Creative Dance Arts, Clifton Park

Our Pledge to You

Our goal is to nurture the spirit and body while educating the mind. We strive to build confidence through self expression. Our classes are arranged by ability level with an appropriate age range. In this non-competitive environment we encourage each student, from the pre professional to the recreational dancer, to grow in their knowledge and appreciation of dance.

Our Location

Located at 1673 Route 9 in the HEALTHPLEX plaza in Clifton Park are 2 beautiful studios with marley over sprung wood floors. There is a lobby area for parents as well as a changing room for students in each studio.
Click here for driving directions

Our Policies

We expect each student to conduct themselves in a courteous manner at all times, in the dance studio as well as in the community. Parents are expected to escort their children to and from the studio through the plaza. Attendance is crucial to the progress of the individual and the class as a whole, therefore we expect a phone call if a student is ill or unable to attend class. Tuition is due on the first lesson of the month and can be paid monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Inclement weather cancellations will be left on the studio answering service, on the school closings network (bottom of screen on local news channels), and on the front page of this site. Due to limited studio availability, snow days will not be made up unless under extreme circumstances. Please note that on the school calendar that we do not observe any of the individual school vacation days.

Our Dress Code

We expect each student to be appropriately attired for class. We also ask you to cover your leotard and tights while entering and exiting the building. All hair chin length or longer needs to be pinned down.(NO PONYTAILS in any class) Ballet and Tap combo classes (age 3 -7) wear plain, skirtless black leotard, pink tights, pink ballet slippers, and black tap shoes. All classes level I and up may wear a plain, solid color, nonmetallic leotard. Tights for ballet are pink, all other classes are tan. Jazz and tap shoes are tan. Solid black jazz pants may be worn to jazz, tap and modern.  Ballet classes may wear ballet sweater shorts/hipwarmers and legwarmers.

Boys:

Boys should wear a white fitted t-shirt, black jazz pants, and black dance shoes.

Our History

Creative Dance Arts, originally named The Donna Smead School of Dance, was founded in 1976 by Donna Turner. Thanks to Donna’s passion for dance and her giving spirit, her first teaching assistant, Patti Moore-Friedman was inspired to pursue a dance teaching career. She has been owner/director since 1999 and has continued to maintain the high standards for quality dance education that Donna had begun decades earlier. The school has grown to include 7 regular teachers as well as many guest teachers, including off-broadway performers and Radio City Rockettes.

Our Goals

1. To provide quality dance instruction in a safe, nurturing and productive environment.
2. To encourage all students from the pre-professional to the recreational dancer.
3. To expose students to a variety of styles always focusing on technique.
4. To give back to the community by sharing our skills at area events.
5. To create quality performances with age appropriate material and costuming.
6. To encourage our students to study outside our school at various conventions, and studios.
7. Ultimately to love and appreciate the many faces of Dance as an art form.