Terryee Trout Chisolm watched about a dozen women dance in front of the long mirror in the narrow room, their black and tan tap shoes clicking and scuffing the floor quickly.

"My feet won't do that anymore," she said. "I don't have quite the zip I used to."

Chisolm arrived at Miss Mona's School of Dance & Performing Arts in Salem on Friday, the same day about a score of the studio's alumni arrived for a rehearsal. About 30 former students will perform today at Jefferson Center to celebrate the studio's 50th anniversary.

Miss Mona's opened in 1957 in a one-room studio at Preston Park Recreation Center in Roanoke. Chisolm, 60, who began dancing under Miss Mona that year at 10 years old, said the lessons she learned have stuck: discipline, professionalism and showmanship.

"She expected a high level of performance and so do I," said Chisolm, now a theater teacher at Blacksburg High School.

Mona Gevrekian began as the sole instructor of about 10 students, said her daughter Ginger Perkinson, who is now the studio's artistic director. Seven years after Miss Mona's death, that number has grown to about 200 students and eight instructors. The studio itself has grown, too, adding a drama department about five years ago. There are now two facilities, one in Salem and one in Vinton.

Rates have increased. Some 50 years ago, lessons cost about $5 a month. Now, weekly hour-long lessons can cost $43 a month.

When Miss Mona first opened classes, she taught ballet, tap and "theater jazz," a style reminiscent of Broadway shows. Now students, especially preteens, veer toward jazz and hip-hop styles.

"They [students] are more interested in what the current music styles are," Perkinson said. "MTV has had a big impact on dance and the dance world."

Photo by Jared Soares

Dancers work on steps during Friday evening's rehearsal for Miss Mona's School of Dance and Performing Arts' 50th anniversary show in Salem.

Chisolm can attest to that. She said she helped her students learn a dance for last weekend's production of "Wonderful Town."

"I'm teaching the Charleston, and they're thinking, 'Oh, God, she's going to break something,' " Chisolm said.

Alumni could still remember the moves, though, joining in a soft-shoe tap dance they learned as 10- and 11-year-olds.

Chet Layman of Roanoke joined Miss Mona's at 3 with his sister and brother. He said the soft-shoe is really the only dance he learned, but he is looking forward to performing today.

"Being seen on stage as such a little fellow and being in the civic center having such a good time was one of the greatest things," Layman, 45, said, remembering past performances. "It was very nice that Miss Mona allowed boys."

Male students have always been welcome to join the studio, and are separated into their own class when there are enough of them, Perkinson said.

Layman's sister, Karen Layman, 53, was one of Miss Mona's first students. She began dancing under Miss Mona when she was 4. Classes back then, she said, felt like being in a big family -- and no wonder. Some alumni danced with their brothers and sisters, and Perkinson teaches with her sister, Judy Gevrekian.

Gevrekian said her mother would have loved to see Friday's gathering of dancing, laughing students and the recital to honor her.

"She would be tickled to death," Gevrekian said. "She's probably looking down at us right now."