When your backup plan becomes your best plan (7 photos)

Sault natives Kaitlin Pelletier and Christina Trevisan, combining their love of education and dance, opened the doors of Elite Dance Force in September 2014.

The two women have dazzled the Sault dance scene, winning the Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce Young Entrepreneur Award in 2017.

“It felt surreal. We were excited to win,” Kaitlin told SooToday.

“We started in a smaller space, and after the first year we grew a lot and moved to where we are now (at the Queenscentre, an historic, multi-use building at 477 Queen St. E., which older Saultites will remember as the site of the old Walker’s department store).”

Elite Dance Force currently has about 200 students. 

“We love teaching kids and we wanted to become teachers (both women studied at Lakehead University’s faculty of education) but the chances of getting a job in teaching is a little slim right now, so that led us to pursue teaching dance full time. We ended up really loving it, so our ‘Plan B’ actually worked out for us.”

“We would never go back now because we love it so much,” Kaitlin said.

Elite Dance Force teaches dance to children as young as four (the Petite Elite program), to youth up to 18 in three streams (recreational, competitive and part time competitive) in many styles of dance, including ballet, contemporary, jazz, tap, and hip-hop. 

One of the big favourites among customers right now is all male hip-hop, the two instructors said.

“It’s hard to pick our favourite styles of dance. They’re all fun in their own way, especially when you’re teaching all the different levels,” Christina said.

“We love them all, and by doing all the different styles, we’re able to have a different day every day,” Kaitlin told us.

Both Kaitlin and Christina are true professionals and have danced competitively, since they were children at the Sherry Walsh Academy of Dance through to high school, and are fully certified members of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing with associate teaching diplomas in jazz, tap and ballet.

Kaitlin, who is also experienced in working with people with disabilities, and Christina have each taught dance for several years.

Kaitlin traveled to many competitions and conventions in Canada and the United States.

“I’m able to combine my love for teaching children and my diplomas in dance, take those two things, use them both and feel completely fulfilled doing it. We love working with the kids, hearing about their stories from school and seeing them grow from children into teens,” Kaitlin said, adding dance is a great source of physical exercise and a stress reliever for herself, Christina and their students.

“Dance makes me happy. I’ve grown up doing it so now it’s nice to be able to share what I grew up doing with kids who love to do the same thing. It’s awesome,” Christina said, adding she sees a lot of herself in her young students.

Elite Dance Force also brings in guest instructors from New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto to teach Master classes, workshops and guest choreography, allowing the studio to stay current and fresh, and for students to make connections with top industry professionals should they decide to pursue dance in the future.

Elite also offers exams from pre-primary through to professional teaching examinations to any students who would like to be examined through the British Association of Teachers of Dancing.

Elite has also offered accessible dance programming to high school students with individual needs as part of their physical education, having also built a partnership with the Algoma Autism Foundation to build a six-week accessible hip-hop program.

The studio offers adult classes in ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop, as well as a Baby Carrying Class entitled Baby Groove! 

Recently, Elite began offering a class entitled ‘Dance With Me’ which allows a parent or family member to dance alongside their child ages 18 months to two years old.

Kaitlin and Christina are also currently taking registrations for their Elite Explorers Program, a six week dance sampler that allows a student to explore ballet, jazz, and hip-hop to get a sense of what styles they are most interested in.

As teachers, Kaitlin and Christina’s dance routines have won many awards at various competitions across Canada and the United States.

“The Sault may be small, but we have a very talented group of singers, actors and dancers that make the Sault a secret gold mine of talent,” Kaitlin said.

Do the two dancers have any advice for anyone who wants to take up dancing but may be a bit shy about it?

Dancing has an amazing way of allowing even shy and introverted people to express themselves, the two said.

Students shy to speak now have a powerful presence on stage, students who were very shy and introverted in their everyday lives having gained confidence through dance, which has carried over into their everyday lives in skills like socializing and public speaking.

Kaitlin and Christina said it is never too late to take up dancing, and urge adults to sign up for classes and invite them to bring a friend along for moral support.

“We have adults that are trying tap, ballet and hip-hop for the first time that are loving it!” Kaitlin said.