MCAA unveils new dance studio for students

Sep. 13—Students and Marysville Joint Unified School District staff members gathered at Marysville Charter Academy of the Arts (MCAA) on Tuesday to commemorate the opening of a new dance studio.

Following the ribbon cutting, MCAA dance students performed two routines in their new practice space: a ballet progression and a structured improvisation.

Dance students have gone without a permanent practice space since 2017 when the Marysville Auditorium closed due to its failure to meet earthquake resistance standards. Since then, MCAA dancers have used Marysville High School's south auditorium and the Tri-Counties Community Center to practice and perform.

The process to implement a new dance studio started shortly after the Marysville Auditorium closed to the public, Director of Community Partnerships James Lohman said. Each year, MCAA set aside funds in its Local Control and Accountability Plan incrementally, and emergency relief funds contributed to the studio after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now after several years, MCAA dancers have a double portable studio with new flooring, mirrors, ballet barres and changing rooms, which all cost around $1.2 million.

"It's a really long time for something like this to come to fruition. With the pandemic, we were really fortunate to have ESSER funds to get this over the finish line and get this over the finish line at least 10 years earlier than it could have been," Lohman said. "I am absolutely thrilled to see this finally come into place and I'm glad that we have a dance studio here on campus."

MCAA Dance Instructor Lena Webb Magee tearfully expressed how happy having a permanent dance space means for her and her students.

"We love our new building. It's beautiful. It's so beautiful. It means a lot to us to have a space, a home for our dancers. I didn't expect to be so emotional about it, but it's very moving to have a space that you helped us find. It's always been home to us dancers. MCAA is a home for us, but now we have a room of our own," Magee said.

Garrett Granger, an advanced dance student and president of MCAA's Associated Student Body, reflected on his time in the school's dance program and his vision for MCAA facilities. This is Granger's second, nonconsecutive year as a dance student after first joining the program in eighth grade.

"While I haven't gotten to have a personal connection as much as everyone else, it's always been in my interest as a student to progress leadership within the school to have more buildings and more facilities for our students to use. Being able to have this with its mirrors, its new floors and changing room, it means a lot," Granger said.