About Rising Starz Peforming Arts center,

The future of dance and performance arts in East Alabama welcomes you to our studio and culture. Modeled after Rising Arts Performing Arts Center in South Florida, Rising Starz of Auburn becomes the alternative in Alabama for generations of young artists seeking correct and serious work in the training of dance and performing arts. Rising Starz will incorporate the same curriculum, state-of-the-art facilities, and business model that made Kathy Thomas Richards’ original Rising Starz PAC one of the largest and most respected dance and performing arts studios in the country.East Alabama citizens constantly demand the best in athletics and academics. It is time that they also demand the best in Arts training. Rising Starz of Auburn will fill that void. With classes for ages 2 to adult, Rising Starz offers superior training at all levels regardless of the age, goal, or training level of the student. With over 100 classes on our schedule, students can find the right class for their age, level, interests and time constraints. It is our goal to provide the type of training that equips our students to pursue a professional career in dance and other arts should they desire such. Former students of Ms. Richards now fill company positions in such internationally known and respected companies as the San Francisco Ballet, Houston Ballet, and Boston Ballet. Richards’ students have regularly been selected and studied on scholarship at The Kirov School in Washington, D.C., The Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida, The North Carolina School for the Arts, and The San Francisco Ballet School.Whether a student desires a professional career in the arts or simply wants to dance and perform purely for the joy of it, both students deserve the best and most suitable education to help achieve their goal. And the younger the student, the more important the correct training is. Nerve and muscle memory are created through repetition, and once formed, are hard to “un-wire.” Poor or incorrect technique, taught at an early age and repeated thousands of times is very hard to overcome and puts the student at a distinct disadvantage. In an older student, it often takes several years of “un-training” old patterns of movement before you can begin building new and correct patterns, but it’s not impossible. Ms. Kathy is proof of that.After studying dance in the East Alabama area for 13 years, she discovered that her training had been grossly inadequate to pursue her dream of being a professional dancer. At 16 years old, she started over with her training and hung on every word and morsel of information that she could find. She studied anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics while she competed in gymnastics at Auburn University and earned her degree in education. Six months after graduating from Auburn, she became the head gymnastics coach at Furman University after only haven taken her first steps on a balance beam at age 18. Her eye for understanding human movement and ability to communicate that to students of all ages has made her a nationally respected teacher, choreographer and judge. Rising Starz of Auburn becomes the answer that parents and students have been looking for. It boasts one of the top teaching faculties in the Southeast.