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| Contributed photo During the very first show of the Maine Dance Academy, “Miss Colleen” is shown here leading her students in some very graceful ballet during the grand finale. |
Studio to celebrate its 20th anniversary
By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Crowds pack into the Caribou Performing Arts Center every spring to watch Maine Dance Academy students tell stories through expressive dance, colorful costumes and artfully crafted sets, but the Maine Dance Academy’s start 20 years ago was far from the current fanfare.
In fact, one of the few things today’s studio has in common with its 20-year predecessor is a passion for dance, a love for teaching and its owner, Colleen DuPlissie.
She’s better known as Miss Colleen to the hundreds of students who’ve studied under her tutelage, but as a teenager herself, she wasn’t planning to be an entrepreneur.
The dance academy owner was in a pre-med program, and she earned a degree in chemistry before she decided that she didn’t want to be a doctor.
“The only thing I ever wanted to do was dance,” she recalled.
Colleen started taking dance lessons when she was a 10-year-old growing up in Van Buren, but she’d been dancing for long before that.
“My whole family dances — my mom used to tap dance around the house,” she recalled. “We didn’t have much, but we had each other,” the dance instructor added, describing how the big family would convene in the front yard as youths to practice their tumbling.
Colleen originally studied ballet and dicso, taught by an Edmundston, N.B. woman who would make the trek to Van Buren. She and her brother, Jim, learned to do couple’s dancing during the big disco craze, and there were competitions everywhere. Once she started attending college at the University of Southern Alabama, she enrolled in every dance course she could, including jazz, ballet and tap.
But if someone would have told the college-aged Colleen that one day, she’d own a successful 20-year dance studio … “I couldn’t have imagined what it would have turned into,” she said. “It’s been a godsend because I really get to do what I love every day,” she said.
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| Contributed photo A former class of The Maine Dance Academy, dancing at the downtown mall during Chrismas time. Students include, at back left, Kylie Thibodeau. In front, from left, Danielle Ouellette Jordyn Rossignol, Chelsea St. Pierre and Shelby Cousins. |
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| Contributed photo During the very first show of The Maine Dance Academy, the very popular song from Aladdin “Never Had a Friend Like Me” was performed by the students — and in celebration of the 20 year anniversary, this song will be performed once more during the spring show. Pictured are, doing splits in front row, Danielle Atcheson and Krista Albert. Second row: Abby Small, Brandy Pelletier, Ariana Nelson, Jordyn Rossignol, Alicia Thibodeau and Chelsea St. Pierre. Back row: Shelby Cousins, Stephanie Dumond, Kylie Thibodeau, Katie Harland, Danielle Ouellette. |
But her calling to own a dance studio came from an unexpected place — her daughter Jordyn, who was just a little girl at the time.
Jordyn was a student at the former Caribou Dance Company, and the instructor ran the company in addition to a full-time job at the local chamber of commerce.
One time the instructor mentioned to the class how busy she was, and Jordyn raised her little arm into the air.
“My Mom’s a dancer!” the proud tyke said, and talks began between Colleen and the dance company owner.
A mother of three, Colleen and her then-husband were busy managing a different business and raising their three children — running a dance company wasn’t something she was looking to take on. But there was a call in the community for a new dance instructor, and Colleen rose to the challenge.
“I always told myself that when it became a business, I was done — because I just wanted a hobby,” Colleen said with laughter in her voice.
That first “hobby” year, The Maine Dance Academy had 35 students and three classes that all focused on jazz. In the former Dan’s Living Center, the dance studio came to life “all because my little girl raised her hand,” Colleen reminisced.
Those 35 students of the first year turned into 70 students the next, and Colleen remembers thinking “there’s no way I can do 70 students.” The studio was growing out of a hobby and into a business — and into a new studio at One Vaughn Place.
By the third year, with 100 students, the business was officially booming.
“At the hundred-student point, I knew I couldn’t do it by myself and still be a mom,” she recalled.
Fortunately that winter found her first employee and future best friend, Clarann Flynn.
Attending the same New Year’s party at the Cary Medical Center, Colleen spotted Clarann on the dance floor and saw the potential for a great dance instructor.
“It’s a hilarious story,” Colleen admitted, but she just walked right up to the would-be dance instructor and introduced herself, described the business and Clarann agreed to give it a shot.
In last year’s show, 280 students performed with The Maine Dance Academy — far from that first year’s 35.
And unlike the 1994 classes of Jazz 1, Jazz 2 and Jazz 3, they currently teach youths from all over the county and New Brunswick ballet, en pointe ballet, highland, tap, hip hop, contemporary — and of course, they’re still teaching Jazz.
As the dance academy has grown, the need to hire additional instructors has come as well.
“There are seven of us now,” Colleen said with pride. “Its a lot of work — especially around the time we start planning a new show — but once we’re in the studio, it’s like home.”
The dance academy moved to it’s current Sweden Street location in 2005, and with two classrooms there’s no shortage of space.
Students come from all corners of the region to study at The Maine Dance Academy — they’ve even drawn in students from Canada and summer campers from New Hampshire.
In honor of this year’s 20-year anniversary, the annual spring show will be bigger than ever, with 12 senior dancers playing the main characters of “Shrek.”
Additional information about the upcoming spring show will be available in a later issue of the Aroostook Republican, and additional information about the dance academy can be obtained by visiting themainedanceacademy.com.
