Grande Dames of the Ballet Boards – 10 Questions with the Ladies Lumpkin and Harris

By Cynthia Boiter The adage that behind every great man is a great woman has never been truer than when peering over the shoulders of the artistic directors of Columbia’s two top ballet companies, William Starrett of Columbia City Ballet and Radenko Pavlovich of Columbia Classical Ballet. Respectively, Coralee Harris and Lee Lumpkin have served for years as the backbones of the ballet companies they love, support, sponsor, and fight for. Sometimes... Read More

Dale Lam

By Bonnie Boiter-Jolley Dale Lam packs a lot of punch in her four feet and ten inch stance. Spending her life fighting to make a career for herself in the entertainment industry has instilled in her a passion and drive she hopes to pass on to her students. Owner and Artistic Director of Columbia City Jazz Dance School and Company, Lam finds herself in a position to use her guidance and instruction to do just that. Born in Augusta, Georgia, Lam grew... Read More

Journy Wilkes-Davis – Telling Stories through Dance

By Bonnie Boiter-Jolley Twenty-three year-old Journy Wilkes-Davis comes from a tight knit, supportive family of seven. The Columbia City Ballet dancer says that though his parents have always been “extremely supportive” of his dance career, they are also his biggest critics – something he is grateful for. It is no surprise that this combination of support and criticism have led Wilkes-Davis to constantly pursue the perfection of his craft. He... Read More

Terrance Henderson and the Power to Evolve

By Bonnie Boiter-Jolley You may know him as the artistic director of Vibrations Dance Company, the founder of Dimensions Dance Festival, director of Trustus Theatre’s recent production of “Smokey Joe’s Café,” or as teacher at Columbia Ballet School, Southeastern School of Ballet, or Logan Elementary. You may admire him for his stunningly honest choreography, intense joy of life, gravity-defying movement, or his big ideas for the arts in Columbia.... Read More

Stacey Calvert – Columbia’s Dance Connection?

By Bonnie Boiter-Jolley When Stacey Calvert was 15-years-old, she was one of a very few young dancers selected from literally thousands to attend the prestigious year-round program at the School of American Ballet in New York City.  When her mother, Naomi Calvert, one half of the famed Calvert Brodie School of Dance in Columbia, South Carolina, told her she could not go, she quit.  For nine months, the stubborn young Calvert was a cheerleader instead... Read More

Off Pointe and Into the World – Costume Designer Alexis Doktor

by Susan Levi Wallach Twelve weeks after dancing the role of Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty, the Columbia City Ballet’s season finale – which also is twelve weeks into her retirement as a ballet dancer – Alexis Doktor is thinking that the only thing better than being a dancer is not being a dancer. “I never liked ballet class,” she says over midmorning coffee. “I never liked the rehearsal process or anything in the studio. I’m not going... Read More

Natalie Brown – Keeping the Circus Going

By Cynthia Boiter Keep the circus going inside you, keep it going, don’t take anything too seriously, it’ll all     work out in the end. — David Niven Many years ago, and certainly before Columbia performing artist Natalie Brown was born, there was a game show which ran on the CBS network from 1950 until 1967 called What’s My Line? The point of the program was for four regularly appearing celebrity panelists to try to guess... Read More

Caroline Lewis Jones Loves Herself and is Glad

By Bonnie Boiter-Jolley Caroline Lewis Jones told her parents that she wanted to be a professional dancer when she was twelve years old. Now at 30, the performer, choreographer, and teacher whose impressive career has led her to New York City, Tokyo, and Los Angeles, among other exciting places, is back in South Carolina and stronger and smarter than ever. The powerhouse still has no room for “trying” in her vocabulary, only “doing”. Known... Read More