Today we’d like to introduce you to Deanna Patterson Cobb.
Hi Deanna, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I began taking dance lessons as a young girl growing up in South Carolina. While taking classes at the studio in Columbia, SC, my love of the art of dance continued to grow and I started spending nearly all of my free time outside of school at the studio.
I regularly performed in-studio productions and events and took every opportunity I was given to learn, even accepting a teaching apprentice position shadowing my dance instructors in the younger classes. When I was old enough, the studio I grew up in offered me a position as a full-time instructor.
I continued teaching and performing and even competed on the television show “Dance Fever” in Los Angeles, California. I loved dancing and teaching so much that I opened my own dance studio in 1981. Forty years later, I’m still running the Patterson School of Dance in Lugoff, SC.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Of course, there have been bumps along the road to owning a successful studio, and there continue to be struggle every day. Taking the first step to even opening up the studio for the very first time was terrifying! Calvert-Brodie Studios, where I was trained and had been teaching, was incredibly successful with tons of students. When I opened up my own studio on the very first day of classes, I didn’t know if I would have a single student, or if there would even be a market for a new dance studio in Lugoff.
I was young, had never owned a business, wasn’t married yet, and was scared to death about opening up a studio completely on my own. Luckily, I did have students that first year and continued to grow every year after. Additionally, dance is, unfortunately, a “luxury” and when the economy gets bad, our industry suffers. We do everything that we can to keep our dance lessons affordable and to give the opportunity to learn to everyone. But, as the economy rises and falls, so does the ability for families to enroll in dance lessons.
Currently, the biggest struggle we have faced is the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on our industry. Our business relies on face-to-face, in-person lessons. Our studio closed its doors for a month when the pandemic hit, trying to figure out the next best step for our staff and our dancers. Every day is a new challenge with the ever-changing guidelines and mandates surrounding the pandemic, but we continue to adapt and prevail in these uncertain times.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am the owner and Artistic Director of the Patterson School of Dance in Lugoff, South Carolina. I teach dance lessons to students ages 2 and older. I even had a class of 70-years-old tap dancers one year! In addition to teaching dance lessons at my studio, I am a choreographer for my studio’s annual productions and special events, and I choreograph shows for several different community groups and schools. My dancers and I have won countless awards and gained regional and national recognition for my choreography and training.
I specialize in training dancers in the classical dance styles of tap, ballet, and jazz and in the modern styles of lyrical and hip-hop. I love that through my line of work, I can keep up with the new trends in dance but also stay true to the classics and keep the origins alive for generations to come. I enjoy giving back to my community in any way I can and performing at charity events around the country, and I pride myself on training dancers who do the same. What makes me most proud is seeing my dancers succeed in meeting their own personal goals, both in the studio and on stage. I love going to work every day to share my love of dance with the children and adults who walk through my studio doors and seeing them reciprocate that same affection for the art.
One of the most exciting things for me is that my daughter, who has grown up training and performing in my studio, has fallen in love with dance and has decided to follow in my footsteps. Seeing her teach, choreograph, and perform fills me with so much joy, and I know that the future of my studio and young dancers to come is in good hands.
Every day I work to be better than the day before. One of the things I love hearing every year after our productions is “Deanna, I don’t know how you do it every year.” I love performing and creating something new, and I continue to do both as much as possible. I challenge myself to never stop learning or slow down no matter the challenges I may face. As Gregory Hines once said, “I’m going to tap until I can’t – I’ll be so old, all I can do is walk out from the wings to stage center. But I’ll be there.”
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is giving my dancers a safe, quality dance education. My staff and I are trained to teach the students in their respective dance styles. My students learn proper body alignment, technique, and terminology for every skill executed in the studio. My studios are equipped with ballet barres and sprung flooring to prevent bodily injury and incorrect body placement when learning new skills. At Patterson School of Dance, we pride ourselves in teaching students HOW to dance, not just teaching a dance routine.
I want to give my students a knowledge base that will let them confidently walk into an audition and be able to execute the dance steps or combinations. And at the end of the day, what truly matters is that for a couple of hours I was able to teach someone something new and give them the gift that lasts a lifetime – dance. I can live happily knowing that I have helped shaped the lives of thousands of children who have graced my studios over the last forty years.
I know that I gave 100% of my time and effort to each dancer that I had the privilege to work with, and I hope that one day they’ll look back and remember me as someone who truly cared, and maybe somehow made a difference in their lives.
Contact Info:
- Email: pattersonschoolofdance@gmail.com
- Website: www.pattersonschoolofdance.com
- Instagram: @pattersonschoolofdance
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PattersonSchoolofDance
Image Credits
Deanna Patterson Cobb
