By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Wendi Taylor has been a dancer all her life, and for as long as she can remember, she has wanted her own dance studio. Earlier this month, that dream came true.
Taylor, 37, opened W.E. Dance Academy in downtown Zeeland after investing $40,000 and a lot of hard work to refurbish a former antique mall at 114B East Main Street.
"I've been thinking about it since I was a kid," Taylor says. "In January, it fell into my lap and a benefactor offered to help me."
When Taylor got the circa 1930s building, it was all one 4,000-square-foot room. She divided it into a lobby, office, and three dance studios with mirrors and portable ballet bars. One of the studios has the original wood floors and tin ceiling.
The other studios have laminate flooring with half-inch-thick foam underneath to cushion the floor and reduce strain on the dancers' feet, ankles, and knees.
"We have a lot of dance room, we're not crowding on top of each other," Taylor says. "I'm planning to expand here and want to keep the academy here for years. It has an upstairs that someday I'd like to make into a ballet studio."
The academy has six instructors, including Taylor, and teaches classes for ages 18-months through adult. Dance styles include tap, ballet, hip-hop, belly dance, pom, tumbling, and ballroom. The academy opened with 132 students, and Taylor says there are still openings.
Source: Wendi Taylor, W.E. Dance Academy; Abigail DeRoo, City of Zeeland
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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