Welcome to Menagerie Dance Program!
The Wauconda Park District is committed to providing high-quality dance classes to enhance the overall development of the child. We provide a safe and child-centered environment to encourage our students to explore dance with qualified, nurturing teachers.
We believe that dance training encourages young people to develop a positive self-image as they increase awareness of their physical being. Along with improving coordination skills and developing muscular awareness, dance classes give children the freedom to express themselves through movement.
2021 Recital Session:
January 4-May 15 (18 weeks) (No Classes Spring Break)
45 min. class: $215/$235
60 min. class: $225/$245
75 min. class: $240/$260
90 min. class: $250/$270
Registration fee includes digital download of performances, costume, and T-shirt. Session will conclude with a recital.
Please see our updated schedule of available classes at:
www.waucondaparks.com/programs/menagerie-dance
Eligibility
Students must be the proper age by September 1st and must be toilet trained.
Tuition and Payments
Tuition includes class instruction and informal winter performance. Tuition may be paid in full or in 2 installments. Installment plans must be enrolled in Automatic Payment Program.
Dress Code Requirements
The Menagerie Dance Program maintains a dress code to encourage concentration and a sense of inclusiveness. Proper attire is required for all Recital Dance Classes.
• Watches, jewelry, and safety pins should not be worn to class.
• Dance shoes should never be worn outside.
• Hair must be worn secured back and off the face and neck.
• Ballet students (Ballet I and above) should wear their hair in a bun. Short hair should be secured off the face.
• No Jeans in any dance class.

NEW POLICIES FOR DANCE CLASSES:
• Please do not arrive more than 5 minutes prior to class. We have left 15 minutes between classes to allow minimal contact between groups as well as for instructors to clean between classes.
• One parent may enter the building to drop off your dancer. Once your dancer is in the studio, we kindly request that you exit the building. Parents may not congregate in the hallway or lobby area. Instructors will confirm a cell phone contact number upon drop off.
• Face coverings must be worn by parents and dancers upon entering and exiting the building. Once your child has entered the studio and is instructed to do so, they may remove their face covering. This is subject to change in accordance with IDPH guidelines.
• Students will be asked to maintain a 6 foot distance. We will be marking the floor in such a way that each designated area will be easy to recognize – even for our youngest dancers.
• Please have students use the restroom before arriving at the building for class. The restroom will be available for emergencies.
• Class sizes will be limited. In order to allow for proper distancing of students, class sizes will be smaller.
• With class sizes being smaller, we will try to accommodate waitlists and add classes into slots of the classes that possibly get cancelled due to low enrollment.
Code: | Day: | Time: | Age: | Class: | R/NR Fee: |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1400 cancelled
1401 cancelled 1402 cancelled 1407 cancelled 1408 cancelled 1412 cancelled 1416 cancelled 1421 cancelled 1423 cancelled |
Mon
Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Tue Tue Tue Tue Tue Tue Tue Wed Wed Wed Wed Wed Wed Wed Wed Wed Wed Wed |
10:15-11:00 am
1:15-2:15 pm 3:00-3:45 pm 4:00-5:00 pm 5:15-6:15pm 3:00-3:45 pm 4:00-5:00 pm 5:15-6:15 pm 5:30-6:30 pm 6:45-7:45 pm 8:00-9:00 pm 4:15-5:15 pm 5:30-6:30 pm 6:45-7:45 pm 8:00-9:00 pm 2:00-2:45 pm 3:15-4:00 pm 4:00-5:00 pm 5:15-6:15 pm 6:30-7:45 pm 7:45-8:30 pm 3:15-4:00 pm 4:15-5:15 pm 5:15-6:30 pm 6:45-7:45 pm 8:00-9:00 pm |
3-4 years
4-5 years 5-6 years 6-8 years 7-9 years 3-5 years 13+ years 5-6 years 8-10 years 10+ years By Approval 6-8 years 8-10 years 10-12 years By Approval 3-4 years 5-6 years 9-11 years 11-14 years 11-13 years By Approval 5-6 years 6-8 years 11-13 years By Approval By Approval |
Creative Dance
Pre-Ballet and Tap I Pre-Ballet Ballet I Ballet IB Creative Dance Musical Theatre Pre-Modern Jazz II Intermediate Tap Lyrical Advanced Hip Hop I Hip Hop II Hip Hop III Hip Hop IV Creative Dance Pre-Ballet Modern II Dance on Camera Ballet IV/INT Pre-Pointe Pre-Ballet Modern I Ballet III Int/Adv Tap Int/Adv Tap |
$215/$235
$225/$245 $215/$235 $225/$245 $225/$245 $215/$235 $225/$245 $215/$235 $225/$245 $225/$245 $225/$245 $225/$245 $225/$245 $225/$245 $225/$245 $215/235 $215 / $235 $225/$245 $225/$245 $240/$260 $215/$235 $215/$235 $225/$245 $240/$260 $225/$245 $225/$245 |
Code: | Day: | Time: | Age: | Class: | R/NR Fee: |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1426 cancelled
1427 cancelled 1430 cancelled 1434 cancelled 1435 cancelled 1436 cancelled 1437 cancelled |
Thu
Thu Thu Thu Thu Thu Thu Thu Fri Fri Fri Fri Fri Fri Fri Sat Sat Sat Sat Sat Sat |
10:15-11:00 am
11:30 am-12:15 pm 12:30-1:30 pm 5:15-6:15 pm 6:30-7:30 pm 4:00-5:00 pm 5:15-6:15 pm 6:30-7:30 pm 10:00-11:00 am 11:15 am-12:00 pm 12:15-1:00 pm 1:15-2:15 pm 4:15-5:15 pm 5:30-6:45 pm 7:00-8:00 pm 11:45 am-12:45 pm 1:00-2:00 pm 10:45 am-12:15 pm 12:15-1:15 pm 1:30-2:30 pm 2:45-3:45 pm |
5-6 years
3-4 years 4-5 years 4-6 years 6-8 years 8-10 years 10-12 years 11-13 years 4-6 years 3-4 years 5-6 years 4-6 years 10-12 years 12+ years 12-14 years 5-6 years 11-13 years By Approval By Approval By Approval By Approval |
Pre-Ballet and Tap II
Creative Dance Pre-Ballet and Tap I Pre-Ballet and Tap I Jazz I Musical Theatre Jazz III Modern III Pre-Ballet and Tap Creative Dance Pre-Ballet Pre-Ballet and Tap Musical Theatre Teen Ballet Jazz IV Pre-Ballet and Tap II Lyrical III Int/Adv Ballet Pointe Int/Adv Modern Lyrical IV |
$225/$245
$215/$235 $225/$245 $225/$245 $225/$245 $225/$245 $225/$245 $225/$245 $225/$245 $215/$235 $215/$235 $225/$245 $225/$245 $240/$260 $225/$245 $225/$245 $225/$245 $250/$270 $225/$245 $225/$245 $225/$245 |
Dance on Camera
Dance on camera is a fun class for students to create new ways of working with technology and dance. Participants will be learning choreography as well as basic camera skills to record and edit dance on film. Participants will work collaboratively to produce a filmed dance to be presented at the recital in May.
Location: Community Center
R/NR Fee: $200/$225
Min/Max: 4/6
Code: | Day: | Date(s): | Time: | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1418 | Wed | 1/6-5/15 | 5:15-6:15 pm |
Class Descriptions
Creative Dance blends movement, music, improvisation, and basic dance steps while providing an excellent introduction for the future study of all dance techniques. Students learn dance fundamentals while improving motor skills, self-expression, confidence, imagination and social development. Dancer must be fully potty trained, no pull-ups. This is a drop-off class.
This program takes the basics of ballet technique combined with props and imagination and gives the children a fun and educational class. Large motor skills are highlighted as well as stimulating the brain’s coordination. Pre-Ballet and Tap classes also explore rhythms and smaller motor skill. This is a drop off class.
Jazz is a funkier form of dance. This is an introductory class with jazz basics to fun and kid-friendly music. Dancers will learn the beginning steps of jazz and work on picking up choreography sequences that fuse style and technique. This is a drop-off class.
Modern Dance explores movement, space, rhythm and the dancer’s own creativity with emphasis on momentum, shapes and patterns. It is inspired by nature, music, art and emotions. This class will contain a basic technique study and improvisation. This is a drop-off class.
As students grow; they naturally begin to dance as a form of expression and imagination. We capture this enthusiasm and incorporate it into our ballet program – emphasizing proper ballet technique with a focus on developing strength, alignment, musicality, and the grace that is inherent in the form. As students mature and their bodies develop strength, we transition to a more serious study of ballet technique that will prepare them to be both confident and technically proficient artists.
Hip-Hop evolved out of street and break dancing and is characterized by its athletic and bouncy style. Hip-Hop is set to a strong, contemporary beat, builds stamina, and emphasizes body isolations, attitude, coordination, freestyle movement, and rhythm. This form of dance is seen in music videos.
This introductory class is for our youngest dancers. Our newest students will learn the basics of balance and movement through imaginative games, songs, music and rhythmical patterns while developing a basic understanding of dance and how dance classes are held. We hold our two-year-olds to a very specific routine and schedule to prepare them to move into our 3-year-old Creative Dance class. This is a drop-off class.
This is a class for dancers/athletes to deconstruct traditional dance vocabulary and challenge notions of what the body is capable of performing. Join us each week as we work on core strength, balance, upper and lower body strength, and alignment. We will train how to be upside down in a variety of inversions and balance there without fear using the body’s natural structure as well as props such as stability balls, elastic bands, mats, and the wall, for a fun and challenging work out!
Jazz dance is an upbeat and performative style that is often seen in Broadway productions. While exploring many different stylistic preferences, students focus on principles such as syncopated rhythms, body isolations, precise technical skills, and choreography. Students will be exposed to various styles of jazz such as Broadway, Street and Contemporary to help develop a well-rounded dancer.
Lyrical is a fusion of ballet and jazz dance techniques. Lyrical dance challenges dancers to use motion to interpret music and express emotion. Lyrical jazz is a very passionate and emotional dance style. It portrays certain emotions and tells a story through every movement made.
Modern Dance develops strong creative dancers through the study of technique and improvisation with a focus on musicality, dynamics, floor-work and artistic expression. The class will provide students with the opportunity to create their own explorative movement within a structured class. Classes with composition focus on problem-solving skills and the tools needed to create unique dances for a group or individual.
Our Musical Theatre classes will focus on the execution of dance as a method of storytelling. In musical theatre, characters sing when emotion becomes too strong to speak and they dance when they are even further transported. This class will focus on Broadway style jazz. Students will enjoy music, singing and choreography inspired by various musical productions and will be encouraged to sing along!!
Tap Dance focuses on developing coordination, precision, rhythmic skills, and musicality within both the Broadway and contemporary Rhythm-Tap styles. As students’ progress they further develop skills, focusing on clarity of sounds and increasing speed as well as dynamics and musicality.