Arts & Entertainment
Dance Studio Owner Teaches More Than Just Steps
Elizabeth McGuire has taught dance classes for more than two decades in Des Plaines.
This week's Patch Portraits also highlight two couples: closing their grocery's doors after 54 years, and opening their home to adventure in Argentina.
For Elizabeth McGuire, or "Miss Libby" as her students call her, dancing is about more than movement.
"Dancing, any artform, can open up your innerself to expressions you never knew you might have," she said.
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In 1989, McGuire and her sister, Ellen Ecker, took over Galina Dance Studio in Des Plaines from Madame Galina, the original owner who had established the studio in 1961 with her husband after defecting from the Soviet Union. McGuire had been a student of Galina's for years and had taught for her as well.
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McGuire discovered her love of dance after following in her sister's footsteps, at her mother's encouragement. "She felt the arts, music, dance were really important in lives, in children's lives too," said McGuire. "When I first came I just fell in love with it."
Coming full circle, McGuire now inspires a new generation of dancers in the same studio where she discovered her love for the art.
