Julie Rhoton

Julie has been a dance educator for over forty years. Before Julie joined us here at SCPA, she owned her own successful dance studio: Inspirations Performing Arts Center, located in Moreno Valley, well known for its quality of dance instruction. After thirteen years in business, Julie closed Inspirations PAC and took time off to travel, teaching and judging dance competitions. Soon, Julie began to miss studio life and found her way to us and accepted the position of SCPA's Artistic Director. Twenty years have past since Julie started here at South Coast Performing Arts and we wouldn't change a thing. Julie is family to us and we share the same philosophies about dance, the development of dancers and studio life in general. Though we have created numerous Programs together, Julie is especially excited about our SCPA Fundraising Program where we highlight a non-profit charity with an annual fundraising campaign, partnering with our studio families and dancers to do good in the world together! #taliastrong #SCPAstrong #dancersmakingadifference

In 2018, Julie's Tribute dance for our Talia: 'Saturday Smile' was nominated as a Industry Dance Award finalist for Best Lyrical, Modern, Contemporary Performance. Besting this acknowledgement was having "Saturday Smile" being invited to perform in the actual Industry Dance Awards show night! SCPA and our Saturday Smile dancers shined on this special night!

In addition to studio life, Julie partnered with Keri LaGrand to author a 'Stretch and Strength' syllabus for dance educators. With the success of their first syllabus, two more syllabi's were created: "Advanced Stretch and Strength' and "Crazy Hard Exercises". As a prominent dance educator, Julie still travels teaching Master Classes emphasizing fundamentals of technique and using technique as an access for expression. Dancers that Julie has trained have worked in videos, commercials, theatre, film, television, have become professional choreographers and more than a few have opened their own dance studios. Though Julie has won numerous honors and accolades over the course of her career, what is closest to her heart is inclusion. Creating a space where children and young adults can feel a sense of belonging, to be themselves, in a nurturing, challenging and supportive environment through dance. Dance studio life is pretty wonderful, and so is our Julie!