OUR MISSION
The Ken & Jean Dance Studio is nationally recognized as one of the finest dance studios in the country. Founded in 1948 by Ken and Jean Phifer, the studio has earned its premier status through 76 years of teaching experience.
We are simply the best at what we do.
Our students go on to pursue careers in dance all over the world, performing on Broadway, on television and in dance companies both here and abroad, as well as becoming successful dance instructors on their own.
We are not a competition-driven school. We believe that constant participation in competitions not only detracts and distracts from the learning process, but also gives students very little value in exchange for the expensive costs.
Instead, our senior-most dancers participate in only one local competition every year, hosted by the Dance Masters of Pennsylvania, part of Dance Masters of America, the oldest and most respected dance organization in the country. Every other year, our students go to the Dance Masters of America National Convention and Competition in July. There, they take classes from top industry professionals, and compete in a rigorous competition. We have won the national title thirteen times, most recently in Summer 2022. It's important that our students get this exposure, but only to drive their passion for dance, not for competition.
At its core, dance is about fostering creativity, building self-confidence, and lending grace to everyday movement. Children who could never imagine themselves uttering a line in front of an audience often find true joy in the expressive nature of dance performance, which is one of reasons we go to great lengths to produce our yearly Showcase.
For the past 75 years, Showcase has been the culmination of the hard work, training, and choreography our dancers have learned throughout the last dance year. We pride ourselves on selecting age-appropriate music, choreography, and costumes, and boast a show that is fun for the whole family. Each year, over 3,000 family and friends attend Showcase, one of the most popular and longest-running annual dance recitals in the region.
