Rising Stars School of Baton, Tumbling & Dance - Beloit, WI Skip to content

Where Stars Shine

At Rising Stars, shining is everything!

Rising Stars School of Baton, Tumbling, and Dance

Rising Stars has been providing high quality baton, tumbling and dance education to Beloit and the surrounding communities since 1998. Our studio represents a positive learning environment where dancers can experience the incredible world of dance.

We offer once a week classes for individuals ages 3 through adult from the recreational through the competitive level. Our classes aren’t just for girls! Guys love to dance too, right?! Check out our list of class offerings!

Classes

We offer once a week dance classes for individuals ages 3 through adult from the recreational through the competitive level.

Dance Classes

Most classes have 1 instructor and 1 assistant. Younger classes have an average class size of 6-8 while the older classes have an average class size of 8-12.

Private and semi-private lessons are available upon instructor approval. A class lesson in the same subject is required.

Although parents/guardians, friends and siblings are not allowed in the actual classes, each of our classrooms have viewing windows through which you are more than welcome to observe each and every class.

Our students are placed in their classes according to their age, ability and experience. One or all may apply when placing the dancer in an appropriate class level. It’s been said, “Each child has a gift, some of them open their gifts at different times.” We have found this to be so true and we believe that each child should be allowed to experience all aspects of the classroom setting. Some years they may be at the bottom of the class, or the top, or even the middle. No one place is any better, each creates a different experience. One year they might look up to someone in their class, another year they might be the role model everyone is looking up to. No matter where they fall in the class, that experience is teaching them valuable life lessons.

Our classes aren’t just for girls! Guys love to dance too, right?! And why shouldn’t they?! We are committed to breaking down the barriers and erasing the falsehood that boys can’t/shouldn’t twirl, tumble or dance. Everything we offer at Rising Stars requires athleticism, agility, focus, dedication, desire, flexibility, strength, balance, hand-eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills, all of the same “tools” required for football, soccer, or any other sport. In fact, several ball players over the years have been known to take dance to help them develop these skills to enhance their sport. Does your son, nephew, grandson want to dance? Check out our list of class offerings!

Our Team

Our studio represents a positive learning environment where twirlers, tumblers and dancers can have fun, be creative and experience the incredible world of dance. It is our hope that your STAR will carry the disciplines of dance into their everyday lives, helping to build the self-confidence, poise and self-esteem that will benefit them throughout their entire lifetime. We assure you that your dancer will receive a high quality dance education in a fun, healthy, loving environment. You will see your STAR involved in a wholesome activity that contributes to the growth and development of both their ability and their personality. It is our goal to bring out the best in each and every one of our students and we hope to not only build a solid dance foundation, but also to provide our students with priceless and memorable life experiences and friendships.

Owner, Baton, Pre-School Dance, Ballet, Tap and Jazz

Want to Try It for $10? Fill out this form and a member of our RockStar Staff will contact you soon.

Testimonials

"I recommend rising stars to anyone who has a child interested in dance/baton/tumbling. They are very goal oriented and family oriented and want to see your child succeed. The amount of time and attention they put into each and every one of their students shows how much they really truly care. I am so glad I decided to enroll my daughter in rising stars."
Jessica Formankiewicz
"Fantastic experience for my 4 and 5 year old granddaughters. They were well taught, treated with respect, and had a great time learning tap, ballet and doing tumbling. Dedicated and caring staff!"
Matthew Klett

Location

Where to find our studio.

Monthly Tuition

As with any school, your monthly tuition is a standard fee each month regardless of the number of lessons in that month or the number of lessons your child attends. You will be paying for the entire school year of 34 weeks of classes held over 9 months (September – May). This is an average of 3.78 classes per month. In addition, if your dancer is absent, whether one lesson or an entire month, you still owe for that (those) lessons unless cancelled by Rising Stars due to teacher illness, in-climate weather, etc. We do promise a minimum of 34 lessons per fall/winter/spring session. Please note that when there are extra rehearsals for parades, recital rehearsal, extra shows, etc. there is no extra charge. New students joining after the first lesson of the month will have their first month’s charges pro-rated. The calendar in each month will vary depending upon which day you have your classes. Some months you may have 2 or 3 classes, others 4 or 5. If there are 3 scheduled lessons, you still pay full tuition, just as when there are 5 lessons you are not charged any extra. Tuition remains the same regardless of the number of weeks in a given month. Everyone will have had at least 34 classes over the nine months. If for any reason you decide to discontinue your classes, you are not obligated to pay for the balance of the school year.

No credit is given for student absences nor are make-up lessons given. Non-sufficient Funds fee is $25.00.

Any student with an overdue balance of more than 45 days will not be allowed into class until payment in full is received.

Tuition is due the first lesson of each month.

If your child is absent that week please mail your payment to 822 Broad St. Suite C, Beloit WI 53511 as any payments made after the 10th of the month will be charged a $5.00 late fee and family discounts will be forfeited.

