Director
Cindy Dalzell BATD
Cindy's Message
The Dance Factory
26 Years in Meadowvale
6535 Millcreek Drive, Unit 73
Mississauga ON L5N 2M2
(905) 821-2110
The Dance Factory Celebrates 26 Years of Dance
26 years seems like such a long time. It’s time enough for two generations of dancers to pass through the doors of the Dance Factory. It’s time enough for a 17 year old dance teacher to start up a studio, have five children of her own, move the studio three times, travel across Ontario and the U.S. and establish the Dance Factory’s reputation solidly in Mississauga.
Cindy Dalzell started her dance career as Cindy McFarlane, a three year old ballerina at the Peggie-Jean School of Dance, in 1966. In her teen years, while attending Joanne Chapman’s School of Dance, Cindy was given the opportunity to teach classes in Meadowvale with Sue Kelly. In 1981, Cindy and Sue, with Phyllis McFarlane’s help, opened up The Dance Factory. Growing from a handful of students, to 79 dancers in ‘Showtime’ 1983, 350 in 1992 and now over 480 in 2002, the Dance Factory has indeed grown. Sue left the studio in 1987 and Cindy, with family support, became the Principal teacher of her own studio.
From humble beginnings in the basement of a church to multiple classrooms at the present site, twenty years has come and gone. During that time, year-end recitals have been held in Mississauga, Georgetown and Oakville. Students have competed in a variety of locations like Las Vegas, New York City, Detroit, Boston, Baltimore and Orlando. At first Cindy took her students to local competitions. Brampton’s Peel Music Festival and the Kiwanis Music and Dance Festival of Niagara Falls were the first destinations. Soon the Dance Factory lobby was filling up with hardware – group and individual awards. The first group scholarship was awarded for tap at Brantford’s Capital Dance Festival 1987. Through the combined efforts of dedicated teachers, committed parents and talented students the honours continued. Leslie Wall was the first Canadian to win the prestigious Miss Dance of America crown.
In 1988 Cindy married Jim Dalzell. Jim quickly learned that the studio wasn’t just a job for Cindy. It was more like a small community. The following year, only a few days old, baby Jackie attended her first recital, sleeping quietly in the green room amid the chaos of backstage preparations. Three brothers and a sister would follow. Cindy never missed a beat, or a rehearsal, for that matter.
Some Dance Factory students have gone on to follow professional dance careers as performers or teachers. However most of the students take away another legacy. It is the friendships, the experience of hard work, daily routines, some sacrifice and on occasion some pain and the memory of those moments when the house lights went down, the crowd hushed and it was Showtime!
– Mary-Lea Chaters