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Washington Evening Journal
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Iowa Dance Collective opens in new building
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – Iowa Dance Collective hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house at its new location on Friday, Sept. 5.
The dance company’s new home is 402 N. B St., previously home to the old Fairfield Market, iPhone Life Magazine and many other offices. Those familiar with the old layout will be floored at the renovations, which involved removing almost every interior wall that once separated the building into 19 offices to create three large studios. The largest of these is on the east end of the building and includes a vaulted ceiling with a second-floor balcony, a perfect spot to take in a recital.
“I want this room to be the crown jewel of Fairfield,” said IDC owner Tyler Malone.
Malone noted that this is his business’s third move in the four years since he founded it. It was first in the former Orpheum Theater before moving to the south side of the Fairfield square. Malone said that his moves have been necessitated by ever-increasing participation numbers, which started with 40 kids in his first year, and has grown to 118 students in 394 class spots.
IDC is offering a number of new programs this year, including free dance classes for preschool children. Everybody’s Whole Foods is sponsoring 27 kids on financial and merit scholarships. The company has a dance troupe for pre-professional dancers called Malone Dance Theater, which gives them a taste of what they’ll need to pursue a career in dancing.
One of the youngsters in this troupe is 15-year-old Aden Lieb, who has been taking dance classes at IDC since 2022. Lieb is the first to pursue a hybrid educational partnership between IDC and Fairfield’s homeschool program where some of his dance classes count as credits toward his high school diploma.
IDC opened its new building in July for its summer classes, though renovations were only 70 percent finished at the time, Malone said. He said he was fixing little things right up until the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday afternoon.
Malone said he looked at moving into this building on B Street a few years ago when he was moving out of the Orpheum, but the timing wasn’t right. Once he realized he had outgrown his studio on the square, he reached back out to realtor Michaela McLain, who let him know the B Street building was available. Malone jumped at the chance, and has spent the last year converting the building into one of the jewel’s of Fairfield.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
