From an early age, music moved dancer Michelle Dunn

The closest Michelle Dunn's feet can come to remaining motionless is a slow clog.

Ronnie and Karen Dunn said their 11-year-old daughter has been moved by music since she first heard a certain self-styled prince's theme music when she was 6 months old.

"'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' would come on, and ... you could see her moving," Karen Dunn said, laughing. "When that song came on, and she was able to walk, if she was upstairs, she would come running downstairs and start dancing."

Despite those early signs, dancing wasn't always in Michelle's plans. Her father has coached baseball for 25 years, so when she turned 4 and it was time to sign her up for an activity, the Dunns chose softball.

But even on the diamond, she couldn't stop dancing, Ronnie Dunn said.

"She'd be playing softball, hit the ball and get to base and then be out there clogging," he said, laughing. "It was horrible. Funny -- but horrible."

A year later, the Dunns decided clogging was a good idea and began looking into classes. Their search led them to Ginger Brown's Academy of Performing Arts.

Michelle cried when she took the stage for her first recital, but now, after spending more than half her life in a dance studio, she said she can't imagine life without it.

"I have fun," Michelle said. "Just the thought that, 'I get to go to dance today' makes me happy."

After a year of clogging lessons, Michelle, then age 6, auditioned for the academy's Petite Entertainment Troupe. She has been a member ever since and has studied numerous dance styles, including tap, jazz, hip-hop and most recently, lyrical, a variation of ballet performed to contemporary music.

She has also branched into acting, landing minor roles in Humble Swan Productions' "Peter Pan" and "Oliver." For the last two years, she has volunteered with the troupe during the Special Olympics, and this year began assisting instructors at the academy with their classes.

In all, her parents said she spends eight to 12 hours in the studio every week.

Although Michelle is typically reserved around strangers, dancing provides her a chance to come alive and connect in a way other forms of communication can't provide, Ginger Brown said.

"Her love for movement and music makes her a good dancer," Brown said. "When she gets onstage, she comes alive. That's where her personality shows."

Every year, Michelle and the rest of her troupe participate in three to five dance competitions.

In 2006, at her first national contest, Michelle won first overall in the petite division. Since then, Michelle has added about a dozen other trophies to her shelf for solo dancing and troupe performances at competitions such as Applause Talent, Rising Star and Platinum.

To her parents, however, winning isn't what's important.

"If I had had my way, she would have stayed in softball, but not now," Ronnie Dunn said. "She made the right decision for all of us.

"Whatever she's doing, she doesn't have to win, she just has to be happy."