There are many places to take dance or aerial classes. Weehawken is something different.
For nearly 20 years, we've built a community where students are encouraged to dream big, work hard, support one another, and grow through the performing arts. Families travel from across western Colorado because they're looking for more than weekly classes—they're looking for a place where their children can belong, be challenged, and discover what they're capable of.
What makes Weehawken unique isn't just one thing. It's the combination of nationally trained teachers, two fully staged theatrical productions each year, costumes provided from our collection, transparent pricing, scholarships, a connected dance and aerial program, and a nonprofit mission dedicated to making exceptional arts education accessible.
The details below explain how those pieces come together to create an experience unlike any other in our region.
One Connected Program That Grows With Students
Weehawken offers an unusually broad, connected program for students from age three through adulthood. Students can explore ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, lyrical, contemporary dance, hip hop, aerial silks, lyra, and more without leaving their artistic community as their interests and abilities grow.
Students are encouraged to try new disciplines, contribute their own ideas, mentor younger performers, and help shape original productions. The result is more than a collection of classes—it is a long-term pathway through which students can develop technique, creativity, confidence, friendships, and a meaningful identity as artists.
A Nonprofit Committed to Access
- Community-Supported Nonprofit: Weehawken Creative Arts is a nonprofit organization supported by families, volunteers, donors, patrons, and community partners.
- Scholarships: We award approximately $30,000 in need-based scholarships each year.
- Regional Access: Classes are offered in Montrose and Ridgway, serving families throughout Montrose, Ridgway, Ouray County, and the surrounding region.
- Ages 3 Through Adult: Beginning through advanced classes are available for children, teens, and adults.
- Upfront Pricing: Tuition and required fees are published before registration, and payment plans are available at no additional charge.
Expert, Specialized Instruction
Our instructors bring experience across a wide range of dance, aerial, movement, and conditioning disciplines. Faculty members are committed to continued education, developmentally appropriate teaching, strong technical foundations, creativity, and student wellbeing.
- ABT® Certified Ballet Instruction: Our faculty includes instructors certified through the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum, including certification through Level 7. This curriculum combines high-quality artistic training with age-appropriate progressions, dancer health, and child development.
- ISTD Fellowship: Our faculty includes a Fellow of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing in Imperial Classical Ballet—an advanced classical ballet teaching qualification.
- Paper Doll Militia–Certified Aerial Instruction: Our aerial program is supported by internationally recognized teacher training in aerial silks and lyra.
- Specialized Strength and Conditioning: Additional faculty expertise includes Progressing Ballet Technique, comprehensive Pilates, Scolio-Pilates, conditioning, alignment, and injury prevention.
- Authentic Hip Hop Education: Our teaching team includes instructors with professional development in foundational hip hop styles, culture, history, and age-appropriate teaching practices.
Meet Our Dance and Aerial Instructors
Performance With Purpose
Weehawken produces two major, fully costumed, story-driven theatrical productions each year. These performances are much more than recitals—they are shared creative experiences that bring dancers, aerialists, teachers, families, and community members together.
Through the production process, students develop:
- Ensemble work, musicality, and timing
- Stage placement and spatial awareness
- Costume-change and backstage skills
- Responsibility, preparation, and professionalism
- Collaboration across ballet, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary dance, aerial arts, and more
- Confidence, artistry, creativity, and meaningful performance experience
Advanced Training Through Community Performance
Advanced students develop through strong technical instruction, creative collaboration, featured roles, and repeated experience in large-scale theatrical productions created for audiences in our own community.
Rather than centering advanced training around competitions in distant cities, our approach emphasizes artistry, storytelling, ensemble responsibility, versatility, and meaningful performance. Families are not expected to take on competition entry fees, required travel, additional competition costumes, or higher fees simply because a student is cast in a lead or solo role.
Costumes Provided From Our Collection
Families do not purchase a separate costume for every performing class. Instead, Weehawken supplies costumes from our extensive collection, and families pay one show fee that helps support the entire production experience.
We aim to reuse costumes many times, helping reduce both family expenses and unnecessary waste. The show fee supports much more than a single costume, including:
- A portion of costume purchasing and maintenance
- Costume storage and organization
- Rehearsal and performance venue rentals
- Sets, props, and stage décor
- Lighting, sound, and backstage contractors
- Artistic direction and creative planning
- Teacher wages during rehearsals and production week
- Administrative and production work before and after each show
This model allows Weehawken to create ambitious, professional-quality productions while keeping sustained dance and aerial training more affordable, accessible, and environmentally responsible.
The Weehawken Difference
When people ask what makes Weehawken different, the answer is never just one thing.
It is the students cheering for one another backstage. The confidence built through years of hard work. The friendships that last beyond graduation. The teachers who continue learning. The performances that bring an entire community together. The belief that exceptional arts education should be accessible to everyone.
That is the Weehawken Difference.
Learn More About Our Productions and Performance Opportunities
