Uptown Dance Company was founded in the fall of 1999 by Beth Gulledge Brown the Owner/Artistic Director of Uptown Dance Centre.  Having performed professionally Beth understood the need to supplement classical and contemporary training with the opportunity to perform in various venues to round out the experience and performing skills of young dancers.  She founded the company to provide an educational performing outlet for her more advanced students.  She holds annual auditions, encouraging her upper level students to audition for the company.  Each company member is held to a rigorous schedule of training, rehearsing and performing in community events.  The company is currently made up of 17 students.  Uptown Dance Company performs many styles of dance, including ballet, jazz, modern and tap.  They have worked with many dance masters from New York City, Europe, and South America.  The company repertoire includes choreography by: Beth Gulledge Brown, Keith Cross, Marcelo de sa Martins, Andre Silva, Sheila Barker,  Cecilia Marta,  Alex Arizpe and Jason Parson. The company performs locally at festivals including The Houston Children’s Festival.  They also provide pre-show entertainment for the Society of the Performing Arts at the Wortham Theatre and the Hobby Centre.  The company has had the privilege to train and perform in venues around the world.  These include performing in three cities in China and taking class at The Shanghai Ballet Academy, performing and training at the 2001 and 2004 World Jazz Dance Congress and performing in the Tanzsommer Festival in Austria 2002.  In addition to these performances the Uptown Dance Company has staged local productions of Coppélia, The Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Uptown Dance Company produces an annual “Nutcracker Tea” and spring concert “Dance Infusion.”

Board of Directors: 

Executive/Artistic Director:
Beth Gulledge-Brown 

President:
Sharon Kennedy 

Honorary President:
Gina Winslow
Maxine Silberstein 

Development:
Brad Miller
Cristin Miller 

Community Relations:
Lisa Wolf Spier
Lou Ann Chae
Anne Amador 

Secretary:
Carolyn Gulledge 

Treasurer:
Brent Brown

Beth Gulledge Brown – Artistic Director

A native Houstonian, Beth began her ballet training with Margo Marshall. Beth also trained at the Delta Festival Ballet in New Orleans under Joseph and Maria Giacobbe and the Texas Ballet. She received scholarships to study with Broadway Dance Center in New York and Joe Tremaine in Los Angeles. Beth received her dance degree form the University of Capetown, R.S.A. She performed with the U.C.T. Ballet Company and the CAPAB Ballet Company. Beth’s performance experience in Houston includes Delia Stewart Dance Company, Texas Dance Theatre and Joan Karff’s New Dance Group. Beth has set choreography for the Texas Tanz Summer Festival, Choreographer’s X6, and JCC Summer Dance Repertory/Performance Project. Beth has had the opportunity to teach with many studios in Houston, South Africa, and New York City. Beth’s choreography has been accepted for presentation at Jazz Dance World Congress in Monterrey, Mexico in 2001,  and in Costa Rica in 2004 Her student company performed her choreography in three cities in China and was broadcast nationally over Chinese television.  Her choreography was showcased in Austria at the Tanzsommer Festival in the summer of 2002 and at the Jewish Community Center’s “Dance Month” in 2005 in Houston, Texas.

Andrew Murphy - Rehearsal Director

Andrew Murphy was born in Sydney, Australia.   He began his dance training at the age of ten in Canberra, Australia with Betsy Sawer.   Mr. Murphy also studied under the guidance of Kelvin Coe, Gary Norman, Dale Baker, and David Ashmole.   He trained under the guidance of Stanly Willams, Johnny Eliasen, Jurgen Schneider, Wilhelm Bumann, Jonathan Kelly, Desmond Kelly, and Rudolf Nureyev.

In 1989 Mr. Murphy joined The Australian Ballet.   He was promoted to soloist in 1991 and to senior soloist in 1993.   Mr. Murphy danced principal roles in Maina Gielgud’s production of The Sleeping Beauty; Graeme Murphy’s production of The Nutcracker; Rudolf Nureyev’s production of Don Quixote; Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon; John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew; Andre Prokovsky’s Anna Karenina; Maurice Béjart’s Songs of a Wayfarer and Le Concours; Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow; Sir Frederick Ashton’s A Birthday Offering; George Balanchine’s Symphony in C and Tchaikovshy Pas de Deux; Ninette de Valois’ Checkmate; Mikhail Fokine’s Les Sylphides; Jiří Kylián’s Forgotten Land and Sinfonietta; Harald Lander’s Etudes; Glen Tetley’s Voluntaries; Serge Lifar’s Suite en Blanc; and Stanton Welch’s Of Blessed Memory and Divergence. 

Mr. Murphy created roles in Stephen Baynes’ The Catalyst and Beyond Bach.   In 1996 Mr. Murphy joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet as a senior soloist and was promoted to principal dancer in 1998.

Mr. Murphy continued to expand his repertoire to include principal roles in the Galina Samsova/David Bintley production of Giselle; Peter Wright's productions of Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Coppélia, and The Sleeping Beauty; Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, Elite Syncopations, and Song of the Earth; David Bintley’s Edward II, Far From The Madding Crowd, Hobson’s Choice, Arthur part I and part II, Choros, Concert Fantasy, Flowers of the Forest, and Tombeaux; Sir Frederick Ashton’s Enigma Variations, Les Patineurs, Scenes de Ballet, Symphonic Variation, Voices of Spring, The Dream, and The Two Pigeons; George Balanchine’s Agon, The Four Temperaments, Symphony in Three Movements, Theme and Variations, Western Symphony, Orpheus, and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue; Hans van Manen’s Grosse Fuge and Five Tangos; and Twyla Tharp’s In The Upper Room.

Mr. Murphy created the role of Lancelot in David Bintley’s Arthur 1 and Arthur 2, Romeo in Shakespeare Suite, the autumn section of The Seasons, principal roles in Nutcracker Sweeties and The Protecting Veil; James Kudelka’s Le Baiser de la Fee; Lila York’s Sanctum; and Stanton Welch’s Powder.

In 2003 Mr. Murphy joined Houston Ballet as a principal dancer.  Mr. Murphy continues to expand his repertoire to include principal roles in Ben Stevenson’s production of The Nutcracker and Four Last Songs; Stanton Welch’s Pecos Bill; George Balanchine’s Apollo, La Valse, and Theme and Variations; and Lila York’s Celts.  Mr. Murphy has created principal roles in Natalie Weir’s The Host; and Stanton Welch’s Big Sky and Cline Time.

Mr. Murphy has appeared as a guest artist in galas throughout Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.  He has also received the Vasiliev Award of Encouragement at the International Ballet Competition in China.  Mr. Murphy, his wife and daughter make their home in Houston, Texas.  He also enjoys golf and gardening.