Meet Rachel Wight of Wight Noise Dance Company

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Wight.

Rachel, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I discovered my passion for dance in high school. Inspired by the flourishing dance community of a then young Orange County dance community. I studied at California State University at Long Beach Dance program where I had the privilege to study under Jeff Slayton, Trinjte Shapley, Gloria Newman and my mentor Nannette Brodie. I danced with the Nannette Brodie Dance Theater for five years while simultaneously teaching at Golden West Community College where I served as Interim Dance Department Director before relocating to Arizona where I have been fortunate enough to teach in the public school and community college setting.

I founded Wight Noise Dance Company in 2014 inspired by my mentor, Nannette Brodie, to create a performance troupe that celebrated all of the wonderful and complex moments of life. WNDC has been fortunate enough to perform in festivals in Southern California, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. I also founded the Arizona Dance West Festival in 2015. Usually held in March, this festival invites professional dance companies from all over to perform in this collaborative, celebration of the arts.

I am deeply immersed in the dance community have served on many committees including AZDEO, Dance Alliance, Artist in Residence and the Peoria Unified School District Arts Festival Committee. I am a recipient of the Golden West College Alumni Pillar of Honor award, Pride of Peoria and the Kathy Lindholm Lane Award.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Founding the company was a bit of a challenge as the requirements and documentation necessary to found a non-profit organization are quite lengthy. Once established we faced the trials of finding an adequate rehearsal space and also funding to make our performances a reality.

There is not a great deal of revenue generated in this type of endeavor, so it is always a challenge to find new ways to manage all of the integral pieces of putting a performance together. We have been fortunate to have some very supportive groups help us out with facilities to perform in.

Glendale Community College Performing Arts Department and Theater Works were two such organizations. The struggles are continual though so creative thinking is always beneficial to find new revenue sources through performances, grants, etc.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Wight Noise Dance Company – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Three years ago, I took on the challenge of opening my own studio. I opened the doors of Wight Noise Dance Company Studios on August 6th, 2016.

The thing that sets us aside from other studios is the thing I am most proud of – the fact that we are building a dance environment that is focusing on the “Art” of dance. We focus on teaching the love of the arts and growing passion for dance through our class instruction and philosophy. We offer dance for age two years old to adult. We also do not graduate students out of our program. They don’t have to stop taking at our studio when they turn 18, as so many other studios do. They can continue on into our adult classes or even intern with our professional company. It is so important to me that people know they can continue pursuing their passion no matter what their age.

Each year, I have added some type of improvement to the studio space. Most recently we retro-fitted our large studio to double as a performance venue. We held our very first dance showcase entitled “Faith Fuels Us’ just this past October. It received rave reviews and was a labor of love through and through. The dancers performed to intimate audiences of about 75 patrons to a show created entirely to Christian music and telling stories of hardship, beauty, forgiveness, celebration, and love. The multi-use availability of this space has now created a more affordable venue for not only my professional company, but other company’s around the valley to perform in. Affordable venues are so limited in the greater Phoenix area, so I am very happy and proud to offer this service to the dance community.

What’s your outlook for the industry in our city?
Arizona has a thriving dance community. Coming originally from California, I was lucky enough to grow up in a community where dance was flourishing, but in the most recent years, before I relocated to Arizona, that started to decline. I was overjoyed to find that Arizona not only had full-time dance programs in most of their public high schools but that they had many professional dance companies established and doing great things in and around the state. The professional organizations existing in Arizona are supportive, collaborative and wonderful. I believe there are such huge opportunities for dancers to study and perform in Arizona and it’s a community that is supportive and kind.

Contact Info:

• Address: 9800 N. 91st Ave Suite 120 Peoria Az 85345
• Website: www.wightnoisedancecompany.com
• Phone: 6233986621
• Email: wightnoisedc@gmail.com
• Instagram: wightnoisedance
• Facebook: wight noise dance company

Image Credit:
Dean Mortensen Speed of Light Photography

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