Astoria dance instructor honored for 75 years of teaching dance

Jeanne Maddox Peterson was 13 years old when she began teaching dance out of her parents’ home in Astoria.

That was 75 years ago. Today, at the age of 89, Peterson is still teaching students at Maddox Dance Studio, which is now located in Warrenton and offers classes ranging from ballet to tap, hip-hop to acrobatic dance.

As first reported by The Daily Astorian, Clatsop County Commissioners honored Peterson last month when they proclaimed Dec. 6, 2025 “Jeanne Maddox Peterson Day” in recognition of her many contributions to the community. That day marks the 50th anniversary of “The Nutcracker” this Saturday in Astoria, which Peterson has been producing annual winter performances of since 1975.

Peterson joins us to talk about her remarkable career, which also includes having worked as a professional dancer for companies in San Francisco and Montreal and producing the Miss Oregon pageant for more than three decades. We also hear from Michelle Kischner Rogers, an instructor at Maddox Dance Studio and one of Peterson’s former students who first took lessons from her at the age of 5.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Jeanne Maddox Peterson started teaching dance when she was just 13 years old. She did it out of her parents’ living room in Astoria. That was nearly 75 years ago, and she is still at it. Maddox Peterson is gearing up right now to celebrate her 50th anniversary production of “The Nutcracker.” The Clatsop County Commission has proclaimed this coming Saturday to be Jeanne Maddox Peterson Day. She joins us now along with one of her former students, Michelle Kischner Rogers, who is now a teacher herself in the Maddox Dance Studio. Welcome to you both, and Jeanne, congratulations.

Jeanne Maddox Peterson: Thank you so very, very much.

Miller: What made you want to start teaching dance when you were 13 years old?

Maddox Peterson: I really don’t know. I just love to teach. I love, I guess, to tell people what to do.

Miller: And these were classmates, these were people who are about your age?

Maddox Peterson: Yes, they were. My sisters are 6 and 7 years younger than I am, but the neighbor children were about their age.

Miller: What do you remember about those first classes in your living room?

Maddox Peterson: I just remember my mother always moving the furniture for me. And we danced on a carpet. No one in Astoria sold ballet slippers at that time. So my mother used to order the ballet shoes from Portland. We couldn’t have fittings, so we just always kept our fingers crossed that they would be fitting when they arrived. But our first recital was on the lawn of Shively Park, which is a lovely park in Astoria.

Miller: Wait, what’s it like to dance ballet on grass?

Maddox Peterson: Well, we were dancing on carpet before that, so transitioning to grass was just fine as long as it’s not wet. That’s the main thing. The recital was on a beautiful August day, and we had 11 children in the performance. I had them all wear white tutus, the romantic style below the knee. Then for decoration, I went to the Erickson floral shop in downtown Astoria and bought the wide ribbon, like they use for funeral sprays. Then they had those tied around their waist into a big bow at the back. So that was the first costume.

Miller: That was the first one. You then had a really varied professional dancing career. You danced in Los Angeles, Montreal, other places. You put on the Miss Oregon Pageant for a number of years.

Maddox Peterson: 33.

Miller: 33 years. What brought you back to Astoria?

Maddox Peterson: I was always living in Astoria throughout all of these things except when I was dancing professionally, but the love of teaching took strong hold and so I started my studio right after I graduated from high school. I started in downtown Astoria. I rented a room above the First National Bank, and that was the start of it. Then we moved from there to different places as we went on. The last time I was in downtown Astoria, I was in the Liberty Theater building, which was a beautiful experience as well.

Miller: Can you tell us about the first production of “The Nutcracker” that you put on 50 years ago?

Maddox Peterson: Yes, it was on the floor of the Riviera then, now it’s the Columbian Theater. At that time, the movie theaters used to do free cartoons for kids on Saturday mornings. We were like the opener for the cartoons and we did a 20 minute version of “The Nutcracker,” the children’s march, and several other variations from act two. In that was Lisa Sundstrom, who was my student at that time, and she’s now retired actually from American Ballet Theater and Pennsylvania Ballet, but it was a wonderful little performance of 20 minutes long, and now we do the full production.

