Ron and Kathleen Jones have lived anything but ordinary lives. Ron traveled the world as a professional dancer for the Atlanta Ballet, even performing at the presidential palace in Haiti.
Kathleen found her way to Atlanta after her workplace in Florida burned. Being the adventurous type, she considered a career as an animal trainer before taking a job at the Atlanta Ballet.
This year, the Jones' Columbia County Ballet turns 25. At one time, the studio in Martinez had 300 students.
Photos on the wall of the school at 639 Furys Ferry Road reflect Ron's achievements in dance. He is bashful, but his wife thinks it's important to show off his background and expertise.
"Anybody can put up a shingle and open up a dance school. They don't have to have any background at all," Ron said.
Operating the business has been satisfying for both of them.
"Every day he gets up, he's happy to come to work. This is our work, but it's not work to us," Kathleen said.
Ron added: "You see that people are getting so much out of what you've created or established. The young dancers that come here, we hear it over and over, 'My daughter would come here every day if she could.' "
Ron said that his wife appreciates all of their students' interests. Some dance schools don't allow for students to have time for outside activities.
"We work around our students, and it's because of her influence," he said.
Today, he teaches one class and conducts rehearsals. Kathleen teaches the 3-and 4-year-olds, whose dreams are filled with fairies and princesses, Ron said.
This is the inspiration for their logo: a little girl wearing a ballerina outfit whose shadow is a poised, adult ballerina.
Their three children grew up at the dance school. Today, daughter Jessica Hughes is their office manager. The office also has a receptionist, a big investment for the business, although it's been beneficial, Ron said.
"It allowed Kathleen and I to focus on the things that we do best at the school, so we didn't have to wear all these different hats. In the early days, we were trying to teach, answer the phone and create the ballets," he said.
Hughes was 5 when the first dance school opened.
"If I wasn't at school, I was here. That's all I've ever known, so I can't imagine my parents having a job where I'm not around them all the time. It's great. We're a very close-knit family," she said.
Charlotte Carr's daughters started taking classes with the Joneses in 1986.
"They're incredible people," Carr said. "They have put their heart and soul into Columbia County. You can't help but catch that enthusiasm when you're working with them."
She describes Kathleen as "extremely vivacious, and absolutely a wonder with small children."
Ron, who is more serious, always has the best interest of his dancers in mind, even if it means allowing them to move on, she said. He has trained several dancers who have become professionals.
"He's all about the art. The kids all love him and would do anything for him," Carr said.
Doug Tice's daughter studied under Ron and Kathleen and now works for them. They have had a profound impact on his daughter, he said.
"I can look at her and see in her a level of grace," Tice said. "Not only in the way she carries herself physically, but a confidence they've instilled in her. They've imparted a lot of life skills to her that she wouldn't have otherwise. I would recommend anyone who has a small child and wants to have a positive influence outside of their home, they couldn't find a better place than with Ron and Kathleen."
Love story
Ron was born in Hawaii into a poor family of seven children. His father was black and his mother, white. His parents had moved to Hawaii because they found it to be a melting pot.
For educational opportunities, Ron's parents moved the family to Pennsylvania. They moved to Detroit when he was 13.
In Detroit, Ron attended an inner-city school. Because of his light complexion, he was hassled in his neighborhood. The racial tension was a culture shock for him.
He auditioned for a performing arts program at a magnet school and was accepted.
"I found refuge in dance because I found out I had a gift for dance. It was just a dream that I got to go. I started studying late for a career. That's really why I ended up going to college, because I wasn't ready to go into the profession yet. I was 17 when I started studying," he said.
He studied liberal arts in college, but he wanted to dance. The Atlanta Ballet was starting its professional program, and the director picked dancers from across the country. He saw Ron dance in Detroit and offered him a job.
Ron was among the first professional dancers at Atlanta Ballet.
The company toured nationally and in Central and South America. In the mid-1970s, Ron danced at the presidential palace in Haiti.
"It was like The Twilight Zone ," Ron said about the island nation. "We were treated like royalty, but we were passing people on the street and they were begging. We were just hired dancers.
"It was the same thing in South America. We were being brought in by the wealthy. In those countries, there's not a middle class."
A few years later, Kathleen accepted a job as public relations director at Atlanta Ballet. She and her best friend moved to Atlanta after the health spa where she had been working in Florida burned.
Before moving to Atlanta, Kathleen considered taking a job as an animal trainer because she loves animals.
"It really was a tough decision, believe it or not. But I'm so glad I picked the ballet instead of the birds," Kathleen said.
She grew up in Odessa, Texas. The feature film and television show Friday Night Lights is based on the football team at Permian High School, which she attended.
Just friends
Ron and Kathleen became close friends through the ballet. They met often for coffee and talked about practically everything. She also drove him on his dates because he didn't have a driver's license.
When Ron had problems with his dance partner, he decided to leave the Atlanta Ballet -- and propose to Kathleen.
Because they had never dated or even held hands, Kathleen said, she needed three days to think about it but she eventually said yes.
"It's unusual, I know," Kathleen said. She thought a relationship with Ron could work, however, because they genuinely liked each other and already knew everything about each other.
They also had the luxury of becoming friends without the pressure of romance, Ron said.
