EDITOR’S NOTE: Donna Prothro, owner of and instructor at The Dancer's Workshop, is one of nearly 100 women that will be honored Sept. 23 by Main Street Manning. We will be featuring all women who completed a survey related to their businesses on manninglive.com throughout September, and will also feature a select few in The Manning Times each week.
Charleston native Donna Prothro has taught dance at her shop in Clarendon County for more than 35 years, offering training in tap, ballet, jazz, clogging, kinderdance, lyrical and pointe.
Her early training in dance was “the result of winning a baby beautiful contest in Charleston,” she said.
“Part of my winnings included free dance lessons, so at the age of 3, I started my formal dance education from Joan Simmons School of Dance in downtown Charleston,” Prothro said. “I had a natural flair for dance and my teacher took me to perform on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. From that moment on, I knew that I loved performing.”
After her family moved to Sumter in 1969, Prothro continued her studies at Elizabeth Davis School of Dance. She attended Columbia College as a dance/arts major.
“I was awarded the Debbie Turbeville Memorial Dance Scholarship twice for excellence in dance,” Prothro said.
She also attended the American Festival of Dance in Atlanta for Colleges and Universities.
From 2004-09, she was director of The Monarch Movers Dance Company of Manning Elementary, teaching dance to all students in second through fifth grades there. Her dancers have performed in The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, N.Y., the Striped Bass Festival, Clarendon County Relay for Life, the Iris Festival and the Sun Fun Festival, among other events.
She is married to William Prothro, and the couple has three children: Stroman and Evan, who are both graduates of The Citadel in Charleston; and McKenzie, who is a senior at the University of South Carolina, where she is a cheerleader on the co-educational Gamecocks team.
