National and international dance champion Cortney Colich knew she had a great idea: create a dance studio that blends dance and fitness. She’d seen it on her many travels to the east and west coasts, and knew Minnesota didn’t have anything like it. After seven years of teaching varsity dance at a local high school, she finally took the plunge and opened up The Vibe Dance and Fitness in Minnetonka. We sat down with her at the new studio to talk about her venture.
How is dance such a part of your life, and why do you want it to continue to be a part of your life?
I was a dancer growing up. I danced competitive dance; I went on to be on the University of Minnesota dance team for four years. It’s one of the top teams in the nation and I loved it. We won six national championships and two world championships. That really opened me up to having people aware of me and knowing a lot of people in the dance community. Ever since college I have taught and choreographed dance around Minnesota, around the country and internationally. I’ve danced in a local dance company and I also coached Edina dance team for seven years as the assistant varsity coach. I ended all of the amazing opportunities I was a part of to be able to put my full self into this business. It is my passion.
What is so unique about Vibe?
It’s a boutique-style studio. I correlate fitness and dance together. I wanted to create a space for dancers and former dancers and fitness lovers to be able to have a place where they can drop in, take a class, learn, train more, reignite their passion for dance [and] just feel the love of the sport and fitness in a way that doesn’t necessarily need any commitment. We have four different fitness classes a week: yoga sculpt, a barre fitness class, mat Pilates and cardio.
And what makes it special for dancers?
The usual type of dance studio is a studio where kids or people of any age will belong and pay an annual fee, have recitals [and] do competitions. I wanted to create a space for people to just take a class and just dance and to work out, and to have fun without all of the commitment behind it. Dancers are always looking for extra training. It’s something that is necessary in the dance world. We have a really large, vast dance world in Minnesota. There’s always the need for a place to train, to find more technique, to just have quality instruction and quality teachers. That was my goal behind the business.
What kind of dance training do you offer?
If it’s someone’s dream to make a dance team or progress to varsity level or wherever they want to be able to reach, I want to help those dancers, because I have some key knowledge in the area. I have a dance team training class specifically for dance team dancers to help them train for the things they need to know and the skills they need. I’m also doing private dance team intensives with high school dance teams. They can hire us and come to the studio for one to three days for the team as a whole.
The Vibe Dance and Fitness
15724 Wayzata Blvd., Minnetonka
952.500.8269
