The Center of the Performing Arts

The Center of the Performing Arts is a dance studio in Havelock, NC. The school offers instruction in dance, drama, and music for students of all ages and skill levels, serving families in Eastern North Carolina. Classes include ballet, tap and jazz, contemporary, preschool dance, Mommy & Me Dance, as well as private and group lessons in piano, flute, beginner guitar, percussion, and voice, plus drama classes, pilates, and a community chorus. Summer camps cover themes like "How Sweet It Is…," "The Wonder of Alice," Mystery & Suspense Drama Camp, Dungeons & Dragons Drama Camp, ballet and pointe, beginning pointe, and adult dance and music sessions. The studio holds a rating of 4.40 based on customer reviews. The Center was established in 2010 by owner and dance instructor Mary Beth Beasley, a Havelock native who graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a major in ballet. She went on to study at Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Ballet Met, and the National Ballet of Hungary in Budapest, then danced as a soloist and later principal with companies including Southern Ballet Theatre in Orlando, Ballet Theatre International, The Florida Ballet, Sierra Nevada Ballet, and the Sarasota Opera. Her teaching background includes professional company schools and Arts in Education programs in public school systems before she returned to Eastern NC to open the school. The staff is chosen for expertise in their art form, and students have performance opportunities throughout the year, including a full-length production of "The Nutcracker," parades, and tree lighting events. The studio sits on West Main Street in Havelock, about half a mile from Slocum Creek Park and Southwest Prong Slocum Creek, and a short distance from Fontana Boulevard. Customers who have reviewed the business have given it a positive rating, reflecting the school's long-running presence in Havelock since 2010 and its broad program of dance, music, and drama instruction for the surrounding community.