Bringing American Folk Dance to the World Stage: IDAC Heads to Vatra Dornei, Romania in July 2025
International Dance Arts Collective (IDAC) founder Alex Shadle may have danced before she learned to walk. At least it seems that way. She started studying ballet when she was 2 and danced her way through high school and college, where she discovered international folk dance.
While studying French and Cultural Dance at Brigham Young University, Alex joined the BYU International Folk Dance Ensemble that had been invited to perform at folk festivals in Belgium and France hosted by CIOFF (International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts).
“We stayed with host families and performed with groups from around the world,” she recalled. “I was hanging out with all these people learning about countries I didn’t even know existed.”
Despite the language barrier, the participants connected through their folk and cultural dances.
“We were able to share our cultures,” she said. “We taught line dancing to 400 people from around the world and sang ‘Country Roads’ at the top of our lungs.”
After college, she continued as a student of dance and a choreographer, taking teaching gigs at night and working/going to school during the day.
She started a master’s degree in international relations at Sac State with the dream of pursuing a career in international relations, but her path changed when she found the love of her life.
After she married Ben Shadle in 2006, Alex shifted her international focus to art and dance. While raising their five children (now ages 15, 13, 10, and 5-year-old twins), Alex choreographed and taught for community groups, Galena Street East, Take Note Troupe, and other community events, like teaching polka during Oktoberfest.
“Now all of my children dance in my company – some of them begrudgingly,” she laughed.
When the pandemic put the world on lockdown, Alex re-evaluated her teaching career. She created a mini dance studio in her home and formed a “quarantine” dance club. She started with one class of just five students who met for an hour each week. Utilizing costumes she acquired when Galena Street East in Sacramento closed its doors in 2021, the dance club hosted a private outdoor recital for their families.
By the time the quarantine was lifted, Alex had decided she wanted to focus on teaching international folk dancing. She emailed friends about her plan and was pleasantly surprised by the response.
“Overnight, I had 25-30 kids in three different classes,” she said. “It started growing organically – just by word of mouth.”
THE COLLECTIVE PROVIDES A PLATFORM TO RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT VARIOUS CULTURES, NOT ONLY IN THE DANCE STUDIO BUT ALSO IN A REAL-WORLD SETTING.
In 2021, she applied for and received 501(c)(3) non-profit status for International Dance Arts Collective (IDAC), which gives her the flexibility of offering scholarships to promising students who couldn’t otherwise pay for dance lessons.
“Art can be life-changing,” she said. “Not only do the students learn dances from around the world, but they also learn the historical context. It helps them learn that differences (both in cultures and individuals) are OK.”
The collective provides Alex with a platform to raise awareness about various cultures not only in the dance studio but also in a real-world setting.
Alex’s dance company has been invited to perform traditional American dances at an international dance festival in Romania this year. Alex proudly points out, they are the only youth group from the USA that has been invited to be part of CIOFF.
Outside of the dance studio, Alex advocates for the performing and visual arts. As a member of the Rocklin Arts Commission, she hopes to draw community support for a wide range of art programs, including the creation of a Performing Arts Center.
She is organizing dance performances for the Rocklin Heritage Street Faire, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 3, on historic Front Street.
Performances will showcase folk dances from Polynesia, Peru, India, and Scandinavia as well as traditional American dances like clogging and Civil War-era dances.
Her goal is to promote and preserve cultural dances, whether in the dance studio or at community festivals.
“It’s about promoting peace through dance and music in our community,” she concluded. “We bring the world to Rocklin.”
Source: Gloria Beverage, “Bringing the community together
through dance,”
https://indd.adobe.com/view/1265a4a8-146a-4a04-8937-a07cb0c4cc66
