Rachel Novelli, is the owner and director of Lewiston Dance Center and Grand Island Dance Center in Lewiston, New York and Grand Island, New York, respectively. Rachel describes their school as family oriented. They take the families of their dancers into consideration when scheduling classes, booking rehearsals and performances and extra workshops. They recognize that there are many activities that the parents are trying to plan for and they make it easier for the families to get their child to dance every week, and even though they are busy, do some of the extra things like workshops or competition
Their mission statement is to teach the art of dance to young people in a way that builds self esteem, and helps them with their other aspects of life. They teach not only dance steps like step ball change & pas de bourre, at their school, but also time management, leadership, and team work. All of these skills that they are learning along with the dance steps help them to feel good about themselves and that good accomplished feeling they can carry into all other parts of their lives.
Lewiston Dance Center and Grand Island Dance Center offer the following classes for children and adults: Toddler Class, Pre-Ballet Class, Ballet Classes, Tap Classes, Jazz Classes, Lyrical/Contemporary, Modern Classes, Hip-Hop / Mini Hip-Hop Classes, Broadway, and Acro. Their courses are designed to increase pleasure in dancing and to develop grace, poise, rhythm, creativity and confidence. Remember, dancers are athletic and like athletes they utilize the mind, body and creative expression. Rachel believes dancing reinforces life long poise, discipline and an increased level of physical fitness. Besides that, dancing is fun!
As an instructor, Rachel feels most proud when she has instilled a lifelong love for dance
into a student. She has a few students that started young and after 20 years are still with her studio. They went off to college but never forgot about dance. They always came back to it. Now, they are teaching with Rachel as peers at her studios.
Rachel believes there are no “biggest mistakes.” She believes that when teaching steps to students you have to be prepared for how students learn differently. Some have to see a step executed, some have to hear the counts and others have to be shown the step a number of times before they can incorporate it. She thinks one of the biggest mistakes parents make is trying to push the students too fast. She gets a lot of “can Suzy move up to that class?” Rachel tells parents that they have to trust that the school has each student’s best interest foremost in their heads when they put them into classes. They believe that each dancer should be challenged in classes but also have a chance to shine in the classes and be a leader. If the students are constantly being “moved up” before they are really ready, they will never learn those important leadership skills that they would normally learn when they are at the top of the class.
One of her goals for this year was to make the beginning of the season transition from summer a little smoother.
When Rachel was 23 years old, she was in her college’s Dance Company. The dance company was a student collaboration. When she first started teaching her choreography to her peers, she realized she had a way of making everyone understand what it was she wanted. Her vision for a certain piece of music was coming to life time and time again. She did see while teaching that some of the company’s dancers were missing some basic skills. She thought what if she could get the students when they are young and teach them the fundamentals it would give them a great base from which to work. So, she found a small place for rent in the Village of Lewiston. New York and opened a studio.
Rachel has studied dance for over 35 years and comes from three generations of professional dancers, dance company choreographers and dance instructors. Her Great Aunt Marie Alexander owned and operated one of the largest dance schools in Brooklyn, 
New York. When Rachel’s mother was 15 years old, she moved to Brooklyn to live with her Aunt and help teach at her studio. At that time, her mother, Kathy Gallo, auditioned and won a scholarship to the Julliard School. When Kathy moved back to her home town of Niagara Falls, New York, she opened her own studio, and ran it for many years. Now Lewiston Dance Center teaches the grandchildren of her mother’s former students!
Rachel began dancing at the age of three under the tutelage of her Mom and later studied under many professional dancers and dance instructors. She was also a member and choreographer with Tanzen, Niagara County Community College’s dance company. Rachel and her two dance studios, Lewiston Dance Center and Grand Island Dance Center, are well known in the area, not only for the high quality of dance instruction, but more importantly, for the personal interest and support provided to their young students of dance. “It is so rewarding watching young people grow in skill and confidence and enjoy the pleasure of self expression.”
Rachel thinks the hardest part of the studio business is that many dance teachers, like her, do not treat it like a business and it makes everything that goes on within the studio very personal. It is quite difficult to step away. But, it is very rewarding work, they get the privilege of watching these students grow and change and learn. They see some of them 3 or 4 times a week for their whole young lives and they need to be considerate of the fact that they will have an influence on these young lives. They take that responsibility very seriously at Lewiston and Grand Island Dance Centers.
If you would like more information about Lewiston Dance Center and Grand Island Dance Center, visit their website at lewistondance.com, call them at 716-773-1075, or Fax them at Fax: 888-577-3171, or email Rachel at rachel@lewistondance.com. You can also “Like” them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter and connect with them on Instagram.
Please post a comment if you have had any experience with Rachel Novelli of Lewiston Dance Center and Grand Island Dance Center.
Written By Cyndi Marziani
Owner
BDancewear.com
