We Have So Much to Be Grateful For This Year!

With 2025 soon coming to a close and the season of gratitude upon us, there’s so much we’re reflecting on about what we’re most thankful for. We have been so lucky to be able to work with so many amazing teachers, staff, and community partners over the past year, as well as meet such fantastic families within out classes. We know we can’t list each and every person, but we wanted to take a moment to highlight what we appreciate most at Tutu School this year.

Without our studio, our community, or our workers, we wouldn’t be the school we are today! We’ve learned and grown so much because of those that have twirled together with us in our special space and we hope we can continue to give back to everyone that helps us shine. We have so much to be fortunate of, so take a moment to read below about what has made us most thankful at Tutu School!

Our Stupendous Staff

To work at Tutu School means being dedicated to enhancing the magic in children’s and families’ lives, to help give them a way to explore ballet in the best and easiest way possible. We strive so hard in making classes for children exciting, safe, imaginative, and comfortable, while also making the experience for families just as special. We want our Tutu Schoolers to feel welcome at every moment, to be supported every step of the way. By looking to make each interaction the best one possible, we hope our Tutu School community can always have a memorable experience with us. So while our teachers are the magic makers in the classroom, our staff helps create all of this possible behind the scenes, from registration to event organization, studio cleanliness and family communication, and so much more. We could not be running our studio without them!

Our incredible leadership, who you can meet here, helps consistently make sure all of our schools are updated with new curriculum, staying up to date with changes and trends in dance education, and creating new ways to celebrate our Tutu Schoolers in each studio. These are the hard workers that keep Tutu School twirling beautifully and ensuring that each Bravo Bash has a theme and costume, our new website looks sparkly, and every teacher feels prepared and supported. 

On top of that, our amazing studio staff, who you can meet here, keeps our day-to-day up to tip top shape. Hannah ensures that every registration comes through is immediately sent a confirmation and reminder and every new family is prepared for their first day of classes, while also scheduling a check-in once Tutu Schoolers are settled to see how things are going. Additionally, she helps reach out to families who haven’t twirled with us in a while or those that need help with starting the registration process. She is so thoughtful with making sure families are ready to twirl with us and is always excited about our growth, that without her, we wouldn’t be able to deliver the incredible experience we can for families. Vanessa keeps our studios beautiful, our teacher spaces organized, our supplies well stocked, and our events gorgeously prepped. She makes sure that every new student gets a postcard to welcome them and every student each year gets a special birthday card just for us to celebrate them. She is the hidden gem of Tutu School, with a deep love for making every moment special and ensuring that every person that steps into our studio is filled with awe and wonder.

Hannah, Vanessa, and all our staff are pure magic, the true backbone of our studios. Without their dedication and care to make sure all the operations are running smoothly, from the first email to the next recital, and everything in between, we would not be able to deliver the high level of customer service, classes, and memories we want for our community. Everything has its systems and without the people making and running them, our studio just simply wouldn’t work. We can’t thank all of our support staff enough and we can’t wait to see what they do next!

Our Terrific Teachers

Being a Tutu School Teacher means so much more than just leading a ballet class. It means being there for students when they’re nervous to even come in the door, being the first welcoming presence anyone sees, and helping cultivate a new generation of dancers excited to twirl into the world. Teaching at Tutu School starts with a love of ballet and continues with a love for creating amazing students. Working at Tutu School is being part of something bigger than a job. It means joining a community that values joy, celebrates individuality, and takes pride in helping little ones twirl into their fullest selves.

Each of our teachers embody the message, the curriculum, and the love we have here at Tutu School. From the moment our lights go on each day at our studio, our teachers are there ready to welcome their students and deliver the best class they can experience. They take the time to learn every objective for every level, create thoughtful and fun lesson plans for their dancers, and show up for every special moment they can celebrate for their families and students. Our teachers are absolutely masters of their craft and truly are the driving force behind the growth of every Tutu Schooler that enters their classroom. While you can meet them the next time you leap onto our dance floor, you can also get to know them here and see why they themselves love working with us and what makes them so special!

Every single one of our teachers is so integral to the community and culture of Tutu School. Bella, Vanessa, Susannah, Noelle, Madison, Cassandra, Jayde and every teacher before and between them make Tutu School what it is. Each and every one of them has a love for dance and a passion for working with young children that makes our studio like no other. We wouldn’t have the magic we have every day without them. All of our teachers have an unmatched compassion and understanding for their students with a dedication to always encourage them, support them, and make sure they have a healthy and wonderful relationship to dance. So to our teachers, we will never be able to thank you so much for always putting your whole heart into every student and every class and we are so excited to see the magic you keep putting out into the world. 

Our Fantastic Families

The reason we do what we do at Tutu School is because of our families. We’ve gotten to meet families from all walks of life, from every neighborhood and suburb of Chicago, with all different dynamics so full of love. What inspires us to continue to serve our community is the community itself. We see how much our families put into their children and we want to support that, to give them a place that their child can explore and grow in. We don’t take the trust our families give us lightly. All of our staff works tirelessly to make sure families feel prepared, seen, encouraged, and celebrated at every second that their dancers are twirling with us. Our families cheer us on and get to watch their children shine, so all we want is to make each of those magic moments special for them and make their encouragement of us just as meaningful. 

