Daily Inspiration: Meet Maureen Sharp

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maureen Sharp

Hi Maureen, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was raised in Grassland. I watched the field turn into Food Lion, slurped on ICEEs from C.Y. market enjoyed many nights of chicken fingers from Grassland Grille and rented movies from Video Max. The best part of all is Grassland still feels like home after so many years and like Dorothy says, “There’s no place like home.” It is a magical community surrounded by loving families that I am proud to be a part of.
Grassland Estates was my old stomping ground. Summer nights were filled with endless games of “German Spotlight” and “Capture the Flag” and days were spent bike riding and splashing in the creek.
My mother, Kay Callahan, started me in dance lessons when I was three years old. Little did she know that dance would become my life and my career. I had a true passion for dance and never stopped, taking every class from ballet to tap to jazz.
My first job as a professional dancer was onboard the Celebrity Cruise ship “Infinity”. My new home was a large ship weighing ninety one thousand tons at nine hundred sixty five feet long.
I continued performing onboard for five years, traveling to exotic locations such as Bora Bora, Tahiti, Australia and New Zealand, and dancing my way through the European countries of Italy, Turkey, Greece and the beautiful Greek islands.
I never thought, while studying the world map in Coach Rice’s World Geography Class at Franklin High School, that I would actually go to those magnificent places, embrace all the different cultures that I was exposed to, and meet dear friends from all over the world!
Holding various positions such as dance captain, wardrobe supervisor and, of course, production dancer onboard Celebrity Infinity, Millennium and Solstice was truly unforgettable.
Furthering my dance education I took on Aerial, an acrobatic art form consisting of trapeze, aerial lira or hoop, and Spanish web. My passion for dance was taken to a whole new level – dancing in the air. Learning this style of art takes a lot of focus, will power, strength and determination as the training at this level is rigorous and very demanding. Excelling in this training brought on a lot of other opportunities for my career. I was cast in “Cirque on Ice” where I performed trapeze over ice in Singapore. Along with being a performer in the show I was also Company Manager responsible for twenty plus cast and crew, all of the show’s logistics and the artistic integrity of the show.
On completion of this show I continued working for Celebrity Cruises holding various roles on my last contract as a dance captain, trapeze artist, production dancer and wardrobe supervisor. I then accepted a position with Poet Productions as Artistic Manager and moved to Fort Lauderdale Florida. There I was responsible for all of the “Solstice Class” production shows rehearsing sixteen plus cast members on four different shows before joining the ship and mounting the shows while onboard. I also assisted in casting singers, dancers and acrobats for the shows.
After working at sea for nearly six years I was ready to put down roots and what better place to be than Franklin, Tennessee? We opened our doors to Grassland Dance Academy in 2013 and it is going strong! With 250 students we are beyond blessed to be able to guide the youth of today in the direction of their goals and to help develop the self-confidence to achieve all they want to achieve through dance and creative movement.

This past year we opened a smoothie bar, Sunrise Smoothie & Ice along with Salon Suites of Grassland in our building to further some offerings for our Grassland Community. Sunrise Smoothie & Ice offers healthy smoothies, smoothie bowls, dye free shaved ice, and lunch. This is open to the community, but is a huge benefit for our dance families to have a healthy after school snack before class or meal after class. Our Salon Suites are luxury suites available to beauty professionals for rent.
My goal with 1111 Battlewood Street which houses Grassland Dance Academy, Sunrise Smoothie & Ice, and Salon Suites of Grassland is to bring community to Grassland. We love that a family can come to a dance class and enjoy a healthy meal or snack or one someone comes for a hair cut can grab a snack or meal. Convenience is our goal.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I have been so very fortunate with the dance studio in that is has not presented obstacles or challenges, other than just the typical teenage drama that occurs when you put so many girls in one place with lots of different personalities!

When starting the Smoothie Bar and the Salon Suites we had to overcome many things with the build out. One was connecting to the sewer, but we made it through!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I feel I fall into all of the drop down categories! I run a creative business!

I specialize in teaching dance. I am known for my silly personality and being able to connect with all ages in our studio. I adapt well to each student and or class making it fun and not just to drive technique. We learn all the technique of dance, and well, through a fun and engaging way. I am so incredibly proud of the families that choose to come to my dance studio and entrust me along with my staff in training their dancer. It is such a gift to be able to pass the art of dance down from generation to generation. What I feel truly sets me a part is my professional career in dance that I have accomplished prior to opening my dance studio. Performing professional and having various roles in the professional world of dance truly has set me to taking on anything. I feel I can offer our students so much insight to not only dance, but life.

How do you define success?
Great question. Success can be defined in so many ways. Through out my career I have always had my “next career goal”. I want to be a professional dancer – check, I want to own my own dance studio – check. I want to open a healthy restaurant to offer our dancers – check. But what truly defines my success is the history of all my successes. It has brought me so much knowledge to tackle my next goal. To keep offering challenging and fun things to our dancers and bringing positivity and great technique. In our industry, I have found, the more students you have the more successful you must be. I find the more committed dancers you have the more successful you are. We do not have a high turn over rate in our dancers. Almost all of our serious dancers start as a toddler and carry on through high school. That is success to me. That then carries on and brings you great numbers to carry out in great staff for our dancers. On the business side of success. I feel I have conquered that in owning our building which can house Grassland Dance Academy for an eternity. It gives security to this company for forever without the concern of a landlord running us out. GDA has a forever home and that has been the best investment I have ever made.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gdadance.com
• Instagram: @gda5678