About
Miss Kim Coffey began dancing at 5 years old and fell in love. As Miss Kim’s passion grew and talent developed, she dreamed of opening her own dance studio. Miss Kim’s dream was realized when she opened Arabesque Dance Studio in April of 2003. She opened a small, one room studio in Carterville, with assistance from Miss Devin Sheldon, who was a student of Miss Kim’s from a former studio. Miss Kim’s mom, Gail, and Miss Devin’s mom, Dee managed the front desk. By their first recital in June, Arabesque had 43 students. By September of 2007, Arabesque had outgrown their studio and needed to expand. A building in downtown Carterville became available and was a perfect fit for the studio’s needs. Miss Kim bought the building in October and moved Arabesque to its current home after Halloween. At the time, there was one dance room (Studio A), and a waiting area. Since then, there have been several additions, including two additional studios.
Miss Kim became a wife and a mother and realized the great demand of running a dance studio and having a family. She decided it was time to hire additional teachers. One of those being Mr. Will Heisner, who specializes in ballet and pointe, as well as acro. Mr. Will has helped advance our ballet program and has significantly contributed to the growth of the studio. This year he is celebrating 10 years with Arabesque!
Arabesque has had a great presence in area competitions between local studios since opening in 2003, but we knew our dancers were missing out on incredible opportunities in competitive dancing outside of Southern Illinois. In 2014, Miss Kim began working with a small group of dancers on routines to take to their first regional competition in St Louis.
Since then, our studio has continued to develop and our dancers have continued to compete and excel in regional, national, and even world competitions. One instructor that has helped take our competitive team to the next level is Miss Gabby Petersen. She has helped develop our competitive program into a well recognized, national and world winning team. Miss Gabby is celebrating 5 years with Arabesque! We are excited to see her journey as a choreographer and team director in the future!
In 2019, our dancers attended the World Dance Championship in New York City, with two routines choreographed by Miss Gabby Petersen. Throughout the season more than 195,000 routines competed in the Star Dance Alliance in the 9-11 age category, but Arabesque came out on top as World Champions! We attended the Championship again this year with twelve routines, and came home with three top 10 finalists and a lyrical excellence award! We also received a choreography nomination for Gabby Petersen and Kim Coffey.
The growth of our studio has been phenomenal, and by 2019, we had outgrown our space yet again. We began looking for a second studio and found that Willow Street Studios home of Susan Barnes Dance in Carbondale was available. Growing up, Miss Kim had admired dancers taught by Miss Susan and wished to continue her legacy. Arabesque moved to Willow Street in February of 2021 while also keeping their current location in Carterville as well. The merger of these two studios has added so much to our dance family. We are so lucky to have gained Miss Kamea Rhine and Miss Brandi Aken as instructors, along with Willow Street dancers and their families in the expansion. We have also added new ballet instructors, Miss Sarah Baer and Miss Bella Redd, and Miss Gillian Corpuz. We can’t wait to see the development in our dancers as they continue their training with these incredible instructors.
