The Dance Leelanau spring term and registration kicked off last week, with two classes out of the four offered this season already full. Kids in the county will have the chance to take eight week introductory courses with a final performance to demonstrate their work in the spring.
“There is nothing that brings more joy than dance and in particular, children dancing,” said Caitlin Watkins, a Dance Leelanau teacher and alumnus of the program. “Because we’re teaching a discipline, it brings such a sense of joy through that — of learning how to function in your body, and how to move well and the real joy in that — of working hard and having that turn into something beautiful.”
The pre-ballet I class, which is for the youngest dancers of the group, and pre-ballet II, for ages 5-7, are taught by Dance Leelanau teacher and alumnus Hillary Voight. Watkins and Voight also grew up dancing together in Dance Leelanau, working their way up in classes and still dancing to this day. The pre-ballet II (ages 6-9) and beginning modern jazz (ages 8-13) classes are taught by Watkins and are still open for registration.
“We cap classes at 10 (students)... they generally tend to fill up pretty quickly,” Watkins said. “The jazz class is usually a smaller group. I often get kids who are coming from ballet to jazz and they’re brand new to it, so it’s nice to have a small class size so we can really walk through the differences, the different vocabulary, and the different styles and all these things.”
The community dance collective aims to provide training and performance opportunities in Leelanau County, and has students from different area schools like Leland, Glen Lake, homeschool, and others that want to learn about the creative art form.
Watkins said in December, The Bay Theatre held their first ever dance performance featuring Dance Leelanau students. This spring, the students will be able to perform on stage in front of their family and friends once again.
“The performances generally get a huge audience of family members, so we don’t really open it up to the public,” she said. “This past December, we had our performance at the Bay Theatre, and that was the first time The Bay had ever had a dance performance done there. They’ve done musicals, but they’ve never had just a dance recital… We always bring in other dance studios from around the area to also come perform so the really little guys who we teach can see if they stick with dance, what that can look like later — they can see what the hard work really can pay off to be in time.”
For more information about classes, go to www.dance-leelanau. com.
