When River Forest resident Danielle Moore’s daughter, now 8, said three years ago that she wanted to start taking dance classes, Moore, a former professional dancer, was excited. But after her daughter began dancing at a local studio, Moore said it wasn’t exactly the experience she was looking for.
“I was disappointed with the lack of technical skills they were teaching my child, so I would actually make her learn with me at home,” Moore said.
On Aug. 31, Moore officially opened the doors to Dance Moore Studio at 413 Des Plaines Ave., where Old School Records used to be. There, she offers ballet, jazz, lyrical, tap and hip-hop dance classes to children of any age and experience level. Moore also teaches weekly adult ballet and jazz classes and, once a month, recreational Moms Night Out dance events.
This summer, Moore also launched Dance Moore Studio’s first official competition team and will hold auditions later this month on Sept. 24.
“I want them to know that hard work does have its rewards and how to actually work towards something,” Moore said of what she hopes students take away from her dance classes. “I always get frustrated when I feel like no one’s pushing my kid, so I’m going to push your kid like my kid — in a very healthy way.”
She also aims to set Dance Moore Studio apart by making herself and multiple styles of dance accessible to students and their parents.
“It’s just giving that open and honest feedback in a way that’s respectful to the kid, to the parent, and even to myself,” Moore said, all while “giving you exposure so that you can see there’s more than one area that you can go into.”
And because she and her family have lived in River Forest for over seven years, Moore has known some of her students from before she opened her studio.
“Because I am so ingrained in the community … I genuinely look at these kids and they’re not just kids. That’s my friend’s daughter,” Moore said. “I see these kids all the time. They see me at the schools, they see me at the grocery store.”
Though Dance Moore Studio can host up to 10 kids per dance class, Moore said each class currently averages about six children.
She teaches pre-ballet to 3-to-5-year-olds and, once they understand certain terms and movements, they can graduate to ballet classes, which are an hour-and-20-minutes long.
“All my other classes — ballet one, jazz one, hip hop, lyrical, tap — I’m calling them level-one classes, but there’s nothing really level-one about it for the kids because we all progress very differently,” Moore said. “We allow for growth in our areas of potential and we make sure that we’re getting a good foundation and basis for all of that before we move forward.”
About Danielle Moore
Moore started dancing at age 7 after watching figure skating greats like Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan and learning they took ballet to help them prepare for the ice.
In elementary school, Moore attended Winans Academy, a charter, performing arts school in Detroit. As a child, Moore got summer scholarships for dance programs and even performed in Moscow Ballet’s “The Nutcracker.”
“All of these little moments in which I would see my work being rewarded kind of kept me going,” Moore said. “It was also like therapy for me. I didn’t grow up rich. I grew up very poor. I’m the oldest of seven siblings.”
After performing with Michigan State University’s dance club in college, Moore danced professionally as a cheerleader for the Detroit Lions. On the side, she and other NFL dancers choreographed and performed in Michigan.
“I actually never wanted to open my own studio,” Moore said. But that changed after she moved to Chicago eight years ago and, three years ago, her daughter started dance classes at a local studio.
“I don’t think the studio was bad. I think it depends on what your motivations are. I’m a very technical person, so I wanted something like that for her, but I also didn’t want to have to drive all the way to the city for it,” Moore said.
So last year, Moore began teaching dance classes three days a week out of Analog Yoga and Studio 19 Barre and Fitness, both in River Forest. But she started looking for her own studio “because there’s more that I want to offer, more that I want to do, and I can’t do that with what I currently have.”
Moore saw the space on Des Plaines for rent and jumped at the opportunity.
“I was really trying to stay in River Forest or Forest Park because it takes me like 20, 30 minutes to get to certain parts of Oak Park, and a lot of my clientele is already in the River Forest, Forest Park area,” Moore said. She added, “I like downtown Forest Park a lot.”
And while Moore hopes that her dance students learn how to work hard, she aims for her studio to foster a welcoming environment, too.
“I also want them to know that you don’t have to sacrifice everything else just to be able to be successful,” Moore said. She added, “You know how many birthday parties my kid has missed” for dance? I want it to be a space where they’re also like, ‘Not only did I work hard and I made progress, but I saw that I could still do other things and be a well-rounded human.’”
Discover kids and adult Dance Moore Studio classes at https://www.dancemoorestudio.com/. Moms Night Out classes are 8 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 18, Oct. 16, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11. Competitive Dance auditions will take place Sept. 24th from 6 to 7 p.m.