Artistic Director
Barbara Johnson,a native of
Atlanta, Georgia, grew up in a 
culturally rich environment of classical music,
ballet and opera. Since the age of 4, she has studied dance. Tap and jazz
quickly fell away as her love of ballet grew.
Johnson was accepted into the Atlanta Ballet pre-professional program at 13 and spent her summers enhancing her skills at North Carolina School of the Arts. She studied with the Atlanta Ballet under the direction of Robert Barnett who was a principal dancer with the NYC Ballet. Barnett was trained by George Balanchine, the renowned choreographer, and passed his knowledge to Johnson.
Dancing professionally as a soloist with the Macon Ballet and as a member of the Corps de Ballet with the Atlanta Ballet, Johnson has danced in most all of the famous ballets.
Due to an injury, Johnson left
her career in ballet and pursued 
medicine. She worked as a general surgeon for
15 years. After moving to Galax, Johnson found she wanted to share her ballet
experience with boys and girls in the area.
She founded The Conservatory of Dance & Theatre in 2004. The Conservatory has staged The
Faerie Glen (2005), Sleeping
Beauty (2006), Coppélia
(2007), CATS with the Galax
Theatre Guild (2008), Pirates of Tortuga (2009) and The Nutcracker (2005-2008)
Johnson heads up The Conservatory Students and teaches classes from Ballet I to Ballet V. She also teaches the Broadway Jazz class.
Teachers
Lori Edwards studied under Denise Cothren of “The Dance Place” in Sparta, NC. She has over 17 years of dance experience with Miss Denise including ballet, tap, jazz, pointe & acrobatics. She has put her years of training and experience to use as a competitor in various pageants and has served as a judge for pagents and dance competitions as well.
She began working as an assistant at “The Dance Place” at age 13 and continued until graduating high school. She then became an instructor for one year but left her position to obtain an Associates Degree in Nursing. Lori began teaching at The Conservatory in 2006 and leads the recreational program of dance which includes Creative Movement, Pre-ballet, Tap, Beginning Ballet and Beginning Jazz.
Lori is looking forward to working with all of her returning ballet students for the 2009-2010 season and welcomes new faces to her classes at The Conservatory of Dance & Theatre.
Lori heads up the Recreational Program, teaching all classes from Creative Movement through Intermediate Ballet. She also teaches the tumbling/jazz class.