Artistic Director Tecia Sellers, along with Malaika Flenory and Desiree Cocroft, founded Signature Dance Company in 2004 under the guise that what they envisioned had yet to be done—in their community, that is. All three founders danced when they were younger, so quite naturally, creating a dance company was the next step.
“We wanted to have a dance company that was technically found in dance but that was also spiritually based,” Tecia says. “So in our minds, we needed to start that. We needed to create it because what we were looking for was not there.”
When they’re not putting on major shows or concerts, offering classes at their studio for the community or offering summer camps, the company members offer dance classes to local schools. Even though Signature Dance Company is currently local, the issue of the importance of arts education is apparent nationwide.
Tecia notes its importance.
“Children who grow up in the arts and dance tend to excel further than those who haven’t,” she comments.
When Signature Dance Company teaches classes at local schools, teachers get excited because they have a way to offer something different, Tecia says. They can’t afford to have a dance class with a full-time dance teacher, but now they have the option to contract someone once a week to come into the schools to teach dance.
“We all have different gifts, talents, skills and we all learn differently,” Tecia says. “I think that every child deserves the right to be exposed to different things so they can develop what’s naturally inside of them.”
Signature Dance Company started out pretty small with only seven company members. However, they currently have 50 company members, who all share the same Christian beliefs as well as train in modern, jazz, ballet and hip hop.
“Our Christian foundation is the core reason in which we exist,” Tecia comments. “Each member is expected to uphold the Christian beliefs an standards in their public and private lives.”
Almost nothing is accomplished without a lot of hard work and dedication. So, it doesn’t come as a surprise to learn that the process hasn’t been easy. Most of the members have jobs outside of the company, which tends to limits the amount of time that can be dedicated to the company. However, they have received assistance from different sources and people throughout the entire process.
Whereas most dancers who’ve danced more than half their lives would quite naturally consider themselves as trained dancers, Tecia has a different notion. Oddly enough, after more than 10 years of experience in dancing and an entire dance company under her belt, “trained” might be the wrong adjective.
“I’ve trained, but I wouldn’t consider myself a trained dancer,” Tecia admits.
The fact that she’s never technically been trained has little to do with her pursuing a passion. Within the next few years, Tecia hopes that Signature Dance Company can have their own studio and expand its base nationwide.
She says, “We’re looking forward to more touring and putting on more shows to expand beyond just doing things in Milwaukee.