Help Excel Dance Academy Keep Dancing Alive

Excel Dance Academy is a new dance studio run by some of the former team of Excel Dance Studios, that after 19 years of business, unfortunately had to close down. It was a dance studio where our thinking was "Dance is for Every Body"--it doesn't matter if you're tall or short, big or small, 3 or 93, neurodiverse or neurotypical, if you want to, you can dance! We created a positive space for our dancers to grow and thrive, with the affirmations to go with it. Our dancers are told they are smart, beautiful, important, strong, brave, good dancers, and they can do hard things and improve daily. To keep this legacy and these ideologies alive, we opened Excel Dance Academy.

We think EDA can be a place for dancers of all ages to succeed with the legacy that has already been established. Our staff has a passion for our dancers being able to be human along with growing their gift of dance. We would like to keep this environment going for our dancers in a way that they and their parents have come to know and love.

In starting this business within a week of finding out that Excel Dance Studios was closing, we are a little bit short on cash--that's why we need your help! Here are our goals for this GoFundMe.

The first thing we would do if we hit our fundraising goal is create a welcoming environment for our parents, dancers, and staff. We would like to add a splash of color to the space as well as get a sign that is required by our lease. Lit signs are very expensive and we would like to be able to stay in the space that our dancers and parents have come to know as a second home. We're estimating total this will cost between $8,500 and $10,000.

If we surpass this goal, we would really love to replace the mats that our tumblers and dancers use that we inherited. The ones that were left are a bit old and have a difficult time staying together. As a matter of safety, we would like to replace those as soon as possible.

Third, we would like to be able to level out our sprung floor in the space as well as add a sprung floor to the other studio space to protect our dancers' bodies. Sprung floors provide an extra layer of protection on dancer's joints and we would like our dancers to have an incredibly healthy space to be.

Finally, we would love to add some additional mirrors to our space so all our dancers standing at the barre will be able to see themselves in the mirror. There are spots on the wall that make it so the dancers cannot actually see themselves and that makes it harder for them to learn about their placement.