The Excelsior School of Dance and Performing Arts began over ten years ago, when mother and daughter team, Sonja Staines and Liza Pollok, relocated from the Sunshine Coast of Q’ld, Australia to Texas, bringing with them an Australian ballet syllabus, the Sonshine Christian Ballet Syllabus. They subsequently started the Sonshine Christian Dance School, which now boasts over 100 students of all grade levels. In 2005, the Sonshine Christian Dance School was renamed the Excelsior School of Dance and Performing Arts.