S hirley McPhail opened her dance studio
T o say SMSD is a family affair is an understatement. Every member of the family has
“Some jumped into dancing at the age of 60, and some started when they were young, but only fun people come here and take tap.”
T he loyalty at SMSD is evident. Edwina Worley’s stepmother, Judy McPhail, who Larry
in 1970, and her daughter, Edwina Worley, now the current owner and studio director, continues to teach pupils from all walks of life how to take on rhythm and complicated movements, like the four-point crawl. This Tuesday morning, Miss Edwina’s 9 a.m. class shows off their routine to “Poison Ivy,” moving in sync as they shuffle across the floor. “Some jumped into dancing at the age of 60, and some started when they were young,” Worley says. “But only fun people come here and take tap.” While the studio, of course, offers classes for young people (tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, lyrical, hip-hop and musical theater), it also provides several options for adults, including tap, jazz, ballet shape, hip-hop and yoga. Approximately 150 male and female adult dancers take part in these classes, and the studio also teaches an adult performance group, Austin Tap Ensemble, which rehearses three times a month and performs at events throughout Austin. “We’ve had a student that had battled cancer that told me tap helped with her ‘chemo brain,’ ” Worley says. “For young children, dance offers a child the opportunity to move to music or express themselves through movement. For the adult, movement is so important to keep our flexibility and keep range of motion [in] our joints. Dance, for many of my adults, is a form of therapy that they look forward to and helps their entire being.” Being generational is a theme at the Shirley McPhail School of Dance, known simply as SMSD throughout town. Many people who started dancing there in the 1970s, when it first opened, later enrolled their own children in classes, and now those children are bringing the next generation of their families to the school. Through the years, more than just a few of those students came straight from McPhail’s own extended family.
-Edwina Worley
either taken or taught dance classes there or worked at Dancer’s Den, SMSD’s dancewear store, since the school first opened. McPhail herself began dancing as a young girl in Tyler, Texas, when her mom would drive her to Dallas for lessons. Her mother, who was a pianist, would also spend weeks during the summer with her in New York, where McPhail would take dance lessons. She went on to be a music major at the University of Texas, and taught dance throughout town before eventually opening SMSD. “At first, she would go around Austin to different studios with a record player to teach dance,” says Worley, who began dancing with her mom when she was 2 years old. “We would travel all around Austin or to places such as Mason, Rockdale [or] New Braunfels.” Today, there are two locations for the dance studio: one on Mesa Drive in Northwest Hills and the recently relocated studio at Highway 183 and Anderson Mill Drive. Worley has been in charge of the studio, along with her father and business partner, Larry McPhail, since her mom passed away from cancer in 1997. At Shirley McPhail’s memorial at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, the SMSD dance troupe performed to “Joyful Joyful.” “It was a tradition to close our show with that dance, so it was perfect for Miss Shirley,” Worley remembers. Forty-one years old when she took the helm at the school, Worley, for several years, felt a little lost being in charge of the studios and dancewear stores. Even though SMSD studios had been sold and closed throughout the years under McPhail’s leadership, Worley struggled to make similar decisions about the business. She knew her mother had a big presence at the studio. “It took me five years to realize I didn’t have to wear my mother’s shoes,” Worley says. “I had my own shoes to wear and they fit just fine.” Once she found her own leadership strengths, it was much easier for Worley to step into the role of studio director and owner. “I had been raised and trained to be a dance teacher, not an employer of 22 employees, so, I’ve been training on the job for the last 20 years,” Worley says. “It’s sometimes tricky to be teacher, owner, a shoulder to cry on, creative director and, on top of all that, now add two daughters getting married in the same year! Prayer and support from family and other women in my field have carried me through this far.” Worley’s daughter, Kristin Worley, graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in early childhood education and taught elementary school in Austin before realizing her heart was really back at the studio where she grew up. She now wears many hats at the studio, serving as assistant manager, working at the Dancer’s Den, choreographing and teaching, in addition to following in her mother’s and grandmother’s footsteps. “I’m a third-generation dance teacher, so, it’s so great to be able to do it and with my mom as my boss,” Kristin Worley says. As a family business, SMSD faces certain statistics regarding success. According to the Family Business Alliance, more than 30 percent of family-owned businesses survive into the second generation, yet only 12 percent will still be viable into the third generation. However, according to the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership at Babson College, femaleowned family firms experience greater family loyalty to the business, agreement with its goals and pride in the business.
McPhail married later in life, after Shirley McPhail’s death, and who Edwina Worley calls her “bonus mom,” oversees SMSD’s cotillion program. Edwina Worley’s other daughter, Elizabeth Worley, and even more family members help teach and coordinate SMSD’s Cotillion Austin-Style classes, which originated 10 years ago for 5th- and 6th-grade boys and girls. “They have fun and it makes an impression on their behavior,” Judy McPhail says. Along with learning dance styles like the fox-trot, cha-cha and two-step, they learn how to shake hands, make introductions and practice cellphone etiquette. At the end-of-semester graduation, students must send in a handwritten RSVP note to demonstrate their mastery of proper manners. The women of this family aren’t the only ones involved. Edwina Worley’s brother used to come into the studio with his football pads on and take tap classes; Edwina Worley’s husband, Neal, is known as Mr. Refreshments at the studio; and family patriarch Larry McPhail also mastered the “half-Irish” in his two years of tap classes. The McPhails even filled up their own family tap class for a while. austinwomanmagazine.com | 67