Nestled along the banks of the Schuylkill River, Pottstown Dance Theatre resides in what was once a small, neighborhood schoolhouse in South Pottstown. Built in 1910, the building became a dance studio when Phyllis Dersh Rudzitis moved the Pottstown Dance Theatre (founded in 1964) from it's original home on High Street to it's current home at 72 W. Main St.

 

Phyllis was an early faculty member of the Philadelphia Dance Academy which later went on to become the dance program at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Pottstown Dance Theatre has been a community staple of excellence in dance education for over 50 years. 

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In 2001, Michelle Jones Wurtz, a graduate of the University of the Arts, became the school's director and has continued the traditions of excellence, creativity, teamwork, diversity and self-determination that have been a part of the Pottstown Dance Theatre educational experience.

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Pottstown Dance Theater is proud to be a past, present and continuing part of the tri-county arts community!

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(Black & White Photo Credit: University of the Arts Archives. This photo, likely from the 1960s, features three early Philadelphia Dance Academy faculty, left to right: Lidia Kryzanowsky, James Jamieson, and Phyllis Dersh Rudzitis who later founded the Pottstown Dance Theatre. The Philadelphia Dance Academy would go on to found the dance program at the University of the Arts in the 1970s.)