MIAH & SPENSER THOMPSON

Miah & Spenser Thompson

Miah and Spenser have been teaching ballroom dance for over a decade!

Miah Thompson

Instructor Bio

Miah Thompson graduated from the University of Alabama in Birmingham in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. She teaches social, competitive, and showcase style ballroom dance. She has also choreographed for musicals, and trains up and coming ballroom dance teachers. Miah's specialty is choreography.

While in college, Miah started teaching social dance through Curt n’ Wendy Dance in 2011. As a teacher trainee, Miah was always choreographing dance routines in her spare time. In 2012, Curt and Wendy noticed her passion for choreography, and hired her as a choreographer for their teen exhibition teams. In 2014, Curt encouraged her to start her own class. So, she created the company, Dueta Dance. She also started training under internationally certified competitive judge, Kim Smith, to learn how to train competitive dancers and improve her choreography skills. In 2018, Curt and Wendy Johnson passed their youth program to Miah and her husband Spenser Thompson, so that they could retire knowing that their program was in good hands.

Now, Miah teaches social dance, competitive ballroom dance, and choreographs for all kinds of shows, including musicals! In 2022, Miah started working with Leeds Arts Counsil to choreograph their rendition of the Broadway musical, She Loves Me, which was directed by Brandi McClaran. In 2023, Brandi asked Miah to come back and choreograph her next production, The Addams Family Musical.

Miah's belief is that anyone can learn how to dance, as long as they have an instructor who believes in them. She uses that belief to motivate her students to excel in dance. Overall, Miah's main goals are 1) to ensure that her students can achieve their goals, and 2) show her students how much they are truly capable of, if given the tools they need to succeed. "Everyone's journey is different, and there is no cookie cutter definition of success. If someone is able to achieve their personal goal, big or small, then I have done my job well." - Miah Thompson

Instructor Bio

Spenser Thompson graduated from Auburn University in May of 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry. He teaches social, competitive, and showcase ballroom dance, and specializes in lifts. He also trains up and coming dance instructors, and has performed in local theater productions such as She Loves Me at Leeds Arts Counsil in Leeds, AL.

Spenser started dancing in 2001 at Curt and Wendy Johnson’s first homeschool youth ballroom dance class. Just like many other 11-year-old boys, he was very reluctant to join the class. However, after he tried it for a few weeks, he loved it! As a teen, Spenser also perused competed in Country Western with Melissa Packer, and learned west coast swing from Chis Bailey.

After just five years of dancing, Spenser was teaching people how to dance at every opportunity he could! Curt and Wendy saw his passion for teaching, and started to host teacher training sessions for him and some of their other students who wanted to teach. Eventually, when Spenser proposed to another teacher trainee of theirs named Miah, Curt and Wendy decided that Miah and Spenser would be great candidates to take over their youth classes when they retired in 2018.

Spenser Thompson

Miah and Spenser train competitive ballroom dance as well. They have brought their students to multiple ballroom dance competitions including Christmas in Dixie, Dancing with the King, and others. However, becoming a competitive coach was not Spenser's original goal. In 2015, their students expressed interest in learning how to compete in ballroom. In order to meet the dance needs their students, Miah and Spenser worked hard to learn how to train competitors from internationally certified competitive judge Kim Smith. Spenser was nervous about the idea at first. However, he quickly grew to love being a competitive coach when he saw how happy and confident it made their students feel. He really came to love it when he realized that he had a knack for teaching lifts, which paired well with Miah's choreography style.
Spenser's passion is teaching everyone the joys of dancing. Especially when he teaches lifts. He does not teach the bases to be strong and toss the flyers around. He teaches both partners how to be strong, and how they can work together to make their lifts happen. Whether it's a group class, a private lesson, or a lifts lesson, Spenser's philosophy is this:“I want people to feel comfortable when they come to our classes, and I try to make sure every student leaves with a smile on their face, knowing that they are accepted, appreciated, and deserving of respect."