Elizabeth Sims grew up in the dance world, surrounded by music and the students of her mother, Dance Instructor Pat Sims.

Elizabeth first began dancing at age 8 in Fairbanks, Alaska. The discipline was ballet, taught by Claire West, where she attended once a week through the Tanana Valley Community College. Little did she know this would be the beginning of a love affair with the performing arts.

Shortly thereafter in an effort to progress, Elizabeth enrolled in the Ballet Barre owned by Deril Balough. At age 11, she began Pointe work and by age 12 she was ready for her first summer intense dance program.

Under Deril’s tutelage, Elizabeth quickly progressed in the basics of ballet, Pointe, and pas de duex. In 1983, she choreographed her first piece, which was performed in the annual recital. Elizabeth began taking another forms of dance, jazz at age 12 after attending her first dance intensive summer program in Walla Walla, Washington.  Elizabeth continued to pursue her dancing during the school year in Fairbanks, and enrolled in Ballet West held in Aspen, Colorado. In 1986, she was featured as the Snow Queen in the ballet “The Nutcracker”.

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With all the dance experience, Elizabeth made the decision to begin teaching in 1993. She taught at Mo Holland Dance Studio in Fairbanks, Alaska where her mother, Pat Sims, was also a teacher. 

In 1994, Pat Sims branched off to open her own studio, based out of a Ballroom Dance Club building, which she rented.  The studio quickly grew and Pat with the support of students and parents found a space to officially open Northland Dance.

In 1997, Elizabeth moved to Cody, Wyoming where she taught at the Cody Center for Performing Arts as a Ballet & Jazz instructor. She also started teaching for the Powell Wyoming Recreational District. The disciplines were Introduction to Dance & Rhythm, jazz, & ballet.

In 1998, Elizabeth began teaching the Northwest College Social Dance class. In the year 2000, Cody Center for Performing Arts was invited to proudly represent Wyoming at Dance Excellence in Los Angeles, CA. One year later, Northland Dance was invited to represent Alaska in Dance Excellence.

After a relocation to Tucson, Elizabeth’s love of the art of dance drove her to open her own studio Dance Innovations opened its doors in September 2003, and Elizabeth and the Dance Innovations staff hope to share the art of dance with others.


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