Nita Borchardt is shown by her company’s sign in their new downtown studio.

FAIRMONT — Borchardt Dance Company is in the process of moving into a new space. Its new studio will be at 314 Downtown Plaza. The space was previously the Salvation Army store.

Owner and head teacher, Nita Borchardt, shared that the company started in 1972 and the studio was in the basement of her mother, Kathy Borchardt’s, home. For several decades, hundreds of dancers would learn skills and practice there.

In 2015, the company moved to a space at Five Lakes Centre, which Borchardt said was bigger than what they previously had, but still not what they were looking for. Borchardt said she found the vacancy downtown in April.

“We’ve been looking for a bigger building pretty much since 2015. I was driving by one day and saw it and I called my husband and we fell in love with it,” Borchardt said.

She stressed that they’re not trying to double their classes, but double the space for dancers.

“We want more room for them to leap and turn and jump,” Borchardt said.

She said the space is slightly bigger than the stage in the performing arts center at Fairmont High School, which is where the company holds its annual recital each Mother’s Day weekend.

“We’ve always had to adjust in our smaller studio to fit the stage, but now that we have the dimensions of the stage at the high school, it will be easier for the kids to transition to recital time,” Borchardt explained.

Borchardt purchased the building downtown and they’ve been busy doing demolition work ever since. She said they’ve demoed all of the walls, including taking out the check-out area. They’ve also painted the bathrooms and put new flooring in. They’re waiting on a permit from the city so the contractors can come in and put up some walls.

There will be bars along one wall and another wall will have floor-to-ceiling mirrors. The new space also allows for an office for Borchardt.

Other teachers at the company include Kathy Borchardt, Jordyn Strauser and Mara Jensen.

The company holds classes for dancers as young as 3 and up to 18. Classes take place Monday through Thursday beginning at 4 p.m., with the last class getting done at about 8:30 p.m.

“We hope to add a second studio in the back someday. That’s phase two. Once we get the classroom in the back we’d like to add more classes,” Borchardt said.

She said they would like to add more toddler classes and some classes for adults, as well as yoga or pilates. She said they’ve also talked about adding a senior class of social dancing for the older generation.

As for enrollment, Borchardt said they took a little dip with Covid, but they have a lot of new students joining this year as well as nearly everyone returning from last year.

“We stay pretty consistent with where we’ve been over the years,” she said.

The plan is to be in the new studio when classes start on September 20. Borchardt said they would like to have an open house prior to the start of classes. Information on that will be released on the company’s Facebook page and website: borchardtdance.com.

Borchardt said, “knock on wood,” they’re hoping for a normal dance season this year as well as a normal recital since this past spring’s still saw capacity limits. While there may still be some uncertainties, they’re looking forward to getting into the new studio.

“We’re excited to be downtown. We felt a little isolated in the mall, so it’s nice to have traffic and enjoy the businesses down here. Hopefully, families will enjoy downtown too when they’re waiting for their kids either by picking up dinner or getting their hair done, or doing some shopping. We hope to add to the businesses down here,” Borchardt said.