September 2011. Big Dance. Small City: Can quality dance instruction thrive outside the big city limits?

So, here’s an idea whose time has come. It’s called the Natchez Dance Theater, organized by dance instructor Mignon Reid, who since 2006 has been the artist director of Natchez Ballet Academy, a forty-year institution in Natchez.

When it comes to dance, Natchez, Mississippi may not be the first place that pops to mind, but that is exactly Reid’s idea—to assemble in Natchez outstanding, classically trained but modern-oriented guest artists and teachers, and to provide hands-on individualized instruction and inspirational performances. It’s a great idea for regional dance students and dance enthusiasts who simply cannot afford to get out of their own backyards, or who might not know where to go if they could.

“I feel that it is necessary for our community to see dance as an art form and I would like to provide a place for those who have passion for it to take themselves to the level of artist,” says Reid, a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a BFA in Dance Education, former member of the Southern Missississippi Repertory Dance Company and before moving back home to lead Natchez Ballet Academy, a dance and theater instructor in Raleigh, North Carolina’s public schools.

Reid says she would also like to see serious dance students from this area reveal the greater artistic elements of dance to the community by forming a local dance company which will feature performances with both local and guest artists. “I’d like for our community to see that dance is not just an after-school activity—Natchez Dance Theater will provide a way for those who take it seriously to pursue it.”

“Natchez has always been a community that values art and artistic expression. Dance is one more component of that,” says Brett Brinegar, director of student affairs at the Natchez campus of Copiah Lincoln Junior College, and a Natchez Dance Theater board member. “We would really like to see more emphasis in this region on dance as an art form, and also to provide an opportunity for youth in our community to participate in a setting where they can work with dance professionals from all over the country.”

This summer Reid brought a group of four guest professional dancers and teachers to Natchez, for what she called the Natchez Dance Theater Summer Intensive. Collectively the guest instructors have experience and training from the likes of Joffrey Ballet School, The Ailey School, Metropolitan Ballet Academy, and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

“We had twenty kids attend the first annual summer intensive—and they were from all over, not just from this studio—I’d say about a third were from other dance schools,” says Reid. And that’s a big deal. “That’s part of the goal of Natchez Dance Theater—to educate all kinds of dancers in our area on all kinds of dance.”

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