Southwest Washington Dance Center

Budget Size: Between 100 and 500k

Region: Southwest

County: Lewis

Population Centered: Rural

Mission Statement: Southwest Washington Dance Center is dedicated to professional quality instruction, appreciation, and presentation of dance as an art form throughout Lewis County and greater Southwest Washington.

Community Accelerator Grant Award: $11,900

Primary Impact Category: The Future

Website: https://www.swwdance.org/

When the Chehalis Ballet Center first opened on Market Boulevard, it was 1982, and opportunities for dance education in Southwestern Washington were extremely limited. Lewis County was then (as it is now) one of Western Washington’s most rural counties, better known for its timber production, food manufacturing plants, and agricultural output than its arts sector. Nonetheless, former professional dancer Dean Speer had a vision, and several decades later, his ballet school was still standing right where it had always been, providing a space for dancers of all ages to congregate, develop their technique, and perform for their community. In recognition of the fact that the school had always served a far more diverse geographical area than just the city of Chehalis, the name was changed in 1995 to the Southwest Washington Dance Center (SWDC).

SWDC hosts both dance classes, which are open to community members aged 2 and up (“the toddlers and their parents performing together are always a big hit at the year-end recital,” says Administrative Director Marcia Greenfield), and the Southwest Washington Dance Ensemble, a performing company that tours to schools, charity events, and dance festivals in Lewis County and beyond. The school produces The Nutcracker every winter, a beloved holiday tradition featuring over 100 dancers and handmade sets and costumes designed by local artists, as well as hosting Dance Festival Northwest every March, a festival that brings dance companies to Chehalis from every corner of Washington.

When the school’s building went on the market in 2016, the SWDC team considered making an offer – but they knew that the space, which had two studios and a maximum student population of 150, wasn’t going to allow them to grow.  A windfall came in the form of a larger building that met all their requirements and, somewhat miraculously, was only two doors down on Market Boulevard. A pandemic-era closure and protracted reopening put SWDC’s future in temporary limbo – Marcia recalls long months spent alone in the new building filling out grant applications – but today, the school boasts four studios, 18 part-time teachers, and approximately 350 students. They have expanded their classes to dance styles including jazz, tap, modern, and hip-hop, and are in the process of hiring an Artistic Director to oversee their programmatic offerings for the first time since they took over their new space. Community Accelerator Grant funding went towards installing new specialty flooring in one of their studios, making it a safe space for dancers wearing pointe shoes to rehearse without fear of slipping. Marcia expects the remainder of their funding will go towards subsidizing performance venue rentals, which have increased significantly in cost over the last several years.

SWDC regularly produces dancers who go on to intensives at Oregon Ballet Theatre and Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet, as well as college dance programs nationwide, and many of them find their way back to Chehalis as teachers, keeping the dance community Dean Speer envisioned alive and well. But Marcia’s favorite thing about the school has been the opportunity to see students from far-flung school districts across Lewis County, who might not ever otherwise have met, grow as an ensemble. “It’s a special group that we have here,” she says. “They had to take a year and a half away during the pandemic, and we had to go back to basics and build everybody back up. But they were so happy to be back. They had missed dancing, but more than anything, they had missed their friends.”