Dance & Sing! Music offers a unified, holistic approach to music study, combining leading trends in music education research into one curriculum.  Our goal is to  coordinate  the best traditional private method instruction systems with discovery play techniques that incorporate mind, body, emotions and spirit into the learning process.

 Our purpose is to bring joy and connection and fun to the musical growth process and to help children and adults build a sense of skilled accomplishment,  personal fulfillment and community belonging through engaging together in musical activities.


Dance and Sing! Music  is the result of over 25 years of research and experience in music education.

In research with over 600 adults who had studied music as children and quit that study before reaching adulthood, we found that the individual stories resonating with the same variations on a theme:

"I took years of piano lessons but could only really play my one recital piece and only then if I kept practicing it over and over until I hated it.  I was never able to sit down and play songs that I liked just for fun.  It would take weeks of practicing to get the notes right and I was supposed to practice my lesson pieces anyway."

"Practicing was lonely and frustrating.  There was no one there to help me fix problems, so I just played the same mistakes over and over, faster and faster, till Mom said I could get up and do something else."

"What I liked about band was all the trips and concerts that we did together.  Private lessons and practicing was mostly boring drills and exercises."

"I practiced and practiced, but I was always so afraid of making a mistake that I could never  play in front of anyone else."

A few people stuck it out and reached a level of technical accomplishment that brought more satisfaction and ease in learning.  However, the majority of people quit music because their lessons were not about joyful music-making, but about music duty.

Yet, when parents of pre-schoolers inquired about lessons for their children, they would tell stories about how musical their child was already:

"My son bangs on anything, and can keep the beat with the radio."

"My daughter loves to play notes on the piano.  She does it all the time."

"My child sings along whenever she hears music and begs to hear the songs over and over."

 It is our birthright to thrill to the sound and the beat of the music!  Music is the joyous expression of the soul's connection to life, and as we express that connection, we find that we have new energy and new inspiration to bring to the tasks of daily living, to the health of our relationships, and to the enrichment of our communities.
We release stress and alienation, and find new ways to bring positive energy to life.




Dance and Sing! Music was developed by Suann A. Strickland, who began studying piano at age 6.  Suann  holds a B. A. in Sociology and a B. Mus in Piano Performance.  She  holds a  Master's  Degree of Music Performance in Piano Pedagogy from Florida State University where she also earned a World Music Certificate and completed additional graduate training in choral conducting.   She holds teacher training certification in the Yamaha Music Education System, Orff -Shulwerk training, and two levels of facilitator training in Guided Imagery and Music through the Institute for Consciousness and Music. She performs regularly in solo and collaborative recitals, and has performed around the U.S. and in France and Russia.   She has been the musical director/conductor for over 60 musical theatre productions, and has  performed in Russia and Estonia with International Arts For Peace.

Suann was the Director of the Yamaha Music School of Durham,  NC for 11 years, teaching classes for students ages 4 -12 in NC and in Florida.  She taught the  Rockefeller Foundation-based course for adult piano returnees, How To Play The Piano Despite Years of Lessons, for City Colleges of Chicago and in piano stores across North Carolina and in Southern Virginia.  Suann is currently  an adjunct music instructor at Mercer University, where she teaches college class piano and piano pedagogy, accompanies faculty and guest artist recitals and is the Curriculum Designer and Program Director for the preparatory music program, Mercer Music For Young People.


F. Charles Anderson is a trombonist, composer and instrumental conductor who holds music degrees from Duke University, University of  Maryland, and the Universities of Calgary and Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada.  He performs and teaches both classical and jazz brass styles and is a specialist in Dixieland improvisation.  He performs over 100 concerts a year as a member of the  US Air Force Reserve Band.  He has appeared at Jazz Festivals in Mammoth Lakes, CA, Clearwater, FL and New Orleans, LA.  He has been a member of the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra.  Charles also serves as adjunct trombone faculty at Mercer University,  Macon, GA where he teaches college music majors and maintains a private studio for high-school trombone students.  One of his compositions, Dedication for Trombone and Organ, commissioned for the 150th anniversary of Christ  Church of Macon, GA, has received two recent performances.


 At Dance & Sing! Music, we continually seek new ways to offer music encounters that are enjoyable, satisfying  and compelling adventures and  to bring the life-affirming joy of music to people of all ages through music study, performance, and concert experiences.