03/26/2020
Southern Dance Explosion Dance Family,
First and foremost, I hope this message finds you and your loved ones untouched by the unforeseen madness we are all experiencing! I can say for my children and myself, we are adjusting to the new “norm” and handling it as well as can be expected!
I join with the SDE faculty, dancers, parents and friends wishing you all, our dance family every wish for the best for all of you now and as we move forward Together. Together we are strong! That strength will bring us to the other side of this with renewed purpose coupled with the love we have always shown for one another….that’s what makes us a Dance Family! We ARE going to get back to regular classes, we ARE going to compete again and we ARE going to have a recital (It may be later than we thought, but we WILL be lighting up a stage)!
I know some of us are still able to work and some of us have lost work due to Covid 19. Friday Brenna, Callie and I are recording classes to go online as well as live classes. I will send out a “Live” schedule to ensure everyone can attend! As well as “creative” activities to keep their creative juices flowing! We can even do some “private live” classes for those needing more one on one attention!
I know tuition may be difficult for some and for others not a problem as they are still working. Please message me and we can discuss each family’s individual situation and capabilities at this time! You can email me at [email protected] Facebook on our Southern Dance Explosion page or text me at 910-814-3339.
Dance Family Always! I say that because that is what SDE is: a Dance Family! We didn’t get that way by chance….just take a quick read (this is a condensed version)
My career took me to Las Vegas at 19 and that was my “home” for the next twenty years. I didn’t always lay my head on a “Vegas pillow” as I was fortunate to perform/direct/choreograph several tours that took me to countries I may not have seen otherwise.
We have strong roots here in Harnett County (especially Lillington) going back to my mom, aunts and uncles who all attended and graduated from what is now Star Academy class of 1948! From my grandmother running her own business; the Frock Shop on Front Street where she sold fabulous fabrics and made beautiful clothes, to the sandwich and floral shops owned by my mother as a young woman before moving to Washington DC.
While I was living in Vegas Lillington had its Centennial and as my mother did every year, she caught her flight to see our family as well as longtime family friends. She came back to Vegas with a crazy idea….. Move back to Lillington and open a dance studio! As she got more involved in her story as to why I should, my mind started going to what I had to do to fix a choreography problem in “Air Play” (a show I choreographed and managed at the Tropicana Hotel). A day or two went by, she mentioned it again and I still didn’t really give it much thought. Finally, after she had brought it up again it HIT me! And I honestly asked her, “Mom do you think I can truly leave Vegas and open a studio in Lillington after being gone for so long?” She told me, “The Lord put this on my heart to mention to you” and my mom didn’t mention much more, as it was me now asking the questions, “Mom you really think we can do it?” I had looked on line and had not seen any studios even listed in Lillington.
So in June of 2004, we caught a flight to North Carolina to see what the possibilities were…and they were endless! Everything I wrote down in my notes that I needed the Lord showed me on my trip! Went back to Vegas, still not 100 percent convinced of what had been laid on my heart, said a lot of prayers if it is Your will please let me know. Well He did and it wasn’t until New Year’s eve 2004 that I made up my mind. I was running through the Rio Hotel as I was late for a New Year’s eve gig and I literally bumped and almost knocked down a man, but it wasn’t just any man….he was from LILLINGTON, NC! I kid you not!! I even questioned he was from Lillington and asked him what’s the best barbeque place around and he said “Howard’s of course”! I knew that was my sign and January 2005 I signed my last six month contract with Dick Foster Productions, prepared to give up all that I had known for the last 20 years and venture out on pure FAITH!
July 2005, my life changed forever as Dance EFX/SDE opened and when I say each and every child has been a blessing to me; I truly mean that! You have absolutely no idea what these kids and their newly found love for an art that moves my soul has done for me! I am the one who is blessed!
My reason for telling this story??? My “coming back home” was based on pure FAITH! If HE leads you to it, HE will see you through it! And I have so much more inside this crazy mind that is bursting to get out and on the bodies of our SuperStars! We have way too much to do!
We are going to come out stronger from this on the other side!
Please stay safe and we love you!
Ms. Jayme
