Valley Dance Theatre

ABOUT US

ABOUT THE STUDIO

Valley Dance Theatre opened its doors in August 2004 and since then has attracted students from throughout the greater Huntsville-Madison area.

STUDIO TOUR

The facility has the following features:

full stage sized studio equipped with a professional wood-sprung Marley covered floor

state-of-the-art equipment

viewing windows (for parent observation of classes)

comfortable waiting room

break room for the dancers

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Leigh-Anne Beam

Leigh-Anne Beam received a B.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography from the University of Alabama in 1999. During her 4 years at Alabama Leigh-Anne was blessed with many wonderful performance and training opportunities. She was accepted into the Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre in '95 and performed and toured with the company for 4 years under the direction of Cornelius Carter and Edie Barnes. She was also a performing and choreographing member of DanceAlabama! the student dance company. During that time her choreography was consistently selected to be showcased in the DanceAlabama! student choreography concerts.
In the Spring of '97 she was nationally auditioned and selected for a cast of dancers to highlight the opening of America's 1st Mercedes-Benz plant. That summer she performed for Steven Spielberg and other celebrities at the internationally broadcast Mercedes-Benz Grand Opening Extravaganza.
When the American Ballet Theatre decided to host their 1st satellite summer intensive program outside of New York City on the Alabama Campus, Leigh-Anne was awarded full scholarship for the position of counselor both that summer ('97) and the next ('98). This gave her the opportunity to study with America's premiere ballet company's former principal dancers Cynthia Harvey, Rebecca Wright, Megali Messac, Roger van Fleteren, Wes Chapman and others.
In '98 she was 1 of 26 internationally auditioned dancers chosen to study and perform at America's oldest dance festival and mecca of modern dance, Jacob's Pillow. There she studied jazz, modern, and tap with jazz master Danny Buraczeski, modern guru Donald Byrd, Katherine Dunham's 3rd partner Vanoye Aikens, tap legend Dianne "Lady Di" Walker, and others.
Later that summer she continued her training in London, England after acceptance into the British World Dance Theatre Workshop. This enabled her to study ballet and contemporary styles with former Royal Ballet principals Anna du Boisson, Mark Silver, Laura Connor, the Kirov Ballet's Zina Marmedova, and Stuart Thomas.
Her time in the university's dance program enabled her with many other opportunities during the year, like attending the ACDF (American College Dance Festival). She assisted teaching the college class for beginning ballet, jazz and modern. She participated in lecture demonstrations and performances for schools and community organizations throughout the region. In the summer of '96 she established a dance program for Huntsville Housing Authority's College of Discovery. She returned the summer of '97 to not only teach dance but to add a music program as well.
Upon graduation she moved back to Huntsville and taught locally for 4 years. She was a finalist in Panoply's Choreography Competition both in '01 (Desplazar) and '02 (Habanera) and received an honorable mention in '03 (Matrix). She opened Valley Dance Theatre in August 2004 and since then her company dancers have received numerous platinum, gold, and overall high scores and choreography awards.
Leigh-Anne is passionate about dance, adores children, and is grateful for the blessing of being able to enjoy both through owning her own studio. Her greatest joy in teaching comes from seeing her students develop not just as artists, but as confident human beings.

OUR FACULTY

Amy Zook

Amy Zook received a B.S. in Nursing from the University of Alabama in 2008. She is employed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Huntsville Hospital. Amy was a graduate of Grissom High School and was a member of Grissom's prestigious Images Dance Ensemble for four years under the direction of Stephanie Braly-Beutjer.
She served as Images Captain her last two years and was the President of the Student Dance Board her senior year. Amy has won numerous awards for her dancing, including platinum, gold and high place overalls at DEA and DMA. In the solo dance category she placed first statewide at the High School Thespian Festival of Alabama her senior year. Amy has performed various roles including Dance Juliet in the GHS production of Romeo and Juliet; as well as Clara, Snow Queen and the Sugar Plum Fairy in DanzArtz Company's production of the Nutcracker. Amy has six years of experience teaching in the areas of jazz, tap, modern and ballet. Previously taught by Leigh-Anne Beam, Amy is very thankful to be working as a part of Valley Dance Theatre's growing and productive program.

Rebbecca Alferink

Rebbecca holds a B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University. She works at Dynetics, Inc. She started studying dance at age 3 and has been dancing ever since! Her technique expanded by taking ballet, pointe, jazz, and tap through high school at Studio 2 in Lincoln, Nebraska. With Studio 2 she participated in numerous dance workshops and festivals including competing at Dance Master of America. During high school she taught Creative movement and Ballet to kids ages 3-7 at the Calvert Recreation Center through the Lincoln Parks and Recreation.
She continued her ballet studies in college expanding also into modern technique and becoming a member of the Higher Ground Dance Company. Performances with HGDC included dancing to raise money for the Women's Shelter to fight Domestic Violence.

Laura Burns

Miss Laura has been dancing since she was seven years old. She was inspired by seeing her older sister dance in the Nutcracker: The Next Generation to get involved in dance. Miss Laura's first class was tap and then jazz, ballet, and modern soon followed. Laura danced at Performing Dance Arts for ten years where she was active in many of their community shows and Junior and Senior Companies.
In Performing Dance Arts Nutcracker: The Next Generation, Miss Laura received some of her favorite roles including: Nutcracker Doll (2000), Snow (2002-2004), and Clara (2005). She also played Zipporah, Moses' wife in 2006's Prince of Egypt. She then moved to Valley Dance Theatre and became part of the Senior Company. While in High School, Miss Laura was involved in Images Dance Ensemble. While in Images, she also served as the Secretary and Co-President of the Student Dance Board and Nu Delta Alpha Dance Honor Society. Laura graduated in 2008 from Grissom High School. Laura now attends the University of Alabama in Huntsville where she is studying Marketing hoping to receive a job in Acquisition Management when she graduates. Miss Laura is very excited and honored to be able to spread her passion for dance to others.