Dancing opportunities

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Expressions, the Dance Gallery in Strathmore has had a very successful year providing a fun environment for dancers to enhance their skills.
“We’re having a fabulous year, we’ve been in town for 12 years, but this is our 32nd year as a dance studio,” said Heather Thomas, studio founder and teacher. “We were talking as teachers, and what we’re really excited about, is it’s really cool to see how the kids that have been here from Day 1 are developing now are becoming intermediate advanced dancers and they’re starting to really shine and grow.”
Thomas added that the studio would not be able to run without the teachers and staff who develop the dancers immensely with their experience.
“I think that it shows that we really have excellent faculty, teachers that still are training, performing, staying up with the times and new techniques, and the fact that our kids are really dedicated,” said Thomas. “We have a lot of kids that we classify as full-time dancers, they’re here five days a week with their commitment, and it’s starting to really shine through.”
The studio offers a variety of classes, including ones for the younger kids, which is new this year.
“New for us are some of our pre-school programs which is our hop, skip, jump and our parent assisted, taught program. Then also we’ve expanded next door and we have a third bay and so we have acro-dance which includes and jazz and ballet dance or lyrical dance and also we’ve expanded into aerial,” said Thomas.
The music that is played will vary based on the age group and what class they’re in.
“Ballet is classical, except if it’s a pre-school class then we’ll keep it more simple with Strawberry Shortcake. The same thing with hip hop, if it’s a younger set of kids and it’s hip hop then you got to stay more in the pop music,” said Thomas.
If the kids participate at the dance studio throughout the year, they will get the opportunity to dance in the year-end event.
“For every student that participated throughout the year, they get the opportunity to perform at the Jubilee Auditorium on June 20. It’s open for every student of every age,” said Thomas.
For more information on registration, you can go to www.expressionsthedancegallery.com or by calling (403) 901-6392.