Dance Xpressions: There’s a new cheer squad in town

Dance Xpressions and VIP Cheer takes cheer to a whole new level in the valley. Before this studio opened, children interested in learning the complex tumbling elements needed to become a cheerleader had to travel to Las Vegas.

In addition to cheer, the new studio also offers a variety of other disciplines.

Michelle Ellsworth, cheer instructor and founder of Dance Xpressions, started the studio two years ago. The studio trains girls in ballet, lyrical, technique, jazz, hip hop and tap to name a few. The cheer instructors have tumbling backgrounds and the studio will start gymnastics in January.

Prior to Pahrump, Ellsworth was in Las Vegas with All Star Cheer. She said her studio is at a level I competition cheer and next year they will advance to level II which means they will have to be able to toss and throw the girls at a higher level.

To compete, the studio has to be U.S. All Star Federation sanctioned, which the studio is USASF small gym sanctioned. The studio competed in a major competition called the American Grand National Championships at the Mirage over the weekend.

The coach has been dancing and involved in competitive cheer since age 3 and an instructor and coach for 16 years. She said she carefully creates classes that are age and developmentally appropriate. She attends conferences, conventions, and trainings regularly to make sure that Dance Xpressions has cutting edge dance and cheer instruction.

Ellsworth requires all her cheer students to have a background in dance. Her regular dance classes are taught by different instructors and those classes are an hour long. Her cheer classes are two hours long. Both the dance classes and the cheer compete in Las Vegas. Her studio is the only one in the valley that offers competition to its students.

“My goal was to start a studio to have a facility out here with some technical training in cheer. I wanted more skill and technique,” Ellsworth said.

The studio will be moving to a new address at 301 Oxbow Rd.

“We are moving because we needed the height for the fliers,” she said. “We also needed more space. Our fliers were not able to fly to the top of the pyramid. So we needed more height for the program. The new place has 25-30 foot ceilings, which is more than enough.

Dance Instructor Kelley Raberge, can’t say enough good things about Dance Xpressions. She is in her first year of teaching at the studio. She started teaching in June.

She likes the fact that classes give you enough time to fully work the students.

“The dance classes are an hour and cheer classes are two hours. I like that because it gives me more time to stretch them out. Then they can start learning dance moves after that. You have to get a good stretch and you don’t want to pull a muscle,” Raberge said.

She began dancing at just 7 years old. She has been training continuously for 13 years in ballet, technique, jazz, hip hop, tap, musical theatre, modern, contemporary and gymnastics. Raberge has been a dance instructor for five years. She has taught ballet, tap, jazz and gymnastics. Dance is her passion and she hopes to teach the discipline, technique, dedication and joy the art of dance can bring.

Raberge attended a “Pulse Tour Intensive” in which famed choreographers such as Wade Robson, Dave Scott, and Mia Michaels, taught attendees choreography to numbers that were seen on “So You Think You Can Dance.”

Prior to teaching at Dance Xpressions, she taught at Donna’s Studio of Dance where she began her teaching career. Raberge competes in Las Vegas herself and wants to pursue dancing as a career.

Raberge loves dance competitions.

“One of the reasons I came to Dance Xpressions was because this studio competes in Las Vegas. We will be doing five competitions in January,” she said.

She also added most dancers were starving for the competition.

“They like that competitive stuff. They like the trophies and to learn where they stand. They also like to get rewarded on what they have been learning,” Raberge said.

Although Raberge doesn’t instruct cheering, she feels the program is sound.

“It’s just awesome,” Raberge said. “It is amazing what she has done with these girls. These girls didn’t know how to do back walk overs, the splits, or how to hold their leg up behind their ear. And now all those girls in a short time have learned how to do these things. It’s kind of neat how the cheer girls have grown from June to December.”

Raberge likes the fact that Ellsworth requires her cheer students to take dance.

The studio will also be performing at a fundraiser on Dec. 20 and 21 at 4 p.m. at the high school auditorium for $20. This will be all the dancers as well as cheer.

The team will be performing 24 numbers and all funds raised will go to support the cheer and dance competitive teams.