Our Story Our Mission About Laura Staff

Rhythms of Grace was founded by Laura Pinnick in the Spring of 2015.  Born and raised in West Virginia, Laura graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley, WV, in 2003 and from Marshall University in 2006 with a B.A. in Elementary Education.  She relocated to Rock Hill, SC, in June of 2007 to fulfill a teaching job at Chester Park Elementary School of Arts, a public arts school.  While teaching there she developed a curriculum that integrated dance and creative movement with science and math content.  While teaching at Chester Park, Laura wrote and received a grant to provide free dance instruction for low-income children before and after school and taught over 130 students in this program weekly.  Laura also continued her education during her time in South Carolina.  She earned her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction: Integrated Teaching through the Arts and completed coursework from Winthrop University in dance technique, dance history, and dance education.

Laura was thrilled to return to Beckley in 2010 and to continue her work in arts integration in Raleigh and Fayette Counties.  Laura worked part-time as the Children’s Ministry Director for a large congregation while also working as part of the West Virginia Department of Education’s Elementary Dance Pilot Project, and her arts integration residency at Stanaford Elementary School was hailed by the West Virginia Commission on the Arts as an exemplary model for the Arts in Education grant program.  She also continued her education through Dance Masters of America in New York.  In 2016, she completed the four-year DMA Teacher Training School and graduated from the program by passing examinations in ballet, tap, jazz, and modern.

Laura began teaching dance classes one night each week at the School of Harmony in Beaver, WV, in August 2012.  The rapid growth of the program resulted in Laura’s appointment as the Director of Dance for the School of Harmony, her formation of Rhythms of Grace, LLC, in Spring 2015, and the move to our current larger studio space on Ragland Road in Beckley in August 2017. Laura feels blessed to be able to minister to our amazing dancers, staff, and dance families families each week as the CEO of Rhythms of Grace.  Laura and her husband, Andrew, have been happily married since the fall of 2017.  They reside in Beckley with their fur babies, a Yorkie-Poo named Kona and an Italian Greyhound named Pearl.