By Ikolo Griffin, PNB School Faculty
On April 12, something special is happening at Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Francia Russell Center in Bellevue. A group of adult ballet dancers from Second Act Collective will step into the studio, face an audience of friends and family, and perform.
No safety net. No stopping. Just the music and the work they’ve put in.
It’s a small recital. But it represents something much bigger.
A Nonprofit Built by Dancers, for Dancers
Second Act Collective was founded by three ballet dancers who also happen to work in Seattle’s tech industry. One began ballet in childhood, another trained in Chinese dance, and the third discovered ballet as an adult. Different beginnings, one shared passion. They built SAC as a nonprofit because they saw a gap: adult dancers who love ballet not just as exercise, but as an art form, and who want to progress, learn variations, dance en pointe, and experience the fullness of this art.
Their mission speaks for itself: it’s never too late to start dancing. And for those who already dance, it’s never too late to go deeper.
The First Time I Saw Them Rehearse
I teach adult open classes at PNB, and I’ve always had a special love for my adult students. They’re consistent, they’re passionate, and they bring a joy to the studio that’s contagious. When I started working with SAC, I was immediately impressed by their commitment.
The first time we ran choreography together, I remember looking over and seeing everyone panting. Rehearsing a variation for a couple of hours is demanding work. Even for professionals. But they came back. And they came back again. And something started to shift.
I watched them learn variations faster. I watched their stamina build. Where they once fought just to survive a piece, they began to move through it with confidence and enjoyment. The progress was real and visible.
That’s when I said to them: you should perform this.
Why Adults Learn Differently (and Beautifully)
There’s a magic to working with adult dancers that’s different from teaching kids. With young students, repetition is everything. You’re on the floor fixing feet, giving constant corrections, hoping they remember from one class to the next. Adults bring something else entirely. Simple corrections stick. They hold adjustments in their memory banks. And when adults return to ballet after learning as children, there’s this beautiful reconnection that happens. The body remembers. The mind fills in the gaps. The growth can be extraordinary.
In my classes, I love weaving in elements from PNB’s productions. After watching a performance, I’ll bring a little bit of choreography that spoke to me into a pirouette combination or a grand allegro. It connects the adult dancers to the artistry happening on the main stage, and it lights them up.
A Seed Planted by New Leadership
When Lauri-Michelle Houk came aboard as PNB’s Managing Director, she mentioned that she was open to fresh ideas for social media and community engagement. That stayed with me. Then I watched what she and School Principal Marisa Albee created with the adult Nutcracker workshop this past season, and it confirmed what I already felt: the appetite for adult programming is enormous.
My Nutcracker class had 49 dancers. We danced Spanish from my San Francisco Ballet days and even worked through a bit of the Prince solo opening I performed during my year with SFB. The energy in that room was electric. Dancers came up to me afterward saying they needed to do this again.
The upcoming Giselle workshop will no doubt draw the same enthusiasm. Lauri-Michelle Houk planted the seed. The workshops proved the demand was real. And when SAC expressed interest in performing, I saw the opportunity to connect all of it.
Building the Bridge
I reached out to Lauri-Michelle Houk about using the Francia Russell Center for a SAC recital, and she gave the green light. From there, the pieces came together: we found the date, coordinated the logistics, and I visited the PNB costume shop to explore options for the dancers.
The FRC was designed to be more than a ballet school. With its 150 seat performance studio, state of the art facilities, and welcoming community atmosphere, it’s exactly the kind of space where a recital like this belongs. Great parking, restaurants nearby, easy access for families. It’s a gathering place.
And here’s another beautiful layer: SAC’s founders bring deep experience in tech, social media, and community building. Their networks reach audiences that PNB might not otherwise connect with. It’s a natural cross pollination that benefits everyone.
Why Performing Changes Everything
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of performing. You can’t stop. You can’t fall out of a turn. You have to finish and keep going. And when it’s over, it’s the best feeling in the world.
But the real magic happens in rehearsal. Running a piece over and over, six or seven times through, the body learns things the mind can’t teach on its own. And then something wonderful happens: you walk back into technique class, and the steps you’ve been performing take on a completely new shape. Your balance is different. Your confidence is different. You’re different.
Performing is where I fell in love with ballet. I trained at San Francisco Ballet School, danced with SFB, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Joffrey Ballet, and Smuin Ballet. And across all of those stages, the lesson was always the same: performance is where technique becomes art. I want every adult dancer to feel that. Even once.
April 12 at the Francia Russell Center
This recital is a beginning. I imagine a future where adult dancers have a full show: an opening, a closing, solos, their friends and family in the audience cheering them on. A real performance experience in a world class space.
Second Act Collective is proving that community love and support can fuel real artistic growth. That working dancers with full time careers can keep dancing and keep making progress. That the passion doesn’t fade. It deepens.
And that it is never, ever too late to start.
Second Act Collective is a Seattle based nonprofit building a vibrant community for adult ballet dancers. Learn more at second-act-collective.squarespace.com
The SAC Community Recital takes place April 12, 2026 at the Pacific Northwest Ballet Francia Russell Center, 1611 136th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98005.
