My Story

My story begins and ends with me wiggling and giggling.

In my Daddy’s 1960’s style videos, you can clearly see that in the backyard, in the living room, and basically everywhere we went, I had an irresistible beat in my 4-year-old heart that caused me to constantly wiggle in a dance-like fashion while smiling and laughing. While my Dad was an athlete (a basketball all-star in High School and a football player in college), my Mom was a professional opera singer. Their talents and then Mom’s knowledge of the UNC School of the Arts were a stroke of luck for me... Who knew it was even possible to leave home at age 12, live in a dorm, and train with the best of them? Ultimately my classical ballet training at UNCSA for four academic years of High School and 5 summer sessions shaped everything about me – my body, my mind, my spirit, and eventually, my life mission and purpose…

Not to say it was a straight line. It was, in fact, more like a semi-circle which included college, marriage, children, graduate school, divorce, a 32-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, a 15-year absence from dance, a new relationship and marriage, and finally, a fateful return to dance in my early forties. Eventually, in 2007 (while still working full-time), I began teaching dance. Two years later, in June 2009, I rebranded my classes and offered the very first class of The Dancer’s Workout®. In the years that followed, I taught hundreds of local adult dancers until I finally gave in to my heart’s desire... At age 54, with the support of my husband, I resigned from my corporate job to pursue my dance business full-time. One year later we secured the trademark designation for The Dancer’s Workout® from the US Patent and Trademark Office. Within the year Sara joined the TDW management team; and the rest, as they say, is history…

What TDW Means to Me

Broadly, aside from my love for my husband and family, TDW means everything to me.

Having TDW in my life makes me really, really happy, as it gives me a strong sense of self-worth and self-respect. It satisfies so many parts of me, for example…

Professionally, TDW provides me with the opportunity to work with an outstanding management team on opportunities that excite me on a daily basis. Our recent success, for example, of assembling a top-notch team of dancers and establishing the first TDW-affiliated dance company, the TDW MAVENS, has been an absolute blast and has allowed us to continue creating outstanding adult dance fitness class videos that inspire, educate, and exercise dancers, dance instructors, and dance studio owners across the country.

Intellectually, TDW satisfies my desires to run a small business; use my operational skills to create and manage our in-person and online divisions; learn new skills on a daily basis in marketing, photography, video editing, etc.; and exercise my skills as a leader. Artistically, TDW allows me to write and publish, design creative graphics for marketing, and choreograph incessantly while creating an endless supply of TDW masterclasses. Physically, TDW enables me to dance every single day of my life and reap the health benefits of being an adult athlete. Emotionally, both in class and out of class, TDW provides me a safe mental escape from the emotional pain that threatens to beat us all down every once in a while. Socially, TDW enables me to create a community, both locally and across the country, of women who love dance as much as I do and who come together, both in-person and virtually, to experience something magical together.  Spiritually, TDW keeps me closely connected to God and to my divine calling and purpose, as it enables me to find former dancers, inspire them to start dancing again, and help them get back into tip-top dancer’s shape. By paying it forward this way, I feel worthy of my own good fortune, and I feel deeply satisfied knowing we are changing the lives of women all across this country by helping them experience the outstanding joy and benefits of adult dance fitness.

More succinctly, the bottom line is that I love TDW because it keeps me wiggling and giggling with my friends.