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About Us
The Next Step Dance Studio opened in 1976 under the direction of Stephanie L. Sloop. Since that first tiny studio on Newell-Hickory Grove Road in Charlotte, the studio has gone through location changes and staff changes, but the philosophy remained the same. We want to share our passion for dance with your dancer! We want to provide an atmosphere of learning and friendship with the hope everyone will love to dance, whether it is ballet and tap or acro, or hip hop. Every dancer can find something they enjoy here. But beyond their dance training we want every child to find a place they can call “home”. A place where they feel confident about themselves and where their friends are waiting. Some students will go on to careers in dance. Other students will be able to stand in front of a crowd and feel confident because they took a dance class that made them feel good about themselves. And still others will open their children’s eyes to music, dance, and the arts because they were able to experience their own joy in movement.
The teaching staff at Next Step is as varied as our dance program. Each instructor brings a love of his or her dance form to the classroom. Nothing is as exciting as teaching something that you love. And children have a wonderful way of making you remember why you teach. It is in their smile, their hug, their “thank you”, or just a question they ask that lets you know that they are really interested in what you are showing them. We also believe that bringing in “outside” teachers is important. We want our dancers exposed to many dance styles. There are so many wonderful instructors out there that when we get a chance to bring someone in from NYC, LA, or just down the street we want to give our dancers that experience. We love for our dancers to go other places to study and to come back and show what new ideas and training they have received. In dance, learning never stops. As teachers, if we stop our training then we shortchange our students. Life is one continuous lesson to be learned.
We hope that your dance lessons and the friendships that go along with those lessons will begin with us here at Next Step Dance. Welcome!