Ballet

Mary Claire has lived in Memphis her whole life and was homeschooled through elementary school, middle school, and high school. She is a long-time Bellevue member and began ballet at the early age of 3. She began training at Ballet 5, 6, 7, 8 in East Memphis, and after finishing the early levels of dance, she continued her dance training at the Buckman Performing and Fine Arts Center. Mary Claire received most of her training during ages 9 through 19 at Independent Presbyterian Church Ballet (IPC Ballet). There, she trained under a Christian-based teaching technique that allowed each girl to learn to use her talents to dance for the Lord. Mary Claire’s goal is to relay that same love of dance to each ballet dancer she teaches so they can discover their abilities to worship and praise the Lord through their movements. Mary Claire is currently a sophomore at the University of Memphis and is studying to earn her degree in early childhood education, with hopes to become a 1st grade teacher. She loves to spend her free time with her family, friends, and sorority sisters.

Gabby began ballet lessons at the age of 4 and was classically trained at Ballet Memphis for nine years. She has performed in “The Nutcracker,” “Cinderella,” and “The Wizard of Oz” at the Orpheum Theatre. Gabby grew up taking violin lessons at Bellevue’s School of Performing Arts and is now pursuing a career in music at the University of Memphis. Gabby’s dedication to music and passion for dance are often intertwined. Her desire is to provide young girls with a firm foundation of ballet training and teach them to glorify the Lord through dance. “Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes!” Psalm 150:4 (NLT)

Yvette Lewis began her ballet training with Nancy Sulik at Ballet Academy of Corpus Christi, Texas, performing in classical ballets including The Nutcracker, The Firebird, Cinderella, Coppélia, and La Fille Mal Gardée. At age 13, she began assisting with preschool dance classes under the mentorship of Mrs. Sulik and helped launch the Encore Performing Arts Outreach program in local schools to introduce children to the magic of music and dance. At age 15, Mrs. Lewis moved with her family to live in Saudi Arabia, where she started ballet classes for the expatriate children in her community. She enjoyed teaching students from Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and India before returning to the U.S. for college. Mrs. Lewis graduated summa cum laude from Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi, with a degree in Elementary Education and a minor in Dance. While completing her degree, she taught at Ballet Magnificat School of the Arts and eventually rose to serve as director of the school’s Junior Company. Mrs. Lewis completed her student teaching at Wells APAC, an advanced academic and performing arts school in Jackson, Mississippi. She is certified to teach K-8 in both Mississippi and Tennessee, as well as K-12 in the areas of Dance, English, Literacy, and History. Upon graduation, Mrs. Lewis joined the Belhaven University dance faculty as an adjunct professor, where she continued refining her skills as a teacher of the Vaganova ballet curriculum with freshman and sophomore students. Mrs. Lewis later left her role at Belhaven to help found a professional dance company in Jackson. As part of Polarity Dance Theater, she performed original ballet and modern works in local shows and on tour in the region, as well as in Times Square for Project Dance New York. After marrying her husband, Brian, Mrs. Lewis chose to put her education degree to work in the classroom and taught for Jackson Public Schools until the birth of her first child. A mother of two sons, Mrs. Lewis has homeschooled her children since 2011. In 2014, Mrs. Lewis and her family relocated to the Memphis area, where she continued to teach ballet in Germantown. In January 2023, Mrs. Lewis joined the staff of the SPA ballet school as Program Director where she organizes curriculum, directs teacher training and development, and teaches the upper level extra classes.