La Petite Dance was created in 1999 by Shannon Mansfield.  After being a second grade teacher in the public schools of New Hanover County and teaching a few dance classes at local studios, Shannon decided it was time to focus on her first love... Dance.  The desire to teach young children during their most influential and formative years, Shannon felt there was a strong need to provide dance instruction on site at preschools in the Wilmington area.  She designed a program that would develop motor skills, coordination, confidence, self-esteem, and creative expression.  So "La Petite Dance" was born.  Shannon began taking her traveling dance business to various preschools and childcare centers in and around Wilmington.  She wanted to teach children during the mornings while attending their individual centers so that the directors of each school did not have to transport them on a van to a local dance school and so parents would not have to take their children to a dance studio in the evenings after a long days work.  This idea seemed to benefit all involved and soon, many of Wilmington's preschool and child care facilities were filled with the sounds of Classical Ballet music and Rhythmic Tapping Toes.  But the person who has probably benefited by far the most from this new and growing program is Miss Shannon herself, as she is known to the children.  For someone once told her "if she chose a career that she loved, she would never have to work a day in her life."