This dance studio has served the Dunkirk area for over 50 years, despite three name changes. Three independent, caring, and artistic women have owned it, each adding her own touch to this small-town studio with big heart.

Founded by Sally Crino in 1973 as Crino Dance and Gymnastic Arts, our school teaches ages 18 months to adults. Rosanne Chesbro bought and renamed it Chadwick Bay Academy of Dance in 1998 and ran it until spring 2018.

Jessie McKenna became owner in Summer 2018 and continues to run the studio, now named after her late father, Frank McKenna. Jessie changed the name to McKenna Academy of Dance so that her father’s family name can live on despite him having 3 girls :) She holds a B.A. in Dance Studio Administration and Spanish and an M.A. in Dance Studies.

Jessie grew up as a competitive Irish dancer via her time at McMahon School of Irish dance and Clann Na Cara School of Irish dance in Buffalo, NY. She also danced in her hometown of Attica, NY at The Dance Company and participated in show choir in High School. Jessie was lucky enough to begin assistant teaching at Clann Na Cara in her early teen years and quickly discovered how much she loved passing on dance knowledge to others. In college at Fredonia she taught three Irish classes at Chadwick Bay Academy of Dance under Rosanne Chesbro and realized that teaching was to become a much bigger part of her life than she ever imagined. She pursued dance, business, and arts studies at Fredonia State, University at Buffalo and University of Limerick to prepare to run a studio. Jessie continues her education frequently attending conferences and workshops to bring the best, newest and safest dance practices into her studio. She has attended several years of Dance Masters of America Teacher Training School and Rhee Gold’s Dance Life Teacher Conference.

Our studio culture here at McKenna Academy is very important to us. We believe wholeheartedly in making sure that our studio is family friendly, fun, a great learning environment, somewhere that teaches discipline and hard work but does it in a way that doesn’t tear dancers down but builds them up!

We encourage the creativity and free spirit dance brings to all ages—benefiting body, mind, and spirit while building well-rounded people who learn to work hard, believe in themselves, work as a team and learn how to create and appreciate art; skills that will last them their whole lives!

Dance classes are so much more than the steps we teach!

We welcome you to dance, learn, grow and create with us!