*Registration Fee: $20.. per STAR

Hours Per Week Fee
½ hour per week / 1 genre $55.00 / mo
1 hour per week / 2 genres $65.00 / mo
1.5 hours per week / 3 genres $75.00 / mo
2 hours per week / 4 genres $85 / mo
2.5 hours per week / 5 genres $95.00 / mo
3 hours per week / 6 genres $105.00 / mo
3.5 hours per week / 7 genres $115.00 / mo
4 hours per week / 8 genres $125.00 / mo
4.5 hours per week / 9 genres $135.00 / mo
5 hours per week / 10 genres $145.00 / mo
(does not apply to solo, duet, trio, small group, or competition team fees) $150.00 family max
Solo Lesson Fees ½ hour lesson per week
(per STAR, in addition to regular class fees, with teacher approval)
$75.00 per month
Duo/Trio Lesson Fees ½ hour lesson per week
(per STAR, in addition to regular class fees, with teacher approval)
$37.50 per dancer per month

Kathy Smith

Owner of Rising Stars, Kathy has been dancing and twirling since she was 6 years old after her dad saw the twirlers in the Memorial Day Parade. Since Day 1 she has been in love with twirling. At the age of 12 she became the Wisconsin State Strut Champion in baton twirling and continued on to add 4 additional state championship titles to her name. At the age of 18 she became, and is to this day, a certified United States Twirling Association coach. Although twirling is her first love, she also has 30+ years of experience teaching tap, ballet, jazz and tumbling in Beloit. She LOVES children and realizes every day how very blessed she is to have the career that she does.
Miss Kathy lives in Rockton with her husband, Mark. She loves coffee and Disney and in her free time enjoys learning, crafting, reading and watching her grandchildren learn, laugh and grow.

Jamie Gesell

Miss Kathy’s step-daughter, is our Clogging Instructor! Miss Kathy first introduced Jamie to dance when she was 5 and she has been hooked ever since. Although she loves all types of dance, clogging is her favorite!

For several years Miss Jamie danced competitively on tap and clogging teams. While in high school, Miss Jamie was a member of the Hononegah dance team where she was the captain of the JV Drill Team as a freshman and captain of the Varsity Dance Team as a senior.

In December of 2009 Jamie started LilyBear Photography (Rising Stars official photographer) and in addition to dance and photography, is a Medical Lab Technician at Mercy Health Systems in Janesville.

Jamie’s favorite things include decorating her home for all the seasons, anything Christmas, long walks down the aisle at TJ Maxx/Home Goods, road trips with her mom and the many adventures she has with her husband Dan.

Krysta Rowe

Krysta has been on our Rising Stars staff since 2009 as our Jazz Instructor and in 2017 added the title of Office Manager.

Krysta is Miss Kathy’s oldest daughter and although she has been dancing since before she was born, she technically started lessons at the age of 3. Her favorite types of dance are baton and jazz but she is well-trained and has competed in every genre that we offer at Rising Stars.

Although she earned a degree from Blackhawk Tech as a Dental Assistant, Miss Krysta has chosen to be a Stay-At-Home-Mom to her 2 amazing kids, Kayden and Makynli.

She also recently started a small business called Kreations by Krysta, making pens, key holders and lots of other fun things!

In her free time, in addition to spending time with her husband and kids, Miss Krysta enjoys getting mani/pedis and shopping.

Kourtney Thomas

Kourtney is Miss Kathy’s youngest daughter and is the instructor of several of our Baton, Ballet and Jazz classes for our younger dancers.

Like her sister, Kourtney has been dancing since birth but formally taking lessons and competing since the age of 3 in every form of dance that Rising Stars offers. She not only has a passion for dance but a passion for children as well and she feels SO blessed to be able to combine the two.

Because of her love of children and individuals with special needs, Miss Kourtney was for 3 years a well-loved Para-Educator for the School District of Beloit and is now a Personal Care Provider for adults with Help At Home.

In her free-time she enjoys arts and crafts, finding new music and watching anything dance or baton related on You-tube.

Chloe Hernandez

Chloe has trained under many well-known teachers and competed on many local and national award-winning competition teams. She has also had parts in several ballet productions including the Nutcracker in 2016. Although her passions are ballet and pointe , like all of our other instructors she is also very knowledgeable in tap and jazz. Anyone who has seen her dance will understand why we feel so very lucky to have Miss Chloe on our staff as our Contemporary, Ballet and Pointe Instructor.

In addition to teaching, Miss Chloe is also a much-requested Server at Jersey’s.

In her free-time Chloe enjoys spending time with her family and eating (although by looking at her you’d never know it).

Ranae Shear

Ranae is one of our Ballet and Jazz Instructors here at Rising Stars. Ranae first started dancing with us in our Starlettes program at the age of 3 and continued dancing with us until high school when she earned a spot on the Turner Dance Team. After 4 years on the dance team and graduation she realized that dance had to remain part of her life (“once a STAR, always a STAR”) so she returned to not only dance in our classes but also teach. She loves teaching, being at the studio and being part of our dance family and we are so thankful to have her back.

In addition to teaching dance for us, Miss Ranae continues to share her love of children and teaching as a Para-Educator at Garden Prairie Intermediate School.

Miss Ranae loves being mom to little William and enjoys spending time outside.

Ready to Shine?

Try Dance for $10

Feel free to contact our studio, and we will be more than happy to answer all of your questions.

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