The School of Dance

The School of Dance was founded by Merrilee Hodgins and Joyce Shietze.The School of Dance opened its doors on Wellington Street, in the west of Ottawa, in 1978, as a nationally-registered, educational, charitable, non-profit organization designed to provide professional training for dance. The budget was $11,000, with three staff, and the studios were rented.

In 1979, Celia Franca, a longtime friend and artistic colleague of both Hodgins and Shietze, joined, as co-artistic directors. With the addition of the legendary Franca, founder of the National Ballet of Canada and co-founder of the National Ballet School, Its unwavering standards of excellence became crystallized, and the stage was set for it to grow into the world class arts education institution it is today.

Students come from across Canada, many other countries, and every ward in Ottawa; graduates of can be found wordwide, as dancers, choreographers, teachers, arts administrators and directors.

The School of Dance has grown in virtually every aspect of its operations from its professional programming and its accessibility projects and outreach activities to its arts education classes for the community, reaching more than 70,000 people each year.The School of Dance is recognized in Ontario as a private career college and a seminary of learning. The Contemporary Dance Programme is approved as a vocational program under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005.

Hodgins directs The School of Dance with an operating budget of over $1 million and a growing staff of 3 full-time and 87 contract teachers, musicians, choreographers and artists.

From the mid-1980s to 1999, The School of Dance rented a three-studio facility on Catherine Street.

In 1996, The School of Dance added professional modern dance training and teacher training.

In 1998, The School of Dance began its co-operative relationship with the National Arts Centre, producing choreography in orchestral settings to introduce dance to children.

In 2000, The School of Dance purchased 200 Crichton Street, the former Crichton Street Public School.

In 2001, The School of Dance launched DanceONTour® as its outreach vehicle of arts education for academic schools in Ottawa and surrounding areas.

In 2002, The School of Dance doubled the number of its outreach programmes to the over 300 projects it now delivers per year. In the same year, The School of Dance launched DanceAbility, a specially designed dance programme for individuals with disabilities.

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