Dancers from Centralia's Southwest Washington Dance Center perform "Shatter Me" in March 2016t at Dance Festival Northwest at the Corbet Theatre at Centralia College.
The Southwest Washington Dance Center.
Dancers from across the Northwest perform dances ranging from traditional to modern during Southwest Washington Dance Center's Dance Festival Northwest.
Dancers from across the Northwest perform dances ranging from traditional to modern during Southwest Washington Dance Center's Dance Festival Northwest last year.
Bailey Peters (left) and Marissa Hall perform a dance number during a recent practice at the Southwest Washington Dance Studio in Chehalis, in preparation for theDance Festival Northwest in 2015.
When the Southwest Washington Dance Center in Downtown Chehalis temporarily closed its doors in mid-March, the non-profit organization’s Administrative Director Marcia Greenfield said the flow of income used to keep the company running was severed.
The center relies on the tuition of students to stay alive. With no students, Greenfield said she’s had to fall back on ‘what’s in the bank’ for the time being.
The boost from a family that has said they won’t stop paying tuition during the closure has helped, too.
“That’s very heartwarming,” Greenfield said. “We know how much they miss being here, because the kids love coming here.”
She continued by saying other families haven’t asked for refunds for the other half of March. Rather, they’ve donated the other half of their tuition help Greenfield during a time in which her day-to-day operation is put on hold.
“We’ve created a family,” Greenfield said. “We’re kind of a big family, we’ve got 260 students, but people feel like this is a second home. Especially the kids, some of them are here two, three days a week after school, so this is a very comfortable place for them to be. They miss it and I think the families do too.”
The school has operated in Chehalis and served the greater Lewis County area for 38 years. After Gov. Jay Inslee ordered a closure of many businesses, including entertainment and recreational facilities, the center was forced to save only its administrative staff.
Greenfield mentioned administrative staff possibly being impacted as the closure continues.
“We are kind of just depending on what’s in the bank for right now,” Greenfield said. “Also, looking at some of the options that are out there now for financial help that the federal government has put out there, so we’re looking at all of our options.”
For the time being, the center has tried to get creative with the options it’s offering to students.
Like others involved with businesses in the area, Greenfield has looked to online methods to provide students with classes and other activities. She said teachers continue to also scout the internet for resources and have taken to Facebook to provide students with various challenges.
“Kids have been posting pictures of them dancing online and doing different things,” Greenfield said. “So that’s been a lot of fun, keeping them connected to each other.”
The school has worked hard to adapt to the new times in which students and their families have been forced to live. With in-person access and large gatherings being restricted, this year’s Dance Festival Northwest was canceled.
The event has taken place in the Twin Cities area for 27 years, bringing dance companies from around the Pacific Northwest together to perform various styles of dance.
“We had 10 performaning companies from around the Pacific Northwest coming here (to Centralia College), bringing their dance works,” Greenfield said. “The kids have spent months working on pieces, now, that they aren’t going to get to perform, at least, for the short term.”
She added Southwest won’t look to reschedule Dance Festival Northwest this year, but hasn’t yet ruled out an event that would still exhibit everything the students have worked on after operations resume.
Students started the program in September and began working on choreography in January. Greenfield said the company returned all of the costumes ordered from the festival they possibly could, but some were unable to be returned in time.
“Some of them already had their pieces worked up,” Greenfield said. “So we’re going to have a kind of a hodgepodge of some classes would have a costume and others wouldn’t. We’ll just have to go to Goodwill or something, be creative (for the others), get Grandma sewing skirts or something.”
Conversations amongst those at Southwest continue to happen regarding possible events for when operations resume. Still, the temporary lull for staff, students and families remains difficult.
“It’s kind of like, you don’t get to see your family,” Greenfield said. “Especially for the kids, they don’t get to see their school friends, they’re just stuck at home. Missing this (dancing) is just another thing that makes it harder right now for them.”
