AMY MOORE MORTON, Owner/Director
Ms. Morton began her training with founder Cheryl Van Metre and danced under her direction for many years. She was a principal dancer with the company for over 15 years and danced leading classical roles in The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, Swan Lake, Giselle and many more. Ms. Morton has taught ballet for more than 20 years focusing on the Royal Academy of Dance training syllabus. Ms. Morton was appointed Artistic Director of the Appalachian Ballet Company in 1997. A number of commissioned works were created for Ms. Morton and the company. As a choreographer, Ms. Morton has created both classical and contemporary ballets and has garnered national acclaim through the Regional Dance of America Organization. Regional and professional companies throughout the southeast have performed Ms. Morton's original ballets. She won the Monticello Award in 1993 for her comedic ballet,With Chaplin from Regional Dance America and set the work on ballet companies including the Louisville Ballet, Boca Ballet Theatre and Southeast Alabama Dance Company.

In 1998, the Knoxville Arts Council named Ms. Morton Performing Artist of the Year. She has been featured on the cover of Dance Teacher Now magazine. Ms. Morton has been the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission. She was a 2005 graduate of Leadership Blount in Maryville, Tennessee.

Ms. Morton was chosen in 2004 to participate in the Chore-plan in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Only three choreographers throughout North America and Europe were chosen to set new classical works on the company. In 2005, New York composer, Pat Rasile and Ms. Morton collaborated on three new ballets based on the children's books of the late Libba Moore Gray, Amy's mother. They were presented by the Appalachian Ballet Company and the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra at the historic Tennessee Theatre.

Morton's ballet In the Shadows was performed at the National Ballet Festival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in spring of 2007 and she was awarded the Tier Project Choreographic Award from the Southeast, sending her to Seattle, Washington to create a new ballet. Ms. Morton sits on the national board for Regional Dance America and on the board for the Southeast Region.

Ms. Morton's daughters, Kylie and Laura are also dancers.