The owner of a new downtown theatre has a secret life on the dance floor.

by Jess McCuan . photo by Matt Rose

Latin dance is all in the hips. Tiffany Hampton, a longtime musical theater actress, must have known that going in. But though she’d been on stage many times, she hadn’t danced since she was in her 20s. When she walked into Asheville Ballroom’s studio two years ago, she was far from certain that she’d be ready for fast-paced dance. “After my second baby, I was wondering if my hips would ever move again,” she says. But move they did, and this spring, she and her dance partner, Zeki Maviyildiz, placed second and third in Latin dances like rhumba and samba at the Heritage Classic, an annual spring ballroom dance competition at the Grove Park Inn.

Hampton is artistic director at the Altamont Theatre, which she and her husband Brian Lee just opened last month. The couple moved to Asheville from New York City in 2008 and bought the 11,000-square-foot building on Church Street in downtown Asheville that year. They’ve renovated the former retail space in such an eco-friendly way that it’s now the first multi-use structure in downtown Asheville with LEED certification. They’re renting out the building’s top-floor condos and using the rest as multi-purpose art space, with a gallery and 120-seat black-box theatre. This month, their first production, Prime Ribbing, a “newsical,” according toHampton, will showcase mostly local actors riffing off both national and local news.

In her six years in New York City, Hampton, a Durham native, was no stranger to the spotlight, playing parts in Broadway shows like Little Mary Sunshine and Face the Music. But Lee, a software executive, was ready to leave the rat race and start a family, and Hampton had spent several childhood summers in Asheville.

Hampton makes no bones about it—she has a phenomenal dance partner. He both inspires her, and, truth be told, makes her look really good. “Once you have him whirl you around the floor, you’re not the same,” Hampton says of Maviyildiz, one of Asheville Ballroom’s regular instructors. But she’s been diligent about lessons herself, and between running the new theatre and taking care of her children—six-year-old Henry and three-year-old Marin—she still finds time to practice the rhumba and cha-cha for a couple hours twice a week. It’s a bit of glamour that she relishes, now that she’s left behind her actress gigs in New York City. “I have false eyelashes and high heels on,” she says. “This is good for me.”

For details on The Altamont, check out www.thealtamont.com.