March 28, 2024 • 19 mins
Great Community Give is a community wide giving day for local partner nonprofit organizations, April 17, 2024 from 6:00am to 8:00pm. All online donations this day will be through www.greatcommunitygive.org and/or given directly via cash and check gifts. All donations are tax-deductible.
We are joined by: Lara Mack, President of the Harrisonburg Dance Cooperative.
The Harrisonburg Dance Cooperative (HDC) aims to provide experienced dance artists in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County with opportunities to amplify their individual artistic voices. Through live performances, classes, forums, and collaborations with artists from various mediums, HDC cultivates a vibrant and passionate appreciation for the art of dance within the local community.
We are joined by: Lara Mack, President of the Harrisonburg Dance Cooperative.
The Harrisonburg Dance Cooperative (HDC) aims to provide experienced dance artists in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County with opportunities to amplify their individual artistic voices. Through live performances, classes, forums, and collaborations with artists from various mediums, HDC cultivates a vibrant and passionate appreciation for the art of dance within the local community.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Shanado A Valley. Business Break isa podcast about local business and community happenings
and and around the Shenandoah Valley ofVirginia. I'm Chris Carmichael, and our
guest today is Laura Max. She'sthe president of the Harrisonburg Dance Cooperative.
Lara, it is good to seeyou, wonderful to be here. Thanks
for having me. Yeah, it'sour pleasure the Harrisonburg Dance Cooperative. I'm
(00:21):
not a dance person, so thisisn't the world I'm living in. Help
me understand what you do and whoyou are. Yeah. We are a
community of dancers that have and hostdance classes and performances and other dance opportunities
for grown ups. For adults excellent. Yeah, I could probably definitely use
that. My wife and I combineddon't have one good foot to dance on.
(00:45):
Yeah, So it's funny. Actually, oftentimes we're confused with being a
dance stuio for children, and thenother times people think that they can't come
to our classes because they don't havea dance experience. But especially in recent
years, we got people coming inand we're offering beginner classes, so we
really take it seriously. When wesay dances for everybody, we want anyone
(01:07):
to feel that they can come inand try out. I actually, I
think we got a little bit ofof ourselves. I should explain why we're
talking with you this morning. TheGreat Community Give is coming up on April
seventeenth, Yes, and you canpoint click and give at Great Community Give
dot org. This is the CommunityDay of Giving and there are I think
one hundred and fifty six nonprofits inHarrisonburg and Rockham County. You are one
(01:30):
of those nonprofits, that's right,that would love some support on April seventeenth.
Yes, that's correct. And bythe way, if you don't want
to try to remember April seventeenth,anytime beginning I think April third through the
seventeenth, you can go to thewebsite and you can get information and make
your donation that way. All right, So now we understand why we're talking
today. And you know, Ialways am interested in how organizations get started.
(01:59):
You know the hit behind them,and you know how things are going.
So let's talk about that. Yeah, happy too, because we've really
shifted and grown in the last fewyears. And I think also it's sort
of special being an arts nonprofit andwe made it through the pandemic, which
feels significant. But we started aroundtwenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, and it
(02:22):
was because I was working at theLittle Grill at the time and was serving
a family. And turns out themom and that family used to play piano
for the ballet classes I took atJMU when I went there, and her
daughter was a dancer, and sheintroduced the two of us and she said,
Laura, your dancer, meet mydancer. And Ellie Douall and I
connected and we were like, wemiss dancing so much. I wasn't dancing
(02:47):
at the time and really really missedit. And we're like, we want
to create a community of dancers inHarrisonburg. We want to teach classes for
each other, we want to perform. That's what we missed the most,
and so we got started. Wedidn't have our own space, and we
borrowed nearly every studio or studio likeplace possible for about seven years. We
started putting on shows right away.We offered modern and ballet classes primarily,
(03:14):
and then, let's see, thepandemic happened and we almost had to call
it quits. Like so many performancearts communities, out there. It was
a real struggle, but we wentvirtual and we offered just one virtual dance
class a week. I think itwas ballet, and then we also offered
(03:35):
modern every once in a while andthat allowed us to survive. And then
we worked with Commune Foundation. Wegot a grant from the Erlin J.
