O'Fallon, Belleville IL Area

[kc10family]

Looking for information on the area....
Schools (private)
dance classes for children
voice lessons
festivals
muiscal theater
childrens activities
hair salons
dog groomers

I have tried the internet, but must not be asking the correct questions because I am not getting mucha about the area.

 

[kc10family]

No DIS'ers in this area?

 

[FINFAN]

I am not in the area, and am sure you have used this site, but here ya go anyway:
http://www.ofallon.org/Public_Documents/index
maybe call the city hall and ask abut any relo groups or welcome committeea you could call? They may be able to handle specifics and more quickly.
Good Luck!

 

[Jestocost]

The local chambers of commerce might be of some help. Also, check out Realtor.com, which provides a variety of information on communities.

O'Fallon Chamber of Commerce Membership Directory
Belleville Chamber of Commerce Membership Directory

The Residents Guide to Belleville also might be useful.

Also, O'Fallon and Belleville are both St. Louis "Metro East" suburbs, so you might want to expand your search to cover St. Louis as a whole for some of those categories, like activities for kids or musical theater.

 

[NotUrsula]

O'Fallon is largely a military community, as it is the home of Scott AFB. Belleville is older, the county seat of St. Clair County. It has a town square and does have quite a few fairs, etc.

Here's the Wikipedia entry for the "Metro-East", which will give you a quick overview of the wider area: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-East

For fairs and festivals, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch publishes a guide every May. The online version (STLToday.com) only covers things that are upcoming, but if you contact the public library in Belleville (http://www.bellevillepubliclibrary.org/) , I'm sure they will be able to send you copies of the Metro-East pages for the entire summer.

As to private schools, do you mean religious affiliated, or independent? AFAIK, there are no independent private schools in the Metro East, though there are several outstanding (and expensive!) examples on the Missouri side of the river. This list shows the private schools in the Belleville area: http://www.privateschoolreview.com/county_middle_schools/stateid/IL/county/17163
For Catholic Schools, you should check the Diocese of Belleville, which covers the entire Metro East.

Something about the tone of your post makes me think that you might be VERY serious about children's musical theatre. At that level, most folks in the Metro East would commute to St. Louis to put their kids into programs at COCA (http://www.cocastl.org/) and audition for the Muny Kids. (http://www.muny.org/content/view/63/43/) MUNY Kids is very selective and serious; many of the kids accepted go on to professional careers in theatre.

 

[kc10family]

this is great starting info. I ust have just not have used the correct words for google.
Yes musical theater and or performing is a big deal for my girls as you can tell by my links. They love to perform and I find it hard to take them from what we have in our area, but I can not change what might be coming our way.
I figure if I learn enough now, then it will make it easier and faster if we do end up in that area.

So bring on more if you have it.
Thank you

 

[kc10family]

keep bringing on the great info

 

[NotUrsula]

Should I take it you're military? If it is permissable for you to live on the Missouri side and commute to the base, that may work better in terms of your daily routine (bridge traffic is often a real bear, but commuting *TO* Illinois is going against the flow most of the time.)

If your kids are theatrical professionals (or have ambitions to become professionals) and you spend a lot of time facilitating that activity, living in the Metro East might not be the best practical choice. The Missouri side of the metro area definitely has a much broader range of selective children's arts programs to choose from.

 

[missypie]

I did a bit of research on dance schools (since I'm the mom of dancers). Try:

JAM Dance Academy
Jane Mannion's School of Dance
Fitness & Fun Plus
Belleville Elite Dance

I went to the web sites of the dance competition companies - you know, Showstoppers, NextStage, Starbound, etc., and looked up the results of the St. Louis regionals to see what studios did well. Then I googled them to find their location. These are the ones from the Illinois side (Belleville, Glen Carbon, Highland, etc.)

Another thing you might do is look at the websites of the local high schools - Belleville East, Belleville West and O'Fallon - and get the email addresses of their choir and theatre teachers (and drill team if they have it). I bet they would have an idea of the good area voice and dance schools.

Interesting to read that the only private schools are Catholic. It was like that when I lived there, but as I said, my info is 30+ years old.

One more idea. Are you on Facebook? I know there are several Belleville - oriented Facebook groups (I'm in one for former HS speech team members). You might find a Facebook group that you could join to get more info on the area.

 

[NotUrsula]

Interesting to read that the only private schools are Catholic. It was like that when I lived there, but as I said, my info is 30+ years old.

To be clear, they are not all Catholic, but AFAICD, there are none that are not affiliated with some kind of religious body. There are some Lutheran schools and some nondenominational Christian schools in the area, I know, but if she is looking for a truly secular private-school option, there doesn't appear to be one on that side of the river.