Tucson’s dance scene is thriving, especially with dance classes for younger students. However, one dance company stands out and creates an accepting, open place for dancers of all ages. Enter Hayley Mellum and Nicole Surran, the owners of the 520 Dance Company, and lifelong dancers themselves. 

Mellum grew up dancing in Tucson. Dance has always been a part of her life. When she was 16, she started teaching. 

“I realized, wait, I love this aspect. I love dancing because it feels so amazing. But what I love more is watching things click for people… So I think from the time I was 16, I was like, I know I want to teach,” said Mellum. 

Her love for dance was fostered through local dance programs and participating in Tucson Regional Ballet’s “A Southwest Nutcracker,” a live production of a southwestern take on the Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. It was at Nutcracker rehearsals that she first met Nicole Surran. 

“She was in the highest level [of dancers]… So big dances in Nutcracker, you would dance with the highest up girls, and you had to dance up to their level. And I remember thinking she was so scary. But she was always so nice to us,” recalled Mellum. 

One year, the two dancers ended up in the same summer training program. Mellum as a student and Surran as her teacher. This fostered a lasting friendship. “And then she kind of turned into my older sister.”

The two maintained their friendship despite being in different stages of life. Their paths crossed again when Surran began managing a student dance studio and needed teachers. 

Mellum had always wanted to teach dance, but quickly realized that “there's no degree at [the University of Arizona] for that. It was either a dance major for performance or you're doing something else. And so I was like, ‘I don't know what I want to do,’” said Mellum. 

She saw that Surran needed teachers and jumped at the opportunity, “I said, ‘you know what? I'm going to go give it a try.’” 

They taught together for four years at that studio and then, they had an idea.

Mellum and Surran saw a hole that needed to be filled within the Tucson dance community. “It's really hard, I think, when you're an adult, to find dance classes that aren't just little-kid involved most of the time.”

As their company began to accumulate interest from their friends, “there was a group of dancers from a local studio, the studio that both Nicole and I grew up at, and they were feeling so burnt out and they hated dance,” said Mellum. 

After teaching free classes, the two realized the potential to create a dance studio of their own. 

In the summer of 2019, they started a dance club where their friends got together to dance. Later that year, the two decided to make the company official. The 520 Dance Company was born in January of 2020, just before the COVID-19 Pandemic stunned the nation.

“The super challenging part [about the lockdown] was, our whole thing was that we wanted to get together and perform like in the community. That was our whole shtick right at the beginning.” 

Their first company performance was scheduled for March 15th, 2020, the day that states began issuing lockdown orders. “All of my livelihood was teaching dance,” Mellum added. 

After the first week of lockdown, they began teaching Zoom classes. 

“It also forced us to really adapt and then hone in on community and offering something for as many people as we could.” The pandemic strengthened their goals and their outreach. 

Since then, the company has grown. Their principal goals still remain the same, however: making dance affordable and accessible. 

Since 2020, their semi-professional company of dancers has grown from six dancers to sixteen. They also offer classes to performers of various ages. In the past year, they have opened up classes for kids. No matter the age, Mellum enjoys “seeing [the performers] really grow, and then having that outlet for our older teens, high school, college, and young professionals in that more advanced scale.”

Another key component for the company is flexibility. “Our weekly classes are all, especially [the classes] for adults, based on drop-ins. You can sign-up and say you're going to do the whole month, or you can be like, ‘I don't know, I'm going to try to get to some classes this week. But, you know, I'll just drop in as I can,’” explained Mellum. 

Regarding adult dancers, Mellum has noticed that the company has “honed in on finding people who have a dance background, and then, you know, giving them a space to re-fall in love with dance, because I think that dance, like a lot of performing arts, is super critical on yourself… Watching people come back in and be like, ‘oh, wait, I can do this for me, not for some crazy dance teacher, not for somebody who wants to tear me down.’ That's been interesting to see.”

Along with maintaining their current classes and performances, the next step for the company is strengthening its outreach. “We have our for-profit studio, and then we have our non-profit, which... funds our outreach within the community.”

Recently, the company has taught classes at local high schools, hoping to get more students involved in dance. “We all know [that] arts funding is cut like nobody's business,” said Mellum, “So I think being able to get dance to as many people [as possible] is really a big, huge goal of ours.”

The 520 Dance Company’s next show is on May 18th at 6pm at the Pima Center for the Arts Proscenium Theatre. Tickets for their upcoming showcases and more information on their various classes are available at 520dancecompany.com. They are also on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. 

“I didn't necessarily ever think I'd own a dance studio. But it's just the way it kind of worked out,” reflected Mellum.