Our Story: About US 

Hi! I'm Nancy Annsdatter!

A year ago I would not have guessed that I would be running a boarding house for ballet dancers. So how did I get here?

 

I am a mother to two dancers (and one former gymnast). My kids started dancing early when we lived in Indiana and stuck with it. I often joke that my oldest was dancing from birth as I couldn’t seem to get her to sleep without twirling and jumping around the room.  Her little brother always watched with stars in his eyes when she danced around him in tutus and butterfly wings. I started driving them to dance studios and began calculating the hours, days, and months of my life spent driving to and from dance classes. 

 

Our family moved from Indiana to Hawaii just at the end of covid shut down and began to live our paradise island dreams. The two dancers continued with ballet training and graciously it was housed in the same downtown building as a gymnastic gym so their sister could start coaching/working while we both waited in town rather than sit in traffic both ways. In 2025 as I was flying all over the mainland USA from Hawaii with my oldest daughter for college dance auditions, I realized that perhaps Hawai’i would not be the ideal location for dance training although it was ideal in every other way.  

 

My son had heard about CPYB while attending a summer intensive in North Carolina.  He was curious about their male specific training and so he came out to Carlisle with his dad for the men’s winter camp. That was around the same time his sister was making the decision as to which college she would attend. When my oldest settled on a liberal arts college and dance program near NYC and my son started thinking seriously about his long term dance plans, our life changed dramatically.

 

These were major life decisions for my kids and, like most parents who have already committed to supporting their child’s biggest dreams, their dreams became mine.  Rather than be separated by an ocean and continent from 2 of my 3 favorite people in the world, I decided to leave island life and move with my son and his sister to Carlisle for dance training.

 

That’s how we got here! I now work for Dickinson College in the exact same warehouse building as the CPYB studios. I love making a walking commute a part of my daily life in this quaint town that reminds me of my childhood home in Idaho. I also work at the YMCA teaching swimming lessons and yoga.  

 

Since becoming the owner/operator of the Ballet House, which has functioned as a boarding house for dancers for nearly 20 years, I have been extremely grateful to be a surrogate mother/guardian with the heart and eyes for these dedicated, exhausted, exhilarated young dancers.  I keep in mind and heart how hard it is to be away from my own kiddos and not knowing what is going on with them and pay attention to the little details that a mother wants to know, passing on little texts and emails to the parents often to touch base with what I am seeing (as we know teens can sometimes be unreliable sources of information and how little the reports of ‘fine’ define their day to day).  I have cherished the collaborative communication with parents to make sure we are all on the same page to keep the dancers healthy, safe, and mentally cared for during their time away from their parents.