Founder, CEO, Dance Choreographer
Current City: Raleigh, NC.
Current Job and Entrepreneurial Focus: Founder/ CEO of Stage Door Dance Productions (Arts & Impact Entrepreneurship) and Founder/ President Girls Geared For Greatness.
Notable Prior Jobs: Director and/or Choreographer for 35 Youth/ Community/ Regional Theatre Shows Between 2013-2020; Author (Trash the Trophies and Handle the Horrible); Speaker (TEDx: You Weren't Built to Break).
When I Started Performing: 1987 at 2 years old!
Performing Arts Background: https://www.stagedoordance.com/our-story (General Business Story); Dance (with a Specialty in Jazz and Theatre Dance); Theatre (Performer, Choreographer, Director); Piano.
How did your performing arts background supercharge your entrepreneurship? The process of performance, humanity, and entrepreneurship is all related. A "show" can represent a successful production, business, life, or legacy. Leaning into the performing arts provided perseverance as I navigated my childhood trauma, and that resilience has carried into my entrepreneurial experiences. Instead of merely creating something to exist, I seek to elevate, disrupt, and collaborate to make sure our entrepreneurial endeavors are carving needed space to progress humanity and impact our local communities. We achieved this when we extracted our dance studios from the competitive dance industry. We repeated it when we had to activate our Covid resilience. We will continue it when we open The Spotlight Institute, a space designed to show the true power of the performing arts, in its many forms. The performing arts encourage us to appreciate the process instead of anticipating the product or end result. I believe this lesson also applies to entrepreneurship- how can we take each moment and perform our best? On stage and in life.
Favorite Performer: Lady Gaga.
Follow this Performer:
Instagram - @chastahamilton
Facebook - chastadawnhamilton
LinkedIn - /in/chastahamilton
