About our Music, Dance, & Drama School in Mandeville
Mandeville School of Music & Dance has brought the joy of music, dance, and drama to thousands of students and families on the Northshore over the past 25 years! The number one goal of our instructors is to instill a lifelong love of and appreciation for the performing arts through inspirational and progressive lesson planning. Seeing our students grow as musicians and dancers during our various performance opportunities each year is our greatest reward!
Located minutes from the Causeway, Old Mandeville, Highway 59 and I-12, LAAPA's Mandeville School of Music & Dance is centrally located in Western St. Tammany Parish and serves over 600 students and families each week from all over the Northshore including Hammond and Slidell, LA.
We also love seeing our dedicated Mississippi students who commute from Carriere, Picayune, and Gulfport, MS.
Our students have access to the largest variety of performing arts programs under one roof right here in Mandeville! Whether you're brand new to music, dance, acting, the performing arts, or already experienced, we know you'll feel right at home at our school. In addition to being master educators, musicians, and dancers, all of our instructors are extremely approachable, down to earth, and friendly. Our faculty work with children and adults of all levels, from brand new beginners to advanced students. Your teacher will take the time to get to know your personal goals and interests and will customize a weekly plan to meet those goals!
What To Know When Getting Started
If you're just beginning to conduct research online to find the best music and dance instruction near you here in Mandeville, we realize that it can possibly be overwhelming! All local music teachers and dance studios are not the same and tend to structure and prioritize learning in many different ways.
So what makes our school stand out from the crowd you may be wondering? With LAAPA's roots here in New Orleans since 1978 and on the Northshore since the early 90's, we've helped thousands of students play their first notes or put on their ballet slippers for the first time!
With over 40+ years in education, we have studied how students learn and continuously adapt and upgrade our course offerings, teaching methods, faculty hiring procedures and facility resources to tailor the experience to the needs and interests of a wide range of student personalities and backgrounds.
We understand that not all students learn in the same way and come to us for a number of different reasons. Our faculty are hired for their abilities as patient, fun, and inspirational mentors who will customize lesson plans for each of their students ensuring maximum success. Our growing collection of in house (LAAPA Press) teaching methods are not only used in our school but in schools and studios across the country.
As we believe that a comprehensive education in music and dance should include more than just a weekly lesson, we offer a number of additional complimentary classes and perks such as weekly music theory classes, improv and choreography classes, free recording time annually in our Pro Tools studio, an annual music and dance festival with a complimentary recording session, 2 concerts annually in professional theatres, on campus performance opportunities, virtual recital performance opportunities, 2 free recital tickets annually, unlimited makeup workshops, community classes. All of these additional classes and perks are completely optional for students, but they are here to use whenever you are ready to take advantage of them.
For your convenience, we've provided a list of all programs offered for our Mandeville school below. If you're a brand new beginning student or parent, we highly recommend first checking out the "Explore Music" and "Explore Dance" links below before proceeding to the individual programs. Feel free to skip ahead to the specific programs below if you already know exactly where you'd like to begin!
What To Expect at the Mandeville School of Music & Dance
Best Music Instructors & Dance Teachers in Mandeville
Whether you're seeking a music or dance instructor for the first time or are simply trying to find a better match to your specific goals and interests, we guarantee that you will love working with our faculty. All of our faculty applicants undergo an extensive interview process to ensure that they are truly the best fit for our students. With the largest performing arts faculty in Mandeville under one roof, parents and students are able to truly find the best match for their personality and learning needs. As interests may change along the way, students are able to easily transfer between different programs and instructors as well!
Custom Built Facility with Professional Teaching Studios
Our current campus was constructed from a complete shell in 2017 and built with years of previous studio contruction experience! All studios have sound proofing, glass observation windows, iPads, professional studio pianos (Yamaha, Kawai, and select American manufacturers, etc).
Our Performance Hall A is home to the majority of our dance classes and features a floating floor, professional lighting and sound equipment, and well as a Yamaha C5 grand piano for performances. Free Wi-Fi is also available to everyone at Laapa. Performance Hall B is a fully equipped Dance studio, music theory studio and ensemble studio featuring an X-32 sound system, Steinway M grand piano, and more!
Modern Lesson Planning/Communications Software for Parents & Students
Within the last few years especially, the music and dance education industry has experienced a boom in the variety of technologies available to students, parents, and professional educators. We constantly test new products and present our faculty, staff, parents, and students with only the best!
One of our current primary applications is called My Music Staff which allows parents, students, and teachers to colloborate on scheduling, lesson planning, goals, and more through email, document uploads and video uploads! Our LAAPA Press division also offers customized music and dance notebooks for students and parents who prefer traditional methods of communication.
Regular Performance Opportunities
At Mandeville School of Music & Dance, all of our students have the option of performing in a variety of concerts. We realize that students enroll in lessons for different reasons and that not everyone is interested in performing on stage. For this reason all recitals are optional. That being said, we've had many students tell us going in that they were not interested in performing in our productions, and now (after giving it a try) we can't keep them off the stage!
All of our recitals are held in professional auditoriums and theatres using state of the art audio technology. Immediately after each Spring Recital, we hold an award ceremony to recognize the hard work of each student with various trophy and medal awards. We also hold an annual student festival (LAAPAFEST) with an Honor's/Faculty Recital following the festival.
25 + Years & Thousands of Students Taught in Mandeville
Many music academies and dance studios have come and gone over the last 25 years here on the Northshore. We have a proven track record of stability and success with our students and families. We are now teaching the children of some of our original students! We love it when we hear from our former students who are interested in getting started once again as adults too! Other former students have served on our faculty and staff after completing their university degrees. Being a part of our community and witnessing the awesome growth in our students is truly our greatest reward!
