Joy Ohme

Ballet Faculty

Joy retired from 25 years as the Co-Director of the Booker T. Washington Magnet High School Dance Department in Montgomery, Alabama. In addition to her instructional duties, she served as the advisor for BTW’s National Honor Soci-ety for Dance Arts (NHSDA). She has written and received arts and education grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. She is a member of the Alabama Dance Council, and her choreography was presented at the Gala Concert at the 2017 Alabama Dance Festival. She is also a member of the International Dance Coun- cil. As a three-year-old, she began her training with Montgomery Ballet under the direction of Gary Moore and Emily Caruso. She is an alumna of both the Baldwin Arts and Academic Magnet Middle School (under the direction of Valari Lagrone and Emily Caruso) and the Booker T. Washington Magnet High School (under the direction of Cathy Wright and Gary Moore). During her summers, Joy trained with many prestigious companies such as the Atlanta Ballet, the Boston Ballet, and the Joffrey Ballet.

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She received a scholarship from Southern Methodist University (SMU) and graduated from its Meadows School of the Arts Pro- gram in 1998 with a BFA in Dance. In addition to her professional work with the Alabama Dance Theatre, she has danced as a professional guest artist with many southeastern regional companies. In 2005, she served on the Montgomery Public Schools’ committee that created the “Best Practices in Arts Education” teaching manual. This document aligned best practices in class- room instructional practice with both the National Standards for Arts Education and the Alabama Course of Study-Arts Educa-tion. She has been married to Corey Ohme for 24 years, and they have two beautiful daughters, Camilla (19) and Caroline (16), both accomplished dancers.