As much as we love our families, we love our students that much more. We will never be able to express what a joy it is to see our students grow and blossom every time they enter our studio. Our students are unlike any other. Tutu Schoolers carry a special sort of imagination and creativity that makes working with them a true gift. We carefully craft our curriculum not to make sure every student is learning every ballet step ever made, but to ensure our students are getting the best dance education possible for their age and for their needs. Our teachers always are fine-tuning their classes to fit their students because making sure their learning and enjoyment is supported is what matters most to us. We love seeing all the smiles, the little victories, the aha moments, and all the giggles and twirls in between at every class we get to have with them. From the student that stays for a month, to the student that stays for years, all of them have made an incredible impact on our staff and teachers that we will never forget. 

We are so thankful for the amazing community we’ve come to grow here at Tutu School. Our families make our days brighter and our students make every second so exciting. Why we continue to put our best foot forward is because our community is right there beside us giving that same love back. There is nothing better than seeing a student do their first leap, or perform their first time on stage, and we’ll never forget the way our families light up seeing their children shine in a class and find themselves in dance. Our community is everything to us and we will always be grateful for every memory, every student, and every incredible family that help us be who we are as a school!

Our Phenomenal Partners

While so much magic happens in our studio, we also have many amazing moments that happen outside our studio as well, thanks to our partnerships. Whether it’s twirling away at a street fair or leaping our ways into a library, our community partners help us spread dance to so many reaches of the city to welcome in more Tutu Schoolers to our studio. We’ve been so lucky to have been able to partner with various schools such as Mary Meyer Elementary, St. Alphonsus Academy & Center for the Arts, and Parker Elementary, as well as businesses like Lost Soul Found. By being able to do Pirouette Playdates with schools, outdoor festivals with the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce, and pop-ups with local businesses, we’ve been able to really get to expand our Tutu School family that much more. We find it’s really important to do outreach as much as we can, not only to create dancing opportunities for children, but to expand and strengthen our community and the arts within it, being a representative

With our partners, we can give the gift of dance to as many children as possible, thanks to their help. Sometimes it’s hosting an activity table at a fair like the Burley Elementary Fall Fun Fair or the Lincoln Roscoe Arts and Crafts fair, or leading a storytime dance class at Lincoln Park Library. Whatever it looks like, we’re able to get the word our and create accessibility into our program with them. We love being able to show up for our partners for their events, whether it’s hosting a special class for their community or donating a gift certificate to their fundraising, we want them to always know we’re there for them as much as they’re there for us.  

We have so much gratitude for everyone we get the wonderful opportunity to work with and cherish those connections we’ve made with fellow schools and businesses. We look forward to every Ballet Book Club event we read at, every Spooktacular we run crafts at, and every Pirouette Playdate we host for dancers of various schools. Every partnership is one we hold with such a great honor and we hope in the new year to grow with them even more. We so look forward to continuing to foster incredible bonds with other organizations in Chicago and getting to work with so many wonderful voices of the city! 

Our Superb Studio

Now let’s be honest, Chicago is a place of magic in and of itself. From the beauty of the cityscape to the vast and diverse neighborhoods it holds, there’s not a single city that comes close to Chicago. We’re so lucky to be able to call it home, especially in Lincoln Park! We’re consistently surrounded by incredible neighboring businesses and get the chance to welcome in so many people from so many different backgrounds. We are so lucky to be situated in a place that thrives on art and to be able to be in a city that really values creativity. The opportunity to operate a dance studio here is beyond special, so we try our best to rise to the occasion because of it.  

With there being so many fantastic places to dance here in Chicago, we try our best to stand out in our own way, one of which is our space itself! Our studio is built for the magic it holds and the imagination it fosters. We love the way people step into our space with wonder, admiring our pastel colored walls, our beautiful dance floor, and all of the magical decorations that make our studio glimmer. It’s a place of creativity and joy, built for children to explore and express themselves in each of their own unique ways, and placed in an area surrounded by amazing families and businesses.We can’t be more fortunate to have such a fabulous studio to host all of our classes! 

Being able to have such a beautiful space in a fabulous city is a gift completely on its own. Because of being where we are, we get the chance to serve such a vast and growing community of Tutu Schoolers every day. We know areas change and things come and go, but our studio has been such a bright constant in the neighborhood that we aim to keep going for many years to come and keep changing with the world around it. Our studio is home and we hope it can continue to be home for so many others. We’re ever so thankful for our superstar studio and we look forward to seeing it shine into the new year!

We Are So Thankful For You!

There is so much that goes into running a successful school and every person, every member, every partner we get to work with makes it the amazing place it’s come to be. There is no part that stands out more than the other and every aspect of what makes Tutu School what it is is beyond incredible. With each opportunity we get to make ourselves shine, we are so filled with gratitude for all the people that help us get there. We have no idea what we would do without any of the support we get and cannot be any less fortunate for those that surround us with love.

So to all of our staff, our teachers, our amazing community, and Tutu Schoolers, thank you for the music, thank you for the dancing, and thank you for the magic. We will never run out of reasons to be endlessly grateful!