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      Beyond Dance, LLC was created  in the fall of 2013 under the name of Thomas Jefferson Elementary Middle School Dance Team. It was founded by Kelly D'Addona, a teacher at TJEMS looking to share her passion of dance with the children. Chelsea Davis, parent of a member of the original dance team (Aniya McCoy), joined with Kelly  as a dance mom and partnered with her in the vision, growth, and development to create what Beyond Dance, LLC is today.

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It began as an after school ballet class for about 20 young girls in grades Pre-K through second. In it's first year the group had two performances on the school's stage in the TJEMS auditorium. The girls wore their own black and pink leotards and performed just two dances all year. This ignited an excitment in the school community and the families at TJEMS could not stop asking when was dance going to start the following school year.

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Seeking to give the girls a more developed dance program, in its' second year, during the fall of 2014, Beyond Dance LLC expanded the classes offered after school to not only ballet but also modern, tap, hip-hop, and jazz. The number of dancers nearly doubled to about 40.

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In the third year of Beyond Dance, LLC  in the fall of 2015, we recognized the need to give our growing dance team more performance opportunities and a more professional apperance. We began a small fundraising initiative to accomodate this need. A simple fundraiser at Chick-Fil-A rendered enough funds to purchase T-shirts, sweatshirts, and costumes. In December of 2015, the TJEMS dance team made its' first debut outside of the school at a Mondawmin Mall holiday performance in collaboration with The Carroll School of Dance. This performance and collaboartion with The Carroll School of Dance established what is now Beyond Dance, LLC as an important community organization in Baltimore, MD.

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Beyond Dance, LLC took off in the dynamic spring of 2016.  TJEMS was honored as The Visionary Arts School of the Year by Young Audiences of Maryland for its work with arts integration in the classroom and the profound opportunities for artistic expression outside the classroom (the dance team being one of them). The dance team was asked  to be an honorary performer at the annual YA of Maryland Gala which took place at The Hippodrome, Frances-Merrick Theater in April of 2016.  This was monumental in the story of Beyond Dance, LLC and it marked the beginning of many exciting performance opportunities for our dancers.

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In the spring of 2016, Beyond Dance, LLC was invited to perform at The Walter's Art Museum with Arts Everyday of Maryland, Coppin State University with The Carroll School of Dance, and then back to The Hippodrome, Frances-Merrick Theater for BGE's 200th anniversary gala.

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The fourth year of Beyond Dance, LLC was yet another transofrmational year for our organization. We served almost 100 dancers and expanded our age range from Pre-K to 8th grade. In the fall of 2016, we were invited to perform at The Society Incorporated Annual Gala at The Embassy Suites. We received our first sponsorship through this event. With these funds we purchased our very own costumes and put together our very own dinner show. Our dance team performed at The Downtown Cultural Arts Center in Downtown Baltimore to a crowd of almost 250 guests.

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The show in the fall inspired larger fundraising efforts through Krispy Kreme doughnuts which allowed us to purchase more costumes, hire a photographer, and secure a larger venue for our spring show in the spring of 2017. In May of 2017, Beyond Dance, LLC hosted it's spring show at The Seed School of Maryland and invited the Carroll School of Dance to be our guest. We hosted over 13 Baltimore local vendors and performed to a crowd of almost 400 guests.

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This is only the beginning for Beyond Dance, LLC. It is our goal and vision to create this same story in more schools in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.

Come and be a part of the next part of our journey!