About the Reston
Institute for the Arts
and how it was started
The Reston Community Center is the current home to the Reston Institute for the Arts. The Community Center is a busy place. It is not uncommon to see, scattered throughout the hall, children practicing for a play, dancers pirouetting or stage hands putting the final touches on a production. Amidst all of the chaos, and as calm as can be, is the person they are all look to for guidance and direction – the founding president of the Reston Institute for the Arts, Ms. Terlene Terry-Todd, affectionately known to her students as "Ms. T".
Ms. Terry-Todd founded the Reston Institute for the Arts in 1980. Her goal then and continues to be to provide performance opportunities, to incorporate drama into dance and to develop a curriculum that allows students to continuously build on what they have. RIA was born as an idea to create dance opportunities through Terry-Todd’s job as a Physical Education teacher at Forest Edge Elementary School. She realized that Fairfax County Public Schools did not have any dance classes in its curriculum. Because of this, many children had no way of knowing if they enjoyed dancing or were talented enough to want to pursue dance as a career option.
©2002 Reston Institute for the Arts