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Pat's dance school celebrates 45 years

Pat’s dancers from seventh grade through high school will perform ‘45 years: A Celebration of Dance’ at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Hendersonville High School auditorium.

From humble beginnings, Pat Shepherd taught dance lessons in her parents’ house while still in high school. Forty-five years later her studio continues to be a second home for dancers.

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Pat’s School of Dance has won countless awards, recognizing her choreography and dancers’ technique in competitions.
“I just want to inspire people and to make my dancers feel the love of dancing and have the passion that I have,” Shepherd said. “I enjoy every moment.”
The studio has 450 dancers enrolled currently and thousands more have come through Pat’s doors since she began teaching.
“I really hope in 45 years I’ve stimulated people, motivated and encouraged them, influenced and energized them to be the best they can be,” Shepherd said. “Hopefully everyone leaves a little happier.”
It all started when Pat asked her parents for a new pair of jeans. They told her she’d have to get a job to pay for them.
“Jeans were expensive back then,” Shepherd said.
Instead of giving her money, her grandfather agreed to loan her $500 to convert a room in her parents’ house into a dance studio complete with mirrors and a dance floor. Pat began teaching classes and was able to pay the money back and afford the new jeans by the end of the first year.
At 15 years old, Shepherd had 27 students who paid $7 each month for dance lessons. She worked after school every day and put on her first recital in 1971 with help from her family. They used bedsheets as curtains and a record player for the music. By her senior year at West Henderson High School, Shepherd had bought a dishwasher for her family’s home. She went on to study ballet at the N.C. School of the Arts.
Growing up, Shepherd said, there was only tap, jazz and ballet.
“Words like hip hop, lyrical and contemporary were not (dance) words yet,” she said.
Shepherd teaches students “to push through, be a good teammate, accept corrections, accept your body and be confident. We’re artists; our bodies are art.”


45 years of dance


This week, Pat’s dancers are performing a tribute to the studio’s history called “45 years: A Celebration of Dance.”
Shepherd herself dances to “Steppin’ Out with My Baby,” followed by an Elvis medley that includes “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock.” Next comes Motown with a Stevie Wonder medley, then the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.” Prince and Run DMC represent the ‘80s section, with “Rapper’s Delight” playing during a performance by dance dads.
“I can’t dance, but it’s fun,” said DJ Harrington. “It’s cool to be a small part of it.”
After dancing at Pat’s for 15 years, third generation dancer Alli Surrette graduates from Hendersonville High School this month.
“I think of them as my second family,” she said. “I can always call if I need them. All my best friends are here.”
Her mother and owner of Dance Etc., Carole Ann Surrette, began dancing at Pat’s in 1971. Alli’s grandmother, Annette Baber, started dancing at Pat’s at age 57, in 1996, and continues to take tap classes.
Sher Shepherd-Phillips starting coming with her mom to the studio when she was 2 and continued dancing there through high school. After college, Shepherd-Phillips performed for Tokyo Disney before returning to Pat’s School of Dance. She met and married Dustin Phillips, who had signed on as a guest choreographer and now works fulltime alongside Sher and her mother.
“She came back here to make this a legacy,” Shepherd said of Sher.
Shepherd choreographed the 1998 Orange Bowl Parade in Miami. Sher and Dustin will continue the chain. The couple was recently chosen to choreograph this year’s Orange Bowl.
Shepherd and her husband, John, were in the original Dirty Dancing movie, as well as the recent remake. Dancers in the remake filmed here rehearsed at Shepherd’s studio before filming began.
“It was like deja vu,” Shepherd said.
Shepherd’s students travel and dance in popular shows even after they leave her studio.
“We have kids on Broadway, on cruise ships, at Disney World and as back-up dancers for artists,” Shepherd-Phillips said.
Last December, Pat’s School of Dance took a group of young dancers to perform at the 2015 Holiday Bowl halftime show in San Diego.
“We do have high expectations,” Shepherd-Phillips said. “All the kids are trained to a point where they could go on to dance professionally or in college.”
Phillips, who first came to Pat’s as a guest choreographer in 2002, has been there full time for three years.
“We are still committed to giving kids the solid dance education they need,” Phillips said. “The patience, talent and passion of 45 years.”

 

Pat’s dance recitals

  • Tap, Jazz & Hip Hop recitals featuring dancers ages 2-18:
 2 p.m. Saturday.
  • Performing Arts Showcase: 7 p.m. Saturday.
  • Disney Classics & Snow White Ballet: 7 p.m. Monday.
  • Shows are at the HHS auditorium. Admission is free.