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Welcome to the website for Second Story Studio! My name is Marci Murphree, and I’ve been teaching dance for over 30 years, but Second Story is only three years old. After many years teaching with Metro Parks Dance program among others, the Parks administration closed the Green Hills center where my Creative Ballet and Modern dance classes had been held for 15 years. With many beloved students to teach, I began a second story for us at 5409 Harding Rd. (formerly Nashville Ballet’s satellite studio and before that Wanda Lenk’s School of Dance) You may discover much more about my background as a dancer, teacher, and teaching artist in my bio under About Us.
I’ve been at it long enough to understand there are many different ways dance can play an important role in the life of a child, a preteen, a teenager and young adult. While not everyone expects to pursue dance as a career, no one wants to set themselves up for disappointment or possible injury by taking dance lessons that fail to establish a good solid foundation and no one will continue to study dance if they don’t love their lessons. At Second Story, all the teachers work to balance the two aspects of dance training for our students - technique and artistry.
Here are a few things I know:
- All of us need active forms of enjoyment for physical and emotional health that will last into our adult years.
- We all do better if we find something that is a source of self-esteem and self-expression as it builds our confidence and helps us establish who we are in the world.
- Students benefit in academics from achieving a high level of success in the fields of music, art, dance or athletics, especially when it comes to admission and/or scholarships for college.
- We are happier if we have a passion for healthy things and friends who share this passion.
- The more time and energy we put into dance, the faster we progress.
As a young person, I found that making up dances at home kept me dancing many hours a week. During that process, Marci began to emerge. It seems to me that the ‘tween into teen stage of development is most important for a young person to find out who they are and how they can express that to the world both personally and privately. For this reason, one of the goals at Second Story is for Creative Ballet, Creative Dance and Modern students to develop the tools and experience to choreograph and improvise to various styles of music.
Another thing that helped me become a good, strong dancer, and happy teenager, was being able to do popular tricks like cartwheels, front and back rolls, round offs, backbends, etc. In those days, we took "acrobatics" and basic gymnastics at school. Practicing “tricks” contributed to my core strength, flexibility, and agility as well as my courage and confidence. And it’s fun! I was shy and not likely to put on my ballet or tap shoes at a slumber party, but I could show off my tricks! I must have taught half my 6th grade class to do a cartwheel!
Contemporary choreography is as likely to have a back roll in it as a pirouette. To give my students this edge in dance as well as their social lives, I am thrilled to offer a wonderful addition to the Second Story faculty. I have recruited dancer/teacher Rachel Flores, certified and experienced in teaching tumbling and basic acrobatic skills as well as other forms of dance. We will offer this in conjunction with ballet and tap this fall so students can develop a diverse cross-section of skills. See below for a proposed schedule for Monday evenings with Rachel working with small groups on mats in the upgraded first floor space, and bringing the students up to me for Creative Ballet and Tap.
We have two other new teachers joining us this fall as we say farewell-for-now to our dearly loved pre-school and jazz teacher Holly Hesse who is having a new baby very soon. Erica Jervis, multi-talented dancer and singer from Pennsylvania and Carrie Gant who started in my pre-ballet class at age 4 and continued dancing all the way to the MTSU dance department where she received a degree this spring. Also - returning this fall, Pam Atha and Megan McNeal. You can read more about all the teachers under Faculty here on our website. |