Every Dancer Has Their Own Journey
The Dance Delaware Journey™ is not a ladder, ranking system, or traditional set of levels. Placement is thoughtfully determined according to what will best support each dancer's development in each individual style.
A dancer may be in Legacy Ballet and Contemporary while taking Elevate Jazz, Hip Hop, or Musical Theatre—and that is exactly how the Journey is designed to work.
Different styles require different strengths, skills, experiences, and developmental paths. Our goal is not to place every dancer under one label. Our goal is to place each dancer where they can learn, be challenged, feel confident, experience success, and continue to grow.
At Dance Delaware Studios, the destination isn't a level.
It's becoming the very best dancer—and person—you can be.
THE DANCE DELAWARE JOURNEY
SPARK
Dream Big.
Spark is where the excitement begins! Designed for our developing young dancers, Spark introduces the foundations of dance in an encouraging, positive, and engaging environment.
Dancers begin building coordination, musicality, flexibility, balance, classroom independence, and an understanding of basic dance terminology and technique. Most importantly, Spark encourages children to explore movement, use their imagination, build confidence, and discover the joy of dancing.
The focus: Building strong beginnings while helping every dancer feel successful, inspired, and excited to learn.
SHINE
Believe.
Shine Ballet
Shine Ballet builds upon the foundations of classical ballet while encouraging dancers to develop confidence, grace, strength, and body awareness.
Students work on proper posture and alignment, ballet terminology, barre and center exercises, coordination, flexibility, musicality, and beginning combinations. Emphasis is placed on developing correct technique and strong habits while allowing dancers to enjoy the beauty and artistry of ballet.
The focus: Strong ballet foundations, beautiful technique, confidence, and a belief in what each dancer can achieve.
Shine Tap
Shine Tap introduces dancers to the excitement of rhythm, sound, and musicality while developing strong foundational tap technique.
Students work on basic tap vocabulary, weight changes, timing, coordination, rhythm patterns, clarity of sounds, and combinations. Classes encourage dancers to listen carefully to music, understand rhythm, and become confident creating music with their feet.
The focus: Rhythm, coordination, musicality, clear sounds, and confident movement.
Aspire
Reach Beyond.
Aspire Ballet
Aspire Ballet continues developing classical ballet technique with greater attention to placement, alignment, strength, flexibility, control, and musicality.
Dancers expand their ballet vocabulary through barre, center work, across-the-floor exercises, and combinations while developing greater awareness of technique and artistry. Students are encouraged to understand not only how to perform movement, but how to perform it with purpose and expression.
The focus: Building stronger technique, control, artistry, and confidence.
Aspire Tap
Aspire Tap develops rhythm, musicality, coordination, speed, and clarity while expanding the dancer's tap vocabulary.
Students explore more detailed rhythm patterns, combinations, directional changes, weight transfers, and musical phrasing. Dancers begin developing greater independence and confidence in both learning and performing tap choreography.
The focus: Clear sounds, stronger rhythms, musical awareness, and confident performance.
Aspire Jazz
Aspire Jazz combines strong technical training with energy, style, and performance.
Dancers work on jazz technique including isolations, kicks, turns, leaps, jumps, flexibility, across-the-floor progressions, and combinations. Students develop coordination, strength, musicality, and performance quality while learning to move with confidence and personality.
The focus: Technique, energy, flexibility, musicality, and performance.
Aspire Hip Hop
Aspire Hip Hop gives dancers an energetic environment to develop rhythm, coordination, musicality, style, and confidence.
Students explore appropriate hip hop movement, grooves, isolations, footwork, musical interpretation, and choreography. Dancers are encouraged to develop their own personality and performance style while learning to move with strength and control.
The focus: Rhythm, style, confidence, individuality, and performance energy.
Aspire Musical Theatre
Aspire Musical Theatre brings together dance, acting, storytelling, and performance.
Dancers explore Broadway-inspired choreography while learning how facial expression, character development, musicality, and movement work together to tell a story. Students build confidence while learning to become expressive, engaging performers.
The focus: Storytelling, character, expression, stage presence, and confidence.
