Celebrate! Dance Academy
11th Annual Spring Recital
In His Image
Friday, June 8, 6:30pm & Saturday, June 9, 1:30pm
Arden Hills
Celebrate! Dance Academy Registration
Please review the documents on Shoes and Dress Code.
Schedule
Click to download 2012 summer schedule
Click to download 2012-2013 schedule
Contact
Susan Peterson or 651-797-7815
Celebrate!’s mission is to provide high quality dance education to students of all levels and economic status in a Christian value-based environment that nurtures and develops natural, God-given talents and abilities, as well as desire and passion to worship God through dance, by helping them work towards their highest artistic potential.
Celebrate! offers tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, preschool, boys, hip hop, modern, pom/danceline, and clogging technique classes to dancers, age 3 through adult. Celebrate! is a noncompetitive dance experience with age appropriate music, costuming, and choreography. We encourage dancers of all ability levels to participate and make accommodations for those with special needs.
Celebrate! has a regular dance season (Sept. - June) and a summer season (June - August). Dancers attend weekly classes which average 45 minutes in length. Dancers participating in the regular dance season perform in a fully-staged and costumed recital. On the odd years, Celebrate! dancers may choose to perform in a full-length ballet production.
Celebrate! teaches dancers to live with an attitude of celebration to the Lord! At every class, the dance teacher asks, “Who has something to celebrate today?” Prayers and praise are offered to the Lord for all the good things in our lives.
Celebrate! Dance Academy began in the fall of 2001 through the creative vision of its founding director, Tracy Pearce. It is a ministry of North Heights Lutheran Church. Classes are held weekly in our studio, Room 139, in the lower level at the Arden Hills campus of North Heights Lutheran Church.
Choosing Your Classes
Dance offers avenues of exploration, discovery and the development of natural instincts for movement. Our classes include follow-along group dances, use of props, and creative exploration of movement activities which offer many benefits for students. Our classes promote mental, emotional, and social development while improving technique in the selected style of dance. Instructors will teach not only to the dancers’ bodies but to their minds and hearts, as well. Dancers will learn the terminology, the “why” behind the movement, and the correct technique for each step and combination. Our instructors are prepared for those dancers who may catch on quickly and might occasionally need a more advanced version of a step to practice as well as for those dancers who may be confused and might occasionally need more one-on-one attention and re-teaching to understand a step. Teaching Assistants are selected for all children’s classes.
Tiny Tap
Preschoolers will learn basic tap steps, follow-along group dances, how to find the beat of the music, and the use of props to match rhythm with music. Music Works, a graded tap syllabus by Al Gilbert, is the base curriculum for this class.
Tap
Dancers will learn tap technique with barre and center exercises. They will improve their rhythm and timing. We use an adapted form of Music Works, a graded tap syllabus by Al Gilbert; Tapworks, a modified form of the ADAPT Dance Syllabus; and tap curriculum by Gregg Russell and Eli Newsom.
Jazz
Dancers will learn traditional jazz technique with barre and center exercises. They will improve their strength, balance, flexibility, and coordination. Beginning improvisation will be explored. We use a modified form of the ADAPT Dance Syllabus and various other supplemental materials for our jazz curriculum.
Hip Hop
Dancers will learn the basics of this street dance style. They will improve their rhythm and timing. Breakdance Step by Step curriculum plus various materials will be used for our hip hop curriculum.
Pom/Danceline
Dancers will learn basic danceline skills along with traditional jazz technique using pom pons as a prop. This style of dance focuses on precision and group unity. Our jazz curriculum, a modified form of the ADAPT Dance Syllabus and various other supplemental materials will be used.
Creative Movement
Preschoolers will learn basic dance steps, follow-along dances, how to find the beat of the music, and use of props to match movement with music. Leap ‘N Learn is the base curriculum for this class.
Pre-Ballet
Dancers will learn the beginning movements of ballet and its basic steps, follow-along group dances, how to find the beat of the music, and use of props to match movement with music. Leap ‘N Learn is the base curriculum for this class.
Ballet/Pointe
Dancers will learn classical ballet technique with barre and center exercises. They will improve their strength, balance, flexibility, and coordination. Beginning improvisation will be explored. We use a combination of the Classical Ballet Syllabus by Norma Gelose, Janice Barringer’s Ballet Technique, and Finis Jhung’s Ballet Technique for our curriculum.
