DanceSpirit provides instruction in family atmosphere

It didn't take Sandi Scheer long to settle on her career path.

"I wanted to be a dance teacher since the age of 5," said Scheer, who has run Carson City's danceSpirit since 1999. "I knew when I started taking dance lessons I wanted to have a studio like my teacher had."

She can still remember what that studio looked like, including where her instructor kept her desk.

"She had costumes hung everywhere," Scheer, 59, said. "That's what I fell in love with."

Today, Scheer's business is home to dozens of students who take lessons in one of two studios in her building off of Stewart Street. Trophies line the entry way and photos of her students at various competitions adorn the walls. And just like her first dance studio, Scheer keeps dozens of costumes in storage for her student to use during performances.

She employs five instructors and offers classes in dance styles such as ballet, jazz, tap, acrobat, musical theater, hip-hop and Zumba. Scheer also teaches a dance class for special needs adults called "Dance Your Socks Off."

"Our focus here is family," she said. "We have age 3 to probably, oh, 88, and our big draw is family and the whole family being involved."

That means father-daughter dance teams and traveling to dance competitions around the country. Scheer's students have danced at the Holiday Bowl and Disneyland.

Scheer moved to Carson City with her husband in 1997 from her college town of Bozeman, Mont., where she had taught dance since 1981. She said they moved to Nevada for her husband, who flies glider airplanes from Minden-Tahoe Airport.

"We wanted a change, he's a soaring pilot," she said. "We came here so he could soar."

After two years in Nevada, Scheer said she wanted another studio.

"It's my living," she said. "This is not a hobby, it's my job."

She still misses Bozeman, where she attended Montana State University and spent 10 years with a dance company.

Over the years, dance styles have changed, said Scheer, whose favorite styles are musical theater and tap dance.

"Everything has become more contemporary, more creative, more disciplined," she said. "A lot harder technically."

But it's her life - and it's her livelihood.

"It is a dance studio, it's not a daycare," Scheer said. "So when they come in here they get quality instruction."