Miller Fund and that allowed us toget our first ever brick and mortar space.
So in March twenty twenty three,we got a space downtown. So
that really feels like it felt likeit changed the ballgame. We got to
offer as many classes as we want. It really moved us a new and
(04:00):
exciting direction. Can we have abig dance community here in the valley?
No, but it's growing, Okay. Yeah? And well I think too
when you define dance community, howlarge it is maybe depends on the definition.
If you're talking about super experience orprofessional level dancers, that commune is
pretty small. But if you're talkingabout people who are excited about dance to
(04:23):
see it or to explore it,then I think that that number is a
lot bigger. Yeah. So Ihad some friends that were in the contra
dance world, and that was avery tight knit group that is they were,
you know, that's all they talkedabout, that's all they did.
And I think with any kind ofarts program, the passion is what drives
(04:44):
it, right, Yeah, forsure. And so you survived the pandemic.
You now have a brick and mortarlocation which is located at North Main
Street, downtown, right on CourtSquare. Oh no, I've seen that.
Excellent. Yeah, and we justgot signage up so now it's act
really noticeable. Yeah. Well,congratulations on the new space. Thank you.
So how has your organization changed sinceyou now have a place you can
(05:08):
call home as compared to sort ofbeing nomads teaching classes. Yeah, well,
first off, we can offer somany more classes. You know,
before we were always using other peoplestudio spaces and so we could only teach
classes when their studio was available,so it was just one or two classes
a week. Now we offer classesalmost every single evening and also on the
(05:29):
weekend. So that's honestly been thebiggest change. But also we're downtown,
which feels like such a gift,such wonderful opportunity. Really grateful to our
landlords to be able to be there. So we also want to engage the
commune a little bit more, justlike our other downtown businesses and neighbors do.
So we try to do a lotof other fun events in addition to
our classes, and now that wehave our own space, we're like,
(05:54):
oh, let's put on some shows. So we've actually started to host performances
in our own space. Not youknow, it's not a big classic venue
where there's a big old stage andthere's a you know, a seating for
one hundred plus. It's a littlebit more intimate, but we honestly we
really like that. We hope itallows for kind of like breaking that fourth
wall a little bit more interaction betweendancer and audience. So you mentioned ballet
(06:17):
and modern dance. Are there otherforms of dance that you're now able to
teach? Yeah, so we balletand modern has kind of always been our
foundation. It's the dance technique thatthat our that our founders, myself and
Elie and then a lot of otherpeople who've been on our board have experienced
doing so we kind of always offerthat, but we also offer jazz and
(06:39):
hip hop. We're also currently offeringimprovisation, and we hope to offer more.
But I will say that we've generallyalways been offering particular dance techniques.
We haven't offered a lot of communitydance, mostly because who knew this could
be so important. Our type offlooring. We have Marley floors, which
is really great for the dance stylesthat I mentioned, but not great for
(07:03):
wearing shoes and for a lot ofthose partner dances. You know, you
got to you need to wear shoes. You need to be able to move
around, and you don't want yourYou want your feet to be able to
slide and move, and Marley canactually be a little bit sticky for shoes.
So yeah, ballet, modern hiphop, jazz, improv and hopefully
more soon. So the ballet isthe one. When you say that,
(07:28):
the first thing I think about isyour poor feet. So, yes,
we don't have point classes, right, I've seen pictures and I'm thinking it's
beautiful, But then why would youdo that to your feet? It's I
don't know if people realize how muchpeople put into their arts. It's their
full body. It's a pretty wild, a pretty wild dance form and one
(07:51):
that I grew up doing and havesuch a love for. And also it
can be really challenging, and it'spretty wild that we're trying to get our
human bodies to look and act ina way that actually isn't very human.
