Mrs. Gretchen grew up in southwestern Virginia where she trained and competed with Blacksburg Dance Academy in the areas of ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, and modern. She began teaching at BDA at age 16. While in high school, Gretchen also studied ballet at The Center of Dance under Carol Crawford Smith, a principle dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She attended Virginia Tech to study engineering, where she joined the Contemporary Dance Ensemble, a student run Dance Company. Since moving to Wilmington six years ago with her husband, Brandon, Gretchen has directed a dance and music performance to raise money for the Hokie Spirit Scholarship Fund and worked with Miss Kasi Lynch to direct a benefit performance to raise money for the local domestic violence shelter. Most recently, she worked with Miss Lindsay Husch to produce a benefit show for the Rape Crisis Center last fall. She joined the staff of T.I.M. in 2006 and began traveling to competitions with the Performing Company during the 2007-08 competition season. She feels very lucky to have been given the chance to work with the students at TIM and is happy to be a part of the TIM family.