Outlet Drive new destination of Knox Dance Worx
Knox Dance Worx is moving from its Knoxville location to a new location at 11156 Outlet Drive, giving it more room to grow and provide more dance opportunities.
“It’s a huge move, going from 4,000 square feet to building out a new 8,000 square foot (structure),” owner Shelley Martin said. “It’s very exciting!
“It’s been like a dream for us,” she added. “We’re just over-the-top excited for the opportunities it’s going to give our dancers and our teachers.
“Not only is it going to be a beautiful new space with everything new and clean and pristine … we’re really excited about everything we’re going to be able to offer.”
While KDW currently is closed, Martin said she is hoping to hold a grand opening at the new site Monday, Sept. 14, barring any construction delays. She urges the community to follow her on Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates.
Even though the studio is closed, she urged parents and dancers to register now at www.knoxdanceworx.com so they can reserve space. She explained space will be limited because of COVID regulations.
The new building will feature four dance studios, a parents’ lounge, office space, a student lounge, dressing rooms, work spaces where students can do their homework, the front lobby and storage.
“It will be brand new,” Martin said. “All the duct work is brand new. We’re putting in an air purifier for COVID and everything right now.”
“I’ve got some new and exciting ideas we are going to be putting on the schedule,” Martin added. “We want to offer multiple ways of training that we feel will be beneficial to any dancer that comes through our doors, whether they want to be a recreational dancer, if they want to be (part of) a company, if they are wanting to just do more competitions, if they want to focus on being a dance team-type dancer or musical theater.
“We want to separate our training to tracks.”
Knox Dance Works teaches all levels of ballet, including pointe jazz, contemporary, lyrical, hip hop, tap, acro (ballet and acrobatics), aerial works and a Wee Dance preschool program for children ages 2 ½ through kindergarten. The Wee Dance program teaches ballet, tap, jazz, tumbling and hip hop.
“We have four wonderful ballet specialists,” she added.
The school will offer virtual as well as in-studio lessons in all classes. With COVID, she said there will be strict protocols on entering the building.
“This year, we’re not allowing people to come in unless they are actually registered for a class,” Martin said, noting previously they could come in for trial classes. While there still is a trial class option, youths have to be registered for those classes.
This is Knox Dance Worx’s 15th year in business of offering dance classes to girls and boys from ages 2 1/2 to college age young adults. Martin first opened Knox Dance Worx in 2006 in Davis YMCA, where Costco is now, then moved to its most recent location behind Biker Rags in 2007.
“We’ve been looking to move for the past two years,” Martin said. “It’s been very difficult to find a facility that we were looking for. We were looking for 8,000 square feet.
“We needed that large of a space to accommodate the schedule that we want to offer to the kids,” she added.
