Bowmar’s new music teacher is planning to have her students add some movement to the melody.

Amelia Brame is in her first year teaching music at Bowmar Elementary and her fourth year of being a teacher. She spent the first three years of her career as a high school dance teacher in Houston, Texas.

“My background is dance education, as far as degrees go, but I have a strong music background and I love music. So my goal here is to fuse music and dance together and kind of play with how music can help teach dance and how dance can help teach music,” she said.

Brame has a degree in dance education from Brigham Young University. She is currently in the last year of her master’s program in dance education from the University of North Carolina.

“During the summer, I was over on campus, but during fall and spring, it’s just distance,” Brame said.

She would love to start dance classes in the local public schools, but funding a brand new program can be tough. Instead, she chose to educate through music and thought music would be the best place to incorporate dance into school.

“When I interviewed I was upfront about my idea to fuse music and dance, and they were pretty gung ho about it,” Brame said.

At Bowmar, Brame teaches every student from kindergarten through sixth grade but only gets to see each student once a week.

“They each have a specific time so I see a variety. Today I saw a third grade, a fifth grade and a sixth grade,” Brame said.

Being a teacher is something Brame always thought about doing, but her dreams were dashed when her high school career class teacher told her dance education wasn’t a viable career.

In college, she discovered dance education was a major at her school, and the program’s students were still finding employment. After majoring in nutrition and dietetics for one year, she changed majors to pursue her original dream.

“I have been employed ever since graduation,” Brame said.

As a teacher, she enjoys meeting students from different walks of life, and she loves the creativity that comes from the children.

“I feel like I had really good teachers in high school, and I feel like I want to give back because they helped influence my life so much. I love being around others and feeling like you’re making a difference,” Brame said.

Brame moved to Vicksburg because of her husband got a job here.

After the move, the couple had a daughter, and she spent a couple years at home before going to work at Bowmar.