Ballet is a classical dance form demanding grace, precision, flowing patterns and storytelling through movement. Ballet is a highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary based on French Terminology. Ballet technique and its French terminology are often used in many other styles of dance.

This is the most common class for a young dancer ages 3-6. This class combines the Ballet and Tap dance styles (see individual descriptions) into one class session. Ballet/Tap class includes basic Ballet & Tap technique that helps young dancers become aware of their timing, rhythm and balance. They will also learn their basic ballet positions and basic terminology in both Ballet & Tap . This class is the introductory class for young dancers to learn “how to take a dance class” and this is the class where most dancers begin their dance training.

The term break dancing refers to a style of hip-hop dancing that first appeared in the 1970s. Sometimes know as b-boying, b-girling, or breaking, breakdancing was made popular by African American and Latin America teens who used the activity to provide a more constructive alternative to the dangerous influences of street gangs. Coordination, style, flexibility, and rhythm are the keys to successful breakdancing. Beakdancing is one of the most improvisational dance styles, allowing for each dancer to customize his or her routine with athleticism and imagination. Current break dancing borrows moves from gymnastics and martial arts and upper body strength is often considered a necessity.

​The term “contemporary dance” is sometimes used to describe dance that is not classical jazz or traditional folk/cultural dance. The hallmark of contemporary dance is an awareness of the limitations of form. Often referred to as non-dance, conceptual dance and pedestrian contemporary. Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance that employs compositional philosophy, rather than choreography, to guide unchoreographed movement. It uses dance technique and methods found in ballet, modern dance and post modern dance and it also draws from other philosophies of movement that are outside the realm of classical dance technique.

​Contemporary/Lyrical is a class where the instructor can choose to teach either contemporary dance OR lyrical dance OR a combination where both styles are incorporated.  (See Contemporary and Lyrical descriptions for more information on the individual dance styles)

Hip Hop is a dance style usually danced to hip-hop music, that evolved from hip-hop culture. Hip-hop traditionally includes breaking, popping, locking  as the foundation. However, in current day hip hop, you will find traditional hip hop dancers in addition to hip hop dancers that incorporate additional dance styles such as krumping, clowning, housing and even lyrical! Improvisation and interpretation are essential to hip hop dancing. In the dance studio environment hip hop and Adult hip hop classes will focus on learning short combinations of non technical movement put to popular music.

Jazz dance often uses bold, dramatic body movements, including body isolations and contractions. Jazz choreography relies heavily on the originality of each instructor and includes many elements of ballet technique. 

Jazz Funk is a unique style of fusion movement, mixing traditional jazz technique and hip hop with popular dance styles and music of today. This style of dance is often seen in music videos, commercials and movies and is considered a “west coast” style of dance.

This class is a common combination class for young children ages 4-9.  This class is considered a “fun” addition to the traditional Ballet/Tap combination class. Many young dancers enjoy this dance style because of the up beat movement and music. This class combines the Jazz and Hip Hop techniques into one class giving young dancers a taste of both styles within the same class. Once a dancer turns 9 years old they are usually enrolled in a full class of each dance style. 

​Lyrical dance is a combination of free flowing movements that reinforce the emotions in the lyrics or the chosen music.  Lyrical styles can be diverse from instructor to instructor but they are always similar in the root in jazz and ballet technique as well as the desire to exude emotion through the movement.  

Modern dance is a dance style that rejects many of the strict rules of classical ballet, focusing in stead on expression of inner feelings. Modern dance was created as a rebellion against classical ballet, emphasizing creativity in choreography and performance. This style of dance centers on a dancer’s own interpretation instead of structured steps, as in traditional ballet dancing.

In tap dancing, dancers use their feet like drums to create rhythmic patterns and timely beats. Special shoes are worn in tap with metal taps on the feet to create the rhythms and patterns.

Our Rising Stars program is a Pre-Dance Program specifically for our tiniest dancers Ages 2 - 3 (Tiny Stars) and Ages 4 - 6 (Super Stars) . This class blends dance, music, singing, and imagination, while building coordination, rhythm, balance, listening skills, and an early love of movement, and creative self-expression. We will introduce bending, stretching, swaying, and progress to locomotor movements such as, marching, galloping, jumping, as well as pre-ballet/jazz/hip-hop and tumbling skills, through the use of sing-along songs and lots of fun props.

Turns & Leaps is a class designed for dancers Levels 3-5 that helps dancers to focus on their core strength, power and technical skills associated with several standard ballet and jazz turns and leaps. A turn is a controlled rotation on one or both feet and requires knowledge of ballet and jazz technique to understand. The portion of the class that focuses on Turns will surely allow dancers to improve and become more confident in the consistency of their balance and number of rotations in their turns. The leaps portion of this class will emphasize flexibility, extension and power and with consistent attendance dancers will definitely see a huge improvement in their leap technique.

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