Martha was born in Rockland, ME in 1961 to Almond and Leona (Wellman) Pierpont. She attended Rockland Schools, graduating from Rockland District High School in 1980. She played the flute in the school band, and did some work at Penobscot Bay Medical Center as a Youth volunteer. Also, she was a Girl Scout and belonged to the Theta Rho Assembly-Silver Starlet #12, and was President at the state level when the Maine Assembly joined forces with the Assembly from Quebec.
She currently works in Camden, ME at Tibbetts Industries, Inc. as a Bookkeeper/Administrative Assistant. Martha has been happily married for 9-1/2 years and has 2 Stepdaughters. She has 3 sisters, 1 brother, 1 niece, 8 nephews, and 2 great-nieces.
DANCE:
Martha began dancing at the age of 5 with the Madelyn O. Drinkwater School of the Dance. At age 10 she had corrective back surgery for Scoliosis, and was forced to stop dancing for a short time. In the summer of 1976, she returned to the world of dance, enrolling in classes at the Mary Ann Carey Dance Studio. The classes that summer allowed her to re-learn all that she had been taught previously, and she joined full classes in the fall. After the first year, she was asked to assist in teaching the classes at the Studio, working 1 night a week in exchange for classes. That summer was the big year in Maine for Disco, and she assisted all the classes she could possibly attend. After that, she worked 3 nights a week and Saturdays, either on the dance floor or at the desk as receptionist. She taught aerobics at the studio, and through Mary Ann at the Samoset Resort in Rockport and in Damariscotta at the Rec Center. However, her activities were causing back pain so she gave up the aerobics. After Disco passed on, Mary Ann hired Ron Greenwood from Boothbay Harbor to come and give Master Classes in Ballroom Dance. Martha attended all the classes, learning how to teach the waltz, fox-trot, rhumba, jitterbug, and cha-cha.
Ron Greenwood opened another door for Martha-Ron and his partner, Russell Curry, had a small dance school in Boothbay Harbor - The Curry School of Dance. They were looking for an instructor to teach young students ballet, tap, and jazz. Through Mary Ann, Martha got the job, driving once a week to Boothbay Harbor. She taught 4 - 6 classes to ages 3 through adult. After teaching there for about 4 years, she fell at her sister’s house, and re-injured her back. This injury made it difficult to continue driving to Boothbay, and she was forced to give up the job. Martha also taught two dance classes at the YMCA in Camden for about 6 months, as they were looking for an in-house instructor and called Mary Ann for help.
Martha received formal dance teacher training from the Dance Teachers Club of Boston/AS. She attended their training school and received her certificate of completion in 1984. Of course, on-the-job training from Mary Ann was an invaluable tool, and has held steady through eight years of preparing for and holding annual dance recitals. However, she feels that you can never have too much training, so Martha attended the Dance Masters of America Teacher Training School in July of 1997 as a first-year student, learning new steps and brushing up on old skills. She also belongs to the Maine Dance Teachers Club, and attends their workshops on a regular basis.
The Mary Ann Carey Dance Studio officially closed in March, 1989. In early summer her husband Sheldon was driving across Route 90 and happened to notice a “FOR RENT” sign in a window. He wrote down the posted phone number, and gave it to Martha. She called the number, met Jack McCormick (the landlord), went to look at the building, and selected a room for her new studio. She opened the doors for dance in September, 1989.
THEATRE:
Martha is a member of the Camden Civic Theatre of Camden, ME. She has performed in about 5 productions, and choreographed even more. The first show was Guys and Dolls. She was Dance Captain, and danced as a Latin dancer and in the Gamblers Ballet. In the second week of production, she filled in as a Hot Box Girl. Then came Showboat, where she served as a dancer and filled-in as the Sideshow Belly Dancer. She played the part of Helene in Sweet Charity. In Kiss Me Kate, she was first asked to help with choreography (there were 3 choreographers in all). Because the choreographers were all so different, she was asked to serve as Continuity Choreographer, making sure that all dances came together, re-doing the dances that didn’t work, and doing some dances alone. At the first read-through of the play, she read (for fun) the part of the second gangster-there are never enough men! The director decided to give this part to Martha, and made it a female roll (the gangster’s moll!). Next came Chicago, when Martha played Velma Kelly, the Vaudeville dancer turned murderess. Since this production really proved that, as a singer, Martha is a really good dancer, she decided to turn her energy to backstage activities. She choreographed Nunsense, Nunsense II, Gypsy, Oklahoma!, Camelot, and Tommy for the CCT. She has also choreographed The Sound of Music for Georges Valley High School in Thomaston, ME, the Indian dance in Annie Get Your Gun for the Watts Hall Community Players (also of Thomaston), and was co-choreographer for Grease for the Camden Rockport High School in Camden, ME.