Miller: What was the music 50 years ago?

Maddox Peterson: On a 78 RPM phonograph record, and if anyone dared to get close to that chair that it was sitting on and made a bump, they were in deep trouble.

Miller: Did it happen that the record skipped because of the dancing?

Maddox Peterson: No, no one would dare go near it. So then we went from open reel, and then we went to cassette, CD, and finally we have a 55 piece wonderful orchestra.

Miller: I want to hear more about your experiences, but as I noted, Michelle Kischner Rogers is with us as well. Now Michelle, you are an instructor yourself at Jeanne’s studio, but how old were you when you started taking classes with Jeanne?

Michelle Kischner Rogers: I started taking classes in ‘83, and I was 5 years old.

Miller: What do you remember about that time?

Kischner Rogers: I had such a love of movement that it was a real treat for me to be able to get to go to dance. I lived in Ilwaco, across the river in Washington, and there wasn’t any dance studios over there. So my parents would drive us across the big Megler Bridge, and that’s what I got to go do, was take class in ballet, and they would drive me over half an hour and take a half an hour class, I’m sure, and then drive back. But I remember just being enamored by just the fun of the space and the movement.

Miller: What did you call Jeanne when you were 5 or 6 or 10?

Kischner Rogers: Back then, Mrs. Peterson, or she was Mrs. Festiven then, when I first started dancing with her. That’s what I would have called her and I still do now, even as an adult. It’s hard to not call her Mrs. Peterson, even talking to my kids and our family, she’s like a great aunt, or an aunt figure in my life, always has been. I just always have called her Mrs. Peterson then or Mrs. Festiven.

Miller: What made her a special teacher?

Kischner Rogers: Looking back over the years, I danced until I was 18 with her, and she just really has a way of seeing each student and pushing you within yourself to be the best that you can be. To be able to walk in the studio, do something fun, but be seen as an individual is one of her big specialties. She also just has such a love for what she does that it’s hard not to be drawn to her. I even watched the little dancers now, the younger five and six year olds that she teaches, they just flock to her. You just want to be in her light. You want to do your best for her. I think she just somehow has a magical gleam about her that pulls you to her.

Miller: Jeanne, how much do you expect from your dancers, whether they’re 5 years old or 18?

Maddox Peterson: I always expect their full attention and that’s always a challenge when they’re 4 and 3 years old. Just to make them feel secure when they come into the building and to know that you kind of become their second or third mother at that point. I’m just trying to understand how they feel because I’m sure when they come into the studio – it’s not a very large room – but I’m sure they think they’re at Madison Square Garden because everything looks bigger to them when they’re little. Keeping that in mind, their little wide eyes looking at you, and they relate to the music, they relate to the movement, and it’s always a reward for me to see them understanding what they’re doing.

Miller: We got a lovely email from John Riuda this morning. He wrote this:

“I was delighted to read that you would be featuring Jeanne Maddox Peterson in your program. Mrs. Maddox Peterson and her daughter Trisha, now most untimely deceased, are responsible for a young boy growing up in an Astoria commercial fishing family, discovering the beauty and wonder of ballet, a love that has continued with me throughout my life. I was a classmate of Trisha,” he wrote.

“She was the prettiest girl in the school, and I had a deep crush on her. Rather than try to impress her in the usual schoolboy manner with such things as athletic prowess that I totally lacked, I hatched the idea that if I developed a knowledge of the thing in which she was most interested, ballet, that perhaps she would find me worthy of notice, as she was always a performer in ‘The Nutcracker.’ In my 8th grade year, much to my father’s displeasure, he believed that boys didn’t become interested in such things, I bought a ticket and attended a performance. Trisha was glorious in her role, but the ballet itself ended up truly capturing my heart.”

Jeanne, how has “The Nutcracker” that you’ve put on grown over the years?

Maddox Peterson: I truly believe it’s the families that are here, that come to participate or to attend the performances. We are very much a family-oriented studio, and of course the story of “The Nutcracker” is all about family and the season. I think that that’s the most important thing is that everybody feels secure in what they’re doing and they’re appreciating it. Bringing the love of the arts to other people is always rewarding to me.

