Our Fall student classes begin August 14th! Register for fall classes by clicking this link.
Our dance program is very unique!
We offer more performance opportunities than any other local studio. Last season, our students (both competitive and non) performed at
– Dance in the Park
– PCB Pirate Festival
– Local Elementary School “Trunk or Treat”
– Winter Showcase at Todd Allen Herendeen Theater
– Annual Spring Production
…In addition to our competition team’s many events.
Our curriculum includes the most classical, technical dance training of any local studio. There is simply no short-cut to excellent technique, and while auxiliary classes (including flexibility and tricks) are an important part of our program, these classes never replace actual dancing! We do require more ballet classes than other studios. This is not necessarily a popular standard, but it is one we stand by because the results are measured and real! Just as a musician must practice scales, serious dancers need the foundational technique ballet provides to truly accelerate their progress. *This does not mean our studio only produces “bunheads”! Our students excel in all genres, ballet to hip hop, and we attribute this to our technical focus in the classroom.
Director and instructor Wendy Lewis has more than 25+ years of dance instruction experience, a University of South Florida degree in Ballet Performance, professional experience dancing with Ballet West as well as Contemporary Ballet company Moving Current, plus decades of coast-to-coast and international training. We’re not imitating other studios, tv shows, or social media trends, but employing an established, academically-backed curriculum.
Our competitive team is smaller than most, but has a strong showing at any event we attend, with frequent overall and top placements. We realize that competing has many benefits for dancers, and we love being among the top studios at the competitions we attend, but because we recognize that competing is only one avenue for dancers, we are not as competition-focused as others. Each student’s individual growth—whether they are part of our team or not—outweighs our attention to status as a competitive team.
Our studio “culture” is inclusive and encouraging to all! Dance is demanding; students spend a lot of time at the studio, and we want to make sure the influences they are surrounded by will help them develop the characteristics and discipline that will serve them long after they leave the studio.
Because we believe classical ballet technique to be the essential foundation for all dance genres, our classical curriculum requires ongoing ballet training in the Vaganova style as students progress. Dancers with a Hip Hop focus are encouraged to supplement their training with breakdance and/or strength classes to incorporate a multi-dimensional approach to their art.
Although we are proud to be home to a Nationally-winning Dance Competition Team, our vision is for our dancers to master the athleticism and artistry of dance that will serve them throughout life, not to simply perform a “winning routine.” Our disciplined but nurturing program instills students not only with lifelong physical fitness, flexibility and grace, but with essential life-skills attributes such as perseverance, goal-setting, teamwork, self-improvement, and so much more.
Studio Owner and Artistic Director Wendy Lewis apprenticed and performed on tour with the highly-acclaimed Ballet West Company in Salt Lake City for 8 years before moving on to receive degrees in Ballet Performance and English from the University of South Florida, in Tampa, where she was also a member of the Contemporary Ballet company Moving Current. In 20+ years of dancing and teaching, Wendy has participated in countless workshops, performances, Master classes and trainings with the industry’s foremost artists, including Mia Michaels, Violette Verde, Melissa Sandvig, Chehon Wespi-tschopp, Mollee Gray, Tessandra Chavez, Bene Arnold, and so many more. She has served as choreographer for Gulf Coast State College’s Singing Commodores, for Noah and Heather Well’s Magic Show, was a lead ballerina in the film “Dancin’: It’s On”, and has choreographed and/ or performed in dozens of additional events and productions ranging from fashion shows to weddings to flash mobs and more. Forever a voracious student of the art form she is so passionate about, Wendy continues to train internationally in advanced ballet, pedagogy, and flexibility courses she is thrilled to pass on to her students.
