on technique. Knowing that performance technique is also crucial to a dancer's education, Dance South encourages students to further his or her training through performance opportunities made available throughout the year.
The Company is Dance South's Youth Dance Ensemble. This group represents Dance South as ambassadors for the cultural and performing arts, by promoting dance within the community. They have been invited to perform for Walt Disney World Orlando, Universal Orlando Resort, Celebration Dance Festival, Jazz on Tap Dance Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, Dance for the Cure, Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, and fund-raising events for the American Cancer Society and Breast Cancer Awareness Group. Seeing a need to further promote the arts in our public schools, Dance South's Company works closely with the Middle Tennessee Youth Ballet visiting the local elementary and middle schools at Christmas and/or National Dance Week for performances and lectures. Dance South Company has joined the Middle Tennessee Youth Ballet to present "mini versions" of full length ballets, "Peter Pan," "Alice in Wonderland," "Serenade," "Who Cares," "Rhapsody in Blue," and "The Sleeping Beauty."
Dance South is the official training school for the Middle Tennessee Youth Ballet, a 501c(3) dance organization and scholarship program for student dancers.