Tip Toes and Taps offers a variety of classes for beginner to pre-professional levels, for students 2 years old and up. Whatever you are looking for, you’ll find that we have plenty of dance classes to choose from!
Ballet is the foundation of nearly all dance, achieved through barre and center floor work, with a focused attention to proper alignment, technique, and artistry. Students are classically trained with an emphasis on challenging each dancer to the highest degree of technical and artistic excellence―appropriate for their ability level.
Pre-pointe is a class for advanced ballet students used to further develop correct body alignment and ballet technique as well as strengthen the muscles in the legs, ankles, and feet necessary to go en pointe.
Pointe is a classical ballet technique that appears to defy gravity. It is performed by advanced ballet dancers that support all of their body weight on the tips of fully stretched feet in pointe shoes.
Tap is an exciting rhythmic exercise and dance form which is enjoyable to both kids and adults. Rooted in African-American History, tap dance is a timeless art that combines dance and percussion. Tap Dance classes explore the two traditions of rhythm tap (hoofing) and Broadway tap. Rhythm tap focuses more on musicality and improvisation while Broadway tap is a much more presentational style of dance, concerning itself with the aesthetics of the entire dancing body. The goal in tap dancing is to produce clear, clean sounds, with various levels of tone.
Jazz is an umbrella term which encompasses many different styles of dance that became popular in the early 20th-century. Jazz Dance classes explore contemporary and classic jazz dance, rooted in the vernacular (social dance) forms, drawing inspiration from a wide range of music including jazz, swing, blues, pop, soul and funk. Jazz is a fun form of dance that showcases a dancer’s individual style and originality. It is appealing to everyone because of its energy, variety, and vitality. While staying true to its roots, jazz continues to evolve today by blending various dance styles together.
Hip Hop has become one of the most popular dance styles in recent years, mainly due to its popularity on television shows, movies, music videos and commercials. The history of hip hop is distinctly American, though its roots extend back through jazz to African dance. Unlike other dance styles on this list, hip hop was developed without a formal structure and was not created in a studio. A hip hop dancer only needs a natural sense of rhythm and practice, rather than formal training, to become skilled in the style.
Lyrical is a style of dance that blends elements of ballet and jazz dance. It is generally more fluid and faster than ballet, but not quite as fast as jazz. A lyrical dancer uses the art of dance to express strong emotions and often dances to music with lyrics that serve as inspiration for the dancers movements and expressions. Movements in lyrical dance are characterized by fluidity, continuity and grace, with the dancer transitioning seamlessly from one move to another.
Contemporary is a style of expressive dance that stresses versatility and improvisation. Contemporary is danced barefoot and combines elements of several dance genres including jazz, modern, lyrical and classical ballet.
Musical Theatre is rooted in the diverse history of Broadway musicals and is a jazz-based dance class including elements of drama and theatre. Musical Theatre dancers are also actors and will learn how to create various emotions through their facial expressions and movement. Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins are two famous musical choreographers whose iconic movements helped to shape and develop the style of dance we now know as musical theatre.
Cheer POM is also known as “POM” and is a high energy class that combines cheer and dance movements while utilizing poms. Students learn clean, sharp and precise arm movements, formations, jumps, kicks, and turns while incorporating jazz and hip hop dance techniques into upbeat and energetic routines. POM dates back to the early 1900’s when it was created as a form of entertainment for sporting events such as basketball and football games. It has become increasingly popular in recent years and has evolved into an art form in its own right.
For more information contact us at (803) 278-3841 or via email at info@tiptoesandtaps.net