Celebrating 35 years! Looking Back .... and Foreward!
As this 35th anniversary season draws to a close, I’ve been reflecting on the many seasons that have gone
before. So many students have come to my classes, starting with the ones in my basement. One of those 1st
young ladies just gave birth to her 4th & 5th children, twins that I was excited to knit tiny sweaters for. I estimate
that around a thousand dancers have come through the various studio doors. Some stayed for a short time,
others till they graduated. A friend in LA says that dancers are meant to come through your studio, learning what
they can and moving on in a constantly changing current, and I see how true that is.
Times change, technology changes…I started teaching with a portable record player and LP’s. Then I
changed to cassette tapes, then to CD’s, and now, we are using IPod’s. Music has changed, as has dance and
costume styles, but little girls still want to be a fairy-princess-ballerina twirling in a pink tutu, and flitting around the
room with a magic wand. We have helped that dream come true.
Some of my dancers have come with challenges; one leg, one arm, deaf, autistic, a surgically reconstructed
foot, Down’s syndrome, ADD, hypersensitivity, each one challenging me to grow and change to teach them.
Some of my dancers have come with talent beyond their peers or their years, again challenging me to grown and
change to teach them. All have taught me in immeasurable ways, and all have a place in my heart and memories
As we look forward, change will again happen. Miss Rachel is graduating from Bethany College and moving
on with her education and career. I’ve been searching for the right replacement, someone with similar goals and
beliefs to teach in the other room, to mirror my philosophy that dance should be fun and that we should help
each dancer to be the best they can be and to provide a safe haven for each dancer. I was getting a little
concerned and then a chance comment to a friend provided the answer.
Chelle Jennings-Seyfert has decided to close the Dance Academy and to
merge her students with Vivette’s Dance Studio.
Little will change for Vivette’s Dance Studio student’s, except that Chelle will be teaching in room B, beginning in
September and that some of your dancer’s friends who took at Dance Academy will now be here. It will still be my
studio, and I will still be the decision maker. Chelle and I will be working hard on making a great schedule for the
fall.
Chelle brings 9 years of experience as a studio owner, a college degree in psychology, many years of actively
teaching dance, and is the new coach of the Kansas Wesleyan Dance Team. We have been friends for many
years. We have very similar philosophies regarding age appropriate music and costuming, and even teaching
methods. I will probably continue to teach the majority of the ballet classes but we may mix up the others a little.
We are both committed to working hard to avoid an “us and them” mentality, instead choosing a Brady Bunch
approach of “Yours, Mine and Ours”. We will have a BBQ in July and a studio painting party and 2 open houses
to help bring our studios together. We both want to continue to make the dance studio an exciting place for
dancers; a place to learn to dance, to have fun, to grow and improve and to make new friends.
As a thank you for your loyalty to our studios, Vivette’s Dance Studio and Dance Academy dancers who were
enrolled in the 2009-10 year will receive a 10% discount on their tuition for the 2010-11 year. I’m looking forward
to many more years as “Miss Vivette”, enjoying my dream job!
Miss Vivette