Modern
Modern dance is a free movement, contemporary dance style with a foundation in ballet. Learning modern dance technique will help dancers improve strength, balance, flexibility, coordination, and inhibition. Various materials will be used for our modern curriculum including several forms of improvisation.
Performance Groups
Celebrate!’s tap and jazz performance groups are designed for dancers whose passion is dance. These dancers must make a serious time commitment in order to participate. They perform in worship services and other community events throughout the regular dance season. They participate in the Minnesota Dance Festival and the National Tap Dance Day Event each year in May. Dancers age 7 or older may audition for our performance groups. Auditions are held in May/June for the following season.
Private Lessons
Celebrate! offers private dance lessons to a limited number of dancers each year on a individual basis. Private lessons cost $18 for a 30 minute lesson or $72/month. Dancers may choose to learn a solo routine to perform in the recital. If you are interested in taking private dance lessons, you may contact the director, Susan Peterson, at 651-797-7815 or Susan.Peterson@NHLC.org for an application form.
The Fantastic Toy Shop
First performed in 2008, The Fantastic Toy Shop ballet production will be recreated for every other year on odd number years at Celebrate! This full length ballet is based on the music from La Boutique Fantasque and other works by Rossini. The ballet takes place in a toy shop, where one of a kind dolls are created by a Toy Maker to each possess a unique gift. As people come to the shop, they are entertained by the dolls’ dances revealing their special gifts. One family just cannot decide on a doll and want to see all the other dolls in the Toy Maker’s shop. This family just cannot agree on which doll to choose and an argument ensues. Consequently the Toy Maker must decide for them. Which doll do they get? You’ll have to watch them open their box to find out what happens.
On years that The Fantastic Toy Shop is performed, all dancers taking ballet only classes will get to participate in this special production as well as specially assigned children’s classes. This ballet production will be performed at a nearby high school or middle school auditorium in May. The other dance classes will participate in our annual June recital at North Heights.
Director & Instructors
Susan Peterson (Director & Instructor)
Ms. Susan has over 30 years of dance experience performing, instructing, choreographing, and judging various dance events. She has trained and taught dance in tap, clogging, jazz, lyrical, musical theatre/character, pom/danceline, ballet, pointe, preschool, and worship dance. In her younger days, she won several awards for tap and jazz as part of Dance Plus's competition group including first place at the national level in St. Louis and Dallas. From 1993-2000, Ms. Susan directed a dance program in Benson, MN, where her dancers won numerous awards including overall high score and first place at the national level. Ms. Susan has a degree in special education which is an asset to her working, teaching, and directing our program. She specializes in tap and jazz and enjoys working with all of Celebrate!'s performance groups.
Chelsea Horst (Assistant Director & Instructor)
Miss Chelsea has over 25 years of dance experience, including 15 years of classical ballet training. She trained and performed with the Classical Ballet Academy and Ballet Minnesota. She has been in several classical ballets, including The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, Coppelia, and Piquita. Today she continues taking classes at Zenon. Her dance training also includes pointe, jazz, modern, character, worship dance, and a bit of tap. Miss Chelsea has taught and choreographed dance in several styles for 13 years. Her specialty is in ballet and pointe technique. She is not only the lead choreographer for our full-length ballet production, The Fantastic Toy Shop, she is also the lead dancer.
Mary Smith (Instructor)
Ms. Mary has over 10 years of dance training in the areas of tap, ballet,pointe, jazz, modern, and worship dance. She is a graduate of theForerunner School of Ministry. Between 2002-2007, Ms. Mary worked her way up from student to teaching assistant to instructor here at Celebrate! She has taught routines for the Chrisitian Youth Theatre in California and atvarious one-time events both nationally and internationally. Ms.Mary is the one of our The Fantastic Toy Shop choreographers, but her specialty is modern.
Krystal Knudsen (Instructor)
Miss Krystal has over 10 years of dance training which includes tap, jazz, lyrical, modern, hip hop, ballet, and pointe. She was a member of the Stars performance group and a teaching assistant here at Celebrate! Miss Krystal has experience teaching children's classes through community education programs. Miss Krystal is developing her specialty in hip hop.