Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Metzger.
Stephanie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started as a public school Spanish teacher, working in the DMV for six years. I would host dance classes and programs for my students after school, and often other teacher friends would have me come into their schools to teach lessons as well.
Once the pandemic hit, I transitioned out of teaching but was still getting requests to bring dance to the schools which I had been doing for free before. The requests for programming ended up being more than I could cover, and I started to Venmo my friends to go to the schools I couldn’t teach at because I believed in the power of dance to impact students — and honestly, I just couldn’t say no if a school was reaching out for programming.
At the same time, as we were coming out of the pandemic, my friends from church had me teaching them dance lessons in small groups. As the restrictions began to lift, we were looking for larger places to have our dance lessons. I had recently become a regular at Three Whistles Cowork Cafe in Arlington, and it turned out the owner also attended a church I was a member of.
He offered to let us host dance lessons at his shop, and more and more people began attending these small dance lessons and socials. My friends had wanted to pay me for teaching, but I felt happy enough getting my friends dancing and connected to the community and didn’t want to make money. We decided to donate the money to local causes until it clicked that we could use the proceeds from these adult dance lessons and socials to help pay dance teachers to run programs in the schools around DC. It was here that Inspira was born!
Inspira Dance is now a registered non-profit organization whose mission is to provide sustainable, high-quality dance programs for all students. We don’t believe funds should be a barrier for students to access the arts, and we believe dance impacts students in a multitude of transformational ways. Research shows that dance increases self-confidence, attendance rates, emotional well-being, and academic performance while decreasing dropout rates.
Inspira Dance now hosts a variety of adult dance classes by partnering with local businesses, and these adult dance events directly fund our student programs. At our core, we are a community-based organization, working to make dance an integral part of our community spaces. The name Inspira comes from the Spanish word “Inspirar” – to inspire – and acknowledges the history of this organization in Latin dance programs for students and our desire to have our community come together to inspire the next generation of dancers.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I never set out to start a non-profit organization, but thankfully I’ve been surrounded by people who have been willing to help at every step along the way.
What started as just myself hosting a few dance lessons, has now turned into a team of over 20 people teaching a variety of dance styles and helping things behind the scenes run.
Going from a one-man show to a huge team of people has been the biggest blessing, and has helped us grow into something I could have never imagined. We are truly lucky to have so many people offering their gifts to help support our community and students.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We work with 9 Title 1 Public Schools in DC and VA. All programs are inclusive, incorporate the history of the dances, and social/emotional curriculum, and provide students with opportunities to perform and grow. We serve 320+ students each week from PreK to 12th grade. Our programs include Salsa, Bachata, Hip Hop, Krump, and Creative Movement. Many of our programs are bilingual to reach more students and take place during the school day. We offer 22+ hours of dance programming each week that is free to students. Many of the schools we work with have never had dance programming before.
At a time when arts are the first thing to be cut from school budgets, we believe in the power that dance has to change student lives and their experience in school. We rely on community support to help support our students, and by attending our dance events and learning a new skill, those proceeds directly pay for professional dance teachers to work in our schools. Thanks to corporate and local donations, we’ve been able to build dance studios directly in schools are well! As a small organization, our proceeds from donations and dance events truly go directly back to our students. We have some of the highest quality dance instructors working with students across the DMV, thanks to donors and community support.
You can hire Inspira Dance teachers for team building at your company, or for private events to perform. Those proceeds also go directly to bringing dance into the schools for students, all while providing a fun service for your organization! We love working with local organizations to support the arts and are grateful for everyone who has partnered with us.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love the Baltimore aquarium! It’s one of my favorite places to visit.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.inspiradanceinc.com
- Instagram: @inspiradanceinc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inspiradanceinc/
