For nearly a decade, The Space has been rooted in a clear purpose: to prepare dancers for the professional world with exceptional training, meaningful mentorship, and a deep respect for the craft. As we enter Season Ten, we are taking time to recognize how much the industry - and the role of the artist within it - has changed.
Our foundation remains the same. Technique matters. Discipline matters. Versatility matters. The ability to walk into a room prepared, adaptable, and ready to work will always be essential. But today's creative world asks artists for something more.
The modern dancer is increasingly more than a performer executing someone else's vision. Artists are being asked to contribute ideas, understand storytelling, collaborate across disciplines, create their own work, communicate who they are, navigate change, and build careers that may take forms none of us could have predicted ten years ago.
That shift has challenged us to think more expansively about what preparation should look like. Commercial dance training will always be part of our DNA. But our ambition is larger than preparing someone for the next audition, job, tour, stage, or camera.
We want to prepare artists for a life in creativity.
Season Ten represents an evolution in how we describe the work we have been building toward for years: artist development. That means developing the whole artist - the technician and the storyteller, the performer and the creator, the professional and the person.
It means pairing rigorous dance training with mentorship, journaling, filmmaking, creative exploration, leadership, community, resilience, and opportunities to better understand one's own voice. It means giving young artists room to ask questions that do not always have immediate answers: What do I want to say? What kind of collaborator do I want to be? How do I respond when the plan changes? How do I build a creative life that lasts?
Booking work matters. Professional achievement matters. We celebrate those moments because they are the result of years of discipline and courage. But a sustainable creative life cannot be measured by a resume alone.
We believe success also looks like an artist who can walk into uncertainty without losing their identity. An artist who can collaborate generously. An artist who understands that rejection is information, not definition. An artist who can create when no one has handed them choreography. An artist who remains curious enough to keep evolving.
As we look toward our next documentary, we want to continue exploring the human story underneath the training. Dance may be the language, but the questions are universal: identity, purpose, perseverance, belonging, change, and the courage required to keep creating.
The next chapter of The Space is not about leaving commercial dance behind. It is about building upon that foundation and asking what our responsibility becomes when we have the opportunity to shