Take A Look At Why We Love Roscoe Village!

Have you ever wondered why we’re located where we are? What makes this location so magical for us? We’re here to share why we twirl in Roscoe Village and how this special location came to be! From 2017 to now, we’d like to share the story of Tutu School Roscoe Village and the amazing journey we’ve been on so far at our location. Throughout our short time in the neighborhood, we’ve been able to achieve so many incredible milestones, as well as get to know several other wonderful businesses in the area!

What truly makes our part of Chicago shine is neighbors! We wouldn’t love our location as much as we do if it wasn’t for our fabulous friends running their businesses all around us. We can’t highlight our studio locations without highlighting some of our favorite places in the area as well, so follow below to learn our story as well as their histories too!

The Magic Of Our Studio

Established in 2017, Genevieve Weeks, Founder and CEO of Tutu School opened up our first Chicago location in Roscoe Village. Wanting to be closer to family as she raised her three young children, she moved back to Illinois after spending years in San Francisco, where she established our two other Brand Studios locations, San Francisco ~ Bay Street and Larkspur. 

Finding our first Chicago location was serendipitous. Through word of mouth, Geneviveve discovered the space that previously held what was Baby Take A Bow, another dance studio that had suddenly closed with dancers looking for a new school to continue their dance education in. Additionally, Geneveive and a small team of teachers had been twirling away in various pop-up classes throughout the city to spread the word about Tutu School. So, with the need for a new home for dancers and a fast growing community, Roscoe Village ended up being the perfect place. Since the space already made for dance, all it needed was the perfect Tutu Touch to welcome in dancers ready to twirl. With some pastel paint, a bit of remodeling, and lots of dancing magic, Tutu School Roscoe Village was born as a new beacon for ballet in Chicago! 

Thanks to all of our amazing Tutu School community, we’ve been able to leap through 8 years and counting through many ups and downs, changes and new opportunities, all in the name of making sure ballet is for everyone. We’ve welcomed dancers from all across the city to explore our various storytime adventures and expand their knowledge of dance through our incredible and specially curated curriculum. Whether it’s twirling online then outside during the pandemic, or hosting special events and pods for local schools and caregiver groups, we make sure the dancers of Roscoe Village always have a place to learn. We also always make sure we stay close to our community all year round by ensuring our Bravo Bash recital is close by at the Athenaeum Theater and our summer camps held in our beautiful studio. What we love more than anything is with such a vibrant neighborhood around us, we often find families walking by our studio with excitement in their eyes at our gorgeous interior and magical classes led by our amazing teachers, bringing in more students for us to twirl with. We pride ourselves on being such a pillar of the community and hope to continue to flourish in the years to come through our classes, camps, parties, and various special events!

To continue to serve our community, our classes are ongoing for dancers 6 months to 8 years old, but you can also find us at various street and school fairs, such as the Burley Elementary Fall Fun Fair on October 17th that we’ll be joining, as well as the Southport Trick Or Treat on October 27th. Not only that, we always offer free trial classes for dancers to try out our program, and we always host special events at our studio to welcome dancers into our space and see what we’re all about!

How Do We Work With Our Community?

Since we’ve moved into the Roscoe Village neighborhood, we’ve made it our mission to be an active member of the community around us. By being part of the Chamber of Commerce for the location, we’ve participated in several events, fairs, and fundraisers to show our support. 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. You can often find our table in the Children’s Activity Booth at the Lincoln Roscoe Art Fair or at Roscoe Village Burger Fest. Sometimes we might even be dancing along to the music of Porchfest or helping find homes for pets in need with PAWS Chicago and their Angels With Tails event. When seasons change, we’ll be twirling away at Southport Trick Or Treat to pass out candy to children in the community or joining our neighbors in painting our windows for an extra bit of holiday cheer! 

Not only are we participating in various happenings throughout the area, we also are partnering with the fellow businesses around us. None of us can grow without the support and encouragement of those in the neighborhood, so we make sure we find ways to work together with our neighbors. Whether it’s a cross-promotional event, discount, or even just a shoutout or purchase, we do our due diligence to ensure everyone is welcomed and seen in our community. 

So in that same spirit, we want to take a moment and highlight below just a few of our favorite businesses in the area and share why they mean so much to us and our Tutu School families!

Break A Sweat At Pilates + Coffee!

