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Home Studio Registration with Sawyer

Registration opens Tuesday, March 31st at 10:00 am

Sessions run from August 17th, 2026 to April 24th, 2027

The Virginia Tanner Dance Studio is our classroom-style program that boasts multiple styles of dance offerings: Adaptive Needs Dance, Ballet, Creative Dance, Hip-Hop, and Music/Visual. Beyond our Tanner Dance home on the U of U campus, we also collaborate to host satellite classes throughout Northern Utah. Through directed exploration and giving the dancer a rich, imaginative space to explore, every child’s own thoughtfulness and inherent creative abilities will encourage an expressive, driven, compassionate and resilient adult to emerge.

Register for classes with Tanner Dance!

  • Learn if you qualify for a scholarship here. Scholarship forms are due by 7/1/2026 for the fall semester.
  • We know parking can be difficult on campus. Read through some of our tips and insights.
  • Our registration system has been updated. Sawyer's user guide can answer many of your questions.
  • Important note about communication contacts: With Sawyer, when you create your account, you will be the 'Primary Contact' responsible for the dancer and will automatically be assigned as the person to receive emails. If you are purchasing a class but are not the primary caregiver, we strongly suggest they make the account instead. Primary and Secondary contacts are responsible for all communications between Tanner Dance and the dancer and we cannot switch ownership on our backend.

University of Utah staff

Even if you have previously set up your staff discount, you will need to re-verify your uNID.  If you have not yet set up your University of Utah staff discount, please contact the office to set that up before registering.  You will need a valid uNID ready. We encourage you to set this up prior to registration opening as some classes can sell out fast.

 

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Parent-Tot & Preschool Classes

Parent/Tot Classes

The innovative Tanner Dance Parent-Tot classes are designed to cultivate the joy of dancing and movement while encouraging exploration through creative ideas and springboards. Each class incorporates age-appropriate technique and experiences that promote whole body development. Children are introduced to various movement concepts such as galloping, skipping, sliding, running, leaping, jumping, and hopping, fostering a sense of spatial awareness and coordination. Throughout the classes, dancers engage with shape, space, rhythm, songs, and literary elements, enhancing their expressive capabilities. Live accompaniment by experienced musicians further enriches the experience, fostering a natural connection between music and movement. In Parent Tot I and Parent Tot II, children participate alongside a parent or caregiver, while in Parent Tot III, dancers independently explore the class under the guidance of the teacher while parents wait in the lobby outside the classroom.

Preschool Classes

Creative Dance Classes focus on the joy of moving and the exploration of creative ideas through movement.  The class includes age-appropriate technique or exercises for the whole body.  It introduces the preschool child to ways to move through space like galloping, skipping, sliding, running, leaping, jumping and hopping.  Dancers explore shape and space, rhythm and songs, qualities of moving, and many forms of literature.  Teachers use preschool curriculum springboards that they creatively weave into the dance class.  All classes have live accompaniment by experienced and engaging musicians.  Children learn to be independent and to interact with a teacher and their peers.

Looking for our full-day preschools?

Fine Arts Preschool

French Immersion Programs

Dance and Art Classes

The Dance and Art class is a two hour class with time dedicated to both dance and visual art. There is also the option to add on a third hour of music class. Teachers may use dance and visual art concepts such as shape, line, color, texture, or pattern as springboards for exploration and creation, and then culminate with visual art and dance compositions.  Children will dance in the dance studio, have a short break and snack, then move to the visual art studio.

Please see music add-on class options and descriptions below. Tuition includes a $15 materials fee.

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Creative Dance Classes

Classes by grade

Creative Dance Elementary Classes

Creative Dance classes focus on training the body as an instrument, the introduction of the elements of dance:  space, time and energy, and self-expression through the exploration of creative ideas through movement.  The class includes age-appropriate technique or exercises for the whole body. The class introduces the young dancer to ways to move through space like galloping, skipping, sliding, running, leaping, jumping and hopping.  Dancers explore shape and space, rhythm, both metric and breath, and qualities of movement.  Teachers use literature and other elementary curriculum springboards that they creatively weave into the class.  All classes have live accompaniment by experienced and engaging musicians.  Children attend classes alone but parents are invited to watch on the first day of class, during parent participation and observation at the end of the semester.  All students kindergarten and above perform at Kingsbury Hall in a year-end performance.

