On Feb. 24, 1989, Anchorage dance fans saw the official debut of a new local dance troupe dedicated to training young dancers in a panoply of different styles. Youth Dance Spectrum Alaska's first concert -- in what was then UAA's Performing Arts Center and is now known as the Wendy Williamson Auditorium -- stuck with "popular mainstream" fare. Daily News dance reviewer Anne Herman called it "a wise choice."

"Jazzy pop dance and upbeat tap routines were the order of the night," she wrote, "and the company of 16 handled them with the relaxed air of veterans. They stuck with what felt good and what they knew the audience would like, and it paid off."

Herman also praised "an important strength of this new company: the dancers' ability to project a personality onstage that helps complete their dancing."

"This ability will stand YDSA in good stead for the long haul," she concluded.

That long haul marks a milestone next weekend as Dance Spectrum Alaska -- "Youth" no longer in the title -- celebrates it's 20th anniversary with a concert in the Discovery Theatre. The program promises to offer DSA's trademark mix of formal and pop dance techniques, along with guest appearances by alumni who've gone on to start their own dance groups and some who have earned a place as professionals in the lower 48.

Not just ballerinas

DSA was the dream of Gail Florio, whose family homesteaded off Boniface Road "before Anchorage was a city." She recently recalled that her mother had all four of her daughters taking dance lessons at an early age.

"I was never a prima donna," Florio said. "But I just loved it."

She got into the administrative side of the business, working for the old Dance Den at first, then helping Linda Lorimer run the Conservatory of Dance, the premier Anchorage dance school for many years.

Lorimer's school supplied the springboard for DSA. From the beginning, Florio said, her group worked in a range of styles,

"Everything from hip-hop to ballet, jazz, tap, modern." Most companies don't do that, she said, but tend to specialize in one form of dance or another. But specializing can come at a cost to the broader dance community.

"Tap and jazz really were lost in this town for a long time," she recalled. "So we decided we would do the spectrum of dance," hence the name, "because not everybody's a ballerina."

In time Lorimer closed up shop and Florio continued DSA on her own. Among the throng of students and dancers who have worked with her over the years, some in fact are ballerinas, and several are joining the current crop of dancers for this 20th anniversary celebration.

"I did something different this year," Florio said. "I invited other companies to dance with us to show the audience what they can do."

Farah Canale of the Anchorage Classical Ballet Academy will be among the guest artists taking part in the upcoming concert. She'll perform a classical pas de deux with DSA alumnus, Sam Gottstein.

Another former DSA student, Tammy Gibson, recently performed on the 2009 Academy Awards broadcast.

She'll be returning for the concert with a new piece of choreography for her old school.

'Wow' moments

Becky Kendall, a long-time student then teacher with DSA, has gone on to form her own local company, the Momentum Dance Collective, which will also participate in the show.

"I grew up with Dance Spectrum," Kendall said. "I was very small. My mother danced there as well. I got all my core training in ballet and tap and modern, and grew my love of dance there."

Momentum's offering, an excerpt from a longer piece presented at the new company's debut in December, melds a number of styles, Kendall said, an obvious connection to her DSA training.

"That's what I was born out of," she said, "the idea of pulling from different techniques, honoring various forms of dance and how they're fusing in this terrain of dance."

Kendall eagerly accepted the offer to take part in the birthday bash.

"Gail really wanted to have a nice big celebration for the 20th year," she said. "It's exciting for me, since it's my old love and my new love all together."

She described Florio, whom she's known since she was 6, as "hard-driving" and "the most modest woman I know," fully absorbed with her students progress and love of dance.

Florio, who never considered herself a dancer in the spotlight, has made it her mission to see that others get that chance.

"I try to make my dancers the best I can while they're here in Anchorage. If they have dreams to go Outside, they have a chance to make an audition."

Asked about her career highlights, she said, "It's always when one of those kids calls me and tells me they made it. When I got the call from (former student) Sam Franke, when he told me he'd made the Joffrey Ballet -- that was a real 'Wow' moment."