Christine Cloutier closing Soo Dance Unlimited, merging with Richard Kim's studio

Christine Cloutier, Soo Dance Unlimited owner/director, will soon be closing the doors of her dance studio after 30 years in business.

However, Cloutier is not leaving the Sault’s dance scene.

She and her staff will be joining the team at Richard Kim's Studio Dance Arts with many of her students following her. 

“It’s bittersweet to let go but I thought 30 is a good round number of years. I love what I do but I just want to focus on teaching,” Cloutier said in an interview with SooToday on Wednesday.

“I didn’t want to leave my students in the lurch if I just closed my doors. They’re all coming with me hopefully. I won’t have to worry about all the paperwork and just enjoy teaching.”

Cloutier said Soo Dance Unlimited’s final recital will be in June.

“There were a lot of tears. I told them at a dress rehearsal at White Pines on Sunday. Most of the parents understood that it’s time for me to semi-retire. My seniors and my intermediates will have me teaching them ballet so they’re very happy to come along with me.”

Cloutier said students and parents have been notified about the need to register at Studio Dance Arts for the next dance season.

“It’s quite an accomplishment,” she said, reflecting on her career, stating she is now teaching some of her former students’ children.

Cloutier’s students attend competitions twice a year and have performed well as evidenced by the rows of trophies on display in Soo Dance Unlimited’s front window at 258 Queen St. E.

“It’s countless. I have buckets of plaques. We have a warehouse full of trophies,” Cloutier said in a March 2020 interview with SooToday.

A Sault native, Cloutier has been dancing all her life.

She was accepted to the Quinte Ballet School of Canada in Belleville, Ontario, where she studied dance for six years before graduating.

Cloutier performed with the Toronto Dance Theatre but an injury forced her to quit dancing for a while.

She then got into modelling and acting, working in that field for four years.

While in the acting world, she appeared in the Sophia Loren film Courage and in Tony Danza’s Doing Life.

Returning to the Sault, she worked as a dance instructor at the Kiana School of Dance before launching Soo Dance Unlimited in 1993.

Formerly located in a one-studio location on Malabar Drive, Soo Dance Unlimited eventually moved to its current three-studio location on Queen Street East.

“We accept everybody. We don’t discriminate. Our philosophy is very family-oriented. People get here and say ‘wow, this is a really cool environment.’ It’s comfortable for the kids here. They’ll all tell you it’s their second home. They come here to let go of their bad day and release their energy,” Cloutier said.

“I love to share the education of dance. I like to show the beauty of it. It teaches discipline, posture and life skills. A lot of the kids are still friends after they graduate from here, they’re in each other’s wedding parties, so they make really good bonds and friendships.”

Cloutier currently teaches over 100 students.

She and her staff instruct not only children and youth but also adults and seniors.

“They’re from two to 70. We have adult competitors who are 69,” she said.

“With Christine coming onboard with her faculty we can now continue to run those adult programs which she teaches,” said Richard Kim, Studio Dance Arts founder and executive director in a phone interview with SooToday.

Kim launched Studio Dance Arts in 2003.

The Studio Dance Arts location at 612 Queen St. E. has nearly 300 students, ranging in age from two to their late teens.

Studio Dance Arts also has a dance school in Marquette, Michigan with approximately 325 students and another in Munising, Michigan with approximately 70 students.

Dance students taught by Kim and his staff have been accepted into prestigious institutions like Interlochen Center for the Arts, The National Ballet School, Quinte Ballet School, Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) and others.

Several of Kim’s students have gone into the professional dance world as performers, choreographers, teachers, studio directors and actors.

He said that having Cloutier and her staff join Studio Dance Arts will be of great benefit to the Sault’s recreational and competitive dancers.

“We are so excited about Christine coming on board. She has a wealth of knowledge and background so to have her be able to come and work with the students at the school is a benefit for our dance community in general. We have some outstanding faculty members at our school and Christine is going to be an addition to that. We’re super excited about it.”

“We have quite a large facility. We have four dance rooms within our space on the main floor of the building. The way our schedule goes, there’s no issue with bringing in more students. A lot of her students can slot into that regular schedule but we have more staff now which results in us being able to offer more time slots for particular classes.”

The new 2024/2025 dance season starts in September.

“It’s going to be an exciting new chapter for me,” Cloutier said.