As a child, Lindsay Fussell used to stage theater productions in her grandmother’s basement. Family and friends were all charged admission to witness her solo performances.
Lindsay Fussell teaches her students, Hadley Griffith, Andryia Mawoko, Ella Hawkins and Kennedy Doan, a new dance with a sailor theme during dance class at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre in Chattanooga. Fussell finds costumes to match choreography she creates for her students.Later, her mother would drive her to Chattanooga from Trenton, Ga., for dance classes. When the late Nancy Lane Wright brought her dance school to Chattanooga in the early 1970s, Fussell said her life changed.
“I’ve always wanted to do this,” Fussell said. “I used to practice writing my name real messy so that when I became famous, I’d have a messy signature.”
Today, Fussell teaches just about every type of dance except ballet. She figures that she has taught thousands of local dancers over the years. She’s also choreographed dozens of plays, starred in more than a few and she had a part in the off-Broadway production of “That Other Woman’s Child,” written by fellow Chattanoogans George S. Clinton and Sherry Landrum.
“That was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream,” Fussell said.