When a journalist from The New York Times emails you wanting to discuss father-daughter dances, you email her back.
After several phone calls, one photo shoot and lots of sleepless nights fretting about how it was all going to turn out — I actually don’t love it when there is too much attention on me versus my students — the article came out on Father’s Day online and IN PRINT!
Photo courtesy of @alixstrauss, the journalist who conceived this article and made it happen.
I was out of town when the article was published, so I stopped at a grocery store to see if there were any physical copies I could purchase. It was so fun to flip through a physical paper and see the article in the Vows section. Just like the good ‘ol days when I was in the local Beckley, WV paper for a dance-related story and my mom would cut it out for me and put the clipping in my bin of memories.
The main page of the article has a looping video of my lesson with Anna & Jim, a father-daughter pair who did a mashup.
The online article even has a video of me teaching a recent father-daughter pair, Anna & her dad Jim, a mashup dance that they performed together the day before Father’s Day! I love that the moonwalking is included; I spent a lot of time when I was a kid learning how to do the moonwalk!
The photos and videos for the article were masterfully captured by @amstewartphotography.
A moment of gratitude
It’s really lovely to be featured and called out for your work, but I would have never be here without the support of so many people who have shaped me throughout my life, including my parents who put me in dance classes and have always supported my dancing dreams from age 3 until now.
Or my husband, who got a shoutout in the article (“Jordan Kvanvig, 40” 😆) who originally gave me the idea to teach lessons out of our house because he was already doing it with piano, and for continually supporting my crazy ideas, dancing with me in videos, and taking care of the girls while I do all the things it takes to run this business.
I’m also so grateful to my dance teachers growing up and in college, especially Mr. Rose, Ms. Heather, Brianne, Jacki and Gretchen for teaching me how to dance in the first place, for exposing me to so many different styles of dance and performance opportunities, and for giving me many examples of ways to keep dance in my life, even after high school/college.
And of course, many thanks to my students who have decided that I was a worthy teacher to help guide them through the most important dances of their lives. Without you, I wouldn’t get to pursue this passion as my full-time gig. I love being your dance teacher/cheerleader/therapist! 🙌📣🤣
Click here to read the full article.
Take wedding dance lessons with me in person or online
If you are just now discovering me and would like to learn from me, there are two immediate ways you can do that. If you live near Charlotte, NC, you can take private lessons with me at my home studio in Charlotte. If you live somewhere else in the world, I have 50+ online tutorials, including father-daughter songs, that you can enroll in and work on at your convenience.
