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St. Cecilia Dance Academy

About St. Cecilia Dance Academy

St. Cecilia Dance Academy (SCDA) is a program for girls beginning at age 18 months. SCDA provides dancers in the Nashville area with excellent training in dance techniques, communication, and artistry.  Through their introduction to and immersion in the universal language of dance, girls learn to express their God-given beauty and dignity through their growing bodies. Dance also helps students develop virtues like discipline, grace, perseverance, healthy self-expression, resilience, critical thinking, a broad sense of musicality, and collaboration skills crucial for a well-lived life.  Most importantly, the fine arts—and dance in a particular way—open young people up to all that is good, true, and beautiful as they use their bodies, minds, and talents to glorify God.

Class Schedules and Registration

St. Cecilia Dance Academy offers after-school and Saturday classes during the school year in ballet, tap, jazz, musical theatre dance, contemporary, hip hop, and more for girls from 3 years old to adult. We are pleased to offer a Ballet Buddies program for young girls from 18 months to 36 months with their parent or caregiver. 

Registration is open for SCDA. Please click the buttons below to view the 2026-2027 SCDA class schedule and to register for either SCDA classes or Ballet Buddies.

Programs & Performances

SCDA is designed to serve students who enjoy dance and wish to improve their technique and artistry through excellent training. Although girls in SCDA participate in an annual performance with St. Cecilia Academy's Seasons Dance Company, SCDA is not a competition studio.

In addition, parents and guardians will be invited to “SCDA Visitors’ Week” at the end of each semester. Observers are able to see what the dancers do in a typical class.

Because Ballet Buddies is an interactive program between the student, parent or caregiver, and the teacher, there is no planned recital for dancers in Ballet Buddies.

Tuition

The SCDA tuition is all inclusive and covers the following: dance classes, registration fee, administrative fee, costume fee, production fees, videographer fee (includes copy of the end of year recital), professional photographer fee (includes option to purchase photos of your dancer/s).

  • $820/year
  • $410/semester if paying in two installments

A 10% discount is offered for siblings and for those taking multiple classes (full price for first sibling or class, and subsequent sibling or class gets the discount; select “check” option at checkout; tuition with sibling/multiple class discount is $738/year or $369/semester if paying in two installments).

There is a 20% discount for employees of the Dominican Campus (select “check” option at checkout; tuition with employee discount is $656/year or $328/semester if paying in two installments).

The Ballet Buddies tuition includes instruction, registration fee, and administrative fee. Cost is $750 annually or $375 per semester.

 

Dance Attire

Dance attire and shoes may be purchased at: Spell’s Dancewear, Academy Sports, Target, Payless, Discount Dance Supply, and Amazon.

Important Dates

5/7: Registration Opens

9/7-9/12: First week of classes

10/4: Registration closes

10/12-10/17: Fall Break (no classes)

11/23-11/28: Thanksgiving Break (no classes)

12/7-12/12: Visitors’ Week

12/12: SDC/SCDA Christmas Party (2-3pm)

12/14-1/9: Winter Break (no classes)

1/11: Spring Tuition Due (if paying in 2 installments)

1/11: Classes Resume

3/15-3/20: Spring Break (no classes)

3/22-3/27: Easter Break (no classes)

3/22-3/24: Optional makeup classes/teacher office hours (schedule TBD)

4/3: Recital Picture Day

4/8: Mandatory Tech/Dress Rehearsal

4/9 and 4/10: Spring Dance Concert 

4/12-4/17: Final week of classes and “Bring a Friend Week”

SCDA Location

St. Cecilia Dance Academy classes are located in the beautiful and spacious SCA dance studio completed in 2019. The St. Cecilia Fine Arts Center has an outside entrance easily accessible for parent pick-up and drop-off.

Class Descriptions

Ballet

Students join centuries of dancers in the study of classical ballet in an age-appropriate, logical, positive, challenging, and safe manner.  Dancers focus on proper alignment, learning vocabulary and skills, gaining strength and flexibility, developing coordination and balance, musicality, artistry, and grace. 

Lyrical

Lyrical dance is a lovely mix of ballet, jazz, and modern dance, combined with a focus on expressing particular emotions or lyrics of a song. A special focus of SCDA's lyrical classes is on using dance as prayer and praise.

Contemporary / Modern

Perfect for beginners, these classes combine the styles of contemporary and modern dance.  In an open and supportive environment, dancers learn to freely express themselves through the time-honored techniques of Graham, Duncan, Horton, and others.  Classes focus on developing core strength, floor work, and on exploring movement concepts like space, time, and energy.  Dancers will love the freedom they experience as they learn these popular expressive and eclectic forms.

Creative Movement

Tiny dancers will love this class aimed at engaging their bodies, hearts, and minds in movement.  Through introduction to basic ballet vocabulary, exercises to explore creativity, and activities to stimulate imagination, students develop musicality, coordination, artistry, social skills, and self-expression.

Music Theater Dance

Each dancer shines in her own spotlight in this high-energy class focused on style and story-telling through dance.  Though an understanding of basic dance vocabulary is preferred, students of all levels will be able to safely access the movement.  Students’ Broadway dreams come alive as they dance, developing acting and performance skills, classical vocabulary, fine points of style, and musicality.

Private Lessons

Private lessons are offered to current SCDA students at an additional charge.  Learning in this intimate environment is beneficial for dancers' individual growth.  Private lessons can be offered in any style and centered around a dancer's specific needs, for example: working on a particular skill or choreography, improving in an area like flexibility, preparing for an audition, core strengthening for cheerleading, etc. 

  • Private lessons may be arranged through the SCDA Director via email.  Private lessons are $45 for 30 minutes or $75 for one hour.

