KIDS DANCE

At Aspire Total Fitness we are passionate about giving our students an enjoyable and safe experience that fosters growing into great human beings, kind teammates, and strong dancers! With a fun-loving and award-winning team of instructors, we are confident your dancer will develop a stronger love for dance and greater sense of self-confidence.

  • HIP-HOP

    We learn about hip-hop technique, rhythm, and musicality, and have lots of fun too!

    Available in novice, intermediate, and advanced classes, it’s recommended that students start at novice level. At higher levels, students are challenged with a faster-paced teaching style and added difficulty in choreography. Due to the higher difficulty level, all students must have teacher approval to join.

  • TINY DANCE

    We offer Pre-K Ballet, Hip Hop, and POM to all little dancers ages 3-4. We make dance fun while learning.

    Our curriculum was created to encourage age-appropriate creativity, musicality, and physicality. Dancers will be brought through basic dance techniques, interactive play, and more!

  • NOVICE BALLET

    This is the perfect class for elementary school-age dancers with little to no ballet experience. This class will focus on the basic movements and foundations of ballet technique.

    Dancers will develop an awareness of their alignment, strength, flexibility, and basic ballet vocabulary. This class will allow dancers to grow in all other areas of dance, as ballet is the foundation of all dance.

  • POM

    Taught by former collegiate dance and cheer athletes, this class is a high energy, challenging, and tons of fun. If your dancer is ages 7+ with a passion for dance and two or more years of recent dance or musical theater experience, this class may be the perfect fit!

    In this class, students learn to cheer, stunt, and dance. Poms are a required additional purchase for this class, which will be ordered for each dancer by the instructor. Due to the higher difficulty level, all students must have teacher approval to join.

  • DANCE LAB

    Encouraged for dancers age 7+! Students will develop and enhance their abilities to jump, turn, leap, and emote with grace and control. Blended with a dance genre of the instructors’ choosing (usually lyrical, contemporary, or jazz), as an opportunity to apply that technique to choreography.

  • SHOOTING STARS

    This team of dancers auditions yearly for their spot in our performance and travel group.

    Requirements include being 7+ years old, having a passion for dance and performing, with 2+ years of dance experience, and looking to take their dancing to the next level.

    This team participates in performances, exhibitions, and more. Dancers must attend both Shooting Stars and Dance Lab required classes per week and will be given the great honor of representing Aspire Total Fitness in front of large audiences.

  • TNT

    Further skill enhancement class to develop turns, leaps, kicks, and more. Turns and tricks is what this class focuses on, advancing your dancers skill and technique.

  • SASSY JAZZ

    Modernized jazz style, with sassy flare and energy! This is a fun take on jazz to keep dancers having fun and learning new styles.

  • 2023-2024 School Year Schedule

    September - June

    Monday | 6:45pm
    Shooting Stars Advanced

    Tuesday | 10:30am
    PreK Ballet

    Tuesday | 5pm
    POM

    Tuesday | 6pm
    Hip Hop Level 2-3

    Tuesday | 7pm
    Dance Lab Advanced

    Wednesday | 6:45pm
    Ballet Levels 1-3

    Wednesday | 6:50pm
    Shooting Stars Intermediate

    Thursday | 6:30pm
    Hip Hop Level 1

    Thursday | 6:15pm
    Dance Lab Intermediate

    Saturday | 10:30am
    PreK POM/HIP HOP Blend

  • 2024 Summer Schedule

    June - September

    Monday | 6:30pm
    Adv. Shooting Stars

    Tuesday | 10:30am
    Tiny Ballet

    Tuesday | 5pm
    Novice Pom

    Tuesday | 6pm
    Intermediate Hip Hop

    Tuesday | 7pm
    Adv. Dance Lab

    Wednesday | 5:45pm
    Technique and Tricks (TNT)

    Wednesday | 6:45pm
    Ballet 2-3, Intermediate Shooting Stars

    Thursday | 5:30pm
    Novice Hip Hop

    Thursday | 6:30pm
    Intermediate Dance Lab

    Friday | 10:30am
    Tiny Jazz Sass

    Friday | 4:30pm
    Novice Jazz Sass

    Friday | 5:30pm
    Novice Hip Hop

    Sunday | 11:30am
    Shooting Stars Strength and Conditioning

  • 2024 Summer Camps

    Camps are 12-3pm, bring your own snack and water bottle. Showcase at the end of the camps for parents and caregivers to attend. Camps are broken up by ages: 3-6 and 7-12.

