Interview with Heidi Feuchtwanger

Heidi Feuchtwanger is the founder and owner of Mission Dance Project, a dance studio focused on personalized coaching and support located in Ashburn, VA. She has a background in marketing and advertising and values maintaining good mental health.

Interview

In our call, I got to know a lot about Heidi and her journey in creating Mission Dance Project. Heidi grew up doing dance and it was her childhood dream to one day create a dance studio. In fact, her daughter also participates in dance. However, as she got older and entered marketing as her career, that dream faded. When a local dance studio was closing down, she was encouraged to start a studio with a few other teachers.

In addition to learning about Heidi, we talked a lot about Mission Dance Project’s approach to dance. Specifically, the way each dancer’s individuality is developed. Heidi stated that they mainly do this through offering classes exploring different genres of dance. For example, they teach classes specialized in jazz, where students learned certain skills in jazz dance and have the freedom to add their personal taste to the skills they learned. In addition, the dancers do solos, where they have more room for self expression. Even in events where there are more rules and expectations on unison and synchronization, Heidi states that there is still a little room for interpretation of the choreography by the dancers. In addition, some dancers may be spotlighted, where they have more control over their dance. 

While I initially believed that increased self-expression was the main driving force behind good mental health in dance studios (comparing earlier decades to the recent years), Heidi informed me that she believed it was mainly due to a changed perspective towards body positivity instead of negativity. She talked about how, growing up, she had to do weekly body weight checks, that dancers would be kicked off because of the way they looked, and the general negative view towards body image in dance. She then detailed how, currently, many more studios, at least the ones in the Loudoun area, tend to approach body image in a positive manner. In other words, a dancer's outward appearance is affirmed instead of shamed.

Individuals interested in participating in the supportive environment of Mission Dance Project can give visit their website, social media, or give them a call for more information.