Chelsea Speer – Turning Point Dance

We’re back in the studio here at Making It Work in Montana, and we have done a lot of episodes since we started. We’ve talked to a guy that was mauled by a grizzly bear. We’ve talked to home builders, mountaineers. A lot of things you think about when you think of Montana. But what we’re going to talk about today, a lot of people don’t associate with Montana. And I will just tell you that recently myself and my wife, Jennifer were recruited by the Warming Center, a local nonprofit, to be, quote, celebrity dance couples. And that was a surprise. But we were interested. And because I’m married to a figure skater, I said, well, I’ll do it if I can dance with my wife, because personally, I don’t dance. When it comes to dancing and me, you just think of like just kind of standing there. Nothing happening. A little music, and I don’t know anything about dance. So I decided to agree to it to try and use a completely different side of my brain and everything. And so Jennifer and I met Chelsea Speer, who’s on my right in about July of this year, just a couple of months ago, and she was assigned as our dance instructor. And Jennifer and I danced in the Dancing with the Stars fundraiser, and we did the cha cha and we laid it down. And so in the description of this podcast, you can look up the YouTube of us doing that, which will embarrass my wife. But I’m actually very proud of it because I spent two months grinding it out and studying and learning how to dance with Chelsea, and we put that performance down. So that’s what we had to show for it. And so today I would like to welcome Chelsea Speer. Welcome to Making it work in Montana.

 

Thank you. Glad to be here.

 

So when she agreed to teach us dancing, she did not agree to get on a microphone and talk and be on camera. So she’s a little outside of her comfort zone right now. But we’re going to roll with this. So, Chelsea, the reason I brought you in here was because being able to take me and get me to execute that performance means, you know, what you’re doing. And so I wanted to share that with people. There’s just a lot to share. But before we get started, I was wondering if you could just kind of fill us in. So I want you to take me from just to explain, like what got you into dance in the first place and then give us a little bit of your journey, some of your big accomplishments personally, and how you made it to where you are right now in Montana running a dance studio.

 

Okay. Well, I grew up in Arizona and my mom put me in dance at age three because I was very, very shy. And someone said that dance would bring me out of my shell. While the first few months of classes, I cried and my parents, my mom had to just leave me. And then I finally stopped crying. I didn’t come out of my shell until I was quite a bit older and until I actually started performing, which performing in front of hundreds of people can make you really nervous. So it was kind of an interesting thing that they put me in. But so I started ballet at like three years old, and then I performed in my first Nutcracker at five years old with Nevada Dance Theater. And every performance I did until I was probably I mean, just last week I stopped crying because I would cry before the performances because I was so nervous. So again, like Dave said, I could dance for you right now and not be nervous, but talking makes me more nervous. So I basically have learned to be able to dance and express myself that way, but not talking to people. So. But anyway, yeah, my mom put me in ballet at a young age and I didn’t know if I was she didn’t know if I was going to stick with it because of how nervous I was. And I finally did. I grew up in a very strict dance ballet studio called the Royal Academy of Dancing, so very strict ballet trained, nothing like I did with you.

 

But you probably thank God, right?

 

Yes. You might have not lasted very long. Basically, you it was kind of what you see on TV, the very strict style of ballet and that you only pass on to the next level when you got all the things right, like when you did the technique of things correctly, you would be examined each year from an examiner from England. So anyone that’s familiar with Royal Ballet dancing and then you pass on to the next level, and when you pass on next level, you keep progressing and you get different colored leotards. When you pass on, you get your pointe shoes. So it’s super, super strict. And so I did that from when I was three until I was 18. I also went to a performing arts high school in Arizona. In Arizona, we have charter schools, so it was a public high school. So I got all my normal, you know, math and English. But instead of gym and art, I got to dance. So I took that’s when I started doing other styles besides ballet. So I got to do jazz and hip hop and tap and all these other styles were all why is still doing very strict ballet, doing performances several times a year and then learning two different styles of dance. My parents, I was very fortunate to go to a lot of summer dance camps and I danced in California, Wyoming. Oh man, I can’t even remember the number. I’m sorry, parents. I don’t remember the number of places they sent me.

