Page 38 - South Mississippi Living - April, 2017

PEOPLE dance chose her DANCE
Four Decades of
The Dinosaur is still kicking at Ocean Springs dance studio
storyDby Susan Ruddiman photos courtesy of Donna Burke
onna Burke had her mind set on becoming a commercial artist. Four decades later, she is still pursuing artistic endeavors, but not in a way she had envisioned.
She is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi where she studied art, and was a member of the Dixie Darlings. As a Dixie Darling, she volunteered to teach dance lessons in the
community because she made spending money to buy art supplies. “I took every job I could get, and then I found I couldn’t give it up,” Burke said. “There is a saying that ‘you don’t choose dance, it chooses you.’”
Burke and her husband, Wayne Roy Burke, moved to Ocean Springs when he was transferred to the Coast because of his banking job. Burke opened her dance school in 1975 during an era when the legendary Delia Stewart was teaching dance on the Coast.
“It was very challenging to open a studio then, but I jumped in head first and kept going,” Burke said.
Forty-two years later, Donna’s Visual and Performing Arts Centre is a fixture on the Coast. Students learn more than just dance styles. “The kids who stay with
it learn discipline, and the meaning of team work which in this world you have to know. That carries over into marriages and the way you work with people,” Burke said.
Her dance studio moved around to five different locations before finding a
Donna Burke Owner of Donna’s Visual & Performing Arts Centre
38 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • April 2017 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net