Aspire Contemporary
Aspire Contemporary introduces dancers to expressive movement while building upon their technical foundation.
Students explore elements of contemporary and modern movement, including floor work, weight shifts, balance, transitions, improvisation, musical interpretation, and emotional expression. Dancers learn to connect movement with music and meaning while developing their individual artistry.
The focus: Technique, creativity, musical interpretation, movement quality, and expression.
SOAR
Grow.
Soar Ballet
Soar Ballet continues developing classical ballet technique with greater attention to placement, alignment, strength, flexibility, control, and musicality.
Dancers expand their ballet vocabulary through barre, center work, across-the-floor exercises, and combinations while developing greater awareness of technique and artistry. Students are encouraged to understand not only how to perform movement, but how to perform it with purpose and expression.
The focus: Building stronger technique, control, artistry, and confidence.
Soar Tap
Soar Tap develops rhythm, musicality, coordination, speed, and clarity while expanding the dancer's tap vocabulary.
Students explore more detailed rhythm patterns, combinations, directional changes, weight transfers, and musical phrasing. Dancers begin developing greater independence and confidence in both learning and performing tap choreography.
The focus: Clear sounds, stronger rhythms, musical awareness, and confident performance.
Soar Jazz
Soar Jazz combines strong technical training with energy, style, and performance.
Dancers work on jazz technique including isolations, kicks, turns, leaps, jumps, flexibility, across-the-floor progressions, and combinations. Students develop coordination, strength, musicality, and performance quality while learning to move with confidence and personality.
The focus: Technique, energy, flexibility, musicality, and performance.
Soar Hip Hop
Soar Hip Hop gives dancers an energetic environment to develop rhythm, coordination, musicality, style, and confidence.
Students explore appropriate hip hop movement, grooves, isolations, footwork, musical interpretation, and choreography. Dancers are encouraged to develop their own personality and performance style while learning to move with strength and control.
The focus: Rhythm, style, confidence, individuality, and performance energy.
Soar Musical Theatre
Soar Musical Theatre brings together dance, acting, storytelling, and performance.
Dancers explore Broadway-inspired choreography while learning how facial expression, character development, musicality, and movement work together to tell a story. Students build confidence while learning to become expressive, engaging performers.
The focus: Storytelling, character, expression, stage presence, and confidence.
Soar Contemporary
Soar Contemporary introduces dancers to expressive movement while building upon their technical foundation.
Students explore elements of contemporary and modern movement, including floor work, weight shifts, balance, transitions, improvisation, musical interpretation, and emotional expression. Dancers learn to connect movement with music and meaning while developing their individual artistry.
The focus: Technique, creativity, musical interpretation, movement quality, and expression.
ELEVATE
Challenge Yourself.
Elevate is designed for dancers who are ready to deepen their training, strengthen their technique, and challenge themselves in new ways. Classes encourage greater independence, attention to detail, artistry, and personal responsibility.
Elevate Ballet
Dancers strengthen classical ballet technique through increasingly detailed barre and center work, turns, jumps, traveling combinations, balance, control, flexibility, and musicality. Greater emphasis is placed on precision, placement, strength, artistry, and quality of movement.
Elevate Tap
Dancers expand their tap vocabulary through more intricate rhythms, faster footwork, musical phrasing, syncopation, clarity, and increasingly challenging combinations. Students develop greater rhythmic independence and personal style.
Elevate Jazz
Dancers develop stronger jazz technique through turns, leaps, jumps, kicks, flexibility, conditioning, progressions, and challenging combinations. Classes emphasize precision, dynamics, style, musicality, and performance quality.
Elevate Hip Hop
Dancers explore increasingly detailed choreography, musicality, grooves, isolations, textures, dynamics, and performance quality. Students are encouraged to develop individuality while strengthening control, stamina, confidence, and stage presence.
Elevate Musical Theatre
Dancers combine stronger dance technique with acting, character development, storytelling, musical interpretation, and stage presence. Students learn to make purposeful performance choices and communicate confidently with an audience.
Elevate Contemporary
Dancers explore technical and expressive contemporary movement through floor work, transitions, improvisation, musicality, dynamics, partnering concepts, and choreography. Greater emphasis is placed on emotional connection, movement quality, individuality, and artistry.
