Program Overviews
At Premier Academy of the Performing Arts, we proudly offer both recreational and competitive dance opportunities for students from 18 months through adult. Our main season runs from August through June, with optional performance opportunities at our festive Holiday Fair and our end-of-season showcase, The Gala. Participation is encouraged, but never required. We also offer a variety of summer camps and workshops for continued training and fun.
Below are descriptions of our Core Dance Classes for ages 5 and above.
Ballet
What it is: Ballet is a classical dance form that provides a strong foundation for most other dance styles. In this class, dancers will work through barre exercises, center work, and floor progressions to develop strength, technique, and graceful movement. Ballet helps improve coordination, body placement, and overall dance skills. Dancers are not required to have prior ballet experience to be successful in this class.
PRE-POINTE
What it is: This class is designed for students preparing to transition to pointe work. Emphasis is placed on strengthening the core, developing balance, and reinforcing correct foot and ankle positioning. Dancers will work on alignment, stability, and muscle control to ensure a safe and successful progression to pointe shoes. *Prior ballet experience and approval from the teacher or director are required as well as regular attendance in ballet class.
POINTE
What it is: Pointe is a specialized form of classical ballet where dancers support their body weight on the tips of fully extended feet, using specially designed shoes with toe blocks. This advanced technique requires exceptional strength in the legs and feet, strong spinal posture, and refined ballet technique. *This class is only offered to students who are technically and physically capable of dancing on pointe. Approval from the teacher or director is required, along with regular attendance in ballet class.
“Learning ballet is wonderful for children even if they never become dancers. It is wonderful because it teaches discipline, grace, and manners.” – Anna Paskevsk
Tap
What it is: Tap dance is a rhythmic and expressive style that emphasizes precision, timing, and musicality. In Tap, dancers will learn foundational steps such as shuffles, stomps, flaps, time steps, and more while improving coordination and rhythm. This class focuses on creating intricate beats and patterns through dynamic footwork. Dancers do not need prior tap experience to be successful in this class.
“Listen to my feet. It’s more important to hear the rhythms than to see the steps. Good tap dance is like a good sleight-of-hand – the feet are quicker than the eye.” – Charles “Honi” Coles
Jazz
What it is: Jazz dance blends the technique of ballet and modern dance with energetic, dynamic movement. In Jazz, dancers will focus on flexibility, strength, isolations, and performance quality while learning jazz fundamentals such as leaps, turns, and splits. This upbeat class is a great complement to Ballet. Dancers do not need prior dance experience to be successful in this class.
“When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way.” –Wayne Dyer
Hip Hop
What it is: Hip Hop is a fusion of multiple styles of street dance such as upprock, breakin, locking, boogaloo, and more. This style of dance is characterized by free-form movements and rhythms that align with the music’s beat. This class helps dancers learn the foundations of hip hop through rhythm, improvisation, and energetic movement. This class is ideal for students who enjoy upbeat music and a more relaxed, expressive dance style. Dancers do not need prior dance experience to be successful in this class.
“The dance: a minimum of explanation, a minimum of anecdotes, and a maximum of sensations.” – Maurice Béjart
Lyrical / Modern / Contemporary
LYRICAL
What it is: Lyrical dance is a fusion of ballet, jazz, and modern dance that emphasizes storytelling and emotional expression through movement. This class will help dancers develop technical skills while learning to connect movement with meaning. Classes include warm-ups, isolations, across-the-floor progressions, stretching, choreography, and improvisation.
MODERN
What it is: Modern dance emphasizes individual expression and abstract movement over strict technique. In this class, dancers will explore fluid, grounded movements that incorporate breath, gravity, and spatial awareness. Exercises focus on developing creative expression, coordination, and dynamic movement. No prior dance experience is needed to be successful in this class.
“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.” – Martha Allen
Acro
What it is: Acro, short for acrobatic dance, combines dance fundamentals with acrobatic skills such as balancing, limbering, and tumbling. In AcroDance, dancers will focus on strength, flexibility, balance, and limbering while working on skills like somersaults, cartwheels, front and back limbers, aerials, and back handsprings. Dancers are not required to have prior Acro experience for this class as each dancer will work through the progressions at their own pace.
*All of our acro programs follow the Acrobatic Arts curriculum, a comprehensive training program designed for safe and progressive AcroDance instruction.
“To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak.” – Indian Proverb
