Dance teacher debuts on television

By CAITLIN SULLIVAN/Staff

Her dad built a room off the garage and a wooden stage for her to dance on.
“That’s where she had her first clogging show in front of us,” he said.
At 13, she’d given her first lesson – to Caitlin Wright.
“I think she taught me the gallop on a wooden stage, in a little room filled with toys,” Wright said.
She got paid $25 per month to give classes, one or two a week.
Last Friday a handful of girls outside Shaker’s Café and Grill in Saltville work on their routines. Inside more than 100 students, family members and friends gather to watch the Glade Spring native perform on the ABC television show “Dance Machine.”
Kim Fore’s mother never thought she’d see her daughter on the TV set. But she said she knew she’d make something of herself.
“There were kids that worked at it, she just did it,” Patti Mumpower said.
Both of Fore’s parents traveled with her to Hollywood earlier this year to watch the show be taped.
“Things happen for a reason, it wasn’t just about TV, it brought other great things,” Fore said. “The highlights were that both my parents were there and they hadn’t been in the same room in years.”
Screams pack the grill as the shows begins. It dubbed Fore “the farmer.”
“I’ve done my share of picking cucumbers,” she said. “But I wished I had the opportunity to show a little more of what I could do, done more hip-hop.”
Fore made it through the first cut but not the second. Still she said her experience gave confidence to her students.
“I’ve always stood in the back and this was something I did for myself,” she said. “There’s a world out there for it, dance; it’s a hard world but there are jobs.”
“It was the first time I danced for myself, freestyle in a long, long time,” she said.
The last time she danced solo was when she was 12 years old.
For the time being, Fore’s still the director of her dance studios, Xtreme Dance in Abingdon and Chilhowie, and she’s still living at home with her dad.
“I hope she finds her a permanent job with health insurance,” her dad said, smiling.
To contact Caitlin Sullivan e-mail .