The Elevate focus: Challenge yourself. Strengthen your technique. Expand your artistry. Discover how much more you are capable of achieving.
LEGACY
Leave Your Mark.
Legacy represents advanced training within The Dance Delaware Journey™. These classes are designed for experienced dancers who are ready for focused, detailed training while continuing to grow as artists, performers, and individuals.
Legacy dancers are challenged not only to execute movement, but to understand technique, musicality, intention, artistry, and performance at a deeper level.
Legacy Ballet
Advanced classical ballet training focusing on placement, alignment, strength, control, flexibility, turns, jumps, musicality, artistry, and sophisticated combinations. Dancers are expected to demonstrate technical awareness, discipline, and attention to detail while continuing to refine their individual artistry.
Legacy Tap
Advanced tap training emphasizing complex rhythms, speed, clarity, syncopation, musicality, dynamics, improvisational concepts, and performance. Dancers work toward becoming both technicians and musicians.
Legacy Jazz
Advanced jazz training incorporating challenging turns, leaps, jumps, flexibility, conditioning, intricate choreography, dynamics, musicality, and performance quality. Dancers work toward versatility, precision, strength, and commanding stage presence.
Legacy Hip Hop
Advanced choreography and movement concepts challenge dancers in musicality, texture, dynamics, control, stamina, style, and performance. Dancers are encouraged to develop authenticity, versatility, confidence, and their own artistic voice.
Legacy Musical Theatre
Advanced performance training combines dance technique, acting, storytelling, character development, musical interpretation, and stagecraft. Dancers work toward becoming versatile performers who can communicate a character and story with confidence and authenticity.
Legacy Contemporary
Advanced contemporary training combines strong technical foundations with artistry, musical interpretation, floor work, improvisation, dynamics, transitions, emotional connection, and sophisticated choreography. Dancers are challenged to move beyond simply performing steps and develop their own artistic voice.
The Legacy focus: Refine your technique. Lead through example. Perform with purpose. Develop your artistry. And leave your mark.
TECHNIQUE
Strength. Control. Flexibility. Confidence.
Technique class is designed to give dancers the tools they need to become stronger, more confident, and more technically developed performers across every style of dance.
Unlike a traditional dance class focused on learning choreography, Technique allows dancers to concentrate on the individual skills that help take their dancing to the next level.
Classes may include:
- Strength and conditioning
- Flexibility and proper stretching
- Core strength and stability
- Balance and control
- Turns and turn combinations
- Leaps and jumps
- Kicks and extensions
- Progressions across the floor
- Alignment and placement
- Coordination
- Endurance
- Proper execution and technique
Dancers learn that beautiful skills don't happen overnight. Through proper training, repetition, patience, and determination, they develop the strength and understanding needed to execute movement safely and successfully.
Technique class is also a place to set goals and challenge yourself. Whether a dancer is working toward a higher leap, cleaner turns, greater flexibility, stronger extensions, or simply more control, every dancer has something they can continue to improve.
The focus: Building the strength, flexibility, control, and technical foundation that allows dancers to reach their fullest potential.
ACRO
Strength. Flexibility. Skill. Courage.
Acro combines the beauty and artistry of dance with carefully developed acrobatic skills.
Classes focus on building the strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, and body awareness dancers need to safely learn and progress through acrobatic movement.
Depending on each dancer's readiness and experience, training may include:
- Strength and conditioning
- Flexibility
- Balance and control
- Bridges and backbends
- Handstands
- Cartwheels and variations
- Walkovers
- Limbers
- Handsprings
- Aerial skills
- Partnering and balances
- Acrobatic transitions used within choreography
Safety and proper progression are always our priority. Dancers are taught to master the foundations of a skill before progressing to more advanced movements. Every dancer develops at a different pace, and we believe that strong basics create confident, safe, and successful acrobats.
Acro isn't simply about learning tricks. It teaches dancers perseverance, courage, body awareness, and the confidence that comes from working toward something that once seemed impossible.
The focus: Building strong, flexible, fearless dancers who learn to approach new challenges safely, patiently, and confidently.