 

But parents work hard for kids in these sports, right?

 

And so the type of dancing everyone has seen. So you Think you can Dance and Dancing with the Stars and these dance styles that they see on TV, which is more of a competition type dancing, which is which is great. And that’s kind of what you did, and that’s the ballroom. But the style I did was definitely more of a performing arts, and that’s kind of what I do now with my students. Again, there’s nothing wrong with competitions, but for me, dance is like kind of like an inwards expression and a personal best. So that’s kind of my background. I did go to school, I did go to college for elementary and special education, all still while dancing. So I took a lot of dance classes. I did a lot. I taught a lot of different in a different studios in Arizona and in Oregon, kind of putting myself through working while I was going through college. But I do have a teaching degree, so.

 

Well, teaching obviously can transcend over to the dance studio because that’s what you’re doing, right?

 

Yes. And honestly, growing up, I had a lot of great dance teachers, but a lot of okay ones. And the great ones were not necessarily the best dancers, but were amazing teachers. And I kind of consider myself not the best dancer, obviously. That’s why I’m not a professional dancer, but I’m a better teacher than I am a dancer.

 

Well, I could I could sense that because when we were learning, you know, I don’t know what I’m doing, but you were able to get me motivated to push through the, you know, the absolute zero to where we were headed. So definitely saw your skills there. When you get into ballet, maybe just help the layperson who doesn’t really know anything. Like I’ve watched The Nutcracker ballet a lot. That’s kind of like seems like the standard at every ballet organization and and people that are into ballet. This is like, yeah, it’s The Nutcracker. But like, what? What are we looking for? Like, what are we looking at that makes it exciting for dancers and for ballet people? Like, what are they aiming for in this type of dance?

 

Okay, good question. Well, the history of ballet is that it was danced for the King and queens in in Europe and only very expensive. Like rich people could afford to have someone come and do ballet for them. So it’s definitely known as kind of a high end type thing. So and yes, Nutcracker, Swan Lake, all of those are kind of iconic ballets. Ballet is very, very, very strict on your body. It actually the your learning. I always tell my dancers you’re so smart because you’re learning English and French. So most of all, ballet words are in French. So so that’s why you kind of see ballerinas. I would say you can learn it in any language, but even if you speak a different language, you’re learning French. When you do ballet, it is very hard on your body. So most ballerinas start a very, very, very young age.

 

Is that even if you’re perfect at it, or is it just hard because you’re learning.

 

Even if you are a professional dancer. The it is very, very your the the shelf life of a ballerina is very, very young like you basically in your career at maybe 25. Okay. Because it’s so hard, because your body is turned out, your legs are turned out, your is turned out. They that is why they dance hours and hours every day. Ballerinas do like professional ballerinas. And that’s why at a young age, they companies take ballet, take ballerinas and take people that look like they would be good ballerinas. And they groom them to be ballerinas. The stigma of ballet is that you are very tall and very skinny, which, again, things are going away from that. And that’s different than my philosophy at my own studio, of course. But that is why it’s so grueling on your body. Most ballerinas, by the time they’re 25, have had many surgeries on their hips because it’s not necessarily a natural movement. And so, again, the the performing quality of it, the musicality of it, the technique on your body. There is a lot of classes nowadays where women take ballet classes, ballet bar to just get that beautiful line is is is what ballet is. So that answer your question.

 

Yeah, I.

 

Mean, that’s just ballet. I can talk about every style if you want. Well, but that was what I was trained in going up.

 

And then and then. So it sounds hard and it sounds like it’s going to put your body through a lot. So is the is the ultimate objective to just be seen as is one of these who can just do it perfectly or does it something where you take it on to the other types of dance, but now that you have the ballet because it sounds like ballet is like not something you do your whole life. So is that kind of like how you get into other forms of dance too?

 

I would say you train your whole life, but because of how demanding it is, professional dancers, just like professional. I’m speaking of something I don’t know, but probably professional football players retire at a young age or ice skaters retire at a younger age. Ballet definitely is the basis for all styles. So if I had my way, I would have taught you a little bit of ballet before I taught you cha cha. So and so if I you know, I like dancers to learn a little bit of ballet before they do other styles. It is definitely if they want to be a professional dancer, if you go to any show on Broadway, you are you might see Jazz and Tap, but they’ve had ballet training. So the other styles, let’s see, the reason I started teaching, most people would assume that I would only teach ballet at my studio. The reason I started taking the other styles is because I have the training from my performing arts high school, and then I have training in ballroom as well. I like the other styles because they incorporate more, more music that is probably more fun than ballet classical music. So contemporary is one of my favorite styles. It’s a little bit easier on your body and I can do it for you can do it forever, like I can do it probably. Hopefully when I’m 60, I can do that kind of style versus ballet and being on pointe at some point, I’m not going to physically be able to do so. So the jazz and the tap and. The ballet and the swing dance and salsa and all those kind of styles like you can do at any age. And that’s why my studio, I encourage kids to take ballet and it’s great, but I teach. But most of the kids like kind of playing with different styles and seeing what their favorite style is, so of dance.

 

So you have a pretty comprehensive dance knowledge and you’ve opened up a dance studio. It’s Turning Point Dance.

 

Turning Point, Dance.

 

Kalispell Montana. So currently, are you mostly teaching kids or are you doing a mix or.

 

I started as young as two and we do a lot of games when we when we teach two year olds. But they’re learning, you know, they’re learning their right and left and they’re learning how to skip, but they’re all learning. They’re doing we do a lot of props and we, you know, so people are like, you can’t teach two year olds. But I started as young as two, and then I go up through 18 year olds, but then I do have adult classes. The last couple of years we’ve expanded to adults because I’ve had a lot of interest in choreographed wedding dances.

 

Yeah, we were talking about that and I regret that when I got married before the big wedding, you know, now, now it’s like if you’re getting wedding or married, you have this big ordeal and you plan a dance, you know, and and actually, we my wife and I never did anything like that, which is why this was motivating. We had never done a dance together of any type, you know. So this is now something that we have in our we have a video of us doing a dance together. And we worked on it. We trained on it. And I definitely recommend that couples take the time to get a dance together because what I thought it was going to be really wasn’t what it was. And maybe after I tell you about our experience, you can elaborate on what your objectives are running a dance studio. But for us it was like immediately I was like, okay, I’m going to learn how to dance and do this thing in front of other people. But what I what I learned was it was only going to be a good experience if I could actually execute. And so I had to put a lot of thought into like, oh, get all these steps. Then the part that you think about, like, Oh, I want to be looking at my wife romantically and dancing. Well, that comes after you can execute, because otherwise it’s just embarrassing. So when we were able to do it, then it was actually a good experience for us and we we thoroughly enjoyed it. I think I would not have enjoyed it at all had I just gone out there and kind of did an okay dance and then had that memory that I went and did a really okay job and kind of lousy. And that was dancing with my Wife.

 

I like seeing the progress.

 

Yeah, Yeah. And I think I think people should have to try it out and put the work in and try to actually get good at it. And then it kind of, it kind of gives you a whole new view into things that you don’t know. I, for one, like, I’m really uncoordinated. I didn’t know until I tried to dance like I can climb a mountain without falling over and I can do all. But when I try to dance, I’m like, Wow.

 

Like, he’s not trying to discourage you from dancing.

 

But no, because you’ll be able to do that. Yeah. It’s something that you don’t even realize your inadequacy until you give it a shot. And then. And then you got an instructor who can, you know, even my wife couldn’t slow down enough to show me. So Chelsea did. She’d be like, okay, you’re going to take this foot. You’re going to put it right there. Okay, now what?

 

My favorite thing about teaching, I didn’t think I definitely knew I was going to always teach kids to dance. Even as young as people think. It’s crazy. They teach two, but even as young as that. But I never thought that I would branch out to the wedding business and adults. My favorite thing about teaching adults is when they first come in and I have some stories of when they first come in, not just Dave, but I’ve had couples that want have this expectation that they’re going to look like this and they come in and I’m like, They have two left feet. How am I going to do this is the progress. And I love that for them to take even a just a video on their phone when they first start and they’re like, I can’t do this. And then usually at their wedding day or I’ve had I do a lot of mother son dances like or I have even a father daughter dance. And what they the end of the day and the time that they do work on it and at the end of the day and they show their performance to whoever that experience. And it’s not just the performance. I have people writing me back saying the classes we that we took with you were just amazing because they grew together and then they practice outside and then they did something that they really didn’t think that they could do.

 

I do have couples that come in and have this dance that they see on YouTube and they want it exactly like that. And sometimes it works out perfectly and sometimes it doesn’t. But just a lot of couples like you come in and think, there is no way that I could look like they look so. So when my husband and I got into this because my husband is not. I got into the like, ballroom type. Dancing is not a dancer. And I wasn’t going to teach him ballet because we knew he couldn’t do that. But instead of teaching him like hip hop or jazz, we when we first got married, we went to a bunch of ballroom studios and we learned together how to waltz and foxtrot and cha cha and swing and you name it, we learned it. I found out my husband is more musical than I am, so that was something we could do together. I would occasionally go to football games and he would go to ballroom classes every week with me. And so we didn’t actually do a dance at our wedding. Besides rocking side to side. So I kind of want to go back and do that choreographed dance. But so we learned all this together.

 

And then so he helps me a lot, especially my recreational like couples that just want to have a date night and do that. He helps me a lot with that. And then so it was great to be able to do something to something that he was good at musically and then taken in the dance. And he can say now he probably knows about six or seven styles of dance and then was still trying to learn some lifts and stuff. But the older we get, the harder it is. So so that was how we kind of got into the ballroom. So again, I do recreational like monthly classes for people that just are like, I just want to get away from my kids and let’s do this date night. Or the guy is surprising the girl with a dance. I’ve always wanted to dance. Please sign me up for this. And usually the guy comes in not wanting to do it. So we do that. And then we have couples that are, you know, are like, I saw this video and this girl did this dance and I want this song and I want this dance. And then we do that. So we just kind of branched out that last couple of years. My whole summer is spent with wedding couples doing ballroom so.

 

Well because this business is in Montana, and Montana is like wedding destination country. So good idea. One thing I thought maybe if you want to add to it is so I did this with my wife. It’s a therapy item, I think, because like there’s leadership scenarios on the dance floor. Who’s leading now? Obviously it’s like the guy’s leading, but there’s all these scenarios where you have to trust the other person for a moment in order for it to go off well. And so what one thing I got out of it is we had to learn to do that and just kind of like get along and have fun. And so it’s a little easier to do, like if you’re just talking about stuff, but when you’re going to fully commit physically to something, it’s not about talk anymore. It’s like, are you going to trust your spouse?

 

And so and I should make a disclaimer I am not a therapist, but we do a little bit of therapy when we dance because the first thing I say is girl always starts with the right foot because girl, the woman, the girl, the leader is always right, right. But then we we talk about how the guy is supposed to lead. And my when my husband helps teach the lessons, he shows like use your arm this way guy, and use your foot this way. And if you don’t make clear signals with your hands, the woman won’t know to do what to do. But just like you and your wife, I have more dance training than my husband. So he. So I sometimes lead. And your wife has ice skating training. So she has more dancing, so she sometimes leads. So we kind of work through that. But yes, you have to trust the other person whether you’re doing a lift, which you guys did quite a few lifts in yours and where to place your hands. And it definitely helps if you are husband and wife or girlfriend or boyfriend. But I have taught couples that aren’t as well. So again, we don’t claim to be therapists, but we do work through things and then we have couples that fight and leave our class and I’m just okay, that’s all. We have it a couple times, but if we do, we get a lot of laughs and in our in our classes we get a lot of couples that start arguing and then we just kind of move on.

