In 2015, Jennifer lost her mother to
cancer. The impact Christine Wooten had
made on this community continues to live on
through the many students she taught. But
for Jennifer it was a legacy, and one she would
step into much sooner than she had imagined.
That same year, Brii Tyson’s husband was
offered a job in the Atlanta area, and she
offered to sell the studio to Jennifer. In 2016,
Christine Wooten’s daughter became the
owner of Vidalia Ballet.
“It’s ironic that I kept the name as it was,”
said Jennifer as she glanced toward the piles
108 Toombs County Magazine
of tulle scattered in small puffs of color across
her desk. “You know how kids rebel against
their parents? My form of rebellion was to be
a tap dancer as opposed to a ballerina.” She
smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
Today, Jennifer has over 120 regular
students whose ages range from two to
eighteen. “Our younger kids learn ballet
basics and motor skills in our ‘Creative
Movement’ class,” said Jennifer. “Classes
go all the way up to advanced tap, jazz,
contemporary lyrical, and point for ballet.
We offer everything.” Vidalia Ballet has also
added Acro to its repertoire. “It’s a style
of Acrobatics that's useful in dancing. It's
been really helpful, and our dancers have
grown so much after introducing it. Ellen
Chapman is an excellent Acro teacher. She
also teaches ballet and contemporary dance.
All of our teachers are phenomenal. Casey
Miller teaches tap and jazz. Brandilyn Stroup
teaches ballet and contemporary lyrical.”
Vidalia Ballet won their first National
Championship competition last year. “It
was only our second year competing,”
said Jennifer. She pointed to all the dance
paraphernalia laying here and there in the
studio and said in a hoarse voice, “Our first
competition of 2019 is this weekend.”
She had been diagnosed with walking
pneumonia only a few days earlier and was
scheduled to see the doctor a second time
later that day as a precaution. Regardless,
she would be ready for the competition one
way or another. On Facebook the next week,
Jennifer posted the results: “We had the
highest score of the entire competition!” Each
time Jennifer’s dancers have prepared for a
competition, she’s been certain they were
the best. “And then the next year comes,
and somehow they have exceeded all my
expectations. I don’t know how they could
achieve more, but somehow they do,” she
said.
Preparation for both the competition
season and The Nutcracker begins in August.
“We begin auditions for The Nutcracker at
the end of August. After The Nutcracker
performance in December, we really start
hitting our competition choreography hard.
This year, we have two regional competitions