Nancy Saylor
Artistic Director, The Community Dance Connection Theatre
Nancy Saylor was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Alexandria, VA. She was introduced to the art of dance at the age of 5 through a Fairfax County Public Recreation program that provided after-school dance instruction for children with classes held in public school cafeterias and classrooms. Studying with Mr. Sardinia and Mrs. Salamone—a brother and sister dance team who had retired from the professional stage—she was introduced to tap, ballet, gymnastics, and the excitement of making dances for performance. After a few years however, the dance classes were discontinued and Saylor’s initial enthusiasm for the art form was forgotten. It was not until many years later, when she was taking a modern dance class to fulfill a PE course requirement at Pensacola Jr. College in Pensacola, FL, that Saylor rediscovered her passion for dance and theatre arts. With the encouragement of her dance professor, Heather Shepley, Saylor began to pursue the college level training she needed for a career in performing arts.
Nancy Saylor now holds an AA in dance from Pensacola Jr. College in Pensacola, FL; a BFA in theatre from Auburn University, Auburn, AL; and a MALS with a concentration in visual and performing arts from Hollins University, Roanoke, VA.
In addition to her university work, Saylor has continued to study extensively over the years with private instructors, through independent research, and in group seminars and professional workshops. Highlights of her continuing educational pursuits include attending The American Dance Festival’s six-week school in Durham, NC in both 1998 and 2001; The Zen Monkey Project Summer Intensive in Charlottesville, VA in 2000; a 200-hour, yoga teachers certification program completed through Lighten Up Yoga in Asheville, NC in 2002. Saylor participated in the June, 2004 Contact Improvisation Teacher’s Exchange (CITE) at Earthdance in Plainfield, MA with Nancy Stark Smith and Martin Keogh, and in the summer of 2008 she attended CI36—a ten-day, international gathering of dancers held at Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA to celebrate the 36th anniversary of Contact Improvisation as an art form.
Since her first tap class with the fabulous Mr. Sardinia, Saylor has been fortunate to receive insightful artistic coaching and instruction from numerous dance and theatre professionals over the years including Vincent Angotti, Wendell Beavers, David Beedle, Erika Berland, Katharine Birdsall, Susan Clark, Cleveland Harrison, Theresa Howard, Betty Jones, Ralph Miller, Marilyn Powel, Neta Pulvermacher, Todd Ristau, Shaw Robinson, Heather Shepley, Dale Schwarz, Ray Schwartz, Nancy Stark Smith, Brad Stoller, Tom Truss, and Martin Keogh.
Since 1996, Saylor has been the owner and director of Halestone Dance Studio in Lexington, VA. As an active dancer in continuous training, choreographer, and teaching professional, Saylor depends on her experience with a broad range of contemporary somatic studies—Alexander Technique, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Body Mind Centering, Developmental Technique, Experiential Anatomy, Feldenkrais, and Trager Theory—to support her artistic process and to inform her instructional methodology. Her unique teaching methods combine the use of applied dance theory and improvisational technique to foster an inventive atmosphere of creative freedom that provides an underlying support for the disciplined study of dance. Saylor’s teaching and choreographic experience ranges from programs for preschool and school age children to dancers and productions on the university level. At Halestone Dance Studio, students of all ages can choose from a wide variety of classes and levels of instruction with classes being taught in Modern (Contemporary) Dance, Creative Movement, Baby & Me (for parents and their toddlers), Ballet, Choreography, Contact Improvisation, African Dance, Tap, and Jazz.
Saylor also teaches ballet and Halestone’s Dance Conditioning class—a combination of originally choreographed aerobic dance, pilates, and yoga—at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, VA.