Miller: Dancers I’ve known over the years, some of them have a love, if not love-hate, then love-not-love relationship with “The Nutcracker.” On the one hand, it’s a classic and a fan favorite and a necessary moneymaker for ballet companies. I’ve also heard, though, dancers say that doing it year after year after year can be a drain. You’ve done it for 50 years now. How do you personally feel about this one ballet?

Maddox Peterson: Well, I totally disagree with the ones that say it’s a drain because I really love it and I know that all of my students love it and I know their parents do love it, even though they have to make many sacrifices to make it all happen. It’s always due to the support of the families in every way that makes this whole beautiful project a success.

Miller: Michelle, when you go around Astoria or Warrenton or Pacific County or Ilwaco, what do you hear about the impact that Jeanne has made on people’s lives?

Kischner Rogers: I feel like I have this amazing opportunity to glimpse into that. I’m also a physical therapist, and I see people in their homes in the community. So most of my patients are over 75, and I have had this amazing opportunity as I’ve been working with people from the community to share what I do, my other job being that I teach at the studio, and almost everyone will have some connection or they’ll share a connection, many of them saying they danced with Mrs. Peterson, or that their sibling danced, or they remembered seeing “The Nutcracker,” or that their aunt comes out every year to go to that, or then again that their child dances there or their grandchildren dance.

We have such a generational connection to this community through what Mrs. Peterson has created and developed. It is really an amazing legacy to get to experience and listen to their tales of the studio that always was my second home, and see that it was so many others. I think it’s hard to walk around the community anywhere and not find someone some way that a person is connected to Mrs. Peterson or someone who has danced with her or been in “The Nutcracker” or seen it. It’s a true legacy out here.

Miller: Jeanne, what has kept you teaching a number of years past the age at which many people say, I’m ready to take a break. I’m ready to put my feet up?

Maddox Peterson: I don’t ever think of it in terms of years, and my children know that as well. I just do this every day, and that’s what I do. It’s my day job and I love it. I can’t do anything else. I’ve told my students a story about when I was growing up down in Roseburg, and my only job in my whole life besides dancing has been picking beans down in Douglas County one summer. That’s all I’ve ever done besides dance, for a job, is to pick beans for one summer, and I couldn’t keep that up because the vines made my arms so scratchy.

Miller: But dance you can.

Maddox Peterson: But dance is, yes..

Miller: Do you feel like dancing has kept you young?

Maddox Peterson: Yes, definitely.

Miller: So you don’t just teach dance right now. You dance yourself every day.

Maddox Peterson: Well, I’m dancing less. I’ll be very honest, I am dancing less, but I try to do my plies every day and my tendus.

Miller: Wait, plie, that’s like you sort of like you bend your knees and go down. What’s a tendu?

Maddox Peterson: Tendu is to stretch and point your toe.

Miller: OK.

Maddox Peterson: Then I also try to get in rond de jambe en l’air as much as I can. That’s when the leg is about at the waistline level and then it circles from the knee down. So that’s a really good one. I recommend that to everybody.

Miller: I feel like radio is not the best way to get a dance lesson, but I’m very grateful that I’m getting a little bit of a dance lesson from an Astoria legend live on the radio.

Maddox Peterson: Thank you so much. I’m happy to have you as a student.

Miller: You say that now, but I don’t know how you’d feel if you saw me. Just briefly, have you had students who say I can’t dance, and then you’re done with them and they say, I can?

Maddox Peterson: If they say they can’t, I’ll say yes you will.

Miller: Oh yes you will. Not just yes you can, but yes you will?

Maddox Peterson: Yes, right. We can do this.

Miller: Jeanne Maddox Peterson and Michelle Kischner Rogers, it was a pleasure talking to both of you. Thanks so much, and Jeanne, congratulations again.

Maddox Peterson: Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity.

Kischner Rogers: Thank you so much.

Miller: Jeanne Maddox Peterson is the owner and founder of Maddox Dance Studio. She has been teaching dance in one way or another for nearly 75 years. Michelle Kischner Rogers was her student back in the 1980s, starting at the age of 5. Michelle is now an instructor herself at the Maddox Dance Studio.

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