www.roanoke.com

Floyd Ward Dance Studio has been dancing in the Lynchburg -Roanoke area for the past 80 years.

Owners Carlton and Valerie Moses of Fincastle and her mother Elma Layman of Roanoke have owned the studios in Botetourt and Vinton since 1999.

Floyd Ward and her sister originated the studio in Lynchburg. She was a dancer of the calibre of Isadora Duncan and spent time in Hollywood, California learning choreography. Though she has been dead a number of years, her dance legacy lives on in Daleville in a studio across from Lord Botetourt High School and two studios in Vinton.

The fall season is approaching. When the family group purchased the dance studios they spent 6 weeks putting in a spring floor in Daleville and making adjustments, said Carlton Moses. Every year they average about 800 dance students in the three studios and 225 of those come from Botetourt County. They teach ages 3 through adult.

Many of our students have gone on to major in dance and some of them are dance instructors now said Valerie Moses. Her daughter DeLisa FiGart teaches and her granddaughters are dance students Cameren Hayes and Remington Fi Gart. So even at the school logistics, the family is part of the school.

They teach tap, ballett, lyrical, clogging, liturgical, hip-hop, modern and jazz dancing.

Jill Graybill of Blue Ridge has been teaching at Floyd Ward for over 30 years. She actually had Floyd Ward as a teacher. "It is a creative outlet the sharing of a skill is a joy to share the joy with young children as they express themselves through dance."

They have tryouts for their very successful traveling dance groups that venture off to dance competitions along the east coast. Every year they rent the Roanoke Civic Center for a dance recital on Memorial Day weekend. the performance goes on for four hours noted Moses.

To join the dance classes or examine a fall schedule go to floydwarddance.com or call
345-1633 for information on registering for a dance class.