All Boys Dance Classes

All Boys Dance Class is designed to build strength, flexibility and endurance and to get boys moving.  Classes develop coordination, balance and agility, skills necessary in all sports and physical education and focus on the joy of moving and the exploration of creative ideas through movement.  The classes include age-appropriate technique or exercises for the whole body and introduce ways to move through space like galloping, skipping, sliding, running, leaping, jumping and hopping.  All classes have live accompaniment by experienced and engaging musicians. Students perform at Kingsbury Hall in a year-end performance.

Jr. High & High School Classes

Junior High and High School Dance is an exciting and sophisticated adventure.  Teachers strive to make these young dancers as versatile as possible in all genres of dance with a sound focus on training the body as an instrument, the introduction of the elements of dance and self-expression and confidence through movement. The class includes technique that builds strength, flexibility, endurance, agility, balance and grace.  Dancers work at the barre and learn basic ballet and modern dance vocabulary throughout the class.  Dancers learn to do jumps, leaps and turns and explore shape and space, rhythm, both metric and breath, and qualities of movement as they improvise and create dances.  Teachers are aware that some dancers are preparing to audition for dance companies and will work to prepare dancers for the audition process.  All classes have live accompaniment by experienced and engaging musicians.  Parents are invited to watch on the first day of class, during parent participation and observation at the end of the semester.  All students perform at Kingsbury Hall in a year-end performance.

Studio Ensembles - By Audition Only

Studio Ensemble classes are by placement and invitation. This class will focus on providing additional technical training, supplementary choreographic preparation, and rigorous work on performance aptitude.

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Adult Classes

Tanner Dance adult classes are for dancers of all ages and levels of dance experience. These classes are designed to build a strong core, strength, flexibility, endurance, balance, agility, control and grace. Classes include floor and/or barre work based on modern dance and ballet technique as well as Hatha yoga and Pilates. The class also includes moving through space and work in the creative process. Participants learn combinations and create their own movement as they choreograph dances.

This adult class is designed to enhance your physical fitness, artistic expression and contribute to overall brain health and cognition. Research supports that dance is a multifaceted activity that offers significant neuroprotective benefits for aging adults, making it a promising non-pharmacological intervention to support brain health and reduce the risk of cognitive decline. The class has components that focus on the physical elements of building a strong core, increasing strength, enhancing flexibility, boosting endurance, improving balance, mastering control through dynamic dance movements as well as the cognitive functions of sequence building, memory, boosting neural pathways and creativity. The classes incorporate technique grounded in both modern dance and ballet.

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Children's Ballet Program

The Tanner Dance Ballet Program creates dancers with strong technical training while maintaining a love of dance.  The program is age and skill appropriate and dancers advance according to their skill level and teacher recommendation.  The foundations of the most complex ballet steps are taught in the beginning classes and dancers progress sequentially from the basics to the advanced repertoire.

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Other Types of Classes Offered at Tanner Dance

Hip-Hop Fusion

InteGreat Dance Project

All Boys Dance Class

Art & Music

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Satellite Locations

Tanner Dance offers Creative Dance classes in select Satellite locations.  Our Creative Dance classes focus on the development of the whole child. Dancers develop technique through traditional modern and ballet exercises. In addition, they exercise their creativity and imagination as they explore the elements of dance through age appropriate movement. Dancers are given opportunities to improvise, engage in creative problem-solving, and grow in cognitive, social, and emotional ways as they interact in each class. Each class has a musical accompanist to expose dancers to a variety of musical genres. Kindergarten and older classes will participate in one proscenium performance each year at Kingsbury Hall as part of the annual spring Tanner Dance Studio Show.

See below for a listing of currently available Satellite Class locations.

 

Interested in our other programs? 

Adults with Disabilities

Children's Dance Theatre

Contemporary Companies

Elevate Theater Co.