Once upon a time, in Tennessee, a land not that far away, a young girl dreamed of a dance studio where people could find connection and community while also growing as artists and humans.

In 2003, the girl moved from Tennessee to North Carolina as one of the recipients of the prestigious Park Scholarship at NC State University. Concerned about the arts not being a professional enough career path, she started pursuing a path towards being an attorney. She quickly realized she did not want to trade the ballet barre for the BAR exam and decided to stick with her dream. With that decision, she set forth to combine business and bold creativity, creating new precedents for not only the dance education industry but the entire children's extracurricular market.

Operating under the working name 'Studio C', during a November 2008 trip to New York City, the studio found its official identity as Stage Door Dance Productions. The Stage Door represents a gateway to greatness, a symbol of the hard work, commitment, and collaboration required to turn an idea into a reality. It would serve as the perfect name for this new institution.

The area by the Raleigh-Durham airport was a newer development for shopping and living. It seemed like the perfect location for the first location, and in June 2009, the doors opened at SDD: Brier Creek. In 2014, our second location followed at SDD: Lake Boone. This boutique location is an extension of our primary facility and allows our brand to reach a wider audience in the Triangle area. We often receive the question if we are a national company or a franchise, and we are not. The studio is a small, local business that was built from the ground up. Our community was carefully curated one dancer, one family, and one staff member at a time.

Performance has always been a core piece of our programming. Initially, we participated in competitions. Eventually, we realized competitive dance wasn't true to our vision. So, we did something that had rarely been done: we stopped. In 2015, we started our journey away from dance competitions, focusing on a rebrand that disrupted the industry and set us apart in the market. At the heart of the rebrand was the development of our unique heightened dance education experience: the Intensive Training Program, which evolved into the Be More Performance Ensemble. Here, dancers cultivate their passion for technique and performance, develop their leadership and character, and move towards a focus on community.

Since 2017, our dancers have raised over $100,000 for our benefit partners, and our impact is just beginning. We launched an affiliated non-profit, Girls Geared For Greatness, that has evolved into its own 501(c)(3). We have a TEDx talk and two books (Trash the Trophies and Handle the Horrible) structured around our journey, and the power of what we do. For us, dance and the performing/visual arts are the greatest return on investment you can offer a child, and our commitment to evolving and providing that to each and every student is at the forefront of our mission.

Our dancers are showing exemplary success in every area of life. Our alumni have attended prestigious academic and arts universities (some, on full scholarship), performed on Broadway and in Film/TV, and have thoughtfully returned to share HOW the arts impacted their leadership, success, and desire to positively influence others.

"Be More At Stage Door" isn't just our tagline.

It is a personal and professional calling to bring our best, every day, in all we do.