About Encore Ballroom Couture

Julie's Background: Owner, Founder & Dress Broker EBC

Julie was born in Washington, D.C and raised in the great state of Virginia! She graduated from Marymount University located in Arlington, Virginia, with a Bachelor of Arts Degree. While in college she was an exchange student at the University of Central Queensland, Australia through the University of Long Island, South Hampton College. Her second exchange program was through Michigan University where she backpacked through six European countries. Julie was a straight "A" student and member of Beta-Psi/Alpha Phi Sigma and Psi-Chi National Honor Societies. She was an ambassador for Marymount University and presented a Leadership Award for establishing their collegiate cheerleading program. Her scholastic achievements warranted her the Presidential Academic Fitness Award for outstanding academic achievement signed by President Bill Clinton. She was accepted and attended the Institute for the Arts, studying music, dance, drama, Broadway stage makeup/special effects, and sculpting.

For the past decade she has followed her passion, and love for dance as a Professional Ballroom Instructor in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area. She was certified by the World Professional Dance Teachers Association in American Smooth & American Rhythm. Julie quickly acquired many Top Instructor awards including one at a world event; Overall Most Entries Danced as an Instructor at a major competition (male or female); numerous Top Student Awards; and 1st Place award in sales worldwide. She was a selected Professional to choreograph a swing routine with a selected "non" dancer from the public, to compete in the Washington Auto Shows' Dancing for Toyota's. Julie danced in the Pre-Show of the touring production for Dancing with the Stars.

2012, 2011 Invited Member National Museum of Women in the Arts

 

 

 

 

Currently she is the Owner and Founder of Encore Ballroom Couture, the leading consignment and rental company in the ballroom industry. She considers herself a Dress Broker, turning her clients' dresses in cash! Julie is also a celebrity stylist, focusing on special events, television appearances, premieres, or award shows. She feels fortunate to work side by side with her Mother who is the Co-Founder and Director of Merchandising. This year, Encore Ballroom Couture announced their EXCLUSIVE affiliation with Randall Designs as their distributor for the distinct Randall Christensen dresses designed specifically for ABC's "Hit" TV Series Dancing with the Stars. These dresses are the authentic dresses that warranted Randall with a Primetime Emmy® award for costume design! Encore also premiered their new menswear collection this year. These shirts and pants were made exclusively by DSI for the production of Strictly Dance Fever, a British television program broadcast on BBC One. It was an amateur dance talent competition, hosted by Graham Norton, similar to the BBC's popular celebrity based dance contest, Strictly Come Dancing. This winter she is excited to launch the Dress Spa, a cleaning service for ballroom dresses. Become a fan on Facebook!

2010 Invited Member, National Association of Professional Women
2011 Proud Sponsor, Dance for a Cure
2011 Proud Sponsor, Dance for Japan

 

As the new Ms. Virginia 2011 she is very much looking forward to helping draw attention to her national platform of eye cancer awareness. For more information about prevention and early detection, please visit the Eye Cancer Foundation and make a donation in honor of Ms. Virginia 2011 today!! Have you had your complete annual eye exam this year??? www.eyecancerfoundation.net

2011 America's Ms. Virginia
2011 Spokesperson, Eye Cancer Foundation

Julie is thrilled to announce her new position as Advocate for No Kill Nation. "There is only one legitimate definition of No Kill. It is a community where: Healthy dogs and cats are saved; Treatable dogs and cats are saved; and, Healthy and treatable feral cats are saved. Some shelters are calling themselves No Kill if they save all healthy dogs and cats. The fact that a shelter or community is trying to accomplish this is laudable, but it doesn’t mean it is No Kill. Saving all healthy dogs and cats is the first step toward achieving a No Kill community, not the end goal. Can a shelter or community really justify killing animals with treatable conditions (such as dogs with food guarding, kittens with conjunctivitis, puppies with kennel cough, or a pet with a broken leg) if it takes the title “No Kill community”? It cannot. In short, neither of these positions is ethically defensible. The No Kill movement's break with traditional sheltering is less about saving “pet” dogs and cats and more about focusing on the individual animal. Regardless of whether a shelter takes in 30, 300, 3,000 or 30,000 dogs and cats each year, No Kill is premised on-in fact demands-fundamental fairness to individual animals. The only animals dying in a No Kill community are dogs and cats who are irremediably suffering, are sick or injured with a poor or grave prognosis for rehabilitation, and vicious dogs with a poor prognosis. (This does not include shy or non-aggressive scared dogs.) Nothing short of that is acceptable. And nothing less will do." - Nathan Winograd. For more information on No Kill Nation please visit, http://www.thenokillnation.com/.

