Sharon Long began her early training with Mary Alice McAlister with her career beginning as a child choreographer and award winner. Her musical choreography credits include The Sound of Music, Carousel, Robber Bridegroom, Camelot, Gypsy, Fiddler on the Roof, South Pacific, and others. She served as a dance director for ICC’s Theater Camp for five years and in 1991 for the Tupelo Park and Recreation Deptartment. She has staged and choreographed sixteen award-winning show choirs for Tupelo High School. She has attended and sponsored many dance teachers’ workshops with nationally renown teachers such as David Howard, Anne Avery, and Maria Vegh. She has participated in the International Ballet Competition classes and in the southeastern regional ballet movement. In 1982 she served on a special dance committee for the Mississippi Arts Commission and was chosen as a charter board member of the Mississippi Dance Association, serving as both Vice-President and President. Mrs. Long has also served as Vice-President of the Cultural Alliance of Tupelo/Lee County. In 2007, Mrs. Long was awarded the Exemplary Arts Service Award from the Mississippi Alliance for Arts Education.

In May of 1982, she founded the Tupelo Ballet Company, a non-profit regional youth oriented company. The Tupelo Ballet serves the community as a presenting and performing company receiving funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, Southern Arts Commission, Create, Inc., and the Carpenter Foundation. The Tupelo Ballet has sponsored such professional companies as Ohio Ballet, the Dallas Ballet, the Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Mississippi, the Pittsburgh Ballet, Dance Alive, Chicago City Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Ballet South, and others. The residency programs above have included performances and master classes with renown ballet greats such as Richard Englund, Edward Villela, Patricia Wilde, Jill Murphy, Anne Avery, and others. Mrs. Long has directed and co-directed numerous full length ballets, including The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Cinderella, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She works closely with The University of Mississippi and its dance department sharing dancers and choreography. Mrs. Long is dedicated to teaching excellence and to presenting professional performances to the dance audiences of her State and region.