Donna’s School of Dance forced to close amid pandemic

Donna’s School of Dance has been a Spokane Valley institution for 57 years, but there won’t be a 58th. The doors to the dance studio in the basement of an office building at 11707 E. Sprague Ave. never opened again after shutting down for the coronavirus in March.

“All the restrictions placed on us, there was no way we could see forward,” Donna Rawlings said.

The classes normally held 45 students, but new social distancing restrictions would cut that to 15. The specially-designed parent viewing rooms attached to each of the three dance studios would be rendered virtually unusable.

“You’d have to reduce the size of the classes,” Rawlings said. “We wouldn’t have enough hours in the day or the week to fit them all in.”

Adding to the uncertainty was the school’s lease, which is up at the end of the month. The landlord was inflexible and insisted on a five-year lease, Rawlings said. “There’s too much uncertainty,” she said. “Who knows if we’re going to shut down again in the fall or the winter. We just couldn’t do it.”

Rawlings took her first dance lesson when she was 3 years old and was instantly enamored. She told her mother she wanted to be a dance teacher when she grew up.

“I thought my dance teacher was a princess,” she said.

At age 17 she opened her studio. She rented out the Millwood Masonic Temple for a while, then held classes in her basement. The school was in a variety of other Spokane Valley locations until moving to its current spot, where Rawlings had the chance to transform an empty basement into the studio she wanted, complete with rooms for music and voice lessons.

“It was my dream studio,” she said.

Her two sons and two daughters all took classes at her school. Her sons quit after a few years, but her daughters stuck with it.

“The girls loved it,” she said. “When they were about 13 they started assisting me in the classroom, and it went from there.”

For years her daughters, Dena Spencer and Darcy Kielblock, were her main instructors. “That was the biggest blessing of this whole thing, was being able to work with my daughters,” she said.

Gradually they expanded the teaching staff to 10 employees. They taught ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, modern and lyrical dance along with musical theater, piano, guitar and voice. Five years ago, Rawlings stepped back from the day-to-day operation of the school, handing over control to her daughters. But that didn’t mean she disappeared.

“I did come in and help out behind the counter, just to see everybody,” she said.

And there were a lot of people to see. It wasn’t unusual for Rawlings to see the grandchildren of her early students.

“We’re going on third generation kids now, or we were,” she said.

On March 1, business was booming. The school had about 450 students. “We were getting ready for our big annual show at the INB,” she said. “Then COVID hit and everything came to a halt.”

All the staff kept getting paid during the pandemic closure.

“They made videos at home, and kids would watch them online,” she said. “That was nice. It was all we could do.”

Rawlings hoped the recital could still happen and pushed the date several times. By late May she and her daughters realized it was the end, not just of their plans for a recital but of everything.

“We realized, you know what, this is not going to happen,” she said.

Tears were shed and the family announced their decision to students and parents. “I feel the worst for the students right now,” she said. “They didn’t get to have their recital, and that’s what they worked for all year.”

But everyone has been supportive, she said. “Our customers have been very understanding,” she said. “They’re sad like we are, but they get it.”

Rawlings said it’s been uplifting to read the messages people have been posting on social media since the closure was announced. “It’s interesting to see all the comments pouring in, saying just lovely things about their memories here and how much it meant to them,” she said.

Rawlings said she hasn’t heard of many of other dance schools shutting down, but said she’ll be surprised if they’re alone. “I’m sure we’re not going to be the only one,” she said.

Dance Arts Academy closed on June 1 after offering online classes since March. Owner Kathryn Pearson posted a final note on the school’s website, writing that the shutdown and increasing monthly costs was too much for the business to bear.

“I fought as long as I could but realized last week that there is just no way to keep it going,” Pearson wrote.

Rawlings has one final message of encouragement for her students.

“I keep telling our students, keep dancing,” she said.