Brandy Roberts
CREATING MOVEMENT THROUGH DANCE
story by JENNIFER BROWN-CARPENTER photos by SUSAN DELOACH
As of 2024, there were around 10,908 dance studios in the United States. While all these dance studios are focused on teaching students young and old to dance, not many can claim the creation of safe space and raising awareness through dance, like Southern Unlimited Dance Company can. Owner and teacher Brandy Roberts is creating much more than just movements in her dance studio, she is creating A MOVEMENT of dancers who feel safe, seen, and supported.
Brandy Roberts was born in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Her dad owned a business in Hardeeville, and they lived in Hilton Head until Brandy was around 4 or 5 years old. They moved to Coastal Georgia, but even though she’s lived in Georgia for most of her life, Brandy still considers South Carolina to be “home.”
Brandy started dancing at a studio in Hilton Head when she was 4 years old. While neither of her parents were dancers, her grandmother was a dancer. “It skipped a generation. My cousin is also a dancer and teaches at Fred Astaire Dance in Vermont. It just skipped our parents and came straight to us!” As a child, Brandy loved jazz. As she got older, she discovered hip-hop, and that is where her love truly started for dance.
She always knew that she wanted to open her studio, and her dad gave her a head start by building her a studio in their garage. She started dancing competitively when she was 8 years old. She continued with competitions until she was 18 years old. Brandy started teaching when she was around 15 years old. “I’m 28 years old now, so I’ve been teaching for a long time,” Brandy laughs. After graduating high school, she attended college for a little while with a focus on dance. After spending some time at Jacksonville University, Brandy decided she was ready to come back home and start teaching. “I was given an opportunity and I started right away.”
Teaching at this studio in Georgia is also what ended up bringing Brandy back to South Carolina. A studio owner in Beaufort called the studio owner in Georgia to ask if she knew of any hip-hop teachers available to teach one night a week, and Brandy was available. “That’s how I got started teaching in South Carolina. It’s where my family roots have been with my dad’s company and close to where I was born. It felt like a big step for me.”
Brandy taught for LowCountry Dance Centre (LCDC) for almost 8 years. While teaching, she was able to start choreographing competition pieces, both for solos and group pieces. The owner of LCDC let Brandy spread her choreography wings, giving her free reign over song choices and concepts for pieces. “She put her full trust in me and gave me the opportunity that led me into the competitive choreographer that I am today.”
During this time, Brandy had a daughter who was born at 26 weeks gestation. Southern was born, weighing 1 pound 8 ounces. Southern spent five and a half months in the NICU. “It was very scary, we didn’t know if she was going to make it, and we were just praying the whole time.” Even after leaving the NICU, Southern was still on feeding tubes and a central line.
When Southern was around 10 or 11 months old, the studio owner in Beaufort decided she was going to close her studio, and Brandy knew that it was now or never. She did not want to leave the kids that she had grown so close to without a home studio. She saw an opportunity to not only do what she had always dreamed of doing but also provide them with a safe space, a space that she could create exactly how she wanted, with all of them in mind. “I wanted to let them know I was still there for them. We would still be a family. I was going to have their back. I opened my studio for the kids.”
It was a crazy time for Brandy. “One minute I was taking care of Southern, with her feeding tube, and the next minute I was going to reconstruct a building and open a dance studio.” But even with the craziness, Brandy says that she fully believes that God gave her the perfect timeline to open her studio. Within a month of finding out that the other studio was closing, Brandy was able to find property, totally renovate the inside, and open her studio: Southern Unlimited Dance Company, named after her daughter, Southern, in August 2022. “She was one of the main reasons I decided to go ahead and open my studio. I had a little girl and I wanted her to dance. After all her health issues, I just wanted her to know she’s supported and that this was something I did for both of us. And for her to always have a home studio, even if she doesn’t want to dance in the future. But for now, she’s obsessed with it.” Brandy says that her daughter is to be thanked for the person she is today. “I would not be the dance teacher, the studio owner, or even the mom or woman that I am today if we did not go through those things together.”
Growing up dancing, Brandy knew that when she did eventually open her studio, she wanted something that was just a little bit different. She wanted to create a haven for her students where they could be relaxed, but she also wanted it to be a place where they were training to be better, not just as dancers, but as human beings. “I wanted to create a space where we could learn how to show up for each other, for our team, and ourselves.”
Brandy knew that having a bond with her students and their parents was the key to creating this space. “It’s a relationship. Sometimes it’s 50/50, and sometimes they have off days, and I can pick up the slack for them.” Brandy has created a system for her students to make sure they always have the space, to be honest. The older girls have her number and if they are having a bad day, they will text her and say, “Ms. Brandy, it’s been a day.” They do not have to go into any detail, but it allows Brandy to change the dynamic for their days.
Brandy is hyper-focused on creating this safe space for her kids, to the point where she’s taken measures that most dance studios wouldn’t take. “We don’t have a lobby at Southern Unlimited.” There is a little area for the kids to store their bags and have a place to hang out without parents watching them or critiquing them. The kids know they are protected at all costs. “The parents are fully involved, and I think once they see how this benefits the girls, they are glad we did it this way. The girls are never distracted by what’s happening in the lobby. They are there to dance and that’s what they do.”
Brandy can have a one-on-one connection with all her dancers. It is one of the benefits of being a smaller studio. This allows her to help them work through anything they are struggling with and also pick competition pieces easier because she knows where each girl thrives.
In December 2024, Brandy opened a second location of Southern Unlimited Dance Company in Rincon, Georgia, her hometown. She teaches at both studios during the week, along with a few other teachers who assist her in different classes and help her with the smaller things, like sending emails out to parents.
“I have a lot more to learn about being a studio owner, but I work hard to be transparent with my students and their parents, and get feedback on what I can work on.”
Since becoming a studio owner and taking her girls to competitions, Southern Unlimited Dance Company has won several awards, such as Best in Show, Future of Competition, Spirit Award, and Entertainment Award. Southern Unlimited has also had many title winners, improv winners, and scholarships, along with Brandy winning a Best Choreography Award.
Since becoming a studio owner, Brandy also worked to choreograph pieces that raise awareness. Her dad passed away five years ago, prompting Brandy to choreograph a piece entitled “The Widow,” which is about her mom and her experience since losing Brandy’s dad. This year, one of Brandy’s teachers choreographed a tasteful piece on domestic violence. “We are careful to be responsible about the kids and their ages, but also raising awareness about things that are important.”
Southern is 4 years old now, loves dancing, and has graduated from all her doctors.
Brandy hopes that her studios can continue to grow, and that they can become even more involved in the Beaufort community. “We love being in Beaufort, and I hope to continue to grow here. I love what I do, and I’m grateful for every minute of it. And I have to say, I could not have done any of this without my mom. She has been my rock through it all.”
To learn more about Southern Unlimited Dance Company, you can visit their website at www.southernunlimiteddancecompany.com.