Additionally, Julie looks forward to raising awareness to help protect wildlife, farm animals, and animals in research; giving a voice to those who have none. Please visit the Humane Society of the United States and ASPCA and donate today! “Founded in 1954, The HSUS is the nation's largest and most effective animal protection organization, backed by 11 million Americans, or one in every 28. Recently, chosen as one of Worth magazine's top 10 Most Fiscally Responsible Charities, and our accomplishments for animals range from local needs to national legislation.” Julie is a member and recognized Humane Hero for The Humane Society of The United States. Please donate today!!!!! humanesociety.org

Martin Luther King said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

2012, 2011 Advocate, No Kill Nation
2011 Member & Humane Hero, The Humane Society of The United States
2011 Member, ASPCA
2011 Proud Supporter & Contributor of the documentary film "Guarding Dogs". For more information on how you can help please visit: Guarding Dogs the Documentary on Kickstarter.

Julie has always been very athletic! She was a competitive gymnast, tennis player, swimmer, horseback rider, and soccer player. In her free time she is an accomplished pianist of 20 plus years. Her true passion is her company which she devotes nearly every minute of her day to. "I am completely devoted to all of my ladies and making them feel their best."

 

Brenda's Background: Co-Founder & Director of merchandising EBC

I started my fashion career as a photographic and runway model after graduating from John Robert Powers Modeling Academy.  I then went on to compete in the Miss. America International beauty pageant.  This gave me the opportunity to be exposed to many different stylists and designers.  I am currently married to my high school sweetheart, Walter, and this year we will celebrate our 41st wedding anniversary.  By profession, I am an obstetrical nurse.  I enjoyed a career spanning over 35 years.  In my free time, I am an avid tennis player, currently co-captaining two USTA 3.5 tennis teams. I also keep busy with managing a tennis flight at the local athletic club where I have been a member for the last 30 years.

Julie is our only child, so we definitely bask in her many successes. When she became involved in ballroom dance, first as a student, then as a Professional, I did all the pricing, style, selection, i.e. merchandising for her.  I was instrumental in coordinating her wardrobe for her while she was teaching and competing in the ballroom world.  I enjoy the opportunity of working with my daughter Julie in her new business adventure.  It allows us to spend lots of quality time together and is an exciting whirlwind of feathers, sequins and beautiful dresses.  It gives the opportunity to meet many wonderful people and travel to places we haven't been before.

I handle the merchandising for the company and welcome any questions or comments!  Please email me directly at Brenda@encoreballroomcouture.com

 

How the Company was Created
Written by: Julie

Over the years of being a Professional Ballroom Instructor I acquired many, many, many dresses! One day I was standing in front of my closets thinking, “What am I going to do with all of these dresses?” Each event I would buy a few new ones, to the point where my closets were busting at the seams! When the winter coats would no longer fit in the closet, Mom declared, "You need to figure this out!"  I remember sitting on the bed looking at the closets, trying to come up with a solution.  It was so hard to part with my dresses, but knew it was time.

I searched the web for a place that would take my dresses for resale. I placed ads on several sites, but never had much action; feeling that it was a waste of time and effort. Most websites belonged to couture designers and the resale area seemed to be like a black hole. Designers want you to buy their new creations, not resale! So, there they all hang; memories and money, just hanging there. I also thought about all of my friends in the industry and how most of us were in the same boat. Then and there I decided to create the company I was searching for!

Ladies, this company is for us. Go open those closets and box up those dresses! I will post your dresses, as many as you want, for sale or RENT! I will do all of the advertising for you, be your dress broker! At the end of the day for purchase or rent, the dress is yours, we don’t “own” them, you do. It’s exciting to think something you already have hanging in your closet could turn into cash in your wallet!

We also have established a direct liaison with many of the top couture design companies in our industry which supply dresses to us. Of course we are very proud of our new exclusive contract with Randall Designs to be the distributor of the Dancing with the Stars production dresses through them. We have many new exciting announcements to come.  Mother and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary December, 2010.  Looking back over our first year, we couldn't be more thrilled with how fast our company has grown.  We are so thankful and grateful for all of the love and support from our family, friends and ladies that make our dream a reality.
 

Peaches, official Greeter & Security

A Big Thank You!
Written By: Brenda

Thank you to all of our clients, supporters, and fabulous friends who have supported us through yet another year! Julie and I spent our two year anniversary at the Embassy of Italy previewing our new European Collection of dresses. A big thank you goes out to all of the embassy staff and event organizers for being very gracious hosts.

Every single person and what they have done to help our company within the first two years, means the world to us. So far we have met many wonderful people and cannot thank them enough for how welcoming they have been. It has been our pleasure to work with women of all ages, and all sizes. We love being able to help women feel their best, it warms our heart. When a women has that magical moment of feeling amazing it is priceless. You can see it in their eyes and sometimes in their happy tears. As the company has been growing at such a rapid rate, we have been building an amazing support team. Their expertise and assistance is invaluable and allows us the time to focus 100 percent on our clients. We believe in completely customizing the woman's experience she has with our company. This has truly been a wonderful journey and we can't wait for what lies ahead. The company has come a long way in two years and we look forward to each new day!