From Las Vegas to Janesvegas: A Love Story

I moved to Janesville with my family in 2020, a fantastic year to make a big move and I’m not even kidding. It was great, we did everything online and with the help of our friends. Life since has been wonderful with the expected ups and downs that life is bound to have but lets go further back…

I grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, a unique place to spend a childhood to be sure but one of the best parts about my adolescence was attending the Las Vegas Academy of Performing Arts where I majored in Theatre. The shows we did were wild, I mean, my senior year we did a show with actual pyrotechnics. When in Vegas, do as the Vegans do… I guess…. maybe that doesn’t quite translate but whatever.

One of the productions I always admired but never participated in was the yearly “Dance Drama.” This was a collaboration between the dance department and the theatre department lead by a dance teacher named Ms. Gallo and she was the epitome of poetry, grace, and mystery in my young eyes. These shows were so beautiful and moving and my little Shakespeare loving poetic heart was enamored of them.

Now fast forward to my life in Janesville. I started getting involved in the theatre community, one of the main reasons I moved here, to be honest, and as I am going about my life every once in a while someone will say these words to me, “You have to meet Taylor, she’s a dance teacher and you went to the same high school.” Do mine ears deceive me? Could it be possible in all the world that there is ANOTHER Las Vegas Academy alumni living in Janesville? What a twist! Once, I briefly ran into Taylor in the JPAC lobby after a show but with the massive crowd, all we managed was an exchange of names, nothing more. So the mystery persisted, until one day TWO friends, in TWO separate conversations said the magic words to me, “You have to meet Taylor.” And I thought, this is clearly a sign, I am going to reach out to this woman on Facebook. So I did, in my usual forward way which, thankfully, she was receptive to. We met up for coffee and instantly hit it off.

Months later, after our friendship was firmly established I asked her about working together on a Dance Drama, like the ones they used to do at LVA, and much to my surprise I learned that she too, had never participated in one! It was meant to be, neither of us got to do this type of production in our youth, but now we would get to create one together.

And that is the story of how the Universe saw fit to bring us together to create art for our community! Those of you who are lucky enough to know Taylor will not be surprised to hear she is an absolutely wonderful creative partner. She is a prominent dance teacher, choreographer, and studio co-owner at Life Dance Academy and if you are so inclined, you should definitely check out her classes and all that her studio has to offer HERE.