Imagine spending most of your life underwater; waiting to surface, destined to fly. Now imagine the unfolding of wings. At last, you are ready. And flying is such joy.

For 17 years we were Move Through Life, now we are Dragonfly Dance. Why? Because, like our new namesake, we understand that the chance to fly is worth the wait. Just as the dragonfly’s story is one of remarkable transformation, so too is ours. Yours.

You thought you couldn’t. Too old, too young. Not good enough. Over it. Until, like the dragonfly, you found your wings. They were always there, waiting for you to catch up. Once, underwater, you could only dream of the sky. Now, in your mature form, the sky’s the limit.

Dragonfly Dance is for the dancer inside you. For the you inside you. The magical, whimsical, beautiful you. Grow into yourself, move into your body, find your true form. Stay fit and have fun. Connect and create. Flex, flourish and fly.

We know how good it feels to dance; and we know that it can feel like flying. So we look past the appearance and focus on the experience. You are already a dancer. Our job is to unclip your wings.

Welcome, dragonfly. You are hereby invited to the sky – where there is space for every dancer.

from founder and co-owner, Jo McDonald

For some time, we’ve been less than thrilled with the name Move Through Life, for the following reasons:

• It doesn’t have the word ‘dance’ in it, which means we’ve ended up with a very long name Move Through Life Dance Studio
• We often heard people say that it sounds like it is for older dancers only. Fun fact – there is an organisation offering exercise programs for older adults in NSW called ‘Move For Life’
• It’s just not exciting
• Sometimes people have mistaken us for a religious organisation
• When we say it on the phone, people seem to find it difficult to understand and we have to enunciate it slowly and clearly, and often repeat ourselves or have to spell it out

• We were planning to rebrand to MTL Dance, so it was shorter and had the word ‘dance’ in it, and because we thought ‘people know the name MTL’ so we’d be retaining that brand awareness
• When we went to the first designer who worked on a logo, they suggested using acronyms is problematic because people often get the letters mixed up, which can make it difficult for them to find us. Fun fact
• Anne and I had talked about the name ‘Dragonfly Dance’ a few years ago, so we had it in mind already
• I love dragonflies, and several years ago when I was going through a lot of change in my life, I adopted the dragonfly as a totem because it is a powerful symbol of transformation. I had a creativity consultant called The Dragonfly Solution.

Similarities between dragonflies and dance

• Dragonflies are a powerful symbol of change and transformation, and dance has the ability to transform people and their lives (as attested to by many of our members over the years)
• Dragonflies move in all directions (up, down, forward, backward, around, sideways) and are agile and powerful hunters. Dancers are also agile and powerful and have the ability to move in all directions
• Dragonflies coordinate all four wings independently, which is a lot like the coordination dancers need to move different body parts independently
• Dragonflies are graceful, as are dancers
• Dragonflies are iridescent, changing colour when looked at from different angles, which is like adult dancers – to others, they might be a partner, parent, child, co-worker, friend, employee. But they have more than one identity.  They are also dancers.  So they too change, depending on how you look at them.
• It is alliterative, so sounds catchy