Combining their love for coffee and pilates, husband and wife team Jacquelyn and Ryan Brennan opened up Pilates + Coffee in 2018, America’s first pilates studio and coffee shop storefront in the Roscoe Village neighborhood. With an already established clientele from Jacquelyn’s private classes, the business hit the ground running with offering a location to explore fitness and coffee all in one place. Now after all these years, Pilates + Coffee continues to energize the community through fitness and caffeine with their cafe often busy with patrons and classes full with students. 

We love having Pilates + Coffee as a neighbor not only as a place for caregivers to explore movement for themselves, but also as a treat for families to go after or before their classes, especially in the morning. When Pilates + Coffee first opened, we partnered with them in 2018 to offer a special express class in the morning to families who dropped their dancers off at our classes. They’ve continuously been our go-to spot to recommend to families, especially because they offer a sweet drink to kids specifically, called the Little Roscoe Rascal! Even further, Jacquelyn and Ryan’s daughter, Rosie was a Tutu School student as well, twirling away in our Tuesday classes. We’re so grateful to be able to thrive beside them and integrate our communities continuously and we look forward to many more years of them being in the neighborhood!

Pamper Yourself At Nail Lounge!

Formerly Lily Nail Lounge, Nail Lounge Roscoe Village has been a long time next door neighbor to Tutu School, serving the community excellent self care services from lashes to manicures to pedicures, and so much more in between, under the direction of Colleen Wing and her family. With exceptional work in various types of nail care work, such as art designs, gel x, and sculpture nails, it’s no wonder they’re always bustling with clients! They’ve helped keep members of Roscoe Village looking and feeling beautiful for several years with long time employees that welcome you with open arms and warmth, making you feel part of their family.

Nail Lounge has been the best next door neighbor we could possibly ask for! It’s been so special to be next to a business that’s become such a gathering place for everyone in the neighborhood and a place where students and caregivers can go after classes to pamper themselves. They’ve even made our staff feel special and have been sweet enough to treat them when they’ve stopped by, which we are endlessly grateful for. Additionally whenever we’ve needed help with a maintenance issue in our studio, Nails Lounge has always offered to help and for our families to use their facilities if absolutely necessary. We’re so thankful to continue to twirl next to them and even more, twirl with their daughter, Lily in classes!

Seek Out Stories at Roscoe Books!

Opening in 2014, Roscoe Books entered the Roscoe Village neighborhood with the intention of offering accessibility to reading into the community, especially young families and readers. After having their first child, Erika VanDam wanted a career change in the form of a store and knew a bookstore would be her calling. After moving to Roscoe Village, she knew there would be no place better than here to take this next step in her journey. For over 10 years now, Roscoe Books has been a hub for literature, not just in the form of selling books, but also being a place for author readings, book clubs, and children storytime hours in order to really bring the community together in as many ways as possible. Bookstores share knowledge and connection, and no place does it better than Roscoe Books, helping the neighborhood flourish each time someone steps into their shop.

With an emphasis on reading in our own curriculum and mission, we love having Roscoe Books be one of our very special neighbors! In the corner of our studio, you’ll find our growing collection of books for dancers to read between classes, many of which were purchased from Roscoe Books. In fact, when we first launched our Ballet Book Club program, we partnered with Roscoe Books as a shop for Tutu Schoolers to purchase from, giving them a special discount when they did! Additionally, for our Ballet Book Club 2026 collection, all of the books were bought from Roscoe Books and to celebrate this wonderful partnership, we’ll be having a special Ballet Book Club pop-up event on Sunday, October 19th from 10:00am to 10:30am. We are so grateful for and so glad we could continue to support another local small business and we love how many of our students come in with new books they’ve read and purchased from our literary neighbor. We can’t wait to continue to work with them to help our students explore more storytime adventures!

We Are So Thankful For Our Neighbors

Without all of the amazing businesses and community members around Roscoe Village, our vibrant neighborhood wouldn’t be what it is today and we wouldn’t be twirling through so many years in it without their support and connections. We love seeing other neighbors thrive and shine alongside us throughout the many changes and journeys we continue to go on. We’re so grateful for having Roscoe Village as a place to call home, being its source for twirling, magic, and dance education, adding to its wonder one pirouette at a time. With many more adventures to come, we look forward to seeing new and old Tutu Schoolers grow and flourish around us, as well as seeing our fellow businesses continue to make our pocket of Chicago that much more special. 

So to Roscoe Village with all our Tutu Schoolers and neighbors in it, thank you for the music, thank you for the dancing, and thank you for the magic!We’re excited for a summer filled of fun and storybook adventures in ballet!