The Dance Studio of Maine has many offerings and a thriving program including a highly successful travel team program. Trish Moulton, owner of DSOM bought the studio at age 24 when she moved from Long Island, New York to Maine. She has been educating dancers for over 20 years and thrives on seeing all dancers succeed. She has worked closely with parents of her students and has close ties with many in the dance community, including, the Sea Dogs and Lady Red Claws teams.
Moulton shares, “I have a staff of amazing instructors, whom I taught. Seeing them thrive and do what they love as an artist, is definitely gratifying. Hiring back into the community creates a strong family atmosphere. I let the instructors do what they want; we have mutual respect, being in this together for such a long time. The DSOM schedule is aligned during the school calendar year from September through May with a “themed” recital in June at varied locations throughout Southern Maine.
The Program Overview includes the “littles” ages four and five with one class per week with one or two recitals. Elite kids begin at age nine and compete through age eighteen.
The Company Dance program (the travel team) consists of 60-plus students and competes nationally. The travel team starts competing in December. This includes practice training and education classes in Boston multiple weekends and in addition competing eight times. The schedule is intense. Saturday’s schedule consists of education classes starting at 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. with a lunch and dinner break and then it is straight through until 10 p.m. competing. Students wake up for the 8 a.m. class on Sunday.
Moulton shares, “the travel schedule teaches kids a strong work ethic while gaining confidence. They are meeting kids from all over the country, including, New York, Connecticut, and Miami.
There is a lot of “output” happening during training and memorizing routines. There is a strong emphasis on the importance of nutrition and properly fueling the body.”
With these larger platforms, students “up their game” in performances significantly. Moulton emphasizes, “for example, we have students who have “beat out” 500 other dancers to take home national titles, multiple times. This shows the hard work and the number of hours that are put into training. It’s a big commitment, but they love competing.”
GHS Juniors MaKenna Wheeler and Ava Spitzinger, members of DSOM, have been competing at this level for a long time, with humble attitudes. Wheeler is still dancing and is looking forward to the Revel competition in Boston this year. She spends anywhere from 7-10 hours a week at the studio. Spitzinger is taking this season off for the first time in over a decade to pursue other things.
Wheeler emphasizes, “I am really looking forward to the upcoming travel season. The convention competitions are a great way to not only put your body to work, but also your mind. It is a challenging environment which makes you tune in and focus on what is going on. It teaches you self-control and tests your limits on how far you can push yourself.”
Commitment to practice transcends into their everyday life with school, jobs and expectations of themselves and others. Both Wheeler and Spitzinger speak very highly of all their instructors, including Ashley Earl (GHS ‘09). The two chime in that their favorite part about competing is the support from everyone in the studio and also the opportunity to meet and dance with people from all over the country. Not only are Wheeler and Spitzinger amazing at what they do, they also are caring individuals with very contagiously joyful personalities.
Good luck to all the Dance Studio of Maine (DSOM) team members this season.