I think that's the point that's sortof why ballet is creative. Is it
made us it would it made thedancer look ethereal and otherworldly, which is
(08:15):
beautiful and I still love it.And also that can be pretty imperfect,
and we have to really take careof our bodies. And so I think
that's actually something that's really exciting thatis changing in the dance world and in
the ballet world in particular, isthat we're acknowledging that all bodies can do
ballet, and we can do itmore safely. So that's something that we
try to keep in mind at thedance studio too, is we want dance
(08:37):
to be safe because also a lotof us are older. I'm thirty seven,
and there's plenty of people in thedance world where that's like the end
of their career. And we're sayingthat you can dance for as long as
you want to, as long asit's fun and safe for you. So
we try to create a culture ofthat in our dance community. We don't
we want to take the dance andleave the toxicity behind. I would think
(09:01):
that when you're speaking of, youknow, aging out of when you know
a dance, a dancer's age agingout of being able to participate in that,
I would think that as you arequote unquote aging out is really when
some of those benefits of muscle strengtheningand balance and coordination can be really helpful
(09:22):
as we're losing that as we getolder, right, and also artistry like
having that lived experience being able tobring that to the movement. There's just
something really beautiful about that We honeour skills because of the beautiful and tragic
and joyous lives that lives that welive, and so I think it really
(09:43):
deepens our performances. And so weactually have a performance coming up in May
that we're going to host at ourstudio and we have dancers ranging in age
from their twenties to their fifties plusthat are performing. And I don't think
that there's a lot of companies everywherethat can say that they do that.
So I think that's another thing thatmakes us really special that I'm really proud
(10:05):
of. So I'm a Steelers fan. When I was a kid, I
was in awe of Lynn Swan andhe was a ballet dancer too, he
said. He said that ballet iswhat helped him be so agile on the
field. Yeah, And so I'mcurious, what would you tell people are
the you know, the positive attributesthat you will take away from dance,
(10:28):
not the actual moment of dance,but in your everyday life. What do
you get from from dance? Oh? Wow, Well, I think the
most special part about it for meis being really present in my body and
all the thoughts and fears and concernsand to do lists they just go away.
(10:50):
And even and you're talking about whatwe take away from dance, and
I think that I'm talking about somethingexperience and dance in the moment, but
also I take that away that reminderthat I'm connected to my body, that
my body can do beautiful things.It lends a particular confidence and comfort in
my own self, which is reallylovely. But also increased range of motion
(11:15):
is pretty great strength for sure.It probably it goes without saying, and
I bet many people could guess this, but sort of just diligence and that
sort of connection to it and remainingconnected to it to build and grow a
(11:35):
skill that practice and knowing that youcan get better at something by loving it
and devoting yourself to it is forsure one of those things too. And
it's also just another way to startto interact with and understand your world when
oftentimes we take in the world allthrough our mind and what we see,
but just thinking about how your bodycan take it in and interact with it
(11:58):
is really too. It just sortof opens it opens everything up. So
we mentioned the Great Community Give iscoming up on April seventeenth, and I'm
sure you'd love for every person listeningto this to select your organization. By
the way, we are speaking withlaramac the president of Harrisonburg Dance Cooperative.
If you are interested in making adonation during the Great Community Give, you
(12:22):
go to Great Community Give dot orgstarting on April third. How much money
would you like to raise and howwill you use that money within the cooperative?
Yeah, we'd love to raise atleast five thousand dollars. This will
go to our just general operation.So it goes to helping us stay in
our space, helping us get suppliesto make us to improve our space,
(12:45):
make it more comfortable for any typeof dancer. It goes to helping us
put on our performances that can goto costumes, artists, fees, concessions
like all these different things. Ofcourse, outreach and marketing is so important,
and so printing flyers, media postingthings like that. I mean,
really, any amount that anyone givesassists us in just getting to stay where
(13:11):
we are and do what we doand hopefully do more of it. I'm
sure when you're when you were workingat the Little Grill and you ran into
your old teacher that you'd never probablyimagine you'd have all this responsibility now running
a dance cooperative. I did not, I mean truly at the time of
starting the Dance co Op. Itfeels silly to say this, but it
was very personal. It felt insome ways it felt very selfish. I
(13:33):
was starting a dance community just soI could keep doing it, because it's
what brought me so much joy.What has been so fun about having the
Dance co Op now for nine years, it's been around for nine years,
is learning just how much other peoplelove dance, not because they've been doing
it since they were a four yearold, but because they find value in
(13:54):
it now. And that might beas a first timer, that might be
coming back to dance after twenty years, and it does also feel like a
huge responsibility. I will I wantto share this just because it feels so
significant to us. We are anall volunteer run organization, so running that
space, keeping it tidy for everybody, finding teachers, putting on classes,
(14:15):
putting on performances. All that isdone by people who just love dance.
