Although he believes he has always been a “creative thinker,” Stone didn’t have any early aspirations to become a performer, much less a choreographer.
“I think that I really enjoyed movie-musicals in my youth but at that point it was all so foreign to me,” he says in an e-mail interview with The Pilot. “It simply wasn’t something that small town people thought about.
Stone was born in Laurinburg in 1966 into a family in which he was surrounded by women.
“It was my mom, grandmother and three sisters,” he says. “I started taking dance lessons at the age of 16 and was involved in theater at Scotland County High School.”
He enjoyed studying in high school, yet found it periodically difficult being a male dance/actor in a small town.
“I imagine things are different nowadays,” he says.
Stone earned a bachelor’s degree in performance and choreography in 1989 and a master’s in choreography in 1998, both from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
In the interim between, Stone’s performance work included “Spellbound” at Harrah’s and “Legends in Concert” at the Imperial Palace, both in Las Vegas as well as choreographic work for a cruise line and other nightclubs.
From 1996 to 1998, he spent six weeks each summer directing the intensive dance program of the Governor’s School of North Carolina (East).
Other academic appointments include a stint at Towson University in Maryland and his current position as an assistant professor in theater and dance at Western Kentucky University.
As a part of earning his master’s degree, Stone presented “Seeing Voices,” a dance concert for both a deaf and hearing audience. During this time, he was also a guest artist and choreographer-in-residence with the High Point Ballet as well as a company member with the Gamble/Van Dyke Dance Company. He has continued to be active with other dance companies as he has moved about the country.
Stone first worked with Rita and Gary Taylor of Carolina Performing Arts in 1994.
“I say without exaggeration that they are among the most incredible artists and people I’ve every worked with,” he says. “I only hope that those who work with Rita and Gary realize what a gem that they have.”
Stone, who has worked with the dancers all week, says that he had done some “thinking and preparation” before arriving in Southern Pines.
“What I really have to rely on in the creative and rehearsal process is my ability to learn about and accommodate the performers that I am working with,” he says. “It’s an on-the-spot kind of assessment of the needs of the performers in conjunction with the needs of the show.”
Stone himself hasn’t stopped expanding his horizons in regard to performing and choreography.
“I find that as the years have progressed and my knowledge base regarding performance has expanded, I have become more and more interested in all types of performance both as a spectator and participant,” says Stone. “I suspect that many people are not art enthusiasts because they think they don’t know how to understand art — but all that’s necessary is the interest to experience art and have faith in what you think about it and how it changes your life and way of thinking.”
