Pat Gray was 3 years old when she realized that dance was her passion.

That love for dance, instilled by her mother decades ago, is now reflected in her daughter and granddaughter.

“My mother always loved dancing and would have done anything if she could dance, but she was a big person, and short,” said Gray, the owner of Pat Gray Academy of Dance and Gymnastics in Meridian.

The Pat Gray File

• Member Dance Masters of America, Inc. Since 1979 and Past President.

• Certified Junior Olympic Optional Judge 1983-2015.

• Nationally Safety Certified in Gymnastics 1985-2019.

• Inducted into the Mississippi United States Association of Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2003.

• Woman of the Year in 2002 – Reader’s Choice The Meridian Star.

• Best Dance and Gymnastics Academy – Readers Choice in years 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011.

• Choreographer for Junior Miss Programs.

• Choreographer for International Cinderella Scholarship Finals.

“She wouldn’t take dancing, so when she had a child she put me in dance and that was it. I loved it and I wanted to do it the rest of my life.”

By the time she was 12, Gray started teaching dance, even opening her own studio.

“My first teacher was Jean Shamburger right here in Meridian,” Gray said. “When she left town I went over to Mary Alpha Johnson’s studio. I took a weeks class from her and she put me right to teaching dance. Then I went to Wechsler High School and started teaching dancing there.

“After that, I started my own school in Meridian when I was 12. I then had a school in Livingston, York, and Butler, Alabama and Macon. By then I was 13, and had a blue Fiat my mom bought for me. She drove me to my dance classes where I made a dollar a lesson.”

During the summer, Gray went to conventions to study dance and gymnastics. She studied in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and New Orleans, led a dance team, and taught dance and musical theater in Europe for five weeks in 1978.

Back in Meridian, her first studio was behind Point Rexall Drugs in a basement.

“The first year we had 16 kids and the next year we had 100,” Gray said. “After moving several times, my husband said it was time to buy some land. Once we built the building, that’s when things started growing and growing. As the years have gone by, several of my students have opened up studios of their own.”

The second generation

Gray’s daughter Sharon Howard recalled what it was like growing up with a dance teacher as a mother.

“My first memory of being in dance was getting a spanking because I wouldn’t stay in line,” Howard said with a chuckle. “When you live it and are made to do it all the time, you don’t want to go to class. When I was 15 the bug hit me – I think it was when I got really good.”

After getting married, Howard moved to Jackson and opened up a studio in Ridgeland.

“The first year I had 30 kids and it quickly grew to 150,” she recalled. “I was there 10 years and had my daughter Holly. She was in her first dance recital before she was a year old.”

“That’s just what we do. My daughter grew up in the studio like I did. When she was about four, I knew she was going to be a choreographer. She would choreograph her own routines when she danced.”

The third generation

Howard’s daughter, Holly Howard Koch, said her first memories were of being on stage and entertaining.

“I was like mama – I loved to be on stage, but I never wanted to take class – ever,” Koch said. “I don’t think I started loving it until I was 14 and got really good. I was the youngest teacher to ever get the best choreographer award.

“That’s what started my love of making up routines and thinking of new and cool ways to do certain things in the routines. I now have my own studio in Collinsville – Next Level Dance Company.

“She would get up on a table and say, “I am great, I am incredible, and she was,” Gray recalled.

Howard said that being a choreographer is a God given talent.

“Anybody can open up a dance school, but being able to create the routines is something that doesn’t come just by taking dance,” Howard said. One good thing about our school you don’t have to hire a choreographer to come in and teach a routine. We do it all in house.”

Koch said her fondest memories are of traveling and being with her family who were also her dance teachers.

“I loved to travel and be with my mother and grandmother,” Koch said. “My favorite part was staying in hotels – it was my gym. I loved to dance up and down the halls and in the lobby of the hotels.”

Howard said one of her fondest memories growing up was when her mom started taking the classes to the nursing homes at Christmas.

“We went to 10 nursing homes, five in the morning and five in the evening,” Howard said. “It is something we still do.

Gray credits her success to teamwork.

“My daughter Richelle leads in the gymnastics department and Sharon is the leader in the dance department,” Gray said. “They studied right along beside me and are as knowledgeable in their arts as anyone can be. They love doing their jobs and love the children they teach and it shows. We are a family business.”

Richelle Gray praised her mother for her accomplishments.

“People in Meridian know the name Pat Gray, but don’t know what all Pat Gray has done,” she said. “They think all these programs have always existed when she is the one who started it. We want people to appreciate her while she is still here.

Gray has students who have gone on to become dance instructors all over the United States – Chicago, Texas, Atlanta, New Orleans, Jackson, and as far away as Miami. She also had students who became International Cinderella girls and even Miss America – Susan Akin.

“When they come back to Meridian to visit, they come by and show me pictures and tell me they are so glad I loved dancing so much that I wanted to teach,” Gray said.

Being able to teach and have so many students who have gone on to do great things makes you feel good, Howard said.

“I think we are the only studio in Meridian that teaches technique and the proper skills to be a good dancer,” Howard said. “Holly is my pride and joy, and I am my mama’s pride and joy. We have another baby coming, and if it’s a girl we will have four generations of dancers.”