We're not making money off of it. We hope that can change someday.
We would love to get big enoughso we can actually have staff that can
do this work, because, asit turns out, it's a lot of
it's a lot of labor, it'sa lot of love. I'm sure it
(14:35):
is. Yeah, if someone wantsto come to your organization and learn dance,
is there a fee for that?Yeah, So all of our classes
you do pay for class, Andwe have a website h Berg dance co
op dot org and you can gothere to see all of our class offerings
(14:58):
and sign up for classes directly onthe website. What's your schedule When are
you actually teaching classes? Yeah,most of the times it's in the evening
starting at five thirty. We haveclasses at five thirty and seven pm.
Most weeknights and then on Saturdays wehave a few morning classes. Every once
in a while we have some popup workshops and stuff like. We did
(15:20):
one recently with a phenomenal artist fromCharlottesville, Katie Dean, and she did
a performance prep class and it wasall about like, how do you prepare
yourself for that exciting and nerve wrackingthing and what was exciting about it.
It was for dancers, certainly,but actually all types of performers. It
just included a movement element. Sothose are some of the unique things that
we bring that we'd also like todo some more of. For a person
(15:41):
like me who says, now Ican't dance, sure convince me that I'm
wrong. Oh golly. If youcan blink, you can dance. If
you love the sound of music,you can dance. You don't have to
do it for people. You don'teven have to do it in front of
other people. But I encourage everybodyto just remember that our bodies are capable
(16:06):
of so many wonderful things, anddancing is one of them. And if
you want to explore that, youcan always come into our space and do
that. If you just want tosee other people do it, do that.
You can come see any of ourshows. There's always a way that
someone can be interacting with dance.But I want to also say that like,
you can do it in a waythat is comfortable for you. There's
no never any reason to have toforce yourself. Dance should be fun and
(16:32):
it's okay if it is just foryou. Where do you see the future
of your organization? Oh goodness,I think if anything, we just want
to grow what we offer so peoplecan be exploring dance. We want people
to come into classes that have neverdone dance before, who have maybe like
(16:53):
had a dream of doing as akid, but never had the opportunity,
who want to come in and celebratetheir other friends and community of dancers.
We'd also love to offer more classesduring the day because we know that there's
you know, a bunch of parentswho have babies who want to get out
and move. We also want tooffer more than just technique classes. One
(17:14):
thing that we started to do witha wonderful friend, Ryan Clark, who's
a local DJ, is we havea dance party called No Booze, No
Shoes. So because we have Marleyflooring, you have to take your shoes
off, but Also, I noticedas I was getting older that there's a
lot of people in my community whojust don't drink alcohol anymore and could use
a space where they can come togetherand dance and have a great time.
(17:37):
But that's not connected to drinking culture. So we've done two no booths,
no shoes dance parties so far.We hope to do more and that's been
also really fun. So that's theother thing too, is like we're helping
to not only continue to offer danceclasses, but remind people that we can
build community around movement in a waythat everybody feels comfortable and excited about.
We're speaking with Laura Max. She'sthe president of the Harrison Dance Cooperative.
(18:00):
And Laura, did you mention earlierthat you've got a performance coming up.
So our show, it's a springshow with a bunch of different dancers.
It's going to be Friday and Saturday, the first weekend in May. I
believe that's May third and fourth.We're going to do two showings of our
(18:21):
performance on Friday and on Friday evening, and then two showings Saturday evening and
one matinee show Saturday. Well,Lauria, I look forward to seeing how
your organization grows. I think you'redoing great workforce here in the Harrisonburg and
Rockingham County area. Yes, youcan dance. Just be brave and don't
let your mind get in the wayof what your body wants to do.
(18:42):
Right, exactly exactly. I figureif you can dance in the living room
when no one's watching, you probablycan dance. Yep, that's so true.
All right. The Great Community toGive is coming up on April seventeenth.
