Port native Lucy Wallace created a groundbreaking dance program for prison populations called Dance 2B Free. Wallace teaches dance at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility in Boulder, CO. She’s expanding the program to Pueblo Correctional Facility and will shortly teach at the Nebraska Correctional Facility in York, NE.
“Dance 2B Free came out of a conversation with one of my dance students, Gayle Nosal,” said Wallace. “She simply suggested that I teach to women in prison and I felt an immediate ‘yes.’ We formed a board of directors and Dance 2B Free became a nonprofit in May of 2015—by July 1, we were dancing every Sunday at Denver Women’s Correctional Facility (DWCF). We started our first teacher-training at DWCF in January of 2016. We are expanding our teacher-training into Pueblo, CO, and York, NE (both medium-security women’s prisons) this summer.”
This nonprofit program for prison populations is based on her work at her dance studio, Alchemy of Movement, in Boulder.
“The inmates and staff are loving the program due to the empowerment, creativity, stress release and fun the women experience in being a student and teacher,” said Wallace. “We hope to expand into other states as we teach the inmates to sustain the program through our teacher-trainings and DVDs.”
Wallace graduated from Schreiber High School in 1992 and has been dancing since she was eight.
“I started ballet at North Shore Ballet across the street from Main Street School at the age of eight,” said Wallace. “I continued on with ballet and jazz and became a dance major at Ohio University. I moved to Boulder to finish my bachelor’s degree at Naropa University in 1996 and never left.”
About Port Washington, Wallace said, “I loved the strong female friends that I grew up with in Port from elementary to high school. They informed my creative side with their willingness to be who they were.”
In 2007, Wallace started teaching a jazz type of class for all levels called SoulSweat.
“In 2010, I bought Alchemy of Movement in Boulder (the studio I had been teaching in),” said Wallace. “In 2015, I partnered up with a co-owner so I could focus more on Dance 2B Free.”
For more information go to www.dance2bfree.org.
