Tolbert Yilmaz School of Dance Celebrates New Building

On March 14, 2018, Nancy Tolbert Yilmaz, alongside her husband, Mary Lynn Taylor, and other teachers and employees of the Tolbert Yilmaz School of Dance marked a big accomplishment: the groundbreaking of their new state of the art dance studio at the corner of Houze Road and Houze way in Roswell.

With members of their world renowned pre-professional company standing behind them and City Council representatives, Roswell Mayor Lori Henry and Roswell Inc Executive Director Steve Stroud, Tolbert Yilmaz declared “Nothing is impossible.” It is a mantra she repeats often and with heart in both her dance studio and in her other endeavors.

What started as a small school in a small house in Roswell’s Historic District 38 years ago has blossomed into one of the largest and most elite dance schools in the Southeast. With teachers who are all accomplished ballet professionals themselves, Tolbert Yilmaz has managed to build a program that is unparalleled.

Classes frequently fill up in minutes when they open registration, and the school attracts record numbers of new students every year with people vying for the chance to dance under the instruction of such recognizable names as Daet Rodriguez, Robert Gosnell, and Tracey Bayley amongst others. Tolbert Yilmaz’s professionally trained students have traveled the world as members of the pre-professional company as well as to summer intensives as far as The Royal Danish Ballet. Many students go on to have successful professional careers across the globe.

The new complex, which is to be called Centre Pointe, is years in the making. The new building will be 24,000 square feet and include six professional studios, a performance space where the studio's two elite companies will hold their two in studio events: HUGS and Straight from the Heart, private instruction studios, a costume shop, a prop closet, physical therapy studios, and more. It will be one of the most professional spaces in Metro Atlanta, and it is sure to catch the eye of pre-professional students across the area. The two highly competitive pre-professional companies are already the envy of many studios, and this is sure to only make the companies stronger and more in demand. Tolbert Yilmaz’s students frequently receive accolades at YAGP, SERBA, and other festivals and exhibitions across the world.

Standing with the teachers from the studio is a young girl in a maroon costume named Lillian Sears. Sears is the five year old daughter of Nathan and Stephanie Sears of Roswell. As the youngest dancer in this year’s production of "The Nutcracker," the entirety of her pre-professional career will be spent in a space optimally designed for her success and launch into a professional ballet career.

Sears began dancing at the Tolbert Yilmaz School of Dance at the age of two with Mary Lynn Taylor in a Kinderdance class. She now dances in six classes and was awarded the part of flower in Mary Poppins. Tolbert Yilmaz called Sears “a true bunhead in all the best ways..[she] lives, eats, and sleeps ballet.”

When asked what she liked about Tolbert Yilmaz and ballet Sears responded, “I like ballet because it is complicated, and I have to work hard. I like Tolbert because it is a good school where I am challenged to work hard, and because Miss Nancy and Mrs. Mary said they would help me try to become Clara in the Rockettes...I like to work hard at dance."

The new studio will be unlike anything else in the area, and it is sure to attract dancers of all levels. With access to everything a ballet dancer needs in one space, it makes it a one stop shop for its students.

You can learn more about the Tolbert Yilmaz School of Dance here, including information about the pre-professional ballet and modern companies.