BEST DANCE INSTRUCTOR

Tracey Sims

TurnOut Movement Arts Studio

6100 S. Second St., 816-3888

Tracey Sims considers the secret to her success talented teachers and students whom she cheers on as if they were her own. Her big family, as she calls them, includes 20 instructors, more than 400 students, two sisters who pitch in and mom Miss Annie who helps keep the books. Also present as constant companion and school mascot is the handsome Buddy the Maltese, who under Tracey’s direction can perform perfectly executed pirouettes. TurnOut Studio was born from Tracey’s passion for dance and wellness and her perseverance in the face of adversity. The name comes not only from the technical dance term in which a dancer’s feet are turned so the toes face toward the sides of the body but also from the notion that things will “turn out” for the best. With two studios, one in Springfield and another in Taylorville, numerous teaching and choreography assignments from St. Louis to local colleges (one BOS voter called her the best choreographer in the area), things have indeed turned out.

Runner-up: Janet Cripe, Dance Creations Dance Studio