Hello. I am 35 and teach/live in a small rural town in North Dakota where it's very cold in the winter. This is my third year teaching here, and I now have 9 classes with 35 students. Prior to that, I lived in Wyoming where I taught jazz and musical theatre on and off during and since college. I now teach pre-dance, ballet, and jazz. I started dance at age 7 in my small town in Wyoming with Judy Wilson, learning in places like church basements. I just love her! I did a lot of performing in high school, college and beyond. Musicals are my main thing. I tried teaching musical theatre for a couple of years, but found it to be frustrating. I'd love to visit with some teachers who teach MT to see how you do it. My first two years I had my own studio here in ND, but the building was sold, and now I teach as an employee of the city. However, I have a very nice space and they take care of billing, so that's all good. I shredded my left knee in 2000 while taking a master hip hop class, and shredded my right knee earlier this year while working on a tap routine! The doctor said I need to lose weight and train if I want to keep dancing, so I lost 26 pounds. I've been at the same weight around 180 for 6 months now, but I need to get busy and lose some more. I get to do some semi-professional theater from time to time. This summer, I got to play "Mrs. Potts" in "Beauty and the Beast" at Frost Fire Summer Theatre frostfiretheatre.com, and "Mama Morton" in "Chicago," which is my dream show! I also direct theater for our local arts council, and work at a radio station during the day. Most days I love teaching, when I'm not dealing with whiners. Like today, this one girl is just always tired! And I'm thinking, "You're only six!" It does my soul good to dance and create and choreograph. I've had a few girls in ballet for two years, and they're really starting to get it! Ballet was never my emphasis in dance, probably because I was not naturally good at it. No extension, turnout, and so forth. So I'll teach these kids as long as I can give them something, and when they get too good for me, I will send them along to better teachers. I got a minor in dance in college. The weight gain happened after I stopped dancing 3 hours a day. Funny how that works! Thank you for reading and it's fun to share. I enjoy reading about everyone else's experiences.