Dean Speer
Dean Speer has been a dancer, dance teacher, choreographer, producer, director, singer [baritone], and writer. He was the founding director of Chehalis Ballet Center in Washington state and is former artistic director of the Chattanooga Ballet in Tennessee. Dean currently teaches ballet and modern dance for Seattle area studios and is assistant to the director of Northwest Dance Intensive, where he got to be part of a terrific faculty that included Gelsey Kirkland in 2009.
His dance training and experiences in the arts have taken him many places - geographic and otherwise: Cannes, Paris, New York, Chicago, Mossyrock, and Pe Ell. He is a graduate of Cornish College of the Arts.
Many of his students have gone on to pursue their professional training around the globe, and are enjoying amazing careers.
Works have included over 180 articles, interviews, previews, and reviews - many for www.criticaldance.com, an on-line forum for the support of dance and its monthly Ballet-Dance Magazine, where he is also a photo editor. For 10 years he was the editor of a newsletter for the University of Washington School of Law and currently is the volunteer editor for the Seattle Flute Society Newsletter.
For fun, he enjoys horseback riding, swimming, taking ballet class when he can, and singing. He has good eye/hand coordination, reasonably strong teeth, and can recite silly children's poems and songs. He was appointed by the Governor of the State of Washington to sit on the board of the Combined Fund Drive Steering Committee, on which he served for six years.
His honors include being given a Lifetime Achievement Award in Choreography and Teaching by the Mrs. America (Washington) Pageant.
His current writing projects include, by encouragement of one of his editors, his memoirs - and a murder mystery set in the remote rural and former company town of Ryderwood, Washington titled The Ryderwood Riddle.
Dean lives in Seattle, Washington.
His advice is for everyone to follow their dreams, and to never, ever give up.
