Local dancers practice in state-of-the-art facility

After months of work in fundraising and renovation, Havre's latest dance studio reopened this fall as a top-end facility with thousands of dollars worth of dance and tumbling floors and other improvements.

Havre's Studio of Dance & Arts, which opened its doors October 2015, came about after a group of mothers grew tired of studios in Havre closing and leaving their daughters without a place to dance, two of the co-founders said.

Students from the studio are performing in a concert this week along with students from Montana Academy of Dance. The dancers will join the Montana State University-Northern Community Orchestra in its Holiday Extravaganza at Havre High School Thursday.

Studio of Dance & Arts Board Secretary Kellee May and Vice President Janna Faber said their group worked to bring the studio about after a previous studio closed.

"What happened is, several students were attending another studio and that teacher retired, and that left so many girls without a teacher. A few of us moms got together and decided that we can try this out and start a non-profit and offer dance in Havre," Faber said. "Our kids have been doing this forever, so let's make this happen."

The key to making the studio upgrades a reality, May and Faber said, was generous relatives and a giving community - the road to the upgraded studio was paved with fundraisers and donations.

"The first thing we did was Kellee's (May) mom bought an iPad for us and we did an iPad raffle right off the bat. So that got the ball rolling," Faber said. "Then we literally went to everyone we knew and asked them to donate."

More donations and fundraisers followed, such as sales of Elliotts cookie dough, Butter Braid pastry dough, Little Caesars Pizza kits, garage sales and hip hop camps.

When the group looked at location, Faber said, many decisions had to be made quickly because if the season didn't start during its normal time, many potential students would have been lost.

"Somebody said, 'St. Jude's is sitting empty. You guys should go talk to them,'" she said. "We had a meeting with Father Dan (Wathen) and Tim Maroney, and they offered the amount that we paid that first year. We just couldn't see saying no to $700 a month."

May and Faber said using the former Havre Central High School building, on Sixth Avenue across from the Havre Community Pool, was an offer they couldn't refuse, but it didn't come move-in ready - dance floors needed adding, walls needed painting, leaks needed plugging. The students danced on basic school floors last year until upgrades were done this summer.

They both said they were glad for their husbands, Chris Faber and Jeremy May, who put in a lot of work along with other volunteers.

"It was a labor of love, 'cause we wanted something in Havre for kids," Faber said.

The studio started with one instructor, Dani Alex, who retired in 2015 from operating North Star Dance Studio and the organizers persuaded to come back to work with Studio of Dance & Arts that fall. Since then, the studio has added Faber's daughter Sarah, who teaches ballet to 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds, Karen Notte, who teaches tap to that same age group, and Amber Alexander, who teaches tumbling to the children of those ages.

Eighty girls are now enrolled in at least one of the classes, which include tap, pointe, jazz/hip hop and lyrical.

Faber and May said the point of the fundraisers, which will continue, is to help continuing to upgrade Havre Central, pay expenses and eventually to help people who want to dance but can't afford to through scholarships, as well as to help parents with some of the expenses that come with having a child in dance.

"The money goes into a booster account. ... So if somebody wants to use it for lessons, they can just call and say 'Can you take $115 off this month out of my booster for lessons?'" May said. "On Dec. 1, they're performing at the orchestra and we just had to come up with $100, well I did, for two costumes. Right before Christmas, you had two costumes you had to buy."

       The girls perform every opportunity they get, the women said.

"On Dec. 18 we are going to the care center and to Timber Creek to see the residents and perform for them. I know the residents of the care center, they light up when the girls come. So anywhere they can perform - we've done it at the mall, we've done it everywhere," May said.

The studio is holding a fundraiser Thursday, Dec. 15 through Pizza Hut, which will donate 20 percent of the purchasing price to the studio when customers say they would like to support the The Studio of Dance & Arts.

The longterm dream is to live up to the full name, Faber and May said.

"When we first started we thought it'd be so neat to have an arts studio - have a room where somebody teaches, singing lessons, or have a room where moms can do yoga," Faber said.

"Well, the name. That's why we came up with, The Studio of Dance & Arts, cause it would be cool to add," May said. "When we came up with the name, we were thinking longterm."

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Havre Daily News editor Tim Leeds contributed to this report.