 

So probably a good test if you’re going to marry somebody is that you should be able to do this, but it might not be that easy.

 

Yes. Yeah. If you can make it through one of our dance classes, you can get married so well.

 

So we talked about this a little bit. And even one of my employees down at the office has got three boys. And so the you know. Is it a girls sport or is it a boys sport or how does it work? Maybe you talk about your thoughts on that and like if if you are a parent of boys and they want to and you want them in the dance, or maybe they want them into dance, you know, talk about that a little bit, It’s it’s probably something a lot of parents think about.

 

Okay, so is dance for girls or boys? My answer would be both. And that is hard to say. Coming in Montana and having a husband that also believes boys don’t necessarily do dance. But but now my husband does dance ballroom with me. So I would say both because it’s not just about the dancing. When I teach dance classes, if you come to any age class, whether it’s two year olds all the way up to adults, we’re teaching more skills and dancing. Myself and my other teacher are teaching the kids to follow directions, to listen to other teachers. We’re teaching rhythms of music. We’re teaching different depending on the style of dance. You have classical music, you have hip hop music, you have tap. So we’re teaching a lot more skills than that. If they’re not, if they’re boy dancing and they’re not dancing with with a classmate, they’re still learning to stand and listen to the teacher and go across the floor doing dance moves and not touch each other. So they’re learning things that they would learn in sports as well, but they’re learning dance moves. So obviously, I’m a huge proponent of kids dancing, whether they’re boy or girl. We talked a little bit. Dave and I talked about that. Obviously, physically, it is unlike anything that you can recreate.

 

There is cardio parts of it, there’s stretching parts of it, There’s using your core, right? You have to use your core. You have to use your balance. So and not not just for kids, kids all the way through adults, you are using a different side of your brain when you dance. So we teach all these steps and dance, and then we put them together in choreography and using doing choreography and learning something like that has been proven to help with memory. Even people that are in nursing homes, they try to do some kind of dance and movement to help with potentially not potentially working that side of the brain. They get Alzheimer’s, so people do Sudoku or those kind of puzzles. I say learn choreography, learn and dance. So now boys and dance is obviously controversial. When I teach boys, I don’t expect them to wear a tutu or to look like a ballerina again. I have boys that take ballet, tap jazz, hip hop ballroom. And the point is, is you can still be masculine and dance. I guess I would say, especially if you’re doing ballroom like you had to be able to lead your wife and lift her and be stronger than you would if you were a female.

 

Right? So definitely, if you’re doing ballroom, I don’t think and my husband can say otherwise, but I don’t think it takes your masculinity away. Like there is no way that I could be lifted by another female, the way that my husband lifted me or led me across the dance floor. And that connection that you have in a cha cha. I heard what the judges said about how you guys had a great connection and the chemistry you can get if you weren’t taking your masculine side. So. So I would definitely say dances is for both styles. And then we do have a young teenage dancer guy that is just a great dance ballet. He does ice skating, but he’s a ballet dancer and he he is so good with the teenage girls and he is not in any way inappropriate and he is lifting them and the girls don’t feel uncomfortable. So again, we can go on and on about the difference in boys and girls and dance. But obviously I do have way more girls because it just is that connotation. And the girls and girls just generally are drawn towards the dance. But I do have I’m getting a lot more boys as I grow up, as I get more students.

