(Image: PopRox Studio)
(Image: PopRox Studio)
By Soumya Gupta, CHS intern
PopRox Studio, a Seattle dance studio that offers “confidence building, judgment free dance classes for kids and adults,” has announced its plans to open a new studio on Capitol Hill in the Chophouse Row commercial development.
It will be the growing business’s second studio, after its first location in University District.
Co-founders of PopRox Studio, Kinsey Flores and Cathy Barnett, officially announced plans for the new studio this week.
“We explored the neighbourhood quite a bit, and absolutely loved what the community had to offer to help us grow,” Barnett said. “The Chophouse Row is also a unique location, which hosts brands with a similar ethos like ours.”
The new studio will be located on the lower level of the 11th Ave Chophouse Row building where a series of businesses have rotated through. But the PopRox effort to create the new studio will be a larger investment. The new PopRox will debut in January 2024.
PopRox Studio aims to provide a safe, accepting and inclusive environment for dance, and to help people break barriers of fear and societal pressure.
Barnett also said that the new location would have a bigger space than the first studio, allowing instructors to take on more classes. They plan to include a retail store, along with a lounge space for instructors and students to connect.
“Chophouse Row is just a beautiful space, and we’re among the valuable businesses that are staples in the neighborhood,” Flores said.
Barnett and Flores started PopRox Studio in January 2018, where they offered a range of dance classes, initially for children, based on different fusion forms. They continued to further build the business, as they got a permanent space in the University District.
(Image: PopRox Studio)
“We were mostly focused on children’s classes, but Covid helped us increase the business for adult dance classes as well,” Flores said. “Being in the U-District also helped increase our reach with students, and the numbers increased.”
“Being dancers ourselves, we wanted to create a place where you could go to fulfil the fundamental human need of dance, and how your body wants to do it,” Barnett said. “Especially one that isn’t intimidating and free of judgement.”
Flores said that PopRox ensures that there is diversity with the classes they offer, and has dance forms from numerous cultures, taught by instructors belonging to different communities.
“We really want to grow because people love that they can come in and learn something new,” Flores said. “Our instructors are really paying attention to everyone’s needs, and ensuring that there is a level of positivity.”
The new studio will join a mix of dance instruction options on the Hill including longtimers like 15th Ave E’s Dance Underground. CHS reported here in 2022 on the exit of respected Velocity Dance from Capitol Hill as costs mounted in the high-rent neighborhood for the arts-fcoused studio.
PopRox Studio offers a series of workshops, classes, as well private sessions and events, open to adults and children throughout the year.
“We work to help people feel positive about their bodies and movements, and it’s about feeling happy with the choreography and coming together as a community,” Barnett said. “It’s especially successful as it’s become a mental health practice.”
She said that the opening of the new studio is a massive achievement for PopRox as a woman-led, local business. They are hopeful that the new studio will be a safe space for people to grow and express themselves.
“We are doing this with the support of our instructors and the community, and it would help us elevate the brand,” she said. “In many ways, we are going to rely on our existing community to help us branch out.”
PopRox will open in 2024 inside Chophose Row at 1424 11th Ave. Learn more at poproxdance.com.
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Other dance instruction studios in Capitol Hill include Exit Space, which took over the former Velocity studios on 12th Ave, and Century Ballroom, which has been offering swing, tango, salsa and other dance forms in the OddFellows Building for over 20 years.