Tempe Dance Academy (TDA) in Tempe, Arizona, is a studio that has been around for over 50 years. Holly Manville is the Company Director. Holly’s mother started the studio in her backyard and now is really a legend to people because so many that lived in Arizona have been to TDA at one point in their lives. Their studio is known for its technique and versatility. You can get everything – professional teachers, outstanding dancers, high quality performances in Europe and their 26th annual Spirit of Christmas shows, committed and hard working dancers, dancers that train to pursue a career after high school and top rated choreographers coming through to teach and choreograph.
In Holly’s opinion, her studio is separated from other dance studios by their student’s technique, versatility and strength. These dancers can turn, leap and throw in occasional acrobatic moves that look polished, easy and creative, yet are very hard skills to achieve. They are known for their timing and amplitude while executing their jumps as a whole group.
They have had so many proud moments, they cannot just pick a single episode. For Holly, it is seeing dancers move on to make it in the dance world as a professional, seeing them get scholarships to prestigious colleges, seeing a dancer finish a solo on stage for the first time and coming off so excited to share their joy, seeing the students work together as a team, working through their differences at times, training endless hours, and pulling off wonderful performances together to result in prestigious outcomes..The bond their group has is strong and like a family and they are simply amazed to have such dedicated, talented dancers that shared their passion. They believe in each other and they are so proud to be a part of this studio and a mentor in their lives.
Holly believes that the biggest mistakes she sees dancers make is not stretching out properly before popping into a rehearsal, so injuries are inevitable. Her biggest scare is all the hype in extreme back and hip flexibility. It is so popular on social media and advertisements about how to contort a body to the extreme and make your body do some very unnatural things. Granted, there are those few dancers that have the facility to do this, but many do not. So for her the craze and hype of having these extreme flexibility features is not worth the hip replacements and spine fusions dancers may need when they
are in their thirties. Flexibility is needed and core strength is a must, but do it wisely. Everybody is different and achieves goals at different rates. Don’t jeopardize yourself to be like somebody else. Be you and just dance!
Holly’s goal is to keep working on her students’ technical skills but to dig deep and find more passion inside their dancing. Many dancers have a hard time letting go and just being driven by the music and movement. They try to make everything perfect and cannot just be driven from the inside. They try and work hard at it, but just cannot seem to grasp this skill yet. Her goal is to help them find that inner gut feeling, passion of why they dance and what are they feeling right now, and let it surface. They explain to their students when they choreograph many of her pieces, there is a story behind it. It’ is like her own therapy session hidden inside her mind. As dancers, they need to make their own story from it and dance it from the inside out, so they can feel something as observers as well. So her goal this year is to find that inner story, feelings, passion and drive it to the surface.
Tempe Dance Academy is a family business. When Holly’s mother was 17, she started teaching acrobatics and some dance out of her backyard. She followed her dream and had three girls (including Holly) who all now teach and dance. They were brought into dance as infants and now help keep the tradition alive and excelling. Her mother still teaches now and is very well known and respected throughout the community and country as well. For Holly, teaching and choreographing are a passion of hers, it is what they do and will continue to do as long as her body allows it.
Every staff member has been selected by the director and has proven themselves as a quality dance educator, as well as an accomplished dancer. Ms. Manville and many of the teachers here at the Academy are certified by test to teach by The Dance Masters Of America, one of the oldest and largest dance teacher organizations in the country. Dance Masters of America qualifies its members by exacting examinations of their knowledge of the dance arts by pedagogic methods, by a minimum of three years teaching experience and by demonstration of personal integrity.
When you entrust your child or yourself to the Tempe Dance Academy, you are assured the professional services of a certified teacher, who has mastered the demands of his/her profession. Membership of your dance teacher in Dance Masters of America is your assurance that you made the right choice.
This past year at nationals, the Senior Company captured the Senior National Critics Choice award with a dance called I’m So Sorry which was choreographed by Grace Buckley and Jakob Karr. There were so many numbers and so many talented dancers and pieces, that it was a prestigious award to be even dancing with all these great people. The year before their senior Company won the senior national Critics Choice award with the dance “Go” choreographed by Andy Pellick.
They have many alumni working with world known ballet companies, jazz and modern companies throughout the United States, Europe and Canada. They are now and have performed with the Rockettes and Cirque de Soleil shows and have been on So You Think You Can Dance making it to the top 20 throughout the years. Their recent dancer on the show, Bridget Whitmen went all the way through to the top 10, and finished touring with them last year. Another big part of Tempe Dance is seeing all their dancers go off to college with wonderful dance scholarships awarded to them. They have dancers represented in so many top rated dance colleges throughout the states on full rides and partial scholarships to continue their dancing through education and fulfilling their dancing careers as professionals. It is exciting to see one of their male dancers, Cory Barnette, graduate from Juilliard and now working professionally with a famous Canadian company and to watch their newest male dancer, Kolton Krouse, leave the nest and take on the reigns at Juilliard this year on wonderful scholarships he received through NYCDA’s college scholarship foundation. It is exciting to know he has a bright future ahead of him and that they were able to be a part of his journey to success.
If you would like more information about Tempe Dance Academy, visit their website at www.tempedance.com, call them at 480-820-0795 or email them at tempedanceoffice@gmail.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 Holly Manville of Tempe Dance Academy.
Written By Cyndi Marziani
Owner
BDancewear.com
Tempe Dance Academy was one of the best things I ever did for my daughter and I am grateful for everything they did for her.