About Us

Top Dance School In Matthews

Discover Visions Dance Academy

Hello there, my name is Cindy Kieffer.  I am the Owner and Director of Visions Dance Academy. I am thrilled you have ventured over to our website for information regarding your child’s dance education.  It is safe to say that we LOVE what we do and we are excited to have the opportunity to share our passion of dance with your child.  I think the staff here is pretty amazing and we have over a 100 years combined experience. We teach our students to take the Discipline of Dance, and apply it to their everyday lives to encourage confidence and build self-esteem.  Our mission is to provide quality instruction in a positive environment. Visions has a dance class for everybody.  It is important to us for you to grow in dance and in life.  Dancing is good for the soul, helps the mind relax and just makes you smile.

We can’t wait to meet you and your family.

Lots of Love,

Cindy Kieffer

Best Kids Dance Studio

Dance Is the Hidden Language of the Soul

Our Journey

Founded in 1998, Visions Dance Academy was born out of our family passion for the art of dancing. Our goal has always been to provide anyone who shares the same passion with a fun, encouraging environment to hone their craft and freely express themselves.

Our Philosophy

We believe that the traits and habits our students develop through dance training hard work, perseverance, discipline, constant improvement, and self-confidence helping them excel not only on stage, but in life as well. This is why we focus on developing these as much as each student technical skills.

Meet Our Instructor

Passionate Instructors, Inspiring Every Dancer

Our team is dedicated to creating a positive, encouraging environment where every student feels supported. With years of experience and a genuine love for dance, our instructors help dancers build confidence, develop strong technique, and discover the joy of movement at every stage.

Why Families Choose Visions

A Dance Studio Families Trust

Parents choose Visions Dance Academy because we focus on more than choreography. We focus on creating meaningful experiences that help children grow in every aspect of life.

Feature Cards

Our Core Values

The Foundation of Everything We Do

Passion

We inspire every dancer to discover a lifelong love for movement and creativity.

Respect

We create an environment where kindness, encouragement, and teamwork come first.

Confidence

We help students believe in themselves both inside and outside the studio.

Excellence

We encourage every dancer to continuously improve while celebrating every achievement along the way.

Community

Our studio is more than a classroom. It's a family where lasting friendships are built.

Join Our Dance Family

Your Child's Journey Starts Here

Whether your child dreams of performing on stage or simply wants to have fun while building confidence, Visions Dance Academy is the perfect place to begin.

We invite you to experience our welcoming community, meet our passionate instructors, and discover why so many families have trusted us for generations.

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Cindy Kieffer

Owner/CEO

Charlotte native Cindy began dancing at the early age of five. By the time she was 14, she was already an instructor.

Three years later, she was managing the studio while also helping open and run several satellite locations.

She would then quickly become one of the main studio’s head competition instructors, receiving numerous Top Overall awards throughout her career.

In 1998, she decided to finally open her own studio: the first Visions Dance Academy in the Ballantyne area of Charlotte, NC.

Just three years later, she opened her second location in Lake Norman.

Taylor Sease

Artistic Director

Taylor started dancing three years earlier than Cindy at just two years of age.

She would then spend the next 30 plus years training and competing in contemporary, tap, jazz, and ballet, amassing multiple platinum awards and scholarships along the way.

She also won countless titles during her run—including Miss Superstar, Miss Nexstar, Miss Starquest, 1st runner up Miss Global, and 1st runner up Miss Dance USA—on top of being showcased in the opening number for the Dance USA National Championships.

Taylor was also an apprentice for Mark Marino’s The American Dance Company, which gave her the opportunity to perform at NYC’s Duke Theater.

As for her teaching experience, Taylor was a guest instructor in lyrical, contemporary, and tap master classes throughout the US.

She enjoys challenging her students to do their best and inspires them to be better not only on stage, but in life as well.

Raigan Jankord

Competition Instructor

Just like Taylor, Raigan has also been dancing since she was two years old.

She served as captain of her cheerleading team throughout junior high before cheering competitively for two years in high school.

As a college student, she performed as part of the UNCG dance team for a year, before moving on to UNCC to continue her dance education and earning her BA degree in dance.

She would then use her training in jazz, tap, lyrical, and ballet to win multiple top awards as a competitive dancer.

Raigan has been a professional dance instructor and choreographer for 15 years now, spending the last nine years as competition director and choreographer at Visions Dance Academy.

Her students were featured on Showstoppers National Talent Competition TV show, VIP Dance Competition webcast, and Hall of Fame Dance Challenge, where she was also a featured judge.

Lori Stewart

Recreational Instructor

Miss Lori’s love of everything dance started at age 3 and she took classes throughout her school years in both NYC and NJ. After she graduated high school, she was offered a job teaching at Dance Plus, a studio in Little Silver, NJ. In her 11 years of teaching there, she specialized in ballet and tap for the beginner students. She also brought older groups to numerous competitions where they competed in musical theater, tap, lyrical and pointe.

In 1999, she joined the Visions family. Her focus was on making dance classes fun for the little ones while they learned basic techniques needed to advance to the next level. While at Visions, Lori welcomed her first child in 2003 and her daughter grew up at the studio. In 2006, she welcomed her son and then decided that it was time to hang up her dancing shoes and be with her children.

Fast forward to 2019 and she is so excited to be back doing what she loves in the studio she called her second home for many years.  Visions Dance Academy is proud to have Miss Lori not only as a dedicated staff member but as a long time friend to the owners and always supportive to the studio.

Ashley Pridgeon

Social Media Manager and Recreational Instructor

Ashley has been dancing since she was three years old and teaching for six years. Ashley danced competitively as a student at Visions and continued her dance career into college where she was a part of the dance team for three years. She graduated from the university of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in fashion design and taught a competition team at a studio in Greensboro as well. She loves getting to work with all ages instilling in them the passion she has for dance.

Taryn McKenrick Wallace

Instructor

Taryn McKenrick Wallace has been dancing for 23 years and brings a lifelong passion for dance education, mentorship, and the performing arts. She spent eight years competing with Kinston Dance Academy and Arendell Parrott Academy Dance Ensemble, experiences that helped shape her dedication to dance.

Taryn is a graduate of Meredith College, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication with concentrations in Mass Communications and Public Relations, a minor in Marketing, and later completed the Digital Communication Graduate Program. She gained valuable experience through communications and marketing internships with Meredith College and Harnett County Government.
She also served as Assistant Director at Kinston Dance Academy, where she taught and mentored students, managed studio operations, and helped foster a strong dance community.

Taryn is excited to be part of the Visions Dance Academy team and to continue sharing her passion for dance while helping students build confidence, creativity, strong technique, and a lifelong love for the art.