    June 15th | Hip Hop Hooray It's Summer
    Workshop with Micah (ages 8-12)

    July 13th | Disney Princess
    Dance Camp with Missy (ages 3-5, must be potty trained)

    July 20th | Taylor Swift
    Dance Camp with Missy (ages 5-9)

    August 17th | Intermediate Shooting Stars
    Audition Prep Workshop with Brooke, Jazz Style

    August 24th | Advanced and Elite Shooting Stars
    Audition Prep Workshop with Brooke, Jazz + Kick Styles

  • Important Registration Information

    PRICING

    Summer season: Three months, one-time payment of $225.

    School year pricing: Monthly payments of $75 and $70 for PreK classes. A 10% discount for multiple weekly classes.

    Summer camps are $75 per dancer, per session.

    SHOOTING STARS AUDITIONS

    We will hold auditions for our performance team on August 31, 2024. Open to all ages 7+.

    CLASSES OFFERED FOR AGES 3-12

    All kids must be potty trained.

Meet the Team

  • KATIE

    With over a decade of coaching experience, I am thrilled to call Aspire Total Fitness my full-time job and home away from home. I have taught, managed, choreographed, and coached for several local studios, high school dance teams, and award-winning soloists in the greater Portland area, but nothing compares to Aspire!

    Our dancers are passionate, kind, and driven–and I feel so lucky to teach them! With a bachelor’s degree in science of nursing, and years of experience as an in-patient pediatric nurse, I am overjoyed to be applying my education and knowledge towards my true passions: dance and fitness!

    I truly love my job and the work I get to do with Aspire Total Fitness. I also love being a mom to my daughter Wrenley, a firefighter’s wife, a friend and auntie, a Disney fan, and an avid snack consumer.

    “IN LIFE, AS IN DANCE, GRACE GLIDES ON BLISTERED FEET” - ALICE ABRAMS

  • MISSY

    Missy has danced since the age of 4 with a little push from Aspire co-owner Erica Knittel, (which to this day she will tell you changed her life for the best).

    Growing up, missy was involved in sports ranging from volleyball to cross country, but never gave up her love for dance. Fitness became a huge part of her

    Life as she got into high school and realized how important it was to her success in athletics. Teaching around the country with Northwest Dance Company every summer was a quick lesson on how to bring it, even when you’re exhausted and sweaty.

    After moving to Arizona Missy became 1 of 3 trainers at Scottsdale’s premier boutique gym BODI and ran the run club there for 3 years. Missy’s career began to take center stage and after moving to Texas, fitness took a backseat momentarily. As Covid hit, home called, and it sounded like Erica and Bexley on the other end asking if I would come and help for a few weeks while the current dance teacher was on maternity leave. Two years later and here I still am!

  • BROOKE

    Brooke’s love of dance started at 10 years old. She started learning fundamentals and techniques at 11. She trained at a couple of studios in the Gresham area but dove in head first to the dance team at Reynolds High School under coach Holly Yeck. It was there she met Sonya Duffin, whom she continued to train and perform with after high school and in her early 20s.

    Pure Dance Company is where Brooke got to really appreciate the art of dance and she will forever be grateful for those years of artistry. She also has a huge love for musical theater.

    Brooke took about 9 years off of dance, in that time she married her husband Richard and started their family. Brooke has 3 wild toddlers who keep her very busy!

  • ABBY

    Abby started dancing when she was three years old. When she was young she played soccer and volleyball but no other sport brought her joy quite like dance did. She started dancing competitively in elementary school and continued through middle school. Once in high school, she joined the Clackamas Cavalettes.

    After graduating college, she began coaching high school dance. She now has found her way to Aspire and she absolutely loves having the opportunity to build relationships with the kiddos and to watch them grow as dancers.

  • MICAH

    Micah was raised in Portland and began studying Tap, Jazz, contemporary, and Ballet from an early age.

    From 1998-2000 she trained at Oregon Ballet Theater in Ballet, Pointe, Flamenco, and Modern dance styles. She later joined the Jefferson Dancers company in Portland where she performed throughout the Northwest, across the country, and internationally performing in contemporary, Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Hip Hop, and African dance.

    Later, she began teaching and choreographing. From 2006 to now, she has taught at local studios, helping train and inspire the next generation of dancers.

    Outside of dance, Micah is a school counselor in the Clackamas school district and a parent to three kids and three dogs.

Looking for more information?


To register, reach out here and someone from our kids program will get back to you with information on an upcoming session.