Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia Chitwood.
Alicia, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My story begins when I was three- I begged my parents to enroll me in dance after watching my cousin perform one day. The rest is history – I studied ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, and modern – dance was my entire world. I spent all my free time in the studio training and rehearsing, every Friday and Saturday I would be rehearsing instead of out with my friends and even missing my senior prom to perform out of state. I met my husband, Brandon, at the theater the summer before my senior year in high school (2003). Fast forward through life, Brandon and I got married in 2009, we have three amazing little boys, and we are now in a dance studio space with over 9,000 square feet.
Has it been a smooth road?
As with any business adventure, life was very hard in the beginning. We were young, straight out of college and had so many ideas for our new adventure. I lost friends that I cherished and grew up dancing with, but we stayed focus on our goal: to own a dance studio that a dancer could be what they wanted. We wanted to train our dancers to be well rounded; a ballerina, a tap dancer on Broadway, a Rockette, or a performer at Disney; anything they wanted! Even though we had people turn against us, we had double the support from others; a special teacher that taught me when I was younger, dancers/parents that saw our vision, and of course our loving family.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Southern Performing Arts Academy offers dance classes in ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop and modern. We start at age three and go to adult! We want our dancers to become well-rounded dancers; ballerinas in NY, tap dancers on Broadway, hip hop dancers– whatever they want! Even if after high school they do not pursue dance, we know that we have instilled in them what it means to be dedicated, determined and hard working in whatever work field they choose.
Southern Performing Arts Academy is also home to our non-profit dance company, Southern Ballet Theatre. In recent seasons, SBT has delighted audiences with full length ballets including Maleficent: The Beginning, Frozen: A Tale of the Ice Queen, Rapunzel, Pirates, Aladdin, and Cinderella. SBT likes to keep audiences guessing each year by bringing ballet to life with our choreography, set design and special effects.
SBT also sponsors a FREE Special Ed class at SPAA for the community taught by Ms. Angela Graham.
SBT is one of only 19 pre-professional dance companies that have membership in the highly-respected Southeastern Regional Ballet Association of Regional Dance America (SERBA/RDA).
Contact Info:
- Address: 3315 Sugarloaf Parkway, Suite 15
Lawrenceville, GA 30044 - Website: southernperformingartsacademy.com
- Phone: 678.682.9238
- Email: info@southernperformingartsacademy.com
- Instagram: southernperformingaa
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SouthernPerformingArtsAcademy/
Image Credit:
James Jin Images
Richard Calmes
Laura Blatterman
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