We're just a few weeks away now, and this year, because it's
a seventh anniversary, your minimum donationcan be seven dollars, but I encourage
you to give even more. Goto Great Community Give dot org. You
(19:03):
can also check out the Harsonburg DanceCooperatives website, which is Hburg Dance co
Op dot org. I'll just spellit out really quick. H B U,
R G, D A, NC, E, C O O
P dot org. Very good,Laura, it is great to meet you,
and like I said, I'm reallyexcited about seeing how your organization grows
over the years. Thanks so much, appreciate the time this has been Shenandoah
(19:26):
Valley Business Break. If you havean idea for a future show. Reach
us at the contact tab at NewsRadiow KCY dot com. Find all past
episodes by searching business Break on theiHeartRadio app.
Shanado A Valley. Business Break isa podcast about local business and community happenings
and and around the Shenandoah Valley ofVirginia. I'm Chris Carmichael, and our
guest today is Laura Max. She'sthe president of the Harrisonburg Dance Cooperative.
Lara, it is good to seeyou, wonderful to be here. Thanks
for having me. Yeah, it'sour pleasure the Harrisonburg Dance Cooperative. I'm
(00:21):
not a dance person, so thisisn't the world I'm living in. Help
me understand what you do and whoyou are. Yeah. We are a
community of dancers that have and hostdance classes and performances and other dance opportunities
for grown ups. For adults excellent. Yeah, I could probably definitely use
that. My wife and I combineddon't have one good foot to dance on.
(00:45):
Yeah, So it's funny. Actually, oftentimes we're confused with being a
dance stuio for children, and thenother times people think that they can't come
to our classes because they don't havea dance experience. But especially in recent
years, we got people coming inand we're offering beginner classes, so we
really take it seriously. When wesay dances for everybody, we want anyone
(01:07):
to feel that they can come inand try out. I actually, I
think we got a little bit ofof ourselves. I should explain why we're
talking with you this morning. TheGreat Community Give is coming up on April
seventeenth, Yes, and you canpoint click and give at Great Community Give
dot org. This is the CommunityDay of Giving and there are I think
one hundred and fifty six nonprofits inHarrisonburg and Rockham County. You are one
(01:30):
of those nonprofits, that's right,that would love some support on April seventeenth.
Yes, that's correct. And bythe way, if you don't want
to try to remember April seventeenth,anytime beginning I think April third through the
seventeenth, you can go to thewebsite and you can get information and make
your donation that way. All right, So now we understand why we're talking
today. And you know, Ialways am interested in how organizations get started.
(01:59):
You know the hit behind them,and you know how things are going.
So let's talk about that. Yeah, happy too, because we've really
shifted and grown in the last fewyears. And I think also it's sort
of special being an arts nonprofit andwe made it through the pandemic, which
feels significant. But we started aroundtwenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, and it
(02:22):
was because I was working at theLittle Grill at the time and was serving
a family. And turns out themom and that family used to play piano
for the ballet classes I took atJMU when I went there, and her
daughter was a dancer, and sheintroduced the two of us and she said,
Laura, your dancer, meet mydancer. And Ellie Douall and I
connected and we were like, wemiss dancing so much. I wasn't dancing
(02:47):
at the time and really really missedit. And we're like, we want
to create a community of dancers inHarrisonburg. We want to teach classes for
each other, we want to perform. That's what we missed the most,
and so we got started. Wedidn't have our own space, and we
borrowed nearly every studio or studio likeplace possible for about seven years. We
started putting on shows right away.We offered modern and ballet classes primarily,
(03:14):
and then, let's see, thepandemic happened and we almost had to call
it quits. Like so many performancearts communities, out there. It was
a real struggle, but we wentvirtual and we offered just one virtual dance
class a week. I think itwas ballet, and then we also offered
(03:35):
modern every once in a while andthat allowed us to survive. And then
we worked with Commune Foundation. Wegot a grant from the Erlin J.
Miller Fund and that allowed us toget our first ever brick and mortar space.
So in March twenty twenty three,we got a space downtown. So
that really feels like it felt likeit changed the ballgame. We got to
offer as many classes as we want. It really moved us a new and
(04:00):
exciting direction. Can we have abig dance community here in the valley?
No, but it's growing, Okay. Yeah? And well I think too
when you define dance community, howlarge it is maybe depends on the definition.
