Nonprofit movement organization West Slope Westies has found a new home on Main Avenue in the building formerly occupied by Northpoint Furniture and Mattress.
West Slope Westies, founded in 2017, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit “dedicated to fostering connection, education, and community through dance, movement, and shared creative experiences,” according to its website.
Northpoint Furniture and Mattress moved to 1474 Main Ave. last month, vacating the location at 1315 Main Ave.
The new West Slope Westies studio is meant to be a safe space for all and a catalyst for connection, said West Coast Westies Board Vice President Lorisha Ionno. The space will not only be used by West Coast Westies for classes and open dance sessions, it will also be available to dance groups across La Plata County.
“It’ll create community, connection, creativity will thrive, and it will help a lot of the dance groups who haven’t necessarily been able to have a lot of structure and consistency have a home,” Ionno said. “Having a home will give them that sort of foundation that they need to continue to grow and share their movement and dance styles.”
The 3,200-square-foot studio, which the nonprofit has named The Durango Collective, has been fully remodeled with new flooring, mirrors, lighting and HVAC, and appeared in late January a far cry from the shell of a furniture warehouse it resembled in early December.
The Durango Collective was co-created by Ionno, West Coast Westies Board President Marty Saunders and Treasurer Autumn von Flotow.
Before the nonprofit moved into the Main Avenue location, it rented space in the Smiley Building.
“We outgrew the space we were in,” Ionno said. “... We talked internally of something bigger and different … and hence, the Durango Collective was born. It was a series of green lights. So, we signed a lease.”
The new studio was transformed entirely by hand by the West Coast Westies crew over the course of about two months with support from several local sponsors, including Mountain Goat Mortgage, Mend Heating and Cooling, and Hutton Broadcasting. Timberline Photography and Zia Taqueria also provided support.
To make maintaining the location sustainable, the organization formed a business plan involving membership-based classes and renting the space out for other dance groups and events.
For more information
For more information on scheduling and pricing, visit www.westslopewesties.com/book-online, call (970) 880-1565 or email mail@westslopewesties.com
Offerings at the studio, which are set to begin early next month, will include open dance sessions and classes in West Coast Swing and Country Swing, among other styles.
Classes will be available for all levels, Ionno said. Prices range from $20 for a single class or event to $45 for a 3-week beginner series and $80 for a four-week beginner series with open social dance sessions included.
Saunders said having a central home base on Main Avenue will make it easier for the dance community to get together.
“It gives you a wider horizon to try other styles, whereas otherwise, like in the Smiley, you had to be ‘in the know,’” he said. “You had to know somebody in that group in order to be included in the WhatsApp. … You’d be like, ‘Oh, where is fusion happening this week? Oh, it’s at a house party in Mancos. Oh, never mind. It’s at the Grange on the Mesa.’ (Now there’s) consistency, and one place to do it.”
Melissa Glick, who dances with and volunteers for the nonprofit, said the Durango Collective space isn’t just about dancing – it’s about fostering connection in an increasingly disconnected world.
“Outside of work and home, adults have quietly lost many of the ‘third places’ where community used to form – places you showed up to regularly, saw the same people and built trust over time,” she said. “As work, socializing and entertainment become more digital, those spaces are harder to find, particularly ones that don’t revolve around alcohol or networking. … This is the antidote to that.”
Ionno said the goal now is to nurture the energy the nonprofit has cultivated in the new space.
“The mission is very much about bringing West Coast dance and the greater community of dance together,” Ionno said. “Now we have to look at, how do we protect that mission and create a mission of being stewards for this new space? That’s what’s on the horizon.”
epond@durangoherald.com
