Meet Maria Scheffel | Owner, Castle Rock Dance Academy

We had the good fortune of connecting with Maria Scheffel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maria, how does your business help the community?
At Castle Rock Dance Academy, our foundational goal is to create a movement that changes the toxic and negative culture commonly associated with dance. Our staff’s primary focus is enforcing positive, nurturing, and excellent dance instruction that not only inspires our students towards a love for dance, but impacts our community artistically and benevolently. Because we are performance-based, rather than a competitive dance studio, we try to give back through performances as much as we can; in the past, we’ve performed at local town festivals, the library, a retirement home, and more. Amongst our students, we emphasize supporting each other both inside and outside of the studio, and treating their fellow dancers with kindness and respect. We always say, we are in the business of creating good humans, not just good dancers.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
It was my freshman year of college. I had always loved singing, performing, and dancing, and had signed up to audition for the choir associated with the School of Music. The audition day arrived, and I was so scared; I came so close to cancelling the audition, but I finally talked myself into it. Auditioning for college choir led to a host of opportunities that directly contribute to my ability to captain Castle Rock Dance Academy. From performing in musicals, plays, choir concerts, dance shows, and more, the experience I gained from those 4 years of college made me into someone who loves to perform, and loves to create performance opportunities for others. Because of this, I am continually motivated to provide these opportunities for my students, and within those performance opportunities, create an atmosphere united towards one goal. That’s one of my favorite parts of working on a show with peers or students: many bodies, working towards one, cohesive, collective objective: creating a show for the community that will allow our audience members to take a break, enjoy live performance, and forget about the hard parts of life outside of the theater doors.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
In Castle Rock, a trip isn’t complete without a visit to the rock by which the city got it’s name! It’s a short hike (and a slightly perilous climb) to get to the top of the rock, but the view are stunning!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I love that the Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. When asked who helped me get to where I am today, the name at the top of the list is my first dance teacher, Joy Thomas. She was the one who originally influenced and sparked my interest in dance. Fast forward about 20 years; I was given the name and number of a dance studio in Castle Rock looking for a teacher. I followed up, and it was Joy, my dance teacher from so many years ago who answered the phone! She hired me as a teacher and taught me the intricacies of dance studio operations, all while I fell more and more in love with CRDA, its mission, and its dancers. She sparked my love of dance, influenced my desire to continue the mission of changing the dance culture, and passed the torch, with my taking over the studio in June of 2020.

Website: www.castlerockdanceacademy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/castlerockdanceacademy/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/castlerockdanceacademy

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/castle-rock-dance-academy-castle-rock-2

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@castlerockdanceacademy1463

Image Credits
Mary Ann Craddock Photography