If you're talking about super experience orprofessional level dancers, that commune is
pretty small. But if you're talkingabout people who are excited about dance to
(04:23):
see it or to explore it,then I think that that number is a
lot bigger. Yeah. So Ihad some friends that were in the contra
dance world, and that was avery tight knit group that is they were,
you know, that's all they talkedabout, that's all they did.
And I think with any kind ofarts program, the passion is what drives
(04:44):
it, right, Yeah, forsure. And so you survived the pandemic.
You now have a brick and mortarlocation which is located at North Main
Street, downtown, right on CourtSquare. Oh no, I've seen that.
Excellent. Yeah, and we justgot signage up so now it's act
really noticeable. Yeah. Well,congratulations on the new space. Thank you.
So how has your organization changed sinceyou now have a place you can
(05:08):
call home as compared to sort ofbeing nomads teaching classes. Yeah, well,
first off, we can offer somany more classes. You know,
before we were always using other peoplestudio spaces and so we could only teach
classes when their studio was available,so it was just one or two classes
a week. Now we offer classesalmost every single evening and also on the
(05:29):
weekend. So that's honestly been thebiggest change. But also we're downtown,
which feels like such a gift,such wonderful opportunity. Really grateful to our
landlords to be able to be there. So we also want to engage the
commune a little bit more, justlike our other downtown businesses and neighbors do.
So we try to do a lotof other fun events in addition to
our classes, and now that wehave our own space, we're like,
(05:54):
oh, let's put on some shows. So we've actually started to host performances
in our own space. Not youknow, it's not a big classic venue
where there's a big old stage andthere's a you know, a seating for
one hundred plus. It's a littlebit more intimate, but we honestly we
really like that. We hope itallows for kind of like breaking that fourth
wall a little bit more interaction betweendancer and audience. So you mentioned ballet
(06:17):
and modern dance. Are there otherforms of dance that you're now able to
teach? Yeah, so we balletand modern has kind of always been our
foundation. It's the dance technique thatthat our that our founders, myself and
Elie and then a lot of otherpeople who've been on our board have experienced
doing so we kind of always offerthat, but we also offer jazz and
(06:39):
hip hop. We're also currently offeringimprovisation, and we hope to offer more.
But I will say that we've generallyalways been offering particular dance techniques.
We haven't offered a lot of communitydance, mostly because who knew this could
be so important. Our type offlooring. We have Marley floors, which
is really great for the dance stylesthat I mentioned, but not great for
(07:03):
wearing shoes and for a lot ofthose partner dances. You know, you
got to you need to wear shoes. You need to be able to move
around, and you don't want yourYou want your feet to be able to
slide and move, and Marley canactually be a little bit sticky for shoes.
So yeah, ballet, modern hiphop, jazz, improv and hopefully
more soon. So the ballet isthe one. When you say that,
(07:28):
the first thing I think about isyour poor feet. So, yes,
we don't have point classes, right, I've seen pictures and I'm thinking it's
beautiful, But then why would youdo that to your feet? It's I
don't know if people realize how muchpeople put into their arts. It's their
full body. It's a pretty wild, a pretty wild dance form and one
(07:51):
that I grew up doing and havesuch a love for. And also it
can be really challenging, and it'spretty wild that we're trying to get our
human bodies to look and act ina way that actually isn't very human.
I think that's the point that's sortof why ballet is creative. Is it
made us it would it made thedancer look ethereal and otherworldly, which is
(08:15):
beautiful and I still love it.And also that can be pretty imperfect,
and we have to really take careof our bodies. And so I think
that's actually something that's really exciting thatis changing in the dance world and in
the ballet world in particular, isthat we're acknowledging that all bodies can do
ballet, and we can do itmore safely. So that's something that we
try to keep in mind at thedance studio too, is we want dance
(08:37):
to be safe because also a lotof us are older. I'm thirty seven,
and there's plenty of people in thedance world where that's like the end
of their career. And we're sayingthat you can dance for as long as
you want to, as long asit's fun and safe for you. So
we try to create a culture ofthat in our dance community. We don't
we want to take the dance andleave the toxicity behind. I would think
(09:01):
that when you're speaking of, youknow, aging out of when you know
a dance, a dancer's age agingout of being able to participate in that,
I would think that as you arequote unquote aging out is really when
some of those benefits of muscle strengtheningand balance and coordination can be really helpful
(09:22):
as we're losing that as we getolder, right, and also artistry like
having that lived experience being able tobring that to the movement. There's just
something really beautiful about that We honeour skills because of the beautiful and tragic
and joyous lives that lives that welive, and so I think it really
(09:43):
deepens our performances. And so weactually have a performance coming up in May
that we're going to host at ourstudio and we have dancers ranging in age
from their twenties to their fifties plusthat are performing. And I don't think
that there's a lot of companies everywherethat can say that they do that.
