“Kids learn by example. I always tell them that they have to walk down the street with the posture and pride of an artist, of a good person…. Some of them will become beautiful dancers or beautiful models. Others will be beautiful moms or dads. We’re building dancers, but we’re also building audiences. Once they learn something here, nobody can ever take it away from them. It’s theirs forever.”

(Mel Alexander Tomlinson, ballerino e coreografo; Raleigh, 3 gennaio 1954 – Huntersville, 5 febbraio 2019)