On Aug. 28, Creation Dance Studio officially opened its third studio space in Mercer Island. Members of the dance studio and people in the community gathered as the ribbon-cutting took place. As the doors flew open, people walked through the building in excitement.

Stevie Hagen is the owner and director of the studio. Hagen said the new space can provide more opportunities for new and current dancers.

“This expansion truly started as just a dream, and that dream turned into a real idea, and then that idea became a reality, which has been amazing to see,” said Hagen. “Now we have three studio spaces that can be used throughout the week.”

The new studio is located directly downstairs from the previous studios. The building includes one large space upstairs, which has two studios and now another dance space, totaling three.

The new space is dedicated to a woman named Beverly Anne Johnson. Johnson had attended ballet classes at the studio since it was first founded in 2016. The dancer continued to take sessions and wear point shoes up until the week she passed away in the spring of 2024 at age 91.

“She really became like family to me,” said Hagen. “Her kindness and generosity are remembered by everybody that she met, so we plan to have a pair of shoes in the lobby of studio three up on the wall so that we can always remember and be inspired by her love and passion for dance.”

The Creation Dance Studio journey first began in 2016 when Dena Dunning asked now owner Hagen to take over the program due to battling stage four cancer. This location was on the north end of Mercer Island until 2020.

“At that point, it was just an adult ballet employee program and we really had to continue to have a really strong adult community who love to dance,” said Hagen.

By 2021, the studio moved to the south end of Mercer Island, where the building currently sits.

With the new expansion, the dance studio plans on offering a comprehensive training program for children, teens and adults.

“We’re able to have just more classes in our typical dance styles like jazz and hip-hop, lyrical, contemporary ballet, and point, while we’re also able to pull in additional classes, such as drill team technique, musical theater … just more adaptive dance classes so that we’re really able to reach everybody,” Hagen said.

Lauren Wisch has been going to Creation Dance Studio since February 2022 for adult ballet classes. Wisch said since her first class, she has been welcomed with open arms.

“It’s just been a really great place to grow as a dancer in a really warm environment,” said Wisch. “I think that it’s wonderful to have that community … just coming together every week, performing together … Yeah, it just feels like a sense of belonging there.”

The type of dance Wisch performs is ballet, jazz or jazzy ballet. With the new variations of dance offered, the adult dancer hasn’t explored them yet, but plans on doing so in the future.

“I know that there are hip-hop classes, or I think there’s like a cardio bar, but sometimes those don’t work for my schedule,” said Wisch. “I’m hoping that with the new studio that there might be some more offerings that would expand those opportunities.”

Before the new expansion, the studio offered about 55 classes per week. Now, the staff have around 77 classes per week going into the next year.

“It’s an amazing feeling to come full circle,” said Hagen. “Now that I have a dance studio on Mercer Island with the same hope that dancers will be inspired and impacted for a lifetime just like I was in my home for the majority of my life, and my love for dance with this wonderful community that I was raised in, it’s the greatest gift that I can ask for.”