By Melissa Wagoner
A dedicated space to dance and create is something Brianna Taylor has wanted for a long time. But living the life of a professional dancer, first in San Francisco and then in New York, meant finding that space – much less paying for it – was just out of reach.
“Dance takes space,” she pointed out. “So, a studio is like gold.”
That’s why, when her parents, Marcia and Steve Taylor, suggested she turn a no longer needed storage barn into a top-of-the-line dance space, she jumped at the chance.
“Just to have a space to dream and create,” Taylor said, recalling the pull the space had on her from the very start. “An enclosed space, with a dance floor… away from the city… what a dream.”
But it wasn’t as simple as just saying yes, because the barn was located almost 3,000 miles from where Taylor was living with her partner, fellow artist Andre Ignacio Dimapilis.
“I was supportive,” Dimapilis said of his reaction to leaving his home state of Florida to take up residence in Taylor’s home state of Oregon.
Besides, Dimapilis knew they weren’t leaving for good. A professor of dance at both the University of Florida and Florida State College of Jacksonville, Taylor had become as tied to the state as Dimapilis was, which meant the couple would need to spend their winters down south.
“We’re learning how to do it,” Dimapilis said of the journey, which the couple recently made in their tiny Prius with their canine companion, Bootz.
“It works for us,” Dimapilis said.
Opening its doors to clients for the first time during the summer of 2022, Confluence Arts Center has become not only a dance studio for Taylor but a space for the community to experience the healing arts of yoga, Thai bodywork, Reiki and sound therapy.
During that initial summer the couple also held a series of locally sourced GrateFULL Dinners, a Summer Reset Retreat and hosted the first wedding – their own.
“We’d love to have a handful of weddings here,” Taylor said of the couple’s plans for the space, which include more classes, retreats, concerts, movie nights, performances, festivals, dinners and wine tasting events.
“We want this to be a place that’s accessible,” Taylor explained. “It’s a dream to have structures people can stay in.”
In the meantime, the Confluence Arts Center is boasting a full summer of events including yoga every Wednesday morning from 9 to 10 a.m. and a Summer Solstice Day Retreat on June 24 and 25.
“And we’re having a one-year anniversary celebration… we’re planning to have a Filipino dinner June 17,” Taylor said, describing the event, which will be a tribute to Dimapilis’ Filipinx-American heritage. “We’ll be selling tickets on our website.”
Also on the website, www.confluenceartscenter.org, is a comprehensive list of all the center’s upcoming events as well as a link for rental information and a bio of the current artists in residence – Zimbabwean dancer Rujeko Dumbutshena and movement-based artist Melanie Greene.
“It’s very exciting,” Taylor said. “We’d love for other artists or yoga teachers or instructors who want to use a space like this to use it. Because I think this place is really special. It was created with a lot of heart between my family and the community. There’s a lot of intention and gratitude… It’s a blessing.”
