Dance at Mt. SAC Inspired Dove Dellos-Kilde and Now She's Inspiring Others as a Dance Entrepreneur
Dove with her parents
When it came time for dancer Dove Dellos-Kilde to choose a college back in 1996, she intended to earn a business degree while pursuing her true passion—dance—on the side. She had no idea that at Mt. SAC, she’d find a dance family she’d carry with her for the rest of her life.
Dove has been a professional dancer (and a singer and actress) since she was three years old. Her mother is a professional dancer and it seemed natural for Dove to follow in her footsteps. As a child, she worked with Debbie Allen, Paula Abdul, and Sammy Davis, Jr. just to name a few. Even with all her professional experience, Dove was still impressed by the Mt. SAC dance program. Both the facilities and the teachers were operating at a professional level. The practice spaces were phenomenal and the performance theatre was Broadway caliber.
The quality of the dance faculty matched the facilities. “The training we received can’t be compared to any other school,” Dove says. The teachers danced while they taught; that approach—dancing with their teachers—is invaluable to dance students. Lee Martino and Amy Bates Nakamura were two of Dove’s favorite teachers, and they are still in touch. They’ve even asked her to come to Mt. SAC to teach, and she in turn has invited them to do master classes at the dance studio she runs with her mother.
Dove and her friends back in their Mt. SAC days
Indeed, the dance community there has provided the foundation for both Dove’s professional life and her social life. “Dance friends are the best kind of friends,” she says. The friendships that grew from dancing at Mt. SAC are ones she sustains to this day. Their busy lives keep them from seeing each other regularly, but they’re on the phone with each other often. Dove and her friends make it a point to return to Mt. SAC to see performances each year, even though it has been over twenty years since they were students there. The program has continued to flourish, and in 2020, Mt. SAC will be offering an associate of arts degree in dance for the first time. Dove is beyond excited about this development, a rarity among colleges at any level. Of course, she wishes the AA degree had existed when she was a student, but she is thrilled for current and future students and Mt. SAC as a whole. “This degree will make them an industry leader,” she says.
From her very first class, Dove was impressed by the welcoming attitude at Mt. SAC. With the remarkable facilities and the talent of teachers, the dance program easily could have been exclusionary, but instead it met students where they were. Students of all dance levels were integrated into all the courses, and everyone got a chance to perform. Being on stage at Mt. SAC helped solidify for Dove that performing was what she was meant to do with her life—and performing isn’t just for dancing. Dove was also a cheerleader at Mt. SAC, and she and some other Mountie alumni spent time on the cheer squad for the Polliwogs, a professional roller hockey team in Anaheim.
When Broadway came calling (literally), Dove was just a few months shy of earning her business degree and wrapping up her time at Mt. SAC. It was a hard decision, but she chose to follow her dreams to New York City, where she starred in the stage version of Saturday Night Fever for a year. After that, her career took her around the world. She joined a cruise company as a dancer-singer. She was thrilled to get paid to do what she loves and travel and see the world in the process.
When she finally returned to Southern California, Dove got married, had kids, and started running the dance studio her family has owned for over forty years, but she didn’t settle down. These days, her plate is full as the dance studio has three locations, she has three sons and a husband, and she has a thriving side gig as a personal trainer. She didn’t leave Mt. SAC behind, though. The culture of encouragement that the dance program fostered is one she tries to replicate in her teaching now. “The teachers wanted to see stars in our eyes,” she says, and she wants her students to dream, too. She is always telling them not to give up and has adopted “reach for the stars” as her personal motto. Although Dove didn’t start dancing at Mt. SAC, she found her calling there: as a performer, a teacher, and a friend.