Tammy Rhoades-Baldwin MFA
University of Arizona
c) 1991
I’m pleased you’ve found your way to my website, and I hope you’ll find many things here that will help you as you move forward in your dance career. To break it down a little, I’ve included some basic information below.
Who is this site for?
Teachers! You will find…
- Lots of ballet combinations!
- Post about teaching different levels of class, like Pre-Ballet and Beginning Ballet
- Information about how to make ballet combinations fun, and how to construct them
Dancers! You will find…
- Information on improving your technique
- How to think about weight and managing pain
- Find out the 10 ways to make performance butterflies work for you!
- Interviews with professional dancers
About me
My name is Tammy Rhoades-Baldwin and I have a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Dance from the University of Arizona. After spending most of my life in the Midwest (Indiana and Kentucky), I moved to North Carolina in 2000. While I was in Kentucky I danced with the Lexington Ballet and opened and managed a dancewear store called Dance Essentials, Inc. We sold the store after 10 years, but it was a neat experience. I have three really cool kids who have little to no interest in dance, but who are all musical and coordinated. 🙂 They play piano, violin, or guitar and enjoy Tae Kwon Do, yoga, and soccer. I work a “real” job in IT at Wells Fargo Bank in Charlotte. In my free time, I love yoga, crocheting blankets, painting in acrylics, learning calligraphy, reading all kinds of non-fiction as well as novels by authors like Jodi Picoult, Sophie Kinsella, and Cecelia Ahern, and seeing my kids grow up into wonderful people.
I had a bilateral cheilectomy in 2013 to remove bone spurs and arthritis at the base of my big toes. I’m almost to the point now that I can get up on demi-pointe, so I am hopeful that I’ll be able to teach again soon. BUT! Until then, that’s where my website comes in! I can stay involved in dance by offering combinations that I used when I was teaching. Knowing that I’m helping other dancers and teachers, maybe giving them a fresh idea or two, maybe encouraging them when they feel like giving up…this is how I can stay connected to my passion.
Please note that the combinations on the blog are simple for a reason. They are supposed to be easy to grasp and malleable enough for you to shape into the level of class or the particular dancers you are teaching. I don’t want to make it cumbersome to comb through detail that might only make it too confusing to follow and put to use. I am not doing this to tell you how to teach ballet; I’m doing this to give you ideas that may be useful in your classes.
My credentials
Education: BS, MFA
I hold a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Arizona and BS in Ballet from Indiana University. Starting early, I attended two years at Butler University as a high school student in their early enrollment program.
Teaching experience (ballet, pointe, and some tap):
Indiana University, University of Arizona, University of Kentucky, and Eastern Kentucky University. The School of Lexington Ballet, the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Lexington, KY (a magnet middle school), and Town and Village School of Dance in Paris, KY (to name a few).
Feel free to contact me. I’d love to get suggestions for the site and your feedback is always welcome!