On Your Toes Ballet & Dance

Dance provides a much needed discipline in todays fast paced world. We believe that children need to build character, so that they may make good life choices as they grow. With the right teacher, the study of ballet and other dance forms can be fun and exciting. All children can highly benefit from the fundamentals of dance.

Experts tell us that children involved in dance are more likely to be goal oriented and excel at teamwork. Also, with less P.E. time than ever, dance lessons are a great physical activity that builds strength, endurance, beautiful muscle tone and provides poise and grace.

Our year-end recital is absolutely stunning. Every year we produce a full-length ballet story giving our students the rare opportunity of performing in a real ballet. We have presented classical ballets such as Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, and Giselle; as well as some of the Disney classics such as Cinderella, Anastasia, and Beauty and the Beast.

Our dance concert portion contains the most cutting edge and contemporary works in the dance world today; and, our most special young dancers inspire nothing less than joyful tears.

Child experts highly recommend creative movement experiences for very young students. Our little ones love to explore and discover dance from a childs perspective. We use butterfly wings, princess tiaras, musical horses and more!
It is important to consider, that like music, dance requires a certain amount of dedication and commitment.

Parents must realize that dance is not a passing hobby; and, it takes time for any student to become an accomplished dancer. In order to excel and progress successfully in dance, the student must be prepared to dedicate at least two ballet classes weekly; and, a student must train for at least three years before being promoted to pointe work.

Many of our students have been with us for five, eight and even ten years. Dance has been an integral part of their growing up.

A good dance program begins with the preparation of the student at home. All students must wear their hair in a neat bun (no bangs please.) Students are expected to be in their assigned leotard, pink tights, and appropriate dance shoes at all times. On your choice days, students are allowed to get creative and wear any dancewear they choose.

Alina Guerrero-Pea is the only dance professor in the area with a Bachelors Degree in Dance Education. She has been teaching and choreographing ballet, lyrical and contemporary for 19 years. She is a former dancer with the Florida International Ballet Company under the direction of Madame Vivian Tobio, and has worked closely with U.S.C.s Summer Dance Conservatory in Columbia, South Carolina. She has solely produced numerous ballet productions such as Giselle, Coppelia and Sleeping Beauty. Ms. Guerrero-Pea has received various choreography awards; most recently for her exquisite lyrical ballet Canon in D.

Monica Horstmann trained under the direction of Heidi and Joe Melchiona until the age of 14, and trained and performed as a principal dancer for Dance Attack in Miami. She is pursuing her BA in dance from F.I.U. in Miami. Monica has performed in various latin television productions and has toured with the Las Vegas show Legends in Concert. She has appeared on MTVs Sink or Swim and was a featured dancer in Stuck on You starring Cher, Matt Damon and Greg Kinear.