Meet Anne Gnoth and Mary Williams of Littleton Contemporary Dance Center in South West

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anne Gnoth and Mary Williams.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Anne and Mary. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
We met in 2004 in Chicago when we were both dancing for Inaside Chicago Dance, a professional jazz dance company in the city. During our first season, we were cast in a duet together called “One and the Same,” and that was the start of our amazing friendship! In addition to being company members, Anne was also the Associate Artistic Director/Business Director, and Mary was the Marketing Director for Inaside. During our time with Inaside we both taught at multiple studios in the Chicagoland suburbs. Mary was the Dance Coordinator at the Des Plaines School of Dance. Anne was the Director of the North Shore Repertory Dance Ensemble, a youth company within the North Shore School of Dance. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were building our skill set to one day own and direct a studio of our own!

After retiring from the stage, it was time to grow our families. Luckily life and jobs brought us both to the Denver area. We had talked about starting a studio back in Chicago, but knew the timing wasn’t right. After being in Littleton a couple of years we noticed there was a need for more jazz and contemporary dance in the area. We felt our moment had come!

Has it been a smooth road?
Well…no. It has not been a smooth road. Even with all our years of experience, we couldn’t have foreseen the challenges we have faced as new small business owners. Mostly things took so much longer than we anticipated. The lease process lasted months. We took a lot upon ourselves in finishing the studio – everything from painting, to carpet squares, to trim, to installing our state of the art sprung dance floors. We did it all (with a little help from our husbands)! On our opening day, we discovered a cracked exterior window, and the saga continues with our portable barres. The learning curves have been abundant!

It hasn’t been all bad. We are fortunate that we opened on our projected date. We have had wonderful feedback from our community. We are gaining new students each day!

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Our mission: Littleton Contemporary Dance Center is inclusive to all ages, bodies and abilities, striving to inspire a lifelong love for the art of dance.

Littleton Contemporary Dance Center was created to nurture the love of dance in all ages and levels. From the beginning toddler, to the more serious ballerina, to the adult who wants to find the joy and challenge in class, LCDC offers something for everyone. All classes are taught by engaging and highly trained professionals ready to inspire their students!

We are most proud of having the guts to move forward with our dream. When we announced our plans, it was incredible how many of our friends, family, colleagues and people in the industry not only congratulated us but told us that if anyone can do it, we can. We need to keep returning to those well-wishes when things get hard. We both know that this feels like destiny, and we will succeed.

Dancers love to learn and perfect our art form. What sets us apart from other studios is not only our vast experience (yes, we are tooting our own horns!) in the field of dance, but also our willingness to recognize other trusted and respectable formats that we have trained in and brought to the studio. We have loved teaching the specialty formats of DiscoverDance, Progressing Ballet Technique® and WERQ®. We are so proud to offer these classes  alongside our other highly technical dance genres.

We want everyone who walks through our doors to have a super positive experience and learn to love dance as much as we do.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
We have seen a huge shift over the recent years to a dance “extreme” ism– extreme flexibility, partnering, turns and tricks. This type of dance is exciting and challenging– two things dancers love! The downside is that it can cause injury and a shortened dance life. As we said earlier, we love to try to perfect and improve our craft. We can see a shift toward making this type of extreme dancing as safe as it possibly can be. As dance teachers, we communicate constantly with like-minded individuals who want to progress the art form forward, but safely and intelligently. And that is exciting.

We have also seen a huge growth in contemporary dance and do not see that slowing down anytime soon. What is contemporary? It is a blend of so many things! Based on modern dance, it utilizes ballet, jazz, lyrical and a pinch of hip hop. It’s an extremely expressive and accessible genre, which is why so many love it as we do. A lot depends on the choreographer, and the class allows students to improvise– building their confidence as dancers and choreographers. Students love it, and it brings out the amazing movement and creativity they didn’t know they had. Seeing that makes everything we are doing at LCDC worth it.

Pricing:

• Adult Drop in Class $20
• Adult 5 Class Punchcard $75
• Adult 10 Class Punchcard $130
• Adult 20 Class Punchcard $200
• 7 Week Session Pricing for Student Classes $56-$140 (based on length of class)

Contact Info:

• Address: 8601 W. Cross Dr. Unit B6-2
  Littleton, CO 80123
• Website: www.littletondancecenter.com
• Phone: 303-973-3474
• Email: mary@littletondancecenter.com
• Instagram: @littletondancecenter
• Facebook: @littletondancecenter
• Twitter: @dancelittleton

Image Credit:
Adam Gnoth
Ashley Deran

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