Dance Steps Studio, Inc.

Musical Theater dance is a theatrical dance style that includes dancing and acting to songs from Broadway musicals.  Students will learn basics of acting, character development while dancing, and using movement to tell a story.

Acro-Dance is a fusion of the artistic motion and the technique of dance and the athleticism of acrobatics. It is important to note that Acro-Dance is not the same as Gymnastics and there is a need to teach Acro skills differently than Gymnastic skills. Dance training is essential for Acro-Dance. In Gymnastics training, dance is secondary but in Acro-Dance, skills are expected to seamlessly be incorporated in dance. That is why we require that students take either Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical/Contemporary or Modern in addition to Acro-Dance. We include turns, jumps and leaps and mainly contemporary technique in Acro-Dance. This style is performed on a hard floor without mats (we use mats in training for skills to be done without) while gymnasts have the advantage of a sprung floor giving more cushion on landings and height for more complex tumbling. The classes include many strength and flexibility drills to allow our students to perform skills safely and correctly. Flexibility is extremely important for Acro-Dance, for example contortion skills include: chest stands, scorpions and rolling tinsicas.

Tap is a form of dance by using the shoe, as well as the floor, as a percussive instrument.  Students will learn both rhythm tap (focuses more on music and rhythms) and Broadway tap (focuses more on dance), as well as musicality and timing.

Hip Hop dance refers to street dance styles primarily performed to Hip Hop music or that have evolved as part of Hip Hop culture. It includes a wide range of styles in including the basics of Breaking, Locking and Popping which were created in the 1970s. We teach Breaking, Popping, Locking, Tutting, Floating, Gliding, Sliding and Krumping to name a few. One of our main focuses in style is Dance Industry,Commercial/New Style and Lyrical Hip Hop.This is what you see in music videos, concerts and shows like So You Think You Can Dance. These styles are diverse and infuse other styles of dance including contemporary, lyrical and jazz. Most new styles have infused urban party dancing with studio technique. They involve a lot of footwork, radical movement and emphasis placed on musicality. Freestyle (improvise) is still very important with every style of Hip Hop. Traditionally Hip Hop dance, or any form of the street dance, is not performed to counts as these styles were created on the street rather in a studio setting. With the new styles, counting is sometimes used in class and we inform our students of Hip Hop dance history.

Contemporary dance borrows from ballet, jazz, social dances, and many modern dance techniques of the 20th century. Contemporary dance encourages dancers to be versatile in their expressions, being able to portray a wide array of movement styles and emotion. It focuses on spacial and body awareness, use of body weight, floor work, leaps, turns, efficiency of muscle usage, and safe body alignment.

Jazz is a rhythmic and upbeat style of dance. It focuses on isolations of the body, proper alignment, leaps, turns, and rhythmic aspects of dancing. We range in style of classical jazz, contemporary-jazz, commercial jazz, and jazz funk.

We offer beginner through advanced level modern classes. Modern is an expressive form of dance in which we explore the movement of the body and the expression of emotion through dance and the elements around us. By not teaching one specific modern technique, we aim to educate our students on multiple professional techniques, the history of modern, and also encourage them to express their own creativity and grow their movement vocabulary through the use of improvisation.

All of our Pointe classes are by invitation only. Each student needs to be evaluated by the manager and the owner of the studio before entering into a Pointe class. We take the dancer's safety very seriously and encourage at home strength-training programs specified by our staff for each dancer individually.

Dance Steps Studio provides a Cechetti based ballet syllabus for each level. We provide classes for students ages three through adult. Our Pre Ballet program is designed to teach the ballet basics plus other hand eye coordination and motor skills to each student in a fun, energetic and relaxed atmosphere. At the beginner levels is where we start focusing on the vocabulary, proper placement and body awareness. Intermediate levels are where we begin to incorporate the basic movements and steps into combinations, and developing into stronger dancers. At this level we also focus on dancer health, dance history and beginning choreography. The advanced level of our program is an intense focus on technique, combinations, stamina and strength.