When they announced they were going to get married, no one at Atlanta Ballet seemed surprised, because they were inseparable. Everyone thought they were already dating and were keeping it a secret.
They have been married for 32 years.
They moved to Pittsburgh, where Ron danced with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. They grew weary of the cold weather and wanted to move back to the South. Ron landed a job with the Augusta Ballet, becoming its first professional dancer.
They settled in Augusta to have a family. Both had moved frequently during their childhoods and wanted their children to have stability.
They had their three children in three years.
Tough start
At Augusta Ballet, Ron became the associate director, also teaching ballet at John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School for two years after the school opened in the early 1980s. After five years, Ron wanted to take his career in a different direction to earn more money and spend more time with family.
His friend Eddie Singleton had just started his business, Tub Doctor, and Ron worked with him briefly in plumbing.
Then he decided to become a hairstylist. During the nine months Ron attended cosmetology school, his brother sent him money to pay his rent.
When Ron landed a job at J.B. White as a hairdresser, his wife was his first client.
"I got my first job by walking in with her and doing her hair," Ron said.
Simultaneously, he decided to open a dance school. In 1985, he and Kathleen opened the Ron Jones School of Ballet, with 30 students in a rented dance studio in south Augusta.
Ron cut hair during the day and taught dance classes at night.
Those early years were challenging because it was difficult to obtain financing and space in Augusta, Kathleen said.
One year after opening, they had 150 students and moved to a rented space on Bobby Jones Expressway. Ron quit his hairdresser job and focused on his dance school full time.
In 1988, they moved to their current studio on Furys Ferry Road, a building that had housed a seafood restaurant. Because the area was so sparsely populated, parents were unsure about making the trip. Now they drive from Grovetown, Waynesboro, Thomson and Aiken.
They rented the building for 10 years until they could afford to purchase it.
They changed the name of the school to Ron Jones Academy of Ballet in 1997 and to Columbia County Ballet in 2006.
For their 25th wedding anniversary, Ron and Kathleen vacationed in Hawaii.
"That was 10 days of heaven. I got to see where Ron grew up, the house he lived in, the missionary place where he would go for church," Kathleen said.
Last year, Ron's brother flew them to Paris for their 31st wedding anniversary.
"They definitely seem to be in love with each other," Tice said. "They seem like newlyweds today to me. They seem to be obviously in love."
'Roar of Love'
Since its first year, the school has performed the Roar of Love, based on C.S. Lewis' novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe . The next performance is scheduled later this month.
"A lot of children in the area have learned to love C.S. Lewis as a result of this," Charlotte Carr said.
The Joneses started performing the Roar of Love when they found a record with the same title and got the rights to use the music. The production has grown over the years. Today, students perform at Bell Auditorium.
They continue the tradition because they love the story and its message. Outside the school is a statue of a lion representing Aslan, the lamp post from Narnia and an entrance sign that reads "You are entering Narnia."
When Ron asked Kathleen to marry him, the first present he gave her was C.S. Lewis' series The Chronicles of Narnia . He had read the books when he was touring with the Atlanta Ballet.
"The Roar of Love has served as a foundation for us. It gave our students a vehicle, and they could look forward to going into Narnia again and going in to the next character," Kathleen said.
Encore
This will be Kathleen's last year of teaching, but she will still direct the pre-ballet.
"It's time. I hit 60, and I'm loving being a grandma," she said.
As Ron steps away from some of his responsibilities, he said, he has found it satisfying to watch how other people take on those duties and become successful.
"I guess it's like a parent watching their child and grandchildren. As you pass it on down, the satisfaction becomes bigger," Ron said.
In business, they have had to learn the importance of marketing their dance studio.
"We were so busy working in the studio that we weren't doing what business owners need to do, which is try to market it and let people know who you are," he said.
TITLE: Owner and director of Columbia County Ballet
BORN: Nov. 26, 1950, in Hawaii
EDUCATION: Wayne State University, studied liberal arts
FAMILY: Wife, Kathleen; children, Jessica, Amy and Stephen; grandchildren, Gabriel and Isaiah
CIVIC/EXTRACURRICULAR: Columbia County Arts Inc., New Hope Church of God
HOBBIES: Cooking, gardening, going to the beach, watching movies
TITLE: Owner of Columbia County Ballet
BORN: Dec. 20, 1949 in Enid, Okla.
EDUCATION: Texas Tech University, bachelor of arts degree interior design with a minor in dance
FAMILY: Husband, Ron; children, Jessica, Amy and Stephen; grandchildren, Gabriel and Isaiah
CIVIC/EXTRACURRICULAR: Columbia County Arts Inc., New Hope Church of God and Red Hat Classics
HOBBIES: Scrapbooking, traveling
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010. All Rights Reserved.
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A lot of GAYS used to claim Ron was gay to try and deceive folks into thinking folks like him were gay. I debunked that back when i was in the greenhouse biz and as we see, i was right and the gays were wrong. Beware of Gays sayng someone is gay. They do it all the time to make their numbers appear much larger than they are.
Way to go Ron & Kathleen.
Your are both precious authentic people and have brought such a gift to Columbia County and this entire community at personal sacrifice to yourselves. It's special couple who spend their lives for something they truly believe in. Glenda