School to take up a legacy of dance

It's all there in the blueprint: a large dance studio and a smaller one. Dressing rooms for women, men and the faculty. A family waiting room. Shower rooms and bathrooms. About 6,200 square feet wrapped up in Capital Architects' design for The Dance School in Everett.

But what isn't in Sandra Alder's black-and-white floor plans are the dreams, the efforts and the sweat equity of the people who will teach and study there.

With students as young as 18 months in parent-toddler classes and instruction for all ages in tap, ballet, jazz and modern dance, The Dance School hopes to turn out generations of dancers just as Mike Jordan, its predecessor, did.

Up to his death in 2004, Jordan ran the second-oldest dance studio in the state on the second floor of the Vasa Building, built in 1903 and long known as the "Spooner Building" after the school's founder and Jordan's mother, Betty Spooner. After Spooner's death, Jordan had begun running the Betty Spooner Creative Arts Foundation in 1967.

Morrie Trautman, a local businessman, bought the building from Jordan's family in 2005.

Four generations of Trautman's family studied with Betty Spooner and Mike Jordan, and he is now on the board of The Dance School.

"I think the most important thing for the community is the fact that Betty Spooner and Michael Jordan started a legacy for dance that went on for years and years and years," Trautman said. "The community need is still there. So this is our way of filling the void created by his passing and continuing the dance education and legacy created by him."

The Spooner sign on the building will remain, freshened and with a patina restoring it "to its original grandeur," Trautman said.

Spruced up, just like the school.

Board President Clare Hausmann Weiand said it wouldn't surprise her if people say, "I'm still dancing at Spooner's."

But the difference will be apparent.

The old hardwood floors will be replaced by flexible sprung wooden flooring. The space runs half a city block east to west, with airy windows at both ends. Newland Construction is rebuilding the second-floor space as a state-of-the-art dance studio, said Steve Casteel, the new artistic director.

Because The Dance School is nonprofit, fundraisers and grants will be a large part of its $380,000 first-year budget. That includes tenant improvements and startup costs, and to help with those, a $200,000 capital fundraising campaign is under way.

There are six faculty members, with performing backgrounds and teaching credentials that range from the Joffrey City Center Ballet to touring companies of "A Chorus Line," from Indiana's Butler University to the University of Washington.

Sara Coiley, Kathleen McCormick, Tina Mollis, Amy D. Sennett and Vanesa Wylie will join Casteel, a former Houston Ballet dancer with degrees from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and the University of Arizona. He has taught at Dance Fremont and, until taking his current job, worked with Next Stage Dance Theatre, a modern-dance company for older dancers.

Weiand said that Cornish's dance-department head, Kitty Daniels, recommended Casteel highly. Later, talking with students at Dance Fremont, Weiand said: "I asked how the students felt about him. They said they respected him as a teacher but were also in awe of him as a dancer. That's exciting for us, to have someone who can inspire that in kids, seeing what being committed to dance can do for you."

Casteel already has joined Art Partners, a group of arts presenters in Snohomish County who meet once a month at the Everett Symphony to compare schedules and share resources.

"I've been in dance since age 6, so it's like another home to me," Casteel said. "I grew up there. As a young student ... you spend a lot of time in the studio. You eat; you do your homework there. I feel very comfortable in the space."

He wants the same rich experience for his students.

"I want my students to be fully aware of their movement possibilities and become any kind of dancer they want to become," Casteel said.

Whether as dance professionals or as arts supporters later in life, he said, "I want them to be aware of what their abilities are."

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com