The Dee Buchanan Studio of Dance

207-G South Church Street

Middletown, MD 21769

Phone:  301-371-4228
Rounded Rectangle: TESTIMONIALS Rounded Rectangle: Rounded Rectangle: DANCER ESSAYS Rounded Rectangle: “Looking forward to beginning  our ninth year at the Dee Buchanan Studio of Dance. Each year continues to bring amazing growth in our three dancers.” —Robyn Bramhall “We started dancing when my eldest daughter was 4 years old and think the teachers and staff are amazing. The classes are not only fun but also help teach my daughters responsibility, caring for themselves & staying fit, and helps them build lasting friendships. The teachers and apprentices at the studio are very patient and kind with their students. They truly want them learn their dance techniques and have fun doing so. I have watched my daughters grow up & mature during their years taking classes at Dee Buchanan Studio of Dance. They started with the Toddler Time classes and have now started going to competitions with the company. The Liturgical dance is one of my favorites to watch. To see all the dancers at Christmas in the Valley dancing in Zion Lutheran Church is very moving.” —Natalie Coffman. “When our family moved to Middletown in 2002 we could tell that there was a strong sense of community in the Valley.  This feeling has been re-enforced through our involvement with the Dee Buchanan Studio of Dance.  The teachers and staff at the studio make the kids feel like they are part of a special, close-knit group.  My daughters have grown in their skill level and confidence with each new class, Nutcracker performance, and recital. Not only are they learning different types of dance, and keeping in shape, they are acquiring the confidence to face an audience of their community and peers.  I believe this is an invaluable trait that they will utilize in many facets of their life, both personally and professionally.  My daughters enjoy a variety of activities, but dancing has truly become their passion.” —Melinda McLister Rounded Rectangle: Rounded Rectangle: Rounded Rectangle: Rounded Rectangle: What Dance What Dance Has Done for Me by Bethany Lemasters As a seven year old in second grade I took up dance as a hobby to fill up my free time, and because what mom doesn’t want their little daughter to be a ballerina? I knew after my first recital piece, “Everybody Wants to be a Cat”, that I had found something I never wanted to stop doing. In science the ecological definition of a niche is “the appropriate place, position, or function of an organism in a community”, roughly the place a specific organism belongs; and I had found my niche. I loved being on stage. I loved the sound of the audience applauding, even though you couldn’t see them; you knew they were there, watching you. I loved the adrenaline that came from performing on a stage in front of a crowded auditorium. And I loved the feeling that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I couldn’t get enough of dancing and performing. When the opportunity came to audition for the Competition Dance Team, I jumped at the chance! Joining the Competition Dance Team in sixth grade was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Now I wasn’t just doing something I loved; I was doing something I loved with other people who loved it too! I became a part of something bigger than just a Competition Dance Team; I became part of a family. And ever since sixth grade, the dance studio has become my home away from home. I have so many close friends at dance, and I know I can always turn to my teachers for guidance and advice. The little awkward fifth and sixth grade girls that I was put in a competition dance with that first year have grown into beautiful graceful dancers, with poise and technique, and my teachers that I had always idolized and looked up to became close friends as well as role models. Sharing make-up backstage, doing each other’s hair, and all working toward our collective goal of becoming the best dancers we could possibly be brought me and my friends even closer. It’s hard to describe the bond that I share with my dance friends, because we’ve been through it all together. It’s a feeling of comfort, and I know that I’ll never be alone. I have a close friend that I have known since I was a baby; we grew up in the same neighborhood, and have been best friends our entire lives. She is two years older than me, and one of the smartest people I know. While we were growing up she was always taking part in a variety of activities. She was always busy with fencing, karate, acting, ballroom dancing, or another new activity and she was one of the best students in her class. I always looked up to her because she was so well rounded, whereas I chose to focus on dance, and for me dance had always been more than enough. As we got older I started noticing that she was losing a lot of weight. She had become a vegetarian, then a vegan, and before long it seemed that she was barely eating anything. In high school her weight plummeted. Soon after she entered college, she failed a physical and was hospitalized. She contacted me over winter break to say that she had been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. I shouldn’t have been shocked but I was. She was always so smart and sensible. How could this have happened to her? She told me that the reasoning behind her justifying her disease was that she never found that one thing that she had to fit into. She had tried so many things in high school, always looking for that place where she belonged. And she never felt that she found it. She told me how she was looking for that one thing that she was good at, that one thing she belonged to. She said that she had turned to her diet, because it was the only thing she felt she could control. It was something that she was the best at. She was the thinnest. I was shocked to hear all of this. Growing up she had always been my idol. I thought she was good at everything she did; yet all along she was looking for her niche, that place where she belonged, that thing that I had always had with dance. This experience I have had with my dear friend has taught me just how much dance has actually done for me. Not only is it that one thing that I love doing, and will always love doing; it has given me one of the closest groups of friends anyone could ever ask for. And when I think about graduating in the spring, I’m not sad thinking about leaving my high school, and I’m not sad about the thought of starting a new chapter in my life. I’m saddened by the thought that I will not be an enrolled dancer at my hometown dance studio anymore, but I know I’ll visit, so that’s not what really bothers me; and I’m not worried about “being done with dance”, because I know that I will never stop dancing no matter where I go in life. But what really gets to me, and the reason I tear up every time I think about the upcoming end of this year, is the fact that, after this year, I won’t be dancing with my best friends every day. And that is what dance has done for me. It has given me acceptance, and friendship, and somewhere that I always know I belong.