"What you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways." ~Job 22:28 NIV
Tari Smith has thirty-one years of teaching experience. At the age of 16, she was chosen to teach for a Los Angeles based dance company, which taught high school dance teams nationwide. She then entered LSU and was selected for the dance major program and as an LSU Golden Girl. She was a member of the Golden Girls for 5 years and served as their captain and choreographer for 4 years. After earning a degree in education, she taught at St. Amant High School and Episcopal High School as a dance instructor and she also taught middle school at St. Aloysius. She then became a Jazz Dance Instructor with the LSU Theater Department.
Tari opened Tari's School of Dance in 1987 with 50 students ranging in age from 3 to 20. With the business knowledge gained through graduate work in the MBA Program at LSU, she expanded the school to over 600 students and a faculty of 8 teachers. She has received numerous National and Regional awards for choreography and student competition numbers from West Coast Dance Explosion, Tremaine Dance Conventions, Los Angeles Dance Force, LA Dance Magic, Company Dance, New York Dance Alliance, and LA Underground. She served on the faculty for the Louisiana Dance Festival sponsored by the Louisiana Dance Alliance in Baton Rouge as a jazz instructor and has served as an adjucator for the LSU Golden Girls, LSU Cheerleaders, LSU Tiger Girls, SLU Lionettes, Saintsations, Honeybees, Dance Masters, Drill Team World, All Star Dance Camps and Marching Auxiliaries of America.
Tari's students have gone on to win many titles, as well as to work professionally in New York and Los Angeles. Recently, twenty-one students auditioned for and were chosen by Debbie Allen for her "Brothers of the Knight" musical performed here in Baton Rouge last April.
They have also been chosen as LSU Golden Girls, New Orleans Saintsations, Los Angeles Laker Girls, Dallas Maverick Dancers, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and New York Rockettes. Tari enjoys offering her students an activity that provides happiness and fulfillment.