Alice Strawn Sheridan, a native of Macon, Georgia began her training at Jean Weaver’s Dance Arts Studio and Gladys Lasky School of Ballet. She attended the North Carolina School of the Arts for four years where she trained with Gyula Pandi, Gina Vidal, Melissa Hayden, Duncan Noble, Mimi Paul, Fanchon Cordell and other world-renowned faculty members and guest artists. She spent 2 summers in Italy with a student company from NCSA, studying and performing. After graduating, she danced with the Milwaukee Ballet Company for several years under the direction of Ted Kivitt performing in Swan Lake, Giselle, Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes and many other original works.

Before being appointed the Artistic Director of Nutcracker of Middle Georgia in 2017, she had been the Assistant Director of Nutcracker of Middle Georgia for 25 years. Currently teaching at The Jean Evans Weaver Center for Dance and Dance Dynamics Studio, Mrs. Sheridan was on the ballet faculty of Dance Arts Studio for 32 years as well as co-founder of Middle Georgia Youth Ballet. Most recently, she enjoyed joining the faculty of Joffrey South’s 2022 Summer Intensive in Athens, Georgia. Mrs. Sheridan has a passion for teaching, guiding and mentoring her students. Her students have gone on to study with such prestigious schools as The School of American Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Boston Ballet, Next Generation Ballet, Carolina Ballet and the country’s most competitive University dance programs to include Indiana University, Butler University and University of South Carolina.

Two of her former students are currently dancing professionally – one with Ballet Austin in Austin, Texas, and one for St. Louis Ballet in St. Louis, Missouri. She attended the Teachers Workshop at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in the summer of 2017. She is also a Progressing Ballet Technique Certified Instructor. Alice is the wife of Tino Sheridan and proud mother of two sons, Val and Loy.

Lindsay Misch Crisp graduated with honors from the University of Georgia with her B.S.Ed. in Dance Education. She completed her Master of Education and Teacher Leadership Specialist at Georgia College and State University. At the University of Georgia, she had the honor of interning with visiting artists, Molissa Fenley and Kent DeSpain. She attended the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina and performed with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange’s Hallelujah Project. While in North Carolina, she took classes from Geri Houlihan, David Dorfman, and Pamela Pietro. She also studied in Castiglioncello, Italy at ProDanza Italia with Billy Sigenfeld. Lindsay currently serves Vineville Academy of the Arts as the fine arts chair and dance instructor, teaching creative educational dance to Pre-K through fifth grade. She was Teacher of the Year in 2016 and her dance program received the School Bell award in 2017 for creativity and innovation in the arts. On the faculty of Middle Georgia Youth Ballet since 2005, Lindsay was recently named Artistic Director. In her time with MGYB, she has taught, choreographed, organized community service projects, and stage managed for the organization. Lindsay has also worked with Nutcracker of Middle Georgia since 1990. She has performed, served as an audition instructor, and is currently assistant to the artistic director. She taught at Dance Arts Studio from 2003-2022. She is presently on the faculty for the Jean Evans Weaver Center for Dance teaching ballet, modern, jazz, pointe, and is certified in Progressing Ballet Technique.

Mary Priestly Jarrard McLendon began her training at Dance Arts Studio under the direction of Jean Evans Weaver and Alice Sheridan. She spent her summers training at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Boston Ballet, Washington Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Atlanta Ballet Center for Dance Education and on scholarship with Nashville Ballet. Mary Priestly continued her training at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors in Dance Performance. After graduation, she was invited to join Nashville Ballet II where she performed in company shows and outreaches around middle Tennessee.

After spending a year teaching full time for the School of Nashville Ballet, she relocated to Dallas, Texas where she was a faculty member with the Texas Ballet Theater School in Ft. Worth under the direction of Ben Stevenson for 5 years where she was named ‘2016 Teacher of the Year.’ Mary Priestly is certified in Mat Pilates and Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT).

Carter Atkinson grew up dancing in Middle Georgia and is a recent graduate of the University of Alabama with a BA in Dance, summa cum laude. She has trained in ballet, pointe, contemporary, jazz, and other styles. She is a former member of Middle Georgia Youth Ballet and was also a performer in the Nutcracker of Middle Georgia for many years. During her time at UA, she was able to continue and expand her dance education in many areas, including ballet, pointe, modern, contemporary, jazz, heels, musical theatre, pedagogy, and choreography. She was a performer with the Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre, where she was able to dance in original ballet, contemporary, and jazz works by Quianping Guo, Fen Kennedy, Jamorris Rivers, Rita Snyder, and more, as well as in ballets such as Sleeping Beauty. Carter has performed in, directed, and choreographed many ballet, contemporary, and jazz works for Dance Alabama, the Dance Alabama Film Festival, and Alabama Dance Festival. She is also currently a certified Pure Barre instructor.