Madeline Axtell remembers one of the first events Rio Dance Studio hosted last year, when adults flooded the parking lot outside of the studio’s garage door with echoes of music and laughter.  

It’s the exact place Axtell dreamt of creating one day: a place where adults can come together for collective movement. Nearly a year and a half later, she continues to watch her dream grow at her studio in Happy Valley.  

Rio Dance Studio, named after Axtell’s middle name, is a dance studio for adults, for anyone and everyone over 18 years old. It’s for first-time dancers and experienced dancers alike, where the community gets together to make art through movement.  

That’s the tagline Rio adopted since the studio’s inception: you are the art.  

“It’s been very authentic, which I’m really grateful for,” Axtell said while sitting in the studio. “I think something that’s really specific to adult dance is that it’s really vulnerable and really intimidating. I think dance as a whole often seems really gate kept. It’s like you’re never enough.” 

“So, we are trying to reinvent dance as something that is not prohibitive, anyone can do it,” she continued.  

Rio Dance Studio offers classes, featuring a range of styles including line dancing, contemporary, tap, ballet and hip-hop. It’s a space where someone can go to intentionally improve their craft, but it is also a place where someone can go to move their body alongside others.  

“People are either coming back to themselves, or they are allowing themselves to access a part of them that they never thought they were allowed to access,” Axtell said. “Being able to sit with people in a really personal, one on one kind of way is really, really cool.”   

Part of the model is encouragement, she said. At Rio, there is no judgement; diversity is embraced, whether that be size, age, gender or any factor that may hold someone back. It is a dance studio for, Axtell said, truly everyone.  

“There’s no threshold to participate here,” she said. “You are a dancer as long as you’re willing to show up." 

Originally from Southern California, Axtell moved to Pennsylvania in the early 2000s, where she attended high school and college. It was there that Axtell fell in love with dance, specifically tap dancing.  

Dance has its own way of being eternally something that can challenge you, Axtell said.  

As Axtell grew as a dancer, and nearing the end of her time at Pennsylvania State University, she was forced with the decision to move to a bigger city to continue dancing as a career. Instead, she hung up her tap shoes, knowing it was a difficult path to choice, and moved to Colorado in the early 2010s.  

She hopped around jobs for a while, working for a multitude of small businesses, seeing the backend of operations, marketing, social media and what it takes to maintain business.  

 Axtell still wanted to dance but struggled to find an adult dance studio. When Axtell and her husband, Keegan, moved to Whitefish in 2018, Axtell was still a powerhouse behind many small businesses, but dance never left her mind.  

"The founding reason was this like question of why, as dancer’s specifically, do we have to just go pro or quit completely?” she said. “There are recreational leagues for literally every other sport and every other thing.”  

Axtell spent the summer of 2023 looking for a space that would work. She found four or five potential spaces but landed in a newly built warehouse just north of Midway Tavern on U.S. 93. 

She got the keys in February 2024 and opened in March. From that point on, Axtell’s vision continues to expand. She hopes to one day, in the future, find a place where she can have multiple rooms so more classes can take place. 

It was a dream job idea, Axtell said, and she can’t believe what it has become now.  

Rio Dance Studio also hosts events and specials, including an Afro-fusion dance class, contact dance workshops and a planned later this month is a ‘90s dance camp. 

This past year, Axtell introduced a public recital, where 70 dancers performed. It was the most “magical” experience, she said, that she plans to continue every year.  

There are semester classes available that run from Sept. 14 to Nov. 21. The studio also offers drop-in classes weekly throughout the year. Times vary to incorporate all schedules.  

Rio Dance is open most days, mainly based around the class schedule, which can be found at riodancestudio.com. The studio is located at 5068 U.S. 93, Unit 8 south of Whitefish. 

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or [email protected].