A class of Kindergarten through second-grade girls dance in a ballet class led by Dance Sanctuary co-founder Mandi Maiore. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

TUPPER LAKE — As the opening notes of Pachelbel’s Canon echoed through the Tupper Arts Center on Monday afternoon, a troupe of 13 smiling kindergarten through second-grade girls assumed “first position” to begin warming up for their ballet lesson.

Mandi Maiore from the Dance Sanctuary in Saranac Lake has been teaching 12 classes, driving out to the studio’s new secondary location in Tupper Lake for the first semester of classes, which started back in September.

Some of these girls had been students in the Saranac Lake classes and are now able to get dance instruction in their hometown, but most did not have any dance experience before the class.

“They’ve really embraced it, which has been really fun,” Maiore said. “It’s really fun to introduce them to the arc of it. Especially for ballet, there’s a lot of discipline involved.”

The girls weren’t always graceful. The first dancer to enter the dance room flew in at top speed, left the ground and landed on all fours. She later practiced with care, watching her feet as she followed Maiore’s instruction.

Maiore leads a high-energy class, jumping from exercise to exercise with only short breaks to explain the next steps, having plenty of time for the girls to dance across the length of the studio and shouting instructions out over the sounds of KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Walking on Sunshine.”

The girls in Ballet 1 will have a performance in May, and Maiore said she hopes they can work with the high school to use its theater.

On Sunday, Dec. 9, the Dance Sanctuary teachers will host a holiday dance party for kids of all ages at 3 p.m. The Dance Sanctuary Junior and Senior Company students will also perform.

A new semester of classes at the Tupper Arts Center will begin on Jan. 7 and applications for classes for all ages are being accepted.