When Ava Marsh, Erin Soriano, McKayla Arnaldo and Adirah Greenstein met in middle school, they would have never dreamed they would be starting a club together at SDSU years later.
The group became best friends after spending three years together on the San Marcos High School dance team. From all-day tech rehearsals to claiming victory at their competitions, the girls formed an unbreakable bond.
Marsh and Soriano both arrived at SDSU in 2024, while Arnaldo and Greenstein followed in 2025. All four girls found themselves missing dancing – specifically dancing together.
That’s when the idea hit them: they should start a club for former dancers who want to revive their passion for the art.
Founded in January, Revive Dance Club holds meetings every week where dancers can learn choreography, meet new people and do what they love in a supportive space. Many other dance groups on campus have a competitive aspect to them, so they wanted to create a more recreational, laid-back environment.
“There’s nothing like that bond,” Soriano said. “You’re with a bunch of girls who have different backgrounds, different majors, different ages, all coming together to get to know each other and connect through dance.”
The leadership team emulates this concept. Soriano is a marketing major, Marsh is studying speech, language and hearing sciences, Arnaldo is studying elementary education and Greenstein is hoping to switch into public health. The four lead such individual lives, but their shared love for dance unites them.
With all the stressors that college brings, they believe dance is an outlet that can reduce anxieties. Regardless of what else is going on, the girls said that dance takes their mind off of everything else happening in the world.
“I feel like in high school, whenever I would go to dance practice, I could just relieve myself fully,” Greenstein said. “All the stress would go away. I never really think about anything else when I’m dancing.”
The current members of the club show up consistently at the weekly meetings. Members look forward to the gatherings because of the sheer energy in the room. On the dance floor, friends and strangers alike get to move together and have fun.
There is no pressure to be perfect. Everyone steps onto the dance floor and gives it their all every time. Every run-through begins and ends with members sharing high fives and compliments. Each dancer puts their own unique spin on the original choreography – which is primarily created by the leadership team each week.
“It’s really fun to see how much people enjoy it and can make it their own,” Marsh said. “Seeing someone else do something that you made is such a cool and unreal experience.”
Marsh, the club’s president, shared her hopes to bring in other choreographers in the future. The club is still in its infancy, but the team already has a vision of how to grow the community. They’ve already achieved one of their major goals, as they moved their meetings from the parking structure to McKenzie Studio in the Aztec Recreation Center.
Looking ahead, another one of their goals is to perform at a campus event at SDSU. The organization hopes to create a set dance routine that they can work on every week and showcase for their friends, families and fellow students.
For now, the four girls are thankful for their community of regulars who come every week. This feeling is clearly reciprocated, as many of the members take the time to hug and thank the leadership team before they leave for the night. Above all, the founders wanted to create a positive and welcoming community, which they now hope to grow and expand.
“If you love dance or have ever had a passion for it in the past, no matter how long it’s been, you should come to our club,” Arnaldo said. “We want to reignite the passion. If you don’t like it, no pressure, but I promise you’ll like it.”
