 Britney Drake, Artistic Director/Owner
Britney is the Owner and Director of BSODS and brings a level of dance experience that cannot be matched by any other studio in Paris. She began dancing at age 5 with an amazing natural talent and love of the art that propelled her to many successes throughout her performance career. Britney has over 28 years of experience in both performance and teaching combined. She is trained in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Musical Theater and Acting. She is also trained in Pas De Deux and Contemporary Partner Dancing and has performed in numerous dance and acting performances in New York City, Orlando and Los Angeles including The Who’s Tommy, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Aida, Godspell, Guys and Dolls and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Her Ballet performances include Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and Cinderella. As a competitive dancer herself, she was awarded numerous distinguished awards including High Point Performances, Student Choreography Awards and offered many Competition Scholarships. She also competed in the Miss Teen Texas and Miss Texas Pageants between 1997-2003 winning Talent and placing 2nd and 3rd Runners Up. Britney opened REVIVE DANCE AND PERFORMING ARTS in 2015 with 3 students and has been blessed with enrollments up to 140 students. Since opening, the studio has been named Best Dance Studio in Paris for 3 consecutive years. BSODS Competition Teams have received prestigious awards including Best Choreography, numerous National Titles and High Point Performance Awards that include clean sweeps for High Point for all teams with the highest scores in their dances at the same competition. Most rewarding was the studio being recognized with several Showmanship Awards that represents the Christian philosophy and culture of teaching as well as discipline and performance behavior at REVIVE! At REVIVE, we not only want to make kids great dancers, we want to make their dancers great kids! In her very limited spare time Britney has also volunteered her choreography talents at Lamar High School Musicals and The Paris Community Theater that included Mary Poppins, Shrek, The Adams Family and Mama Mia. Britney has an Associate Degree in Acting and Musical Theater from KD Conservatory-College of Film and Dramatic Arts and is a certified Dance Studio Owner. All diplomas and certifications are posted in the studio. She resides in Paris with her husband Jonathan Drake and their children. They are members of The New Life Church of Paris. Carolyn Drake- Assistant Director & Tumbling Instructor
Carolyn has been with our studio since the day we opened in 2015 and has been the tumbling instructor for 6 years. She found her love for dance and gymnastics in Junior High School where she was also a cheerleader thoughout High School. Carolyn continues to stay up to date on new tumbling technics, tricks and skills in order to provide our dancers with the newest and most impressive skills for competition performances. Carolyn has a passion and talent for working with our kids and watching them learn new skills! In addition to her dedication to our studio, Carolyn is also an Assistant Vice President at First Federal Community Bank where she has worked for 28 years. She is very involved in her community serving on the Red River Valley Fair Board of Directors. Carolyn and her husband Patrick have 4 children and 4 grandchildren, two of which perform in our studio competition team. Maurie Jhaveri- Instructor & Competition Team Assistant Maurie brings over 14 years of dance training to our studio. Her background covers ballet, tap, jazz, modern, lyrical, hip hop and comtemporary dance styles. She has worked with dance professors and instructors from across tge ccountry including New York city. Marie graduated Cum Laude from Tarleton State University, holding a bachelor's degree in Childhood and Family Studies with a minor in Psychology and continues to work on her Master's Degree. Maurie has trained in competitive dance and uses her education and experience in dance to help preparing other young dancers to compete. Her dance education includes training at Kilgore College (home of the Texas Rangerettes) and Trinity Valley College (home of the Cardettes) and Maurie was Captain of her high school dance team and has won numerous dance awards herself. Maurie and her husband, Darshan,who is the Pecussions Director at Rivercrest ISD reside in Paris with their dog, Jingle Bells. Traci Craig- Musical Theatre, Conditioning & Hip Hop Team Instuctor Stormi Griffin-Dance Instructor Frequently Asked Questions General How old does my child have to be to begin classes? REVIVE takes students at 2 1/2 years as long as they are potty trained. What is your inclimate weather policy. We follow the same policy at the Paris ISD. If they close we close. Where do I find the required dance apparel. Ask for details. Apparel can also be purchased at Walmart or Target stores. What are your office hours? Monday-Thursday 