History

Hazel Boone, a graduate of the Boston Normal School, opened her first dance studio in Boston in 1910. Miss Boone is acknowledged as a pioneer dance educator and hailed for her contribution to the profession.

She served as President of the Dance Teachers’ Club of Boston (DTCB) for two terms and with her husband, Harold B. Simpson, raised eight children. When Hazel Boone passed away in 1954, her youngest daughter, Sandra Simpson Philpott, took over the leadership of the studio leaving a successful professional dance career to continue her mother’s work and philosophy. In 1998, the torch was passed again to Sandra Philpott’s daughter, Holly Costa—the newest director of the oldest family-run dance studio in the country.