Combo Classes

Students delight in movement and music as they learn the basics of various styles of dance.  Perfect for attention spans of younger children, students practice two forms of dance in one class, focusing on each form for half the period.  Students develop physical skill while improving discipline, musicality, rhythm, coordination, strength, agility, storytelling through movement, and showmanship - all in a safe and age-appropriate environment.

Jazz

Students will enjoy learning this American form of dance, which is a combination of ballet, African, East Indian, and other traditions of dance. The technique focuses on mastering rhythms, body isolation, coordination, and balance, while the style reflects popular movements in dance through the years.  Students gain strength, agility, flexibility, understanding of their personal style, connection to history, and more while improving locomotor movements, turns, and jumps.

Tap

In this popular class, students become percussionists with their feet while expressing different styles in their upper bodies.  Students work to master musicality, complex and syncopated rhythms, and precision movements, as well as traditional Broadway and rhythm tap styles.

Hip Hop

Students will be energized and excited to learn fundamentals of different styles of hip hop in this high energy class.  Dancers develop strength, coordination, style, and positive body image in this encouraging and fun environment.

Instructors

Leigh Anne DeLisle

Leigh Anne DeLisle

Leigh Anne, founder and director of St. Cecilia Dance Academy, has led the dance program at St. Cecilia since 2014. She holds 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. As a professional dancer, Leigh Anne performed in parades and shows at Walt Disney World, as well as regional theaters, children's theatre, and television. Currently, she teaches dance and serves as a choreographer at St. Cecilia Academy and Lipscomb University. Leigh Anne is proud to share the love and beauty of dance with SCDA students and families.

 

Jasmine Dillon

Jasmine Dillon

Jasmine Dillon is a dancer, instructor, and choreographer from McMinnville, Tennessee. After attending a West African dance intensive in Senegal, Africa, she found a new love for absorbing dance and culture from around the world. Her professional dance career began with a tour in 2021 performing Jade Treadwell’s work Visceral Undercurrent for the Kara Walker Arts exhibit, “Cut to the Quick”. Since then she has performed as a soloist for the repertory work “Noble Sorrows” choreographed by Kia Smith, Monica Bill Barnes & Company in “The Running Show”, and Kyle Abraham’s repertory “Yes, we are in our feelings”. She attended the American Dance Festival in North Carolina and the A.I.M by Kyle Abraham Winter Intensive in Los Angeles, California on full scholarships. After obtaining a B.S degree in Dance with a concentration in Dance Pedagogy at Middle Tennessee State University, she was voted “Best of the Best” dance/ gymnastics teacher in Warren County. Most recently she became the first Black female dancer at Country Tonite Theatre for their 2024 season, in the Great Smoky Mountains.

 

Katelyn Kirk

Katelyn Kirk

Katelyn Kirk was born and raised in Southeast Texas and has been dancing since the age of 5. She graduated from Lamar University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Theatre and Dance, and a Business minor. She has been teaching for the past 14 years and officially became a resident of Tennessee in 2025. Katelyn started her company, Thrive Choreography, in 2023 and has dance training/experience in Ballet, Jazz, Musical Theatre, Tap, Lyrical, Contemporary, Aerial Silks, Modern, and Hip-Hop. Since moving to Tennessee, Katelyn has worked with various companies such as CenterStage Performing Arts Academy, Actors Point Theatre Company, White House High School Theatre Department, The Curve, and Franklin Road Academy. She is excited to continue working with students of all ages at SCDA and share her passion for dance!

 

Melissa Yokom Koehn '78

Melissa Yokom Koehn '78

Melissa is a St. Cecilia Academy graduate 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.”

 

Millie Miles

Millie Miles

Millie Miles is a dance instructor and performing artist from Franklin, TN. She has been training in numerous styles since 2016 with an emphasis in contemporary, jazz, hip hop and modern. In 2025, Millie graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with her Bachelor of Science in Dance Pedagogy and Exercise Science. While attending MTSU, Millie refined her creative and professional skills working under choreographers like Jade Treadwell, Jee Eun Ahn, Angela Ramos and Alex Winer, as well as performing with the MTSU Dance Theatre Company and MTSU Performing Arts Company (MPAC). Additionally, she had the privilege of representing MTSU at the American College Dance Association South East Conference in 2024 and 2026 and  participating in guest artist residences with artists like Matt Del Rosario and Colette Kerwick with NobleMotion Dance Company. As a student leader for MTSU Dance Society and MPAC, Millie served as a dancer, choreographer, and production coordinator for numerous pre-professional dance concerts. Millie is incredibly excited to share the joy of worshipping through movement with students while encouraging safe training practices to build confidence, creative exploration, and bodily awareness for growing dancers. 

 

Andrea Roberts

Andrea Roberts

Andrea Roberts, a Nashville native, has her BFA in Performing Arts with an emphasis in dance from Western Kentucky University. Growing up in Williamson County her first jobs were with Franklin Special School District where she had her own after school program in three elementary schools. Since then, she has developed a varied resume from commercial Children’s Programming with “It’s Hip Hop Baby,” a DVD series geared for children 2-6 years of age. Andrea worked with various regional theatre companies and has worked under the Direction of artists from Broadway’s Terrance Mann to ballet's Jacques d’Amboise. In Chicago, Andrea was a dancer and instructor with “Chicago Moving Company” as well as “Chicago DanzTheatre”. She was the head children’s programing director for Lakes Shore Athletic Club where she had her own “Moving Arts Studio”. In more recent years Andrea has been a featured dancer and choreographer for both Nashville’s Epiphany Modern Liturgical Dance Company and Blue Moves Contemporary Dance Company. She is a dance educator with 30 years of experience, a TPAC Teaching Artist, and has her certifications in Pilates and Progressive Ballet Training as well. Andrea is elated to be part of this growing community, and excited to have the privilege of working with the amazing children of SCDA!