By Katherine Hatcher | Staff Writer
Amid Waco’s booming arts scene, one art form has grown slower than others — dance. However, partial credit must be awarded to one trailblazer in the field. From the beginning of her dance career, Waco local Brooke Schlecte has brought many opportunities for different kinds of dance to thrive in Waco.
Schlecte was born and raised in Waco. She began her dance career as a young girl at Joy’s School of Dance, which she said offered dance classes but no programs that concentrated specifically on the study of dance.
After high school, Schlecte tried out for the Kilgore Rangerettes, the world’s best known collegiate drill team, and then earned her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Texas and her Master’s of Fine Arts in Dance from Texas Woman’s University (TWU) in 2007. These years after high school were crucial for Schlecte as they transformed how she perceived what a dance education should look like, she said.
She returned to Waco after grad school and formed Out on a Limb Dance Company with one of her friends from TWU, Rachel Johnson, and some undergraduate colleagues. Schlecte wanted to bring what her formal dance education taught her to her home.
“She saw a need there in Waco, and decided that she had the capacity and the resources and the creativity to fill it,” Johnson said.
Schlecte’s dancers took a huge first step when she reached out to a family friend in charge of the Waco Cultural Arts Fest about starting a dance festival. Her friend adored the idea, she said.
Schlecte said that Cultural Arts of Waco — who also owned Waco Cultural Arts Fest — funded everything as long as Schlecte found sponsorships and directed the festival. She did this happily.
“I love running things and being in charge of things, so it became very natural, and I loved every part of that,” Schlecte said.
After the first festival in 2012, Schlecte went on to run {254}DANCEFEST for about nine years, which created a whole new scene for dancers and performers to enter.
Even with the festival running, Schlecte said it was and is difficult to get the community interested in dance. More unfamiliar genres of dance, such as modern, did not easily attract some audiences. Still, Schlecte did not let hesitation stop her from growing a new dance presence locally.
“My whole goal with 254 was to bring other people into Waco,” Schlecte said.
Along with building a strong audience, Schlecte said she wanted to get rid of the notion for that dance is only made in-studio, which she believes is wildly wrong.
Prior to her festival, there were limited opportunities for young choreographers to really produce their work in Waco, she said. Schlecte actually created a 254 Gym where 13 to 18-year-old dancers could submit their work to be performed.
“I was starting to choreograph at a very young age, and obviously I wanted other people to have opportunities,” Schlecte said.
To share her passion for dance with next generation, Schlecte created a popular field trip for kindergarten through third grade students at local schools to attend and learn from professional dancer. She said they learned how to be good audience members, the history of dance, how to choreograph and more.
Once she established a nonprofit, Schlecte had a whole new world of opportunities to grow the dance scene in Waco. She produced two dance concerts between 2017 and 2019 where all arts were supported, especially dance.
Schlecte said she is not producing and directing now like she was then, but she continues to make space for dance in Waco. Throughout her career, she has continued to cultivate education in her various teaching opportunities through developing and teaching dance classes at Baylor University and in other elementary schools. She developed one program for very young dancers, inspired by and designed for her three children.
“It’s a three year program, and it is a creative movement,” Schlecte explained. “It’s ballet history and ballet technique and we cover a culture each semester. Right now, I’m teaching India, and we’re doing Bollywood, and at another school, we’re doing Scotland and Scottish folk dance.”
In her life, Schlecte said she has seen the dance world in Waco grow and feels that the support is there from some non-profit partners, but she would always love to see more.
“I feel and have always felt like I am fighting this battle all alone,” Schlecte said.
Although sometimes burnt out, Schlecte said she will continue to fight to help get dance more into schools and grow the next generation of dancers in her own ways. Her dream for the community is for dance to be less tricks and entertainment and more of a beautiful experience.
Schlecte said the experiences she was able to be a part of and create were all due to her sophisticated and strong dance education. Schlecte said that this education allowed her to feel like she could do anything and that she had everything she needed to be successful, so she wants to create that foundation for other dancers.
Johnson affirmed that Schlecte has installed a unique space for education and experiences in Waco.
“She mainly saw a vision and knew Waco, its potential, and had the ability to be able to really see the fruitfulness of how dance can, as an art form, enhance our lives in a lot of ways,” Johnson said.
Because she believes that real dance experiences benefit others, Schlecte said that her work is worth it.
“That artistic lens of someone taking me out of my seat and transporting me to their world, I think that would be really great for the community … for kids to see and experience,” Schlecte said.
