For Michael Wooten, Effervescent Studios in Granite City took shape long before its doors opened, students filled a dance floor, or its calendar filled with private lessons.
It began with rock bottom.
In 2009, Michael was homeless, living on the floor of an apartment he shared with nine other people. He had just come out as gay during the final semester of college, a decision that cost him the ministry jobs he had expected to pursue, and separated him from a community he had believed would be part of his life for years to come.
“I chose the school not only for an education, but also I chose it because my hope was that God would change me,” Michael recalls. “He answered every other prayer on my prayer list, but never helped me with the one thing I struggled with the most, which was being gay.”
The aftermath was painful. Wooten felt isolated from his college community and experienced tension within his family. Rather than return home, he chose to stay away.
“I was an avoider at all costs,” he says. “So, to avoid tension, I just chose not to return home to family.”
Then came a morning that would change the trajectory of his life.
Michael had no vehicle, no conventional career path, and at time, little more than a place to sleep. He remembers waking up on June 6, 2009, and feeling compelled to look for work. He says he decided to check out Craigslist. The only job posting that seemed to be a potential fit was for a dance teacher.
There was one significant problem.
“I’d never danced,” he says.
That didn’t matter. He pushed forward and showed up for try outs to be a ballroom and social dancing instructor.
He walked into that first training session wearing a T-shirt and a sideways hat, surrounded by applicants who were professionally dressed. The next day, he returned in clothes borrowed from his roommates, who had collectively assembled an outfit for him.
He had no dance experience, but he was willing to work.
Out of 30 applicants, Michael was the only hire. Within two years, he said he had risen to second in the world among instructors in the corporation.
The unlikely career had begun, and eventually, it would become something much more personal.
The job would introduce him to a career he never imagined choosing for himself.
“I don’t feel as though I chose it,” Wooten says. “I feel as though it was chosen for me.”
One step at time: Turning rock bottom into a retail business
Michael’s journey to Effervescent Studios was anything but traditional. Addiction became part of his story, and he spent years trying to outrun the consequences of his choices by moving from one place to another.
“My particular drug of choice was meth,” he says. “I was a meth addict for six years, and I’m grateful I didn’t lose my teeth in the process. I’m grateful I didn’t lose my life in the process.”
After a relapse during the COVID-19 shutdown, Michael entered treatment in 2021. When he finished, he made a decision that was different from what he had done before.
He would go back to Granite City to the place where much of his life had fallen apart.
“I had the option of going somewhere else, moving anywhere else,” he says. “But I knew if I really wanted to do this thing, I had to return to where life fell apart.”
He came home with two things: a nine-by-nine bedroom in a sober living facility and a room inside a church where he could teach dance.
“And so I said, ‘I’ve got to make this dream work.’”
Michael recalls opening Effervescent Studios with five students.
Those early students became something more than customers. They became integral to Michael’s recovery community and eventually, part of the physical history of the studio. A wall in one of the dance spaces is filled with their words of encouragement.
“This wall does more work than I do,” he says.
Retail without a cash register full of merchandise
At first glance, a dance studio might seem like an unlikely fit for the We Are Retail initiative.
There are no racks of merchandise. No shopping carts. No shelves of products waiting to be purchased. But Michael views retail with a unique lens.
“As a dance studio, we’re not your traditional retail store, right? We don’t sell product,” he says. “However, I believe that we still fall into the same category as retail because of the service that we provide.”
For Michael, a product is not something his customers carry out the door. It is the experience.
“Dance isn’t something that you can put on a shelf and just call it a day,” he says. “It is something that truly can transform your life if you allow it.”
“We’re selling a life experience,” Michael stressed, which is why he says he loves retail.
A dance floor for everybody
Effervescent Studios is built around ballroom and social dance with private lessons forming the foundation of the business. Michael works with individuals and couples. Often his clients are people preparing for their wedding first dance, longtime couples looking for something new to share, and adults who simply want to learn a skill.
Group classes give others a chance to walk through the door without committing to private instruction.
The dance opportunities are diverse. Some want to learn hustle. Others opt for swing, salsa, cha-cha, merengue, waltz, foxtrot or tango. The goal is not to turn everyone into a professional dancer. It is to make people comfortable enough to dance when the music starts.
“We work with anyone who has never danced before and those who have dance experience. The whole goal is to build community. One step at a time, both on and off the dance floor.”
Wooten believes the biggest obstacle to dance is not age, ability or rhythm. It is fear.
“If there’s anybody out there that is willing or wanting to learn to dance, the most important thing I can say is just do it,” he says. “That first step is the hardest.”
Once people get onto the floor, something changes.
“You realize you’re too busy thinking about how you’re moving and how you’re connecting to be busy judging anyone else.”
The business of becoming free
For Michael, dance is deeply personal because he has experienced its transformative power himself.
“I like dancing because of the change,” he says. “I like dancing because of the transformation it did in my own personal life.”
That transformation has continued throughout his sobriety. When he returned from treatment, Michael needed accountability. He built that accountability into the business itself, creating a calendar that gave structure to every hour of his day, and students who were counting on him to show up.
The studio became part of his recovery routine. Same for his dance family.
“Some of my students jokingly say I do a lot of dance therapy,” Michael says. “And so, we dance through life challenges together.”
Today, Michael tracks his sobriety one day at a time. The number on his wall has grown from the 45 days he originally wrote down to more than 1,800.
He does not see those numbers as his achievement alone.
Every year, the studio holds an annual showcase dinner and brings together students, friends and families. Students perform for tips, with the proceeds going to a local nonprofit. The event celebrates another year of the business and another year of Michael’s sobriety.
“No one’s success is built on their own,” he says. “It takes a community.”
A place where people can start again
Perhaps the clearest picture of what Michael has built, comes from watching his students perform.
He recalls one student who was going through a divorce and struggling with the upheaval in her life. After spending time working through those challenges on and off the dance floor, she performed a spirited routine at the showcase.
Michael watched her transform.
“To see her light up and to see the joy come from her,” he says, “that rekindled a new passion forward for her.”
That, he says, is the point.
“I love that dance encompasses the full human experience.”
When his customers dance, Michael says he believes, mind, body, and spirit can work together. The body moves. The mind quiets. And people connect with another human being in a way that can be difficult to find in everyday life.
That may be the most important thing sold by Effervescent Studios. Not the dance lessons. Not the steps. Not even confidence. It is the possibility.
“Effervescent Studios matters,” Wooten says, “because in the world that we currently live in, we’re all searching for something, whether it be external or internal. But we’re all seeking connection.”
For someone who once felt like an outcast, lived without a home, and struggled with addiction, creating a place where people feel they belong is more than a business strategy. It is a life’s work.
And for Michael, that work continues one customer, one connection and one step at a time.
“I am an individual that is a product of a community that’s willing to step outside their comfort zone, to love an addict, to dance with an addict, but also who are willing to see life more than just what’s presented to us.”
