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Maggie Vinyard
ENGL 1301-M
October 17, 2016
Teacher and Mother
Julie Vinyard is the assistant director of the Spartanaire Dance Team, a dance teacher of
twenty-five years, and a mother. Julie has prided herself in many lines of work as a mom, and
loves the busy life she lives. When she isn't at school teaching and instructing as early as six
thirty in the morning, she is tending to the endless list of things that her family needs from her at
home. The amount of stress that Julie is put through everyday proves her to be an outstanding
woman, as she handles each task with grace and ease.
As a young girl, Julie was a competitive roller skater that competed alongside her partner
who was also her brother. Around the same time, she began dance class as well. There came a
time when her mother made her decide to either quit skating or quit dance, as she was involved
with both, so she decided to continue with dance. She was a member of her high school's drill
team in her teen years, and still says that, "Those were some of the best years of my life." She
has kept all of her old photographs from line camps and performances to get a good laugh out of
her children. Her drill team director, Mrs. Judy Roush Dunn, was a huge inspiration to her, and
she feels great sorrow for her passing a few years back. Mrs. Dunn taught her discipline and
respect as a dancer, and Julie is grateful for all of the memories she has of her.
After graduating high school, she attended Lee Junior College on a full dance scholarship
and was a member of their dance team for two years. By going to a Junior College before she
attended a University, Julie was able to appreciate dance more on a smaller scale, and made the
decision to pursue a teaching job in dance. From there, Julie transferred to Sam Houston State

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University, and majored in Dance with the intention of teaching to other people what she would
learn there. Sam Houston, both then and now, has one of the best dance programs in the nation,
and left Julie with an acquired knowledge of dance. She is proud to admit that she paid her own
way through her four year University, and was the first person in her family to graduate from
college. She loved her time at Sam, and loved working with all of the "great dance teachers from
all over the nation" that helped her to grow into a well- rounded and well- educated dancer. She
never intended to become a professional dancer by majoring in dance in college , rather she just
had a passion for the art form and had plans to share her passion with others.
Following her education at SHSU, Julie began teaching at Northwest Academy in the
English Department as well as the drill team director. There she met her business partner, Cheryl
Thompson-Draper. Cheryl's daughter was a member of Julie's dance team, and came to Julie
with the proposition of opening a dance studio together. The arrangement would be that Mrs.
Thompson-Draper would be the financial support, and Julie would be the artistic director. She
agreed to the job of running the studio as Artistic Director, and discontinued her work with
Northwest Academy after five years of service with them. In 1995, Texas Starmasters was open
for business, and with a brand new baby, Julie was ready for the challenge of working and being
a mother for the first time. She taught multiple classes a day with her coworkers whom she
remains close with today. "Running a studio was hard work, but I was so happy to get to do
what I loved, and I had tons of babysitters to look after Hannah (my daughter) while I taught
class." In 1999, Julie had her second child and had already enrolled her first daughter in dance
classes at the studio. Unfortunately, due to the freeway expansion in 2005, Texas Starmasters
had to close down. Julie appreciates all of the knowledge she gained from running a business for
ten years, and was excited to continue her teaching career at Chapelwood Day School.

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Chapelwood offered a dance program for young children ages three to six, and Julie was
going to be the teacher for these classes. She loved teaching to open young minds, and her job at
Chapelwood "will always be the best job I ever had." Julie had found her calling, and for
another nine years she followed it.
Julie's first daughter, Hannah, began high school in 2009, and was selected to be a
member of the Spartanaire Dance Team. Through Hannah's high school years, Julie became
good friends with the director of the team, Miss Astrid Gonzalez. In 2013, Julie decided that she
wanted to go to work full time, and as much as she loved teaching her "babies" back at
Chapelwood, her family needed a larger income with the exorbitant costs of college for both
girls that would soon be approaching. She took a year to obtain her teaching certification, and in
2014, Julie went to work as Ms. Gonzalez's assistant director for the Spartanaires Dance Team.
Her second daughter was a sophomore in high school at this time and was a member of the same
dance team. Julie says that she likes being at the same school as her daughter because she, "likes
to know what is going on." Though some situations deemed awkward because of the
"Mom/Director" title that she now had, Julie and her daughter have worked out a system to keep
conditions as normal as possible for the both of them on the team.
Julie loves that she has gotten to share her passion for dance with her two daughters, and
through the years of her involvement with dance, she prefers teaching to performing, and will
"leave the performing to [her] daughters now." One thing Julie wishes about her career is for her
students to be more excited about learning to dance every day that she has them in class. Being a
teacher is hard enough, and with uninterested students, "It makes for a very long day
sometimes." However, after having many different jobs in and out of dance, the one she would

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not trade for the world is being a mother, and says that it will forever be her favorite job and
biggest accomplishment.