Campus Safety Plan
Safety for our students, parents, faculty, and staff is paramount for us at Mandeville School of Music & Dance which is why we have commited to the Official Family Safety Plan Pledge for Music and Dance Schools. This requires glass windows on all studio doors, office staff present at the Front Desk during all lessons, national, local, background and reference checks for all employees, security cameras installed in each teaching studio with central monitoring in the school lobby, as well as an Open Door policy to all parents. For more information on the Family Safety Plan, visit www.familysafetyplan.org
Additionally, our locations have all been carefully selected in small, safe neighborhoods. Campuses are all well lit in the evening and feature off street parking. Music and dance choreography taught to students and presented during our productions is always family friendly due to our "G Rated" policy. Dance attire and costumes assigned are modest.
Our campuses also follow strict sanitation guidelines which include disinfecting all studio equipment and instruments between classes. Our HVAC systems provide constant purification to all classrooms with Global Plasma Solutions Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization technology (tested and proven to eliminate airborne pathogens).
Full Service Audio/Video Recording Studio
Our Mandeville campus is equipped with a full recording studio which students and faculty have free access to by appointment! All equipment used is professional level gear for the best possible recording and learning experience.
Available synthesizers on site include the Korg Kronos II (73), Crumar Mojo 61 organ, and Nord Stage 2. Our mic closet includes AKG C414 XLS, Neumann KM 184, Neumann TLM 107, Shure KSM32, AT2020, AKG C2000B, Sennheiser e600 drum mic kit and more. Want to add a multi-cam video to your recording? No problem, our video equipment includes three Panasonic DVX 200 cameras which record up to 60FPS in 4k as well as 2 PTZ Optics HD cameras. Projects are recorded and edited with ProTools, Adobe Audition, and Adobe Premiere Pro.
The Best Customer Service
Have you tried calling other local schools only to get their voicemail? Our highly trained customer service and administrative team are here for you during all lesson times. Whether you need to reach us on the phone or just want to stop by to discuss any number of things in person, our staff love helping our families coordinate their lessons here at the Mandeville School of Music & Dance.
It's rare to get our voicemail, and we promise that when you give us a call, you'll be chatting with a human in no time. Our phones are answered Monday-Thursday from 8:00 AM - 9 PM, Fridays from 8 AM - 7:30 PM, and Saturdays from 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM (holidays excluded).
Choose to Attend Online or In Person
While many schools and studios around the world are playing catch up to begin offering distance and remote "virtual lessons" online for their students, LAAPA and the Mandeville School of Music & Dance have been teaching online since 2012!
No matter what program you may be interested in starting for the first time or (as in the case for our adult students many times - picking back up where they left off), our teachers have the technology in their studios to meet with you in person or remotely.
Need to attend online one week due to a last minute scheduling change or health concern? No problem! Will you primarily attend online like to attend occasionally in person while you're in town? Great, we'd love to see you in person whenever it's convenient for you!
If online learning is something you've been considering, it's important to compare apples to apples as the term "online lessons" means many different things. For example, there are now many companies promoting online lessons which are nothing more than a series of video tutorials and/or apps. Content like this is already freely available on YouTube and does not offer any personal interaction with a live instructor.
With online learning, be cautious and selective! It's pretty easy to find any number of random/out of state teachers and corporations marketing their online courses everywhere. Keep in mind, that they don't actually have a physical, local presence here on the Northshore, in Louisiana (or likely anywhere for that matter)! By taking online music or dance classes with us, you're supporting local Louisiana artists and musicians!
We encourage you to take a moment to take a virtual tour of our 4,000 sq ft facility if you haven't done so already or learn more about getting started in online lessons!
Why Enroll with Mandeville School of Music & Dance?
Professional Dance & Music School in Mandeville, Louisiana
Directions from New Orleans
Mandeville School of Music & Dance is located at 105 Campbell Ave #3 Mandeville, Louisiana 70471. From Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, get on I-10 E from Terminal Dr. Then Head south. Next Continue straight. After that Continue onto Terminal Dr. At this point Keep right. Next Continue straight onto Terminal Dr. Continue onto Loyola Dr. Then Turn right to merge onto I-10 E toward New Orleans. At this point Continue on I-10 E. Take Lake Pontchartrain Causeway to LA-59 S in St. Tammany Parish. Take exit 65 from I-12 E. Then Merge onto I-10 E. Next Use the right 2 lanes to take exit 228 toward Mandeville. After that Merge onto N Causeway Blvd. Next Continue onto Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. After that Continue onto N Causeway Blvd. Then Use the right lane to merge onto I-12 E via the ramp to Slidell. At this point Take exit 65 to merge onto LA-59 S toward Mandeville. After that Continue on LA-59 S. Drive to Campbell Ave. Then Merge onto LA-59 S. After that Turn right onto Campbell Ave.
Hours of Operation
Sunday: Closed
Monday: 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM
Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM
Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM
Thursday: 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM
Friday: 8:00 AM - 7:30 PM
Saturday: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Additional Resources
For additional questions you can call or text us at (985) 674-2992 or learn more:
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About our fair city of Mandeville, LA
A History of Mandeville
Local Attraction: Mandeville Lakefront
Local Attraction: Mandeville Trailhead
Local Attraction: Northlake Nature Center VIRTUAL CAMPUS TOUR
Upcoming Events
Questions? Click below to check out our list of Frequently Asked Questions.
Can't find the answers you're looking for? Call, text or email - we're here to help Monday-Thursday 8 AM - 9 PM, Friday 8 AM - 7:30 PM, and Saturday 8 AM - 3 PM.
Please note that during holiday breaks, the office will be open between 9 AM and 5 PM. It is always best to call the office before dropping by the Academy in person during holiday breaks.
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Arrange your first class by contacting us today or click below to enroll online.