Niagara Dance Centre Ltd

These are non-performance classes that we offer. You can take any of our adult or non-performance classes at our drop-in rate. We do ask that drop-in dancers email or call ahead to ensure we can accommodate you.

These are non-performance classes that we offer. You can take any of our adult or non-performance classes at our drop-in rate. We do ask that drop-in dancers email or call ahead to ensure we can accommodate you.

These are non-performance classes that we offer. You can take any of our adult or non-performance classes at our drop-in rate. We do ask that drop-in dancers email or call ahead to ensure we can accommodate you.

These are non-performance classes that we offer. You can take any of our adult or non-performance classes at our drop-in rate. We do ask that drop-in dancers email or call ahead to ensure we can accommodate you.

Competition team dancers compete lyrical, tap, and jazz routines at three regional competitions. Options to compete other styles, such as hip hop, contemporary, acro, and musical theatre may be available based on placement, interest, and enrollment.

Company dancers with at least one year of experience will have the option to add on a tap routine.

Company dancers will be exposed to additional training in addition to recreational classes. They will take a jazz routine to three regional competitions.

We offer dance classes for the adult beginner, as well as for the former dancer looking to come out of retirement! Tap and jazz are always in rotation, but we’ve been known to offer sections of ballet, lyrical, and hip hop, too—contact us, let us know you’re interested, and we’ll see what we can do!

The goal of this non-performing class is to promote mobility, build strength, and prevent injury. Students will practice various approaches to flexibility development, such as proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF), ballistic, dynamic, active, passive, isometric, and static stretching. Dancers will learn correct alignment, engagement, and placement in their stretches while safely increasing their range of movement. Flexibility is an excellent complement to any class and is highly recommended for the dancer who wishes to accelerate their training.

In this non-performing class, students will engage in cardio conditioning, bodyweight exercises, and resistance training to develop strength and stamina, improve endurance, complement technical and stylistic and dance training, and prevent injury. Strength & Conditioning is an excellent complement to any class and is highly recommended for the dancer who wishes to accelerate their training.

Jump, turn, and stretch is a non-performing technique class focused on building the strength, flexibility, lines, and skills needed to accomplish dance “tricks” successfully and fluidly while honing dynamics and musicality.

This non-performing class focuses on the fundamentals of ballet to develop technical precision, gracefulness, strength, balance, and flexibility.

Designed for the littlest of dancers (aged approximately 1.5 to 3) to take with a special grown-up. In this class, dancers will learn creative movement, dance concepts like size, space, levels, rhythm, and tempo, and more. It is a fun, low-stakes environment—no performance required. Depending on enrollment and interest, the class will run in 6- or 10-week sessions.

Our musical theatre curriculum is primarily based on ballet and jazz movement and classes are focused on teaching proper dance technique while exposing students to the innumerable and varied dance styles used in Broadway shows. Dancers also learn performance skills, such as empathy, storytelling, expressivity, and authenticity.

Lyrical classes allow dancers to fuse the sustained, controlled movement of ballet with the freedom, power, and dynamics of jazz to tell a story. It encourages the interpretation of music and lyrics through movement, and focuses on artistry and creativity as much as it does on technique.

Dancers will explore variations of popping, locking, gliding, breakdancing, and freestyling, as well as variations of commercial and street jazz dance styles. Students will develop strength, stamina, flexibility, and confidence as they focus on style, technique, musicality, performance, and precision.

Contemporary combines elements of modern, ballet, jazz, and lyrical techniques. Dancers learn expressivity and versatility, using their breath, spatial awareness, body weight, posture, floorwork, and choreography to explore and convey different styles, energies, and emotions.

In cheer dance, students focus on precision and athleticism as they learn jumps, kicks, stunts, arm motions, and pom techniques. Dancers draw from jazz and hip hop techniques, and heavy emphasis is placed on performance, timing, and dynamics.

This hip-hop class is designed for male-identifying students to find camaraderie in dance. Students will focus on musicality, coordination, stability, rhythm, flexibility, and balance to help them build skills and strength. Breaking differs from hip hop in that it is often improvisational so that each dancer can perform at their own level. It consists of four primary elements: toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes. Students will learn the history and progression of these elements as they practice them.

Acro develops a dancer's flexibility, strength, balancing, limbering and tumbling skills. Our certified teacher guides students through progressions to teach them skills with precision, control, and technique, not only so that they can perform those skills safely on a hard surface without specialized equipment, but also so they can seamlessly incorporate those skills into choreography. Thus, acro dance is layered with ballet and jazz technique and terminology.

Tumble & Groove is a jazz/acro combination class that can be added on if a dancer is enrolled in our “Primary Prep” program. This class will introduce students to basic locomotor skills, balance skills, and movement concepts that promote flexibility and strength. Dancers will learn acro and jazz terminology and technique that complements their ballet and tap training.

For our preschool and kindergarten dancers, Primary Prep is a combination class that introduces students to the foundations of ballet and tap. In ballet, they'll learn classical concepts, technique, and terminology through imaginative play, creative movement, and games, together with more traditional methods of dance instruction. Tap will focus on developing the dancer's sense of rhythm and tempo, coordination, direction, and spatial awareness, along with single- and double-tap movements.

Students will learn classic jazz techniques, such as body isolations, floorwork, complex choreographic patterns, performativity, and dynamics. They will also incorporate modern and commercial jazz styles, as well as draw upon other dance styles (e.g., ballet, contemporary, hip hop, and modern) to cultivate the strength, athleticism, and grace to develop as a jazz dancer.

Our tap classes are designed to develop a dancer's sense of rhythm, musicality, style and sound. Students will learn a variety of tap styles from traditional, "Broadway" tap to "hoofing." Exercises focus on building strength and flexibility in the knees and ankles to promote coordination and speed of movement, thus developing proper tap technique and producing clear tap sounds. Tap is highly recommended for all dancers, but particularly beginners, as it hones their ability to find downbeats and count music.

Our ballet curriculum draws primarily from the Cecchetti training method, though we take care to explain the differences in other techniques (e.g., Balanchine and Vaganova) for a more well-rounded understanding of ballet history and style. As beginners, students learn proper alignment and placement, foundational ballet steps, and the elements and structure of a ballet class. As students progress, the curriculum advances to teach dancers how to scaffold and progress the steps that they know, as well as further develop their expertise and confidence in technique, carriage, spatial awareness, coordination, and poise.