Woking DANCE Space
History of Woking Dance Space
Woking Dance Space has been providing classes at the Mayford Centre in Woking for nearly twenty years.
The studio was started as Harmony Dance Studio by Janet Bland at the newly converted Mayford Centre in Woking, near Mayford. After several years of teaching, Janet decided to retire.
The new management who took on the responsibility of the running of the studio gave up after six months, but the dancers still wanted to continue. After discussions it was decided to run the studio as a non-profit community dance studio run by a committee of trustees.
The first trustees were Betsy Field, Pauline Barnes, Delva Robinson and Heather Smith. Their first task was to get enough money to pay for the first months rent and the deposit for the studio. All the dancers were asked to buy 'bricks' to help save the studio, and £600 was raised to pay for the first months rent and a deposit of £200.
Initially the studio was hired out to the teachers and the teachers took the class fees. However, although the teachers covered the rent there was not enough to pay for advertising and other overheads to allow the studio to grow.
In 1994 Lorna Sanders joined the studio. Seeing the problems we faced Lorna agreed to help and became a Trustee replacing Heather Smith. The studio name was changed to Woking Dance Space at Lorna's suggestion. It was suggested that the studio took the class fees and paid the teachers according to the number of pupils in each class. The studio is still run this way to this day.
Tina Morcom arrived at the studio and agreed to join the Trustees, bringing in her marketing expertise. Better marketing brought in more dancers and teachers and the studio started to grow.
In 1999 we put on our first full-length show, 'Generation Gap', at the Rhoda McGaw theatre in Woking. Proceeds from the show went towards the purchase of the Harlequin dance floor and new music equipment for the studio.
As the studio grew it was decided to increase the number of Trustees to six, and Gill Barnes joined becoming our Wardrobe Mistress.
In 2001 we undertook our first studio refurbishment, completely repainting the studio from floor to ceiling (and what a tall ceiling it was). After helping to oversee the refurbishment Catherine Ferris joined the trustees, replacing Betsy Field who moved away from the Woking area. Catherine brought along her IT skills and put us on the web with our first complete site.
In 2001 we also put on our second full-length show, 'Second Generation', at the Rhoda McGaw theatre in Woking. Since then we have mounted a major show every other year, constantly improving the size, technical complexity and artistic quality of each successive production.
In March 2007 Lorna Sanders resigned as a trustee to pursue her academic work and writing, including contribution to the Dancing Times. In recognition of her long service, Lorna was awarded 'Life Membership' of the studio, and we look forward to welcoming her to class in the future. Gretchen Fox Kiefer, a long time supported and teacher at the studio, agreed to join the trustees.
In early 2009 Gill Barnes stood aside as a Trustee, but decided to continue as a teacher and as Wardrobe Mistress. Claire Tabraham joined the trustees.
Our feet didn't touch the ground in 2009, and after our extremely successful show 'Equilibrium' we refurbished the studio again, building a large costume store and installing new mirrors and a new dance floor.
The studio has now been running as Woking Dance Space for over 15 years and continues to expand and attract new members every week. We perform our full-length show, supply dancers for local amateur productions, dance at local fetes and hold a dance workshops and charity events when we are not performing.