Nancy And Art Stone Bio

Nancy Stone and Art Stone

Nancy and Art Stone are two of the legends of the dance industry. They have been involved in every important aspect that affects dance teachers and their students.

Photos (left)

Nancy and Art when they
were just married.
Art at the beginning of his
dance career (inset)

Nancy Stone is from a small southern town where she ran a dance studio for over forty years teaching children from pre-school to teenagers all the basic rudiments of tap, ballet and jazz, as well as ballroom dancing to her older students and some of their parents. She danced with the Scott Calligan Dancers and was the assistant dance director of The Atlanta Children's Civic Theatre for years.

From this small town and this growing studio came many students who went on to become dancers who made their mark in the dance world. Two of her proudest protégés are Robbie Mackey and Patricia Dickinson.

After getting her earliest training from Nancy, Patricia was given the opportunity to study with Karen Conrad (founding member of the American Ballet, later American Ballet Theatre) and her husband Pittman Corey at the Southern Ballet Company in Atlanta. She received a BFA in dance, cum laude and joined the Dallas Ballet and Dallas Opera Ballet. She became a faculty member for Dance Olympus and toured the country giving master classes. She is currently the Artistic Director of The New Mexico Ballet Company and owner of Dance Theatre Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

After studying with Nancy, Robbie joined Dan & Company under the supervision of Dan Youmans in Atlanta, Georgia. Robbie later began his professional career as a World Dancer for the Disney Corp. in Orlando Florida. It did not take long for the Disney Organization to see his talent both as a dancer and a choreographer and now Robbie is a world wide choreographer for Disney. He also choreographed the half time show for the Super Bowl as well as many other industrials. Robbie now spends most of his time traveling to Europe and Asia to choreograph for some of the biggest names in the entertainment business.

As a young studio owner, Nancy attended dance conventions where she met her future husband Art. They made a great team and there was no stopping them from that point on.

Art Stone came from a dancing mother and father who had already made their imprint on the dance industry. Jules Stone was a vaudevillian who opened a studio in New York and met his wife when she enrolled in his classes. They became a dance team and danced all over the East Coast before becoming involved in the fledgling dance convention phenomenon. Jules was at the beginning of most of the young organizations such as Dance Educators of America (D.E.A.), Dance Masters of America (D.M.A.), and the National Association of Dance and Affiliated Artists (N.A.D.A.A.), and helped them grow into the respected organizations they became.

Their son Art did not follow in their footsteps for the longest while. He was an athletic child who hated dance from the beginning since in those days when he said he couldn't come to practice because he had to go to his "dance lesson", he had his share of daily bruises. When he went to college his whole vision changed. Becoming involved in musicals and getting a job teaching children in a local school piqued his interest, and in just a few months his dancing took on a whole new dimension and he found his chosen profession. He danced in shows all around the Northeast and finally opened a studio in Long Island, New York which he ran for many years. When Jules Stone, Bob Kimble and Danny Hoctor started the Dance Caravan, Art was one of the first teachers to join the selected few and the industry made a sudden U-turn.

Art Stone (left, in white tap boots) dancing
with Frank Hatchett (center) and
Ronald Matty (right) at 'Dance Caravan'
(before it became 'Dance Olympus')

Up until that time most of the big conventions were held in just a few major cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Now the traveling convention of Dance Caravan added other cities such as St. Louis, Kansas City, Cleveland, Detroit, New Orleans and Atlanta, and then even a place called Las Vegas. This new upstart was a major success and opened the door for so many dance teachers in so many smaller venues to learn from the masters of Broadway. Years later, Jules and Art branched out and started Dance Olympus which today is one of the largest and most respected dance conventions in the country. Art started a costume manufacturing company during that time and it became a major focus in his life. Art Stone/ The Competitor is today one of the largest manufacturers of costumes for dance studios and regional ballet companies in the United States.

When Nancy and Art met it really was a marriage made in heaven. They both loved dance, each had run their own studios, knew the dance field backwards and forward and were eager to do more in their chosen field. With the help of their friend Richard DiSarno who joined their company they added a competition arm to their growing company and called it Danceamerica. This new division grew rapidly and immediately became a standard to which many other competitions strived to emulate, Their main difference was that they felt a competition should be a learning experience, so it was required that competitors who competed on Saturday were required to take classes at the Dance Olympus convention that took place on Sunday. To this day this is still their philosophy and they run their organization based on these beliefs. A few years later they started the International Dance Challenge (IDC) which was a competition for those teachers and students who just wanted to compete, and this too has become a leading competition company in the ever growing and crowded field of dance competitions.

Nancy Stone has gone even further. Today she is the National Honorary Chairperson for National Dance Week, on the board of directors of the United Dance Merchants of America (UDMA), she is on the advisory board of Dance Spirit Magazine, the advisory board for Dancers Responding to Aids (DRA) and writes articles for Goldrush Magazine.

With all this, Nancy Stone and Art Stone have found time to raise their daughter Ashley and Art's son Erik, of whom they are justly proud. Ashley lives in Washington D.C and is an editor for The Kaiser Report, a daily internet article on HIV-AIDS and women's health issues. Erik lives in Colorado and is News and Sports Director for KLMR-AM radio. No, they didn't follow in the footsteps of their dancing parents.

There isn't much that these two energetic people haven't done that hasn't impacted the dance industry in a powerful and positive way. When their peers refer to them as "legends", it is a title that fits them perfectly.