Learning Through Dance

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Dance Festival Northwest is a show.

Dance Festival Northwest is also a chance for dancers to learn from the masters.

But every part of the experience is part of a deeper lesson, said Rebecca Barney, Southwest Washington Dance Center instructor.

“They’re learning from what they see. They’re learning from the experience and they bring that to the next show,” Barney said.

Southwest Washington Dance Center in Chehalis will host the 26th annual Dance Festival Northwest March 24. Between five and 10 visiting companies usually participate in Dance Festival Northwest. What brings these companies together for these festivals is the chance to be part of master classes offered, featuring instruction by renowned dancers. This year’s Dance Festival Northwest classes will be:ballet by Marisa Soltis Delgado and martial arts/contemporary taught by Michele Miller.  

The public portion of the event is a dance performance, which will take place at 7 p.m. March 24 in Corbet Theatre inside Washington Hall on the Centralia College campus. Each year’s Dance Festival Northwest performance is different, based on the participating companies and the dances they choose to perform. This year’s performing companies are: Ballet Northwest of Olympia; Harbor Dance Ballet Company of Gig Harbor; Johansen Olympia Dance Center of Olympia; Northeast Youth Ballet of Reading, Mass.; Olympic Ballroom Dance of Olympia; Studio West Dance Academy of Olympia; and Studio West Dance Theatre of Olympia. As the hosting company, Southwest Washington Dance Ensemble will perform two pieces during the event featuring between 15 to 18 local dancers.

But Dance Festival Northwest is more of a process than a single performance for Southwest Washington Dance Ensemble members. Barney said they audition for parts in January, almost immediately after the conclusion of performances of “The Nutcracker.” The pieces are usually modern jazz and contemporary styles, which is the focus of the spring classes at Southwest Washington Dance Center after the fall’s focus on the traditional ballet form of “The Nutcracker” As a non-competitive dance school, Southwest Washington Ballet holds events such as “The Nutcracker” and Dance Festival Northwest as a way for their students to experience performing for an audience.



“You can study technique and practice the bones of it all you want, but dance doesn’t really get breath and life until you put it on a stage,” Barney said.

The March 24 performance will actually be Southwest Washington Dance Center Ensemble members’ third opportunity to dance these pieces. Previously, they performed these pieces at Olympia Dance Festival and the Dance to Make a Difference gala in Olympia. Both of the hosting dance companies for those events are attending Dance Festival Northwest.

“We’ve built some pretty good relationships with companies throughout the Puget Sound with this event,” Barney said. “They kind of get to see other people perform and build relationships with other performers out there.”

Just having multiple opportunities to perform for audiences is part of the learning experience, Barney noted. She explained ensemble members have come back from each performance with notes on how they could tweak the pieces based on their own experiences as well as audience reactions.

“Even though it’s a one-shot experience for our audience here, we try to foster the idea with our dancers there’s no such thing as a finished product,” Barney said. “I think they learn a lot from being in process. They learn how to work through how the experience affects them and how they are affected by other people.”