So I think that's another thing thatmakes us really special that I'm really proud
(10:05):
of. So I'm a Steelers fan. When I was a kid, I
was in awe of Lynn Swan andhe was a ballet dancer too, he
said. He said that ballet iswhat helped him be so agile on the
field. Yeah, And so I'mcurious, what would you tell people are
the you know, the positive attributesthat you will take away from dance,
(10:28):
not the actual moment of dance,but in your everyday life. What do
you get from from dance? Oh? Wow, Well, I think the
most special part about it for meis being really present in my body and
all the thoughts and fears and concernsand to do lists they just go away.
(10:50):
And even and you're talking about whatwe take away from dance, and
I think that I'm talking about somethingexperience and dance in the moment, but
also I take that away that reminderthat I'm connected to my body, that
my body can do beautiful things.It lends a particular confidence and comfort in
my own self, which is reallylovely. But also increased range of motion
(11:15):
is pretty great strength for sure.It probably it goes without saying, and
I bet many people could guess this, but sort of just diligence and that
sort of connection to it and remainingconnected to it to build and grow a
(11:35):
skill that practice and knowing that youcan get better at something by loving it
and devoting yourself to it is forsure one of those things too. And
it's also just another way to startto interact with and understand your world when
oftentimes we take in the world allthrough our mind and what we see,
but just thinking about how your bodycan take it in and interact with it
(11:58):
is really too. It just sortof opens it opens everything up. So
we mentioned the Great Community Give iscoming up on April seventeenth, and I'm
sure you'd love for every person listeningto this to select your organization. By
the way, we are speaking withlaramac the president of Harrisonburg Dance Cooperative.
If you are interested in making adonation during the Great Community Give, you
(12:22):
go to Great Community Give dot orgstarting on April third. How much money
would you like to raise and howwill you use that money within the cooperative?
Yeah, we'd love to raise atleast five thousand dollars. This will
go to our just general operation.So it goes to helping us stay in
our space, helping us get suppliesto make us to improve our space,
(12:45):
make it more comfortable for any typeof dancer. It goes to helping us
put on our performances that can goto costumes, artists, fees, concessions
like all these different things. Ofcourse, outreach and marketing is so important,
and so printing flyers, media postingthings like that. I mean,
really, any amount that anyone givesassists us in just getting to stay where
(13:11):
we are and do what we doand hopefully do more of it. I'm
sure when you're when you were workingat the Little Grill and you ran into
your old teacher that you'd never probablyimagine you'd have all this responsibility now running
a dance cooperative. I did not, I mean truly at the time of
starting the Dance co Op. Itfeels silly to say this, but it
was very personal. It felt insome ways it felt very selfish. I
(13:33):
was starting a dance community just soI could keep doing it, because it's
what brought me so much joy.What has been so fun about having the
Dance co Op now for nine years, it's been around for nine years,
is learning just how much other peoplelove dance, not because they've been doing
it since they were a four yearold, but because they find value in
(13:54):
it now. And that might beas a first timer, that might be
coming back to dance after twenty years, and it does also feel like a
huge responsibility. I will I wantto share this just because it feels so
significant to us. We are anall volunteer run organization, so running that
space, keeping it tidy for everybody, finding teachers, putting on classes,
(14:15):
putting on performances. All that isdone by people who just love dance.
We're not making money off of it. We hope that can change someday.
We would love to get big enoughso we can actually have staff that can
do this work, because, asit turns out, it's a lot of
it's a lot of labor, it'sa lot of love. I'm sure it
(14:35):
is. Yeah, if someone wantsto come to your organization and learn dance,
is there a fee for that?Yeah, So all of our classes
you do pay for class, Andwe have a website h Berg dance co
op dot org and you can gothere to see all of our class offerings
(14:58):
and sign up for classes directly onthe website. What's your schedule When are
you actually teaching classes? Yeah,most of the times it's in the evening
starting at five thirty. We haveclasses at five thirty and seven pm.
