Melissa Derrick

Teaching Students to Chassé Through Life with Grace

story by WENDY NILSEN POLLITZER         photos by PAUL NURNBERG

Derrick Ballet Conservatory (DBC) is more than just a dance school. It’s a home built upon a solid foundation of experience, love, and commitment to personal growth. Its founder, Melissa Derrick, the matriarch of this gifted family of dancers, parents, and staff, is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of young artists.

In March 2019, DBC opened its doors with 22 dancers and a mission to preserve the ballet community by honoring the unique spirit and value it cultivates. Melissa, a classically trained ballerina herself, composes her classes as she does her character—with integrity, poise, and principled attention to the fundamental standards rooted in an art form that has been practiced for centuries. She emphasizes five core values: humility, dedication, professionalism, inspiration, and joy. When her dancers leave the studio each day, they’ve been enriched with one or more of these values as they take the next step in life … tomorrow. Day by day, these dancers learn the proper skills of proper skills of dance etiquette and technique, but, more importantly, they learn how to take the lead in their own lives with grace.

Melissa Derrick was born in Leme, Brazil, a small town in the state of São Paulo. She started dancing at age 6 in a conservatory, primarily in Cosmópolis, dedicated to piano and ballet. By age 9, she moved to another studio and was traveling forty-five minutes each way to study classical ballet in Campinas. In the Brazilian culture, school students are traditionally educated for half period and sent to study their respective disciplines in the afternoon or vice versa. By age 13, Melissa was on a bus every day to Campinas to train in what would become her lifelong passion.

When she was age 15, Melissa enrolled in the Academia de Ballet Lina Penteado in Campinas, a prestigious school with over one thousand dancers. It was her dream, and in order to achieve excellence in training and efficiency in school, her parents allowed her to move in with her older brother in Campinas. She was dancing eight hours a day, learning self-discipline and independence at an early age, waking for school, preparing her meals, and studying at night. She was achieving everything she’d hoped for and found happiness in her pursuit of a dream.

The same year her brother was killed in a car accident. The devastating loss saddened her soul and spirit. She was determined to work even harder in his name. He was her rock and best friend, and she chose ballet to release her painful, heartbreaking emotions.

She continued at the school through graduation and danced in famous ballets, such as La Bayadere, Sleeping Beauty, Paquita, The Little Mermaid, Swan Lake, and scenes of Don Quixote. During high school, she had the opportunity to audition in Brazil to train with a Dutch Ballet School in Germany—just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her father preferred she go to a university instead, and she agreed. Melissa studied nutrition at Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas (PUCC) and graduated in 1996. She became a dietitian with Abbott Laboratories—a profession that aligned with her appetite for a healthy and confident body image.

“I once missed lunch on my way to ballet in high school because I was running late and missed my twenty-minute window to eat. I trained all day and later passed out during class. I learned then that food was my fuel and how important it was to maintain a healthy balance of diet and exercise,” explains Melissa. That chapter of her life, pre- and post-adolescence, taught her the confidence and poise needed for the next part of the journey, womanhood.

Melissa and her now ex-husband moved to the United States. She knew zero English. Thankful for her ever-evolving curiosity to learn, Melissa persevered and slowly learned our confusing and colloquial language.

“My sister couldn’t believe I had the guts to live here without knowing the language. But it taught me to live life like it’s your last minute, with intensity and purpose,” says Melissa.

“I couldn’t even get my driver’s license because I couldn’t pass the written test and had to go to Ridgeland so I could have someone translate it to Portuguese,” laughs Melissa.

After she had her daughter, Gabi, she slowly began to learn more English through the popular Nickelodeon program, Blue’s Clues. After seven years of absorbing the language and culture, Melissa began to feel comfortable in her adopted country. She became a US citizen in 2007.

A few years later she met Dr. Carl Derrick at an Oyster Roast. Instant chemistry led them to date and then marry in September 2011. Dr. Derrick currently sees patients at Beaufort Memorial Lowcountry Medical Group. He is also the Medical Director of Sprenger Health Care of Port Royal and the Medical Director of Hospice Care of South Carolina.

Melissa’s daughter, Gabi O’Quinn, and Carl and his three sons, Heyward, Crosson, and Stuart Derrick, are all part of the DBC team. “They are so supportive,” smiles Melissa. “They know I do it for the love of dance, and sometimes, during the weeks leading up to performances, I’m absent from my family. They are understanding and grateful I’m following and teaching my passion.” They come to watch every show Melissa’s created.

The chase of wonder and delight can happen every day with a little discipline, respect for yourself and others, and confidence. It’s what her teachers taught her, and it’s what she will continue to teach her dancers. It’s what we call the circle of life, to chassé with wisdom and gratitude from one generation to the next.

Melissa’s dancers feel the positive energy she brings to the studio and are appreciative of the respectful environment she creates.

And parents feel the same way. J’Lane Dunning moved from California last year and has three girls who practice ballet at DBC.

“Melissa is an outstanding instructor, and she was an accomplished dancer herself. I definitely feel like the classical training they are getting here is the best,” she says.

Dads are just as proud. Marc Hayward, father of Sophie Hayward (age 14) who has been dancing with Melissa since age 6, explains, “Through ballet, Melissa has given our daughter strength, confidence, discipline, poise and grace gifts that she will continue to use throughout her life. I am forever indebted to Melissa for the role she has played in molding our baby girl into the wonderful young lady she is today.”

Melissa insists, however, that she couldn’t have built DBC without her amazing staff, choreographers, and guest teachers. Hammie Kerney, Melissa’s former dancer, taught contemporary and jazz at DBC this year and is now heading to his freshman year at NYU in the Tisch School of the Arts program. Piper Beasley, a sophomore in the NYU Tisch program, Felipe Puletini, and Eric Freeman, a performer at the Grammys this year, also assisted Melissa in the studio. Currently, Zoe Becker, Heather Cahoon, Meredith Covert, Clara Dunning, Suzannah Forbes, Briana Londono, and Emily Moore teach ballet, creative movement, contemporary, jazz, acro, and musical theater. They also help prepare for one showcase per year and competitions with the Youth America Grand Prix, held in various venues around the country. Last year they helped bring The Nutcracker back to Beaufort.

And even when Covid-19 initiated the closure of local businesses in March, only one year after opening, Melissa got creative and offered Zoom classes with guest teachers: Rosana Presente, the examiner of the Royal Academy of Dance in Holland; Brazilian teachers Luciana Checchia, Daniela Steck, Camila Serra, Savyo Nunez, and Felipe Puletini; and Michael Cusumano, principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater and Broadway performer.

Laura Achurch is the office manager at DBC, and Melissa contends, “She keeps this place organized, and I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

Since opening with 22 students, DBC continues to grow with two studios at the Beaufort Town Center.

Melissa Derrick is the teacher we all want for our children. She is a mentor, friend, and confidant to impressionable youth. She knows that not every dancer will pursue ballet into adulthood, but all of her dancers will become men and women. Her character, through some hardship and pain, was strengthened by the classical art of dance. The beauty that she instills in the DBC family will continue for decades to come, and one day, one of her students will say, “Ms. Melissa taught me, and now I will teach you.”

Thank you, Melissa, for giving Beaufort’s youth this incredible opportunity for artistic and personal growth.