3:30-8:30. Friday-Sunday, We are closed but are pleased to make special appointments for studio tours and information. Just give us a call or email us. The studio we attended previously had a blatant focus on competition and winning. My child was not on the competition team and never felt at home there. Is your studio the same? NO! Though we have a strong interest in competition, our philosiphy and curriculum is focused on dance instruction. With such a focus on competition and winning trophies, sometimes students are trained to learn A dance routine as opposed to learning TO dance! We strive to ensure that all our students get the same close attention, instruction and nurturing whether they are on the competition team or they just want to experience the joy of dancing. Whether on the competition team or not, all of our students will have an opportunity to perform for audiences. If we join the studio and have questions or concerns what do we do? We are very interested in any questions, concerns or any ideas that our parents may have. You may communicate by phone, text or e-mail, stop by during normal business hours or set up a private appointment with the Director. We also have a Suggestion Box located in the lobby. You will find that we are very responsive. Competition Does your studio have a competition team? Yes. We love to compete! We have several competition teams which, like all studios, are by invitation and/or audition only. As with other studios this is an elite group selected by the instructors and is privilege. Our teams have won National Championships for the last 5 years and have had clean sweeps capturing all the top level overall scores!! Take a look at our top level trophy case in our scrapbook section. How many competitions do you attend each year? The competition season generally runs between January & July. We plan to enter at least 4 regional competitions and 1 national competition each year. Is competing expensive? There are additional classes required if you are on the competition team, fees for the competition itself, cost for costumes and travel cost when necessary. This is not an inexpensive program but its not different that what you spend on any competitive sport (boy or girl). Do you allow your students to level down in competitions to give them a winning advantage? We do not allow our students to level down. REVIVE teams will follow each competition's rule-guidelines exactly as they are written. Generally the rules state you must take 3 hours or less of dance classes per week to fall into the lower/beginner/performance category. When the focus of competition is only on winning, it overshadows what dance (and life) should truly be about. This is more important than adding another trophy to our window! Competitive dance is really about competing with yourself. Did you perform to the best of your abilities? Did you improve from your last performance? Did you learn something? Most importantly, did you love performing and did you have fun? That's the real measure of the quality of your performance. We look at competition as a great team building experience, an opportunity to show your skills on stage and as a way to have fun for those who love to perform. Is there a lot of drama in competing? Our competitive students are very dedicated and are ,of course, disappointed when they feel they didn't dance their best. If you've been watching "Dance Moms" on TV, don't expect to see that behavvior at REVIVE by either our staff or our parents! We are blessed to have supportive and team oriented parents and at REVIVE we would not expect anything less. Recital Is everyone required to perform at the recital? Recitals are reguired and included in the school contract that you sign to when registering for each session. Dances are choreographed with each dancer having a part. Participation is necessary so that the dance doesn't have to be re-choreographed. You and your family will want to see see your child's progress and they are always excited to show what they've accomplished. It's a wonderful and memorable experience. Why do we have to pay a recital fee? Recital fees cover the cost of the auditorium , backdrops, props and lighting & sound for a professional production. These fees also help in purchasing certificates, medals and special awards for our students. Why does dress rehearsal take so long? Dress rehearsal is our opportunity to get the students accustomed to the stage and the size of the auditorium. We also have to work out stage placement, lighting and music. Also to work out any issues with costumes or make-up and ensure they understand costume change timing and stage entry/exit procedures. We want every dancer to be able to have a full out (and safe) dance rehearsal on stage so that they may have the best performance possible during the recital to the amazement of family and friends. They've been working all year to impress you! If you are in recital be prepared for dress rehearsal to be a 4 hour event and plan accordingly.
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