Our Story

The inspiration for creating the Square Studio Dance nonprofit was my 12 year old cousin Sam.  Sam was diagnosed with Precursor T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in October of 2017. This news was devastating and life-changing for him and his family as they’ve spent the past years in and out of the hospital, spending weeks and even months at a time there while Sam received various treatments. I tried to imagine what my aunt, uncle, and cousins were going through as they spent much of their time sitting in hospital rooms with Sam.  It was not until recently, when my mother, sister, and I got into a serious car accident that I had ever experienced being in a hospital. After our accident, my mother was in the hospital for quite some time. During that time, while visiting her so much with my family, I got a firsthand snapshot of just a taste of what my cousin and his family had experienced. After my mom came home from the hospital I started thinking about all of the other people that were going through what my cousin and his family had gone through. I started thinking of ways that I could bring joy and a possible sense of normalcy to the children and families that are in the hospital and then it occurred to me. Dance! I realized that dance, something I had studied since the age of 4 and something that brings me so much joy, could easily be brought to both the children and their families.  I also realized there were other children too who, for financial and other reasons, could not take dance classes.  No problem!  I could bring dance to them too!  And Square Studio dance was born.

My intention in creating this program is that any child who wishes to dance can do so, regardless of their physical or financial ability. It is my hope that more and more children can be connected to the joy that dance and a supportive community atmosphere provides, both in times of celebration and struggle in their lives.

Linde Spear

Founder and Executive Director

Square Studio Dance

Bio:

Linde began her dance training at the age of four at the Oregon Ballet Academy (OBA) under the direction of John Grensback. Her early training focused mainly on classical ballet and she later incorporated contemporary, tap, jazz and modern dance into her repertoire as well. As a student of OBA for 14 years, Linde danced, and was featured in, many of their productions including: The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and many other classical and contemporary works. She has attended summer ballet intensives with Bolshoi Ballet (three summers), Houston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet and Ballet West. She also studies and competes in ballroom dance under the direction of Mark Lowes Baker. Linde is the founder and executive director of Square Studio Dance (SSD), an international nonprofit organization that brings together children and families from Ronald McDonald Houses, hospitals and homes from around the world to take dance class together in live time via the Zoom platform. She is passionate about exploring dance styles from many cultures and one of her favorite things is being able to introduce the SSD families to movement styles from all over the world through SSD’S THE WELCOME PROJECT. She also enjoys dancing with her dog Jaxie.