Marie Roach started dancing in early childhood & through high school, including tap, jazz, ballet & modern. She assisted her dance teacher & choreographed for high school musicals in which she also performed. After high school, she majored in dance in the prestigious dance program at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, where she became smitten with the ballroom genre. "My first day there, after I saw the ballroom dance team perform, I knew that was what I wanted to do." Recognizing Marie's teaching talents early in her studies, her teachers made her a teaching assistant & choreographer throughout her university career. Summer vacations found her organizing dance & swing groups in her home town (Logansport, IN). A major study at BYU was creative dance for children

After graduation, she returned to Indiana where she met & married a handsome IPD police officer, Bryan Roach. She competed in international standard & latin until her pregnancy with her first child. In May 1996, when her three children became toddlers & preschoolers, she began teaching at Starlite. She also teaches in high schools, community programs & at Indiana University. Her busy schedule is made possible by her children's grandparents & her husband. Her three children are now all in school.

Marie is a knowledgeable, skillful dance teacher whose students gain not only dance expertise in all the ballroom dances but also an uplifting experience from this upbeat young woman. Her motto seems to be: "I can do most anything & do it cheerfully". Marie says, "I regard myself first as a wife & a mother but my teaching helps me to be a better mother".

Updated: 03/28/04