Education & Classes in Grandview

At Midwest Aquatics, no one lounges poolside. Instead, students of all ages learn scuba skills such as buoyancy control, underwater breathing, and aquatic movement in an on-site pool custom built for diving. PADI-certified instructors draw on more than two decades of scuba experience to teach underwater exploration in courses that range from introductory scuba sessions to open water dives, complete with off-site certification dives in locales such as Bali, Curacao, and local brewery tanks.

The crew at Air Associates of Kansas helps pilots conquer gravity and take to the skies with maintenance and charter services and trains new flyers within its Cessna Pilot Center. Certified flight instructors put students behind the controls of Cessna aircraft and introduce them to the joys of soaring among clouds and nature's most persistent penguins. A computer-based curriculum assists the instructors as they help their pupils work through programs for attaining private, instrument, and commercial licenses.

In addition to their instructional services, Air Associates of Kansas' maintenance technicians can look after single-engine aircraft for already-certified pilots. The techs fuel up planes and make repairs while their clients relax in the lounge and wait to sprout feathers.

Spurred by a drive to instill children with a love for the arts and to build their self-esteem, professional actor Miles McMahon helms an array of educational programs at Theatre of the Imagination. He and his staff of local theater lovers build on more than 2,000 successful children's theatrical productions through creative summer camps, acting and performance classes, special workshops, and birthday parties for performers in prekindergarten through ninth grade. Miles writes a completely new work for each class and camp, using the script to immerse students in a cooperative, creative environment while freeing them from the pressures of lead roles, auditions, and autographer's elbow. Staff members can also conduct Movie Star Acting birthday parties, where they shoot a short film with the birthday child as the star.

Although Signature Ballroom's instructors Abby Vogels and Matt Schissler introduce their students to a number of ballroom styles–from tango to foxtrot to samba–they also focus on fitness. During private lessons, they not only teach their charges the fancy footwork, but how to use the steps as a means of exercising and losing weight in a fun and creative way, much like completing a coloring book while running on a treadmill. Guests can also work out and build connections between one another with more modern techniques such as East and West Coast swing.

Already existing connections are further strengthened during wedding couples' dances. After teaching prenuptial footwork to just the bride and groom or the entire wedding party, the instructors provide a video of the choreography so their pupils can practice at home in preparation for the big day.