 

So yeah, and as we’ve discussed, my wife’s a figure skating coach and there have been a few boys that have come up through the program. I mean, only a few. I always, after I get to know him and after I’ve seen him compete and I’ve gone to like the regional competitions where these boys are competing, the one thing is, is if you do like it and you’re a boy, the opportunity is huge. I don’t know about dancing, but like on the figure skating side, like if you’re good at it and your competition is less, there’s just less boys getting involved. And there is. And then the gals are always looking for a dance partner. And so a boy that’s willing to step up and learn it, is it the same in the dance? Like there’s way more girls that would need a dance partner than guys?

 

Yes. In fact, I actually have women call me and say, I want to dance. But do you have any dance partners that are men? And I said, I don’t have any just laying around. That’s a call I get a lot is I don’t have any just to give you. But there are way more girls and boys. So girls are always. Looking for guys. And when I have a guy that can dance in my, like, ballet classes, I definitely use him to to teach girls partnering that that’s one area that was missing for years. I never had a guy. So these girls would have great training, but they would never learn to dance with a guy because there was no guys available. And again, girls have to probably have more skill set to do it than guys. So that’s why I love to have boys and men and teenagers. So but I do get a lot I do get I think there is more opportunity for guys. I will have to say to growing up in ballet. My dance teacher growing up also taught at a college and she taught all the football and basketball players ballet. They were required to take ballet, to learn better posture and to learn to stretch. They didn’t get injured because stretching isn’t something that’s always taught in sports. Maybe nowadays it is. But and so she taught these huge football players and I would come I would watch her dance, teach them, and she would teach them so they could basically jump better. They could leap better because they are learning skills that they that they just don’t learn. So a lot of football players and basketball players have taken dance even if they don’t admit it in their life, they have taken it so well.

 

That’s a great selling point to the whole concept because I really do think that that is something people should take away, is there’s a skill set there that’s beneficial to a very diverse group of people, even though maybe everybody doesn’t go, Oh, I want to get into dance, you know, they ought to give it a shot. Yes. So kind of wrapping things up a little bit, what do you have on the horizon? I mean, you’re young and you have a dance studio and you’re you’ve got people taking interest. So what do you see over the horizon for turning point or yourself and dance and, you know, running a business like this in Montana, anything you want to chat about?

 

Yeah, One thing I don’t know if you know this probably you’ve heard of it is that I wanted to talk about a little bit about one thing that makes my studio a little bit more unique than maybe the other studios. There are a lot of studios in the Flathead Valley, even though it’s growing, but there has been there’s probably ten studios for for the small community. And I can say something great. Every studio has kind of their niche and I can say something positive about all the studios. The difference that the reason I started my studio, it wasn’t necessarily something I was going to do. I started it for opportunities for students with special needs. I have a special ed background. I said I had teaching background, but I have a special background as well for students that may be in wheelchairs or have autism or Down syndrome that want to be able to dance. Not that other studios would say, You can’t dance here, but they just want unless they know how to teach them. So students that are in a wheelchair, you would think, oh, no way they could dance. But so I have a background in, in the training to be able to help them be able to dance. Yes, it may look different than someone that can walk or someone with autism that comes in and the music is too much. Maybe we turn it down or someone with autism that is distracted by the other students maybe would do more of a private lesson.

 

So it may look different than our typical developing student. So again, I take students from two through adults and then I take I have a program called Chance to Dance. So it’s specific for students that have special needs that maybe couldn’t come into our normal toddler class or jazz class or kindergarten or second third grade class, and they can dance. And then I bring in physical therapists to help me with them, speech therapists and then myself with the special ed background. And I teach them to dance and accommodate what they need. Now, that being said, I have probably I would say 30% of my students have special needs and they are just fit in with my normal classes. And then I just kind of give them a little bit one on one support or I can just work with the behaviors in class. So I just I really I started this because when I was special teacher at Edgerton in the preschool, I had students. The biggest thing was they come to preschool with us. And then the parents were like, But this is all they do. They come to preschool and then they go to therapy, they go to speech therapy, occupational physical therapy. But they can’t do any sports, They can’t do gymnastics.

