Under 12 yr Multidisciplinary program
This class meets up to 4 hours a week, in it, we work on hip hop, jazz, contemporary, and ballet- in no specific order. The kids develop a strong grasp on how flexibility needs to grow with strength, and slow building develops us better as long term dancers.
In this class, they will learn focus, strength, self confidence, self assuredness, and introspection. They grow as a community, and work to establish roots within their community.
Our teachers teach creativity, how to express emotionality, musicality, and how to do all of it through a developed sense of control.
They Travel for performances (up to 20 performances per year, up to 5 performances out of town.) They walk in parades. They Fundraise for community efforts, and they work to make sure their art means more than just performing, that it can connect people.
Multi-Disciplinary Teachers
Teacher Bio: Allie West
Born and raised in El Paso, TX, I was raised in a world where if there was a dance program to be a part of, I was in it. I've been dancing for 35 years, 32 formally. I was part of teams that were invited to perform at Disney, the Cannes Film Festival, won competitions in many styles throughout my tutelage, and was invited to start teaching when I was 13 years old. I grew and built on the teams I performed with and developed a strong sense of self, and of community, and what communities could be through my dance world.
When I came to Elgin, I saw that at that point there was no dance school, locally, and so I worked to see if I could fenagle a means of developing opportunities for community building. In 2019, I was hit with a devastating condition that should have left me unable to walk, let alone dance. Through self administered dance therapy, I was able to get back not just to walking, but to dancing, despite having no feeling below my ribcage.
At the end of 2020, the COVID regulations started to come down here in Texas. I started a rollercoaster of attempts to get my studio started, so that my son would have an opportunity to have a community built on the kind of trust that only comes from making mistakes around friends. The type that builds people and encourages children to learn to get excited at the growth of others, because everyone in that class is in your corner.
And that's where we started. We worked out of the Coupland Dancehall, out of the Journey Church, and now we formally have our own studio. It keeps growing, and we keep growing the self confidence and community we always hoped to bring through art in the City of Elgin.
Co-Teachers
My name is Keenan Hogan, which roughly translates to “Ancient Youth” from the Irish. I am a self-published Author of an original children’s series, illustrating my books by transforming real video into artwork, you can find my work here: https://rhyme-time-tales.com/.
I suffer from a hypermobility condition known as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and frequently use dance as a therapy. Consequently, my aim is to ensure our students understand correct form and structure in dance for the best and safest performance. Teaching Kids to listen to their bodies and to grow with kindness, strength, and adaptability is important to me.
Co-Teachers
Teacher Bio: Daisy Bower
I am a teacher and choreographer at Envision Dance. I have been working with the company since May of 2024. I teach many kinds of dances for many kinds of kids, including toddlers' movement and ballet class, as well as the preteen and teen K-pop class.
I have been dancing since I was 3 years old and have always loved it. I especially love choreographing dances and also having the freedom to do improv. I am currently in college for different kinds of certifications and schooling for interior design and woodworking, and plan to do that as a career, as well as having dance as my passion job throughout my life. I hope to use dance to help people in the future, possibly working in dance therapy as a later career and passion.
Students:
We work to teach kids how to perform throughout the year. Our students perform at the Moody Gardens Theme Park in Galveston, We perform with the Galveston Musical Youth Festival (Come back for more things like this, as we are currently partnering on a few local projects, including an Elgin Musical Youth Convention!), We perform at festivals all over the state, in addition to our 3 piece recital series, Spring, Summer, and Winter programming. When you support our recitals, we donate to spaces like the Elgin VFW, the Bastrop Community Gardens, Jack Jack's Pack animal rescue, and many more.
We walk in Elgin Parades, have performed for the Elgin Juneteenth Committee, and of course Elgin's own Hogeye festival.
