Taylor Gymnastics Cheerleading & Dance

Taylor Gymnastics Cheerleading &Dance 

210 East Main Street

Perry, FL 32347

Phone: (850)584-7382

Fax: (850)223-3464

Lisa Arrowood

Owner/Director

Taylor Gymnastics Cheerleading and Dance has been in Perry since 1975. Olivia Gale started the original business in 1975 with just twenty students. Over the course of nineteen years, the business grew and most of Perry's young people had been enrolled at some point in their life. The Dance  Workshop taught students the love of dance and a passion for performing. A young eight year old girl began taking a Ballet class not knowing that she would one day make a career of it! That young girl was Lisa Arrowood. Lisa was a horse-riding tomboy so her love for Ballet came as quite a shock to those that knew her. The class gave her confidence and boosted her self esteem, although at eight years old, she was there simply because she liked it! She continued taking Ballet, Pointe and Jazz through High School and began teaching for her instructor Olivia Gale in 1987. Lisa taught dance for six years and eventually bought the business in 1993. She began dabbling in gymnastics when the business was in need of a coach for the younger students in 1995. She quickly developed a passion for the sport and began attending every USAG coaching clinic she could. Her dance background made the transition to gymnastics very easy since both are based on biomechanics and body alignment. Her obsession with the sport continues and she is always looking for new ways to improve gymnastics for her students. She has brought in coaches from across the country so the students can have top-notch instruction.

The performing arts program continues to thrive under the direction of very talented instructors. We also have a growing Theatre department. The annual concert continues to be a local highlight where the students showcase their talents and put on an awesome show! The gymnastics program has evolved over the years from a small Saturday morning tumbling class to a full blown competitive program for boys and girls. Perry got it’s first taste of gymnastics in 1991 when Loree Galimore (a gym owner from Tallahassee) came to teach a few tumbling classes on Saturday morning at our dance studio, The Dance Workshop. This continued for two years until Loree and husband Ron received an incredible job offer with USAG. They sold their gym and moved to Indianapolis where they continue to work today. Local physical education teacher and Loree’s assistant, Dinny Turner, assumed coaching responsibilities and began teaching gymnastics twice a week in 1993, the year Lisa bought The Dance Workshop. The studio was located in the upstairs of an old building in downtown Perry. Over the next four years, the gymnastics program grew into a five day a week program, complete with all apparatus (granted our “bars” were old P-Bar rails mounted between structural beams!). Lisa decided that if the gymnastics program was going to continue, our kids needed a “real” gym. In 1997, we built phase one of the current facility and changed the name to The Dance Workshop and Gymnastics Center. Since then, there have been two major additions to improve the gym and many coaches have contributed to make us who and what we are today. In 2004, we changed our name to Taylor Gymnastics Cheerleading and Dance to be more representative of who we are and what we offer. We continue to grow and learn and are proud to have a facility where dedicated students can train to become successful athletes and performers while developing confidence, poise, strength, discipline and courage.