 

They were turned away. And I get emotional about this, and I don’t know if you knew this about me, Dave, but they were turned away and they said, Sorry, your child has to fit into our class. Even if it was a gymnastics or a dance class. And a parent came to me and said, They said, my child has to fit into a class, not the other way around. And so I slowly started teaching these students why I was working. I, I taught them at Edgerton in my classroom or in the gym. And then that’s when I started my studio. And I actually just retired from teaching at full time. And now I only do dance, so I didn’t. So I don’t teach in the district anymore. And I did it. And I started with. Incorporating the special kids. So if a if a kid, a boy or girl, no matter what their age or disability or ability level, they could come and take classes for me. So I’m really trying to grow that specialized part of the program. But I’m also have typical developing students to what I love most about my special ed program is that it’s not just for the kids that are special needs is that they are in like, I have a class this year that has three special needs kids in with a second, third grade jazz class.

 

And the parents that are complimenting and saying, I love the class are not necessarily the special parents that they love it to because they came to came to my studio because of me. Is the the kids that the parents are like my child has so much more compassion now because they are in a class with a student with a special need. And I’m not going to cry. So because and then the fact that they like they were saying my child kind of was a little bit selfish and didn’t know how to get along with other kids. And now they’re going and they’re helping this girl and they’re talking about this girl who has Down syndrome or has autism, and they’re helping her. And they’re like, Look what I did today. And just it’s I think it’s a two way street for both those kids. So that’s a huge part of my program. So if there’s any kids out there, parents out there that they’re like, my kid has a learning disability, my kid has this, there’s no way they could follow directions at In dance, but they love dance because it is very common for kids to turn on music and dance, and that means that they love dance. So Turning Point Dance is definitely believes. Our motto is making dance accessible to all. So that’s for students with special needs or any type of ability.

 

Well, that’s amazing. I think out of what you said, ten studios, this is the higher calling. Yes, me, I was it brought me back a memory. I we’ll wrap it up here but you know, they have the program here in Whitefish called the Dream for Skiing, which is more where I’m used to. So anyway, when I was a ski racer, I was in this one ski race and I came across the finish line and this guy comes up to me and he tapped me on the shoulder and he has he’s from New Zealand and he had an accent and he says, Hey, you better be careful. You’re going to get beat by a guy with one leg. And I was like, Oh yeah, I’m looking around. And I was like, Well, who? And he pulls up his pant leg and he’s got one leg, and he had only I’d only beat him by like a 10th of a second. And that was the first time when I was back at teenage years, you know, I got respect for a guy with disabilities. And so getting at that point you were talking about it is important for people to commingle. And and and so the fact that your dance studio encourages that, I think that definitely benefits it probably helps a little bit of anti bullying. Just having kids used to dealing with kids that don’t have everything that they have and being comfortable with that. So I think it’s awesome that in addition to everything you’re doing, this is part of your focus.

 

Thank you. And you’re not paid to say that because he didn’t. He might not even know. That was my that was I started the studio.

 

You’re you’re here because my wife and I had such a great experience with you. Now that I know this, I’m like, well, that’s part of the why. So glad to know that definitely ties a few pieces together. Well, with that, we’re going to wrap it up. And so Chelsea studio is Turning Point in Kalispell. Chelsea Speer. If she can teach me to dance, she can teach you to dance. So if you want to learn dance or you just want to know about dance, get a hold of her and just. Thanks for taking a little bit of your time to explain to the community what you’re all about.

 

Yes. Thank you so much. And like you said, I have classes for all levels beginning to intermediate to advance recreational. We have a full year dance program where we perform a lot and we perform in our studio and perform and a and a theater. And then we have classes for special needs. We have classes for students that want to learn preschool type educational dance, and we have classes for girls and boys, so we really have something for all. So, yes, check us out. I’m on Facebook, Instagram, and I have a website too. So thank you so much, Dave.

 

Making it Work in Montana.