Move Through Life Dance

Creating a home for our community

After 17 years of hiring halls by the hour, in 2022 we plan to establish a Dance and Wellness Centre, which will include two dance studios with sprung floors, and a suite of offices sub-leased to health and wellness professionals who can help our dancers maintain the ability to dance throughout their lives (think dance physio, dance podiatrist, nutritionist, massage therapist, psychologist, life coach, counsellor).  It's so much more than a physical space.  It will be a home for our community of dancers who come in all ages, shapes, sizes, and more.

We've raised the capital for our bond and rent in advance.  We already own ballet barres and mirrors.  The next stage is to raise funds for the floors.  Having sprung floors and a tarket or marley overlay will provided a safe floor for our dancers. 

"Move Through Life is a doorway into dance for people who may not have danced, or who may have left dance, or who may want to continue to dance but where they currently are isn’t suitable for adults." Jo McDonald (founder)

"It’s an expression, it’s a community, it’s a released.  It’s my happy place. " Shana Inge (company dancer)

"It’s my lifeline.  I call it my little corner of heaven on earth" Helen Troisi (mature company dancer)

"It’s community, a sense of community that we have is so wonderful. It feels like I’ve found my people." Millie Garard (company dancer and teacher)

"It's one big place of acceptance where everyone can come and share their passion for dancing, and for creating." Claudia Mori (company dancer and teacher)

Have you heard of the idea of a 'third place'? 

It's a place where you spend time outside of work and home.  But it's more than that.  It's a place where you connect with likeminded people, where you know you matter, where you feel inspired and energised, and of course, very welcome.

This is a huge part of what we aspire to achieve at Move Through Life - to give adults who love dance a third place to spend time with other dance lovers who inspire and encourage them.  So far, we've been trying to do this without our own place.  We've been hiring community halls by the hour for  over 15 years.  But we are getting too big for that.  We have demand for more classes than we can schedule.  Now is the time to create a home for our community, where you can dance, hang out, practice, and take a deep breath.

Finding a space to create this home is one thing, but to make sure it's safe, we need to install special dance floors that are safe to dance on.  The floor needs to be sprung and have a suitable surface to avoid sticking or slipping.  Unfortunately, it's not cheap, and we'll need two separate studio spaces to continue and grow our timetable, and to accommodate the different needs of the different dance styles we offer.  We are aiming to raise $20,000 (initial target) to $30,000 (stretch target) to fitout two studio spaces.

So we are calling on our community to help us realise our dream of having creating a studio home for the MTL community.  A home that where we don't have to dance on hard or slippery floors, in spaces that are too small, or in 40 degree heat without air conditioning, or in the middle of winter without heating.  Where we don't have to share our space with other groups that create noise, weird cooking smells, chaos in the toilets, and beat us to the car parks. 

The dream is to have a space where we can create the ambience that inspires our dancers.  We want to have a comfortable space to warmup, get changed, chat with friends, practice or rehearse. We want to create that third place that you can call your 'home away from home' and know that you are part of an amazing and very special community.

Why our own premises

The most important reason is to be able to expand the opportunities to dance.  We are currently limited to the 25 classes we run in hired halls.  All the halls we use are fully booked out at other times.  We want to consolidate our community (bring them together in one place) rather than spread it out even further by looking at other halls to hire.

Once we have our own two-studio space, we can offer at least three times as many classes per week

• more people dancing each week
• more flexibility of classes for those dancing with us
• more levels and vareity available

Other reasons for establishing our own space include:

• appropriate heating and cooling in all spaces
• comfortable waiting area, reception, and changing rooms
• access to shared 'hang out' space (vital to our studio as a 'third place')
• safe floors in all dance spaces
• pleasant environment (without unwanted noises, smells, and more) to make it a truly pleasant experience.

Importance of dance floor

Is $30,000 too much to spend on dance floors?

Dancing can be a great source of joy and health, and it is possible to dance at any age. But injuries caused by dancing on hard floors with unsuitable surfaces can lead to chronic injuries that cut short your dancing life.  Therefore, it is imperative that we install sprung floors with tarket or marley covering when we open our new dance and wellness centre.  

For years our dancers have had to dance on floors that were designed for other purposes, and while we’ve done the best we can with what we have, we’ll be putting dancer safety first in our new studio.

Even in the short term, dancing on concrete floors can cause injury, pain, and irreversible damage to your feet, legs and entire body, such as tendinitis, shin spints, knee pain, and ankle strain.

A sprung floor is an ‘area elastic’ floor, which has a stable surface deck, underlying cushion, spring or elastic suspension system on which the deck float to absorb the impact of a dancer’s landing

A ‘good’ dance floor will absorb at least 53% of the impact energy of a person landing on the floor (concrete floors have 0% shock absorption, meaning 100% of the shock of landing is absorbed by the dancer’s body).

We need floors in two studios, with a minimum area of 90m2 per studio.  That’s why we are running a crowdfunding campaign from 1-28 March to raise $30,000 to install floors in our new dance and wellness centre. 

If you'd like to know more about the importance of the floor in a dance studio, read Ausdance's Safe Dance Floors Factsheet

www.ausdance.org.au/articles/details/safe-dance-floors

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About Move Through Life

Move Through Life is a dance studio based in Adelaide, South Australia, dedicated to giving adults of all ages the opportunity to dance.  We offer classes in ballet, contemporary, jazz, and tap across several levels from beginner to advanced.  Our timetable includes three streams - teen (for beginner teenagers), regular (age 18-50), and mature (aged 50+).

Find out more about us at www.movethroughlife.com.au

We began in 2004 as a project based performance group, with eight dancers.  We now offer 20+ dance classes/week, and have two performing companies (regular and mature), as well as performance opportunities for all our students via theatrical showcases.  Performance is NOT required.

We believe dance is an activity all adults should be able to enjoy throughout their lives, regardless of their age, level of fitness, or previous dance experience.  

Vision

A world where any adult who wants to can identify as a dancer, because they dance.

Mission

To create opportunities for adult dancers to pursue and fulfil their dance dreams and aspirations.

Purpose

To address the yearning to dance that many adults experience, and to do it in a way that makes them feel as if they have come home, as if they belong, as if dancing is a perfectly nature and legitimate thing for them to be doing.  To encourage them to have dreams and aspirations and to support them in fulfilling them, and to help break down the barriers that keep them from dancing.

Values

• Belonging and connection
• Kindness and encouragement
• Acceptance/celebration of all bodies
• Fun, laughter and play
• Courage, imagination and creativity
• Joy, happiness and wellbeing

Timeline

March

• Raise $30,000 through crowdfunding for studio flooring

April to June 

• Find premises to lease
• Find sub-tenants for wellness centre aspect
• Fitout new studio premises
• 
  

July to October

• Move into new premises

Frequently asked questions

Download crowdfunding FAQs

Initial target is $20,000, if we reach that, we'll go for our stretch target of $30,000

If we don't reach our stretch target, we will either fitout one studio first, or fitout both studios with sprung floor, and add the overlay later

Total breakdown for stretch target:

• Sprung floors $15,000 
• Overlay (tarket or marley) $8,500
• Installation $1600
• Delivery $900
• GST (10%) $2,600
• Pozible fe (5%) $1,430