St. Cecilia Academy is excited to launch an after-school St. Cecilia Dance Academy (SCDA) for girls ages 3-14. The SCDA provides budding dancers in the Nashville area with excellent training in the techniques, communication, and artistry of dance. Through their introduction to and immersion in the universal language of dance, girls learn to express their Godgiven beauty and dignity through their growing bodies. Dance also helps students grow in important virtues like discipline, grace, perseverance, healthy self-expression, resilience, critical thinking, a broad sense of musicality, and collaboration skills that are crucial for a life well-lived. Most importantly, the fine arts— and dance in a very particular way—open young people up to all that is good, true, and beautiful as they use their bodies, their minds, and their talents to glorify God.
“To everything, there is a season . . . a time to dance.” Ecclesiastes 3
The St. Cecilia Dance Academy offers after-school and Saturday classes during the school year in ballet, tap,
jazz, musical theatre dance, tumbling, contemporary, and hip hop for girls 3 years old through 8th grade.
SCDA Instructors Leigh Anne Ervin In addition to founding and directing the St. Cecilia Dance Academy, Leigh Anne has taught dance at St. Cecilia Academy since 2014 and serves on the teaching faculty at Lipscomb University. She directs SCA’s Seasons Dance Company and is co-director/choreographer for Lipscomb’s Foundation Dance Theatre. A professional dancer with a B.A. in political science and dance from Birmingham-Southern College and an M.F.A. in dance and arts management from Oklahoma City University, Leigh Anne performed at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
Melissa Yokom Koehn
Leigh Anne Ervin SCDA Director
Melissa is an SCA Alumna and native Nashvillian. She has performed, taught, and choreographed ballet since graduating from Butler University in 1983 with a B.A. in Dance. In Nashville, she has taught at Green Hills School of Dance, Dottie Cook’s School of Dance, Harding Academy, and St. Paul Christian Academy. She has television experience on MTV and the Nashville Network. For the past 13 years, she has been the artistic director and owner of her home studio called Studio “M.”
Maddie Williams Maddie earned her Bachelors of Science degree in Dance Pedagogy from the prestigious Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment at Oklahoma City University. She was a Wardrobe Manager, Costume Technician, Office Manager of the Community Dance Academy and taught at various studios. Most recently, she performed with Disney Cruise Line.
Founded in 1860, St. Cecilia Academy is the oldest school in Nashville. A private all-girls Catholic college preparatory high school, St. Cecilia is owned and operated by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia and is named after the patron saint of music and the arts. SCA offers young women an intellectual foundation in the liberal arts that encourages them to love knowledge for its own sake and to excel in scholastic, artistic, and athletic pursuits within the context of a joyful, Christ-centered community. FOR MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION: stcecilia.edu/SCDA CONTACT: Leigh Anne Ervin at ervinl@stcecilia.edu