Venerable dance studio finds new home in downtown Belleville

Jessica Kern grew up in a dance studio.

Her grandmother, Becky Kern-Taylor, founded a dance studio in 1961 in Belleville and then her mother, Sue Kern, operated the business for 23 years.

And now Jessica Kern has taken over Kern’s Dance Company and moved the studio to a new location at 15 S. High St. in downtown Belleville.

“I want to keep my grandma’s legacy,” Kern said about being the third-generation owner of the family's business. “That means a lot to me. A lot of people have asked me, ‘Are you going to go on with the business? Are you going to close the business?’ I’ve always said I’m going to keep the business.”

Kern, 31, has taught in the family’s studio for 18 years.

“Dance is my passion,” she said. “That’s basically my outlet. Whenever I’m feeling the need to dance, I can just come in the studio and dance. I like putting my passion into my students and teaching them my passion.”

The studio offers recreational and competitive dance instruction for toddlers to seniors. Tap, ballet, jazz, hip-hop and modern are some of the types of dances offered by the studio.

The 57-year-old company began as Becky Kern’s Dance Studio and since has been renamed Kern’s Dance Company. Becky Kern-Taylor ran it for 34 years and Sue Kern operated it for 23 years.

The studio most recently was located at 6500 W. Main St. in the Arcades shopping center in Belleville and is now located in the former Sips ’n Splatters space in downtown Belleville. Sips ’n Splatters relocated to O’Fallon over the winter.

“I love downtown. It’s very beautiful down here,” Jessica Kern said. “I figured, I’m a young business owner. I know a lot of the business owners downtown are young and so I wanted to bring my business down here and work side by side with them.”

Want to go?

You can see a demonstration by the Kern's Dance Company’s competitive dancers during the studio’s grand reopening scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, June 13.

For more information, call 618-407-8609 or check out the studio on Facebook and Instagram.

This story was originally published June 1, 2018 at 10:05 AM with the headline "Venerable dance studio finds new home in downtown Belleville."