Who we are

Movement Arts Atlanta (MAA) provides high-quality dance training and programing to the Atlanta community focusing of the joy in the art of dance. Founded in 2011, MAA has presented over a decade of classes for young dancers. In 2023, MAA added classes for adults. In the 2025-2026 season, MAA’s Director, Carolyn Stine McLaughlin will be the first certified Movitanz™ Senior Swans instructor the Southeast of the United States. This curriculum is for bodies over the age of 50.

Since the Spring of 2022, MAA has been implementing the multi-media project A Time with Isadora. Historic dance reconstructions, live performances, photography and lens-based works are brought together in this major project to demonstrate how one artist influences many.

MAA is directed by Carolyn Stine McLaughlin. An Atlanta native, she grew up performing with Southern Ballet of Atlanta, a company which was a leader of the regional dance movement in the South. She attended Virginia Intermont College where she apprenticed with the Bristol Ballet. Ms. McLaughlin graduated with a B.A. in Business Administration with a minor in Ballet with a teaching emphasis. After several years working in management for companies such as Federated Department Stores and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, she returned to dance.

Ms. McLaughlin has performed professionally with Kolors Dance, Ondine and Company, Beacon Dance and Disney (where she was thrilled to play Mary Poppins). Ms. McLaughlin has taught and created dance programs for the YWCA, Georgia State University and the Fulton County Arts Council. Ms. McLaughlin spent 13 years as the Associate Director of Good Moves acting in both an administrative and artistic roles.

She works as an arts project manager, choreographer and teacher. A large portion of her project work was for the Atlanta Preservation Center where she has managed four City-wide festivals of the historic built environment. Under her management, The Phoenix Flies: A Celebration of Atlanta’s Historic Sites grew to include nearly 100 sites and 250 free events. She received the Jenny Thurston Award from the Atlanta Urban Design Commission for her accomplishments with this program. With the Atlanta Preservation Center, she also developed the Drawing Room Gallery and served as gallerist and curator for multiple exhibits that included the talents of Shela Pree Bright, Lucinda Bunnen, Jerry Cullum, Jody Fausett and David Yoakley Mitchell.

In 2011, she began the development of MAA. Her focus is to provide high-quality dance training to children and adult in the historic intown neighborhoods of Atlanta. This training is complemented by guest artists, workshops and major projects.

Ms. McLaughlin is active in the Atlanta Dance Community. She directs the only free admission dance festival in the City. Founded in 2001, the Inman Park Dance Festival is a two-day festival of classical and modern concert dance that is part of The Inman Park Festival and Tour of Homes. She is also a committed board member for Full Radius Dance.