Most weeknights and then on Saturdays wehave a few morning classes. Every once
in a while we have some popup workshops and stuff like. We did
(15:20):
one recently with a phenomenal artist fromCharlottesville, Katie Dean, and she did
a performance prep class and it wasall about like, how do you prepare
yourself for that exciting and nerve wrackingthing and what was exciting about it.
It was for dancers, certainly,but actually all types of performers. It
just included a movement element. Sothose are some of the unique things that
we bring that we'd also like todo some more of. For a person
(15:41):
like me who says, now Ican't dance, sure convince me that I'm
wrong. Oh golly. If youcan blink, you can dance. If
you love the sound of music,you can dance. You don't have to
do it for people. You don'teven have to do it in front of
other people. But I encourage everybodyto just remember that our bodies are capable
(16:06):
of so many wonderful things, anddancing is one of them. And if
you want to explore that, youcan always come into our space and do
that. If you just want tosee other people do it, do that.
You can come see any of ourshows. There's always a way that
someone can be interacting with dance.But I want to also say that like,
you can do it in a waythat is comfortable for you. There's
no never any reason to have toforce yourself. Dance should be fun and
(16:32):
it's okay if it is just foryou. Where do you see the future
of your organization? Oh goodness,I think if anything, we just want
to grow what we offer so peoplecan be exploring dance. We want people
to come into classes that have neverdone dance before, who have maybe like
(16:53):
had a dream of doing as akid, but never had the opportunity,
who want to come in and celebratetheir other friends and community of dancers.
We'd also love to offer more classesduring the day because we know that there's
you know, a bunch of parentswho have babies who want to get out
and move. We also want tooffer more than just technique classes. One
(17:14):
thing that we started to do witha wonderful friend, Ryan Clark, who's
a local DJ, is we havea dance party called No Booze, No
Shoes. So because we have Marleyflooring, you have to take your shoes
off, but Also, I noticedas I was getting older that there's a
lot of people in my community whojust don't drink alcohol anymore and could use
a space where they can come togetherand dance and have a great time.
(17:37):
But that's not connected to drinking culture. So we've done two no booths,
no shoes dance parties so far.We hope to do more and that's been
also really fun. So that's theother thing too, is like we're helping
to not only continue to offer danceclasses, but remind people that we can
build community around movement in a waythat everybody feels comfortable and excited about.
We're speaking with Laura Max. She'sthe president of the Harrison Dance Cooperative.
(18:00):
And Laura, did you mention earlierthat you've got a performance coming up.
So our show, it's a springshow with a bunch of different dancers.
It's going to be Friday and Saturday, the first weekend in May. I
believe that's May third and fourth.We're going to do two showings of our
(18:21):
performance on Friday and on Friday evening, and then two showings Saturday evening and
one matinee show Saturday. Well,Lauria, I look forward to seeing how
your organization grows. I think you'redoing great workforce here in the Harrisonburg and
Rockingham County area. Yes, youcan dance. Just be brave and don't
let your mind get in the wayof what your body wants to do.
(18:42):
Right, exactly exactly. I figureif you can dance in the living room
when no one's watching, you probablycan dance. Yep, that's so true.
All right. The Great Community toGive is coming up on April seventeenth.
We're just a few weeks away now, and this year, because it's
a seventh anniversary, your minimum donationcan be seven dollars, but I encourage
you to give even more. Goto Great Community Give dot org. You
(19:03):
can also check out the Harsonburg DanceCooperatives website, which is Hburg Dance co
Op dot org. I'll just spellit out really quick. H B U,
R G, D A, NC, E, C O O
P dot org. Very good,Laura, it is great to meet you,
and like I said, I'm reallyexcited about seeing how your organization grows
over the years. Thanks so much, appreciate the time this has been Shenandoah
(19:26):
Valley Business Break. If you havean idea for a future show. Reach
us at the contact tab at NewsRadiow KCY dot com. Find all past
episodes by searching business Break on theiHeartRadio app.
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