This year Cheryl's School of Dance in Burlington celebrates 50 years of introducing children to the worlds of ballet, tumbling and pageantry. It is the longest-running dance studio in southeast Iowa.
Owner/director Vickie Daly was born and raised in Burlington, and she still teaches dance as well.
"I love it. It's what I've always done," Daly said. "I was lucky enough, being youngest of all the sisters, I did it all."
Daly, her three sisters and two brothers were raised by their dancing mother, Lavona Walker.
"My mother single-handedly raised all six of us," Daly said. "She was a dancer herself. When we were little, growing up, we had no money at all. But she kept us busy and off the streets and dancing, five of us."
Only one of the Walker brothers, Lynn, was into dance. Big brother Zowell was not.
"It was called the Burlington Dance Academy. Al Smith was our instructor," Daly said. "I was only five."
Daly said her mother couldn't afford dance lessons for all five kids, but she found a way to keep them enrolled.
"She cleaned the dance studio, and that's how we were all able to go," she said. "I remember taking the bus downtown every Saturday and we spent the day there. That's how we took dancing for years and years."
Big sister Cheryl Wardlow moved to South Carolina with her husband in 1967, where he was stationed in the Navy. She taught dance there for a year before returning to Burlington.
"She opened the first Cheryl's School of Dance in the Union Hotel," Daly said. "At that time I wasn't teaching with her, but I was with her. Then she and her husband went over on Roosevelt Road."
The Wardlows bought a house where Dillon's BBQ is today.
"Her husband built a studio onto their house, and then a few years after that they bought the old Saint Pat's school on Washington," Daly said.
CSOD moved to the former Fareway Center, where they stayed for more than 30 years. Today the studio is in its second year downtown at 315 S. Main St.
Cheryl had, at one time, four studios: Monmouth, Mount Pleasant, Muscatine and Burlington.
"This was back when my sisters and myself all taught together," Daly said.
CSOD is still going strong today, with 200-plus children aged 3 through high school taking classes in Burlington; Daly directs the Mount Pleasant studio as well. The studio teaches dance, but the ultimate goal is to to build self esteem while infusing young people with the concepts of teamwork, dedication and responsibility. Courses include ballet, tap, jazzercise and pointe, a form of ballet.
"We teach tumbling, acrobatics, floor work," Daly said. "And hip-hop."
There is no requirement for experience level.
"I have adult classes, too," Daly said. "More Jazzercise, exercise, slow steps. No waltzing."
Daly said she took ballroom dancing in eighth grade.
"I loved it," she said, "but we don't teach it."
Private lessons are available as well.
The dress code for classes is black leotard with pink tights — boys, breathe easy: You'll be wearing a white T and black shorts.
Little tykes can wear any color for tumbling classes.
"We're a school of dance, we're really technical," Daly said. "We don't come in and say, 'OK, let's just do a routine to music and have fun.' I make them go to the bar and later work on technique across the floor. I really emphasize the technique in dancing, to prepare them for maybe their first year of college. I know some of the dancers have gone to Iowa, and right away, those teachers ask them, 'Would you teach for us?' We prepare them as best we can so it's not such a culture shock going from the hometown studio to college, or anywhere else."
Cheryl's teaches their students not just to compete with but to socialize with urban kids who have a much higher awareness of the world beyond southeast Iowa.
"In February, we're going to take a group of our kids to Cedar Rapids — it's what we call our mini-caravan — teachers from New York and all over the United States come together for a couple of days. They'll have different instructors from L.A. and all over," Daly said. "We really try and educate the kids."
Daly strives to give her students an experience, not just tell them what to do.
"I invite other dance teachers to come in and do workshops and things like that," she said.
Cheryl's has produced two Miss Iowas: Olivia Meyers of Sperry was Miss Burlington in 2008 and went on to become second-runner-up to Miss America; Mariah Cary of Burlington was Miss Muscatine in 2012 and finished fourth runner-up in the Miss America pageant.
Last year, CSOD laid claim to Miss Iowa's Outstanding Teen when Lydia Fisher of Wapello won and was a top ten finalist in the Miss America's Outstanding Teen program.
"They all did tap routines; that was their talent," Daly said. "They grew up here at the studio, all three of them. I taught Olivia, and my daughter Summer taught Maria and Lydia."
Daly said the teachers on her staff have grown up at the studio as well.
"They're bringing their children here, just as my mother did. It gives them something to do, and it makes them aware," she said. "We want them to feel good about themselves."
Daly's sisters Trish and Sue are also studio owners and all three women credit their big sister.
"Cheryl's our inspiration," Daly said. "She's the one that truly opened that door for us."
Daly said Cheryl's School of Dance remains a family business to this day.
"My daughter will eventually take the studio. She will be asked, 'Why is it Cheryl's?' I could have changed it years ago but, out of respect, it's just how it is."
Cheryl's School of Dance is at 315 S. Main St. in Burlington, 319-752-1301, and 108 N. Jefferson, Mount Pleasant, 319-385-3798.
A special, voluntary recital by CSOD students is held at the end of each school year at the Capitol Theater in Burlington.