We get a lot of people asking what the “collective” part of our name stands for. Sometimes it is confused, and people say “Fort Wayne Dance Collection”. Sometimes it’s “collecting”. And when they think “collective”, they think of something like the Borg Collective from Star Trek (well, I did, anyway).

The collective part of FWDC refers to a couple different parts. First, our management structure is in a collective style. Rather than a traditional nonprofit where there is an Executive Director and sub directors under her, all three of our directors reports directly to the board. And if there is a decision that would otherwise be made by an executive director, our three directors make it collectively, by consensus. There is only one other collective-style management nonprofit in town: the Center for Nonviolence. Our two organizations were founded around the same time, and have close ties, as many of the same people were involved in our inceptions.

There is also another element to the “collective” in our organization, and it’s in the way we teach and create art. The DC Dance Collective says it best at their FAQ page:

A Collective, like a traditional dance school, offers a full range of classes for dancers of all ages and all levels. The difference between a collective and a traditional dance school is that a collective provides support for the artists and their individual talents, rather than stringently setting rules and defining curriculums. A collective allows the instructors the freedom to relay their expertise to students in whatever way they see fit. Furthermore, a collective strives to include as many different dance styles from as many different cultures as possible. Students benefit by being able to choose from a wide range of classes taught by experienced instructors with differing styles and philosophies, which allows them to compare and contrast those styles and philosophies, and thereby form their own opinions, and grow as artists and individuals.

There you have it. We at the FWDC pride ourselves on the individual cultivation of a dancer, not as a cog in the choreography machine, but as a whole and innate creative individual. We have a focus on creative expression, democratic collaboration, and improvisation.

We hope you can come and be part of the collective! Our summer class schedule is up, and it’ll be starting at the end of June!