“It was around that time that I figured that was where my heart really is and that I’d like to pursue it as a career,” she says. 

 

Dance was nothing new to Curran. A third generation dancer, her grandmother performed at Oslo Opera House and her mother composed her own original dance choreography. As a child, she studied the Vaganova method, honing her dance skills for three to four hours a day, six days a week while growing up in Memphis, Tennessee. Suffice to say, Curran is something of a perfectionist. 

 

“I don’t think I could ever master ballet,” she says. “I don’t think anyone can, for that matter.”

Curran’s previous Tennessee Ballet Theater roles include the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker, the White Swan in Swan Lake. Curran also danced in additional soloist roles in excerpts from Don Quixote and Swan Lake.

 

“The Sugarplum fairy is definitely my favorite role,” she says. “It’s not Christmas to me without the Nutcracker. And all the little kids get really excited, it’s adorable.”

 

In addition to her role as a dancer with Tennessee Ballet Theater, Curran works as an independent dance instructor and as a model with AMAX Creative Management.

 

 “Teaching was definitely an interesting thing to get into,” she says. “It’s being an artist versus teaching others to become artists. The second part is not that easy sometimes, but I love it.”

 

Upcoming performances from Curran include These Walls: Tales from a Juke Joint, a performance celebrating the local legacy of Earnestine & Hazel’s, which will debut April 21 at the iconic South Main nightclub.