Dance Station

06/02/2026

Today’s senior spotlight is Evelyn Sunnquist! You can see Evelyn as ‘the Sylph’ in our production of La Sylphide this weekend, both Sat and Sun at 5:30pm at The Hett!

06/01/2026

First senior spotlight! You can see Taryn in the role of ‘Effie’ in La Sylphide on both the Sat and Sun 5:30pm performances this weekend at The Hett!!

04/27/2026

04/15/2026

Here are our Summer session and kids camp flyers we sent home this week! Sign up begins May 1st. Lots of fun classes, guest teachers, and the end of summer camps that have been very popular (they do tend to fill up fast, so make sure to register in early May). Several classes for new students/beginners are offered this summer as well.
Our Advanced SSDC intensive in August is by invite only, but if you have an int/advanced dancer you can call or email for more information. Thanks!

03/01/2026

Dancestation Cecchetti students: everyone passed their exams this weekend!!! Congratulations to all our examinees!!! 🎉🎉🎉🙌🙌🙌💕💕💕
Well done everyone! 👏👏👏

12/18/2025

While our kids dazzled on stage at each performance, and we all watched their grace and joy with pride, what you didn’t see were the hours and hours of time spent preparing for the performances. Just one look backstage at any of the dress rehearsals or performances and you would be amazed at the amount of work that goes into these Nutcrackers! Teachers, DanceStation alumni 🙌, and so many parent volunteers were busy sewing, steaming, hand washing costumes, preparing for Nutcracker sales and bake sale, hours of being room mothers so you could watch your dancer from the audience, long/full days at dress rehearsals and many hours over Thanksgiving break preparing for what the audience will see as the curtain rises. It takes a village, and with 4 performances and 200+ dancers, we are so very grateful to everyone who came together to make Nutcracker weekend successful! From the parents and boys who volunteered for the performance, to my SSDC kids who helped the littles at both dress rehearsals, to all of my SSDC parent volunteers and Dancestation parent volunteers, KEAH photography for picture day and videography, loading and unloading the truck (and trailer) full of costumes, steaming - steaming - and more steaming of all the costumes between shows- and the teachers long hours making sure the kids would shine on stage. We encourage our Dancestation parents to volunteer (or come backstage and see for yourself all the help we need for future recitals - it’s eye opening!). Dancestation dancers and parents are family. We create lasting friendships and truly authentic love and support for our fellow DS families!
Thank you to the Hettenhausen Center for the Arts for co-presenting with us and Doug thank you and your crew for making the incredible sleigh!!! Also, thank you to everyone who donated to the food drive! I am grateful for each and every one of you and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year’s Eve! We will see you in January 2026 Dancestation Family! 💕💕💕 Elizabeth

12/14/2025

What an amazing weekend! 4 truly beautiful and polished sold-out performances! We love our Nutcracker years that are filled with authentic joy and grace, nestled in a very hectic holiday season. I love to see them truly shining onstage. 💕💕💕 We are so proud of all of our dancers!! I will post a longer thank you and more pictures tomorrow, but I wanted to make a quick acknowledgment to the very long hours put in by our teachers, alumni, parent volunteers, and the Hett crew this week! Our dancers and I truly appreciate you!!
We are officially on winter break now, but we have office hours at the studio this week Tuesday 6:30-8pm and Thur 5:30-7:30pm if you need to call or stop by. We are keeping the 8 x 10 group pictures and flashdrive/Bluray options open on the parent portal online shop until this coming Friday (12/19) in case anyone still wants to order those. We will be accepting new students for 2nd semester the first two weeks of January starting Jan 5 - 24th. And the week after that we need to measure for recital costumes!! No classes Dec 15- Jan 4. Enjoy your break, and we will see you next year!

12/13/2025

2 sold out performances yesterday (the 10am Arts and Education matinee for my SSDC dancers and the Fri opening night performance) and 2 sold out performances today!!! 2pm and 6:30pm. Can’t wait to share the holiday magic with everyone today. Don’t forget we are doing food donations for the Lebanon food pantry and Top Shelf in O’Fallon! The boxes are by the fireplace in the lobby.
💕💕💕

12/08/2025

This holiday season our Dancestation families have three ways to give back to the local community!
1. Some of you may know that I volunteer and foster for the Metro East Humane Society. I hung 2 QR codes on our Christmas tree in the lobby. If you’d like to donate to the shelter animals in need, they have a QR code with an Amazon wish list that will deliver directly to the shelter or the other is a QR to donate $ to the shelter itself. Either would be greatly appreciated!
2. We are doing a food drive at the Nutcracker performances this weekend to support two local organizations. Top Shelf (gives weekend food bags to District 90 children in pre-k through 8th grade) and also the Lebanon IL Food Pantry (Matthew 25.40 Ministries). Parents will be emailed this week with more info, but the food collection will be in the lobby at the Hettenhausen Center for the Arts) before each performance this weekend. With 3 sold out performances, we could make a sizable donation!!!
3. Our own SSDC dancers sell Nutcrackers at the performances this weekend instead of flowers. It’s become a really fun biennial tradition, and the proceeds from the Nutcracker sales go directly back to our State Street Company Dancers for scholarships, costumes, and guest teachers. Plus the display of Nutcrackers in the lobby of the Hett is really gorgeous. 💕

Happy Nutcracker season! Elizabeth

12/07/2025

Woohoo!!! 200+ dancers successfully in and out today! If you were in the lobby today you can see exactly how much work goes into getting ready for these performances. Thank you to all of the teachers, SSDC parent volunteers, and SSDC company members that were at the studio ALL day to help with this studio dress rehearsal and class pictures! The dancers were so amazing today (the littles are soooo cute!) and we can’t wait for you to see the magic onstage. It’s truly such a beautiful, classic holiday performance. Normal classes meet this week Mon-Wed (last class before we are on the stage!) and then onto dress rehearsal on Thursday at the Hettenhausen Center for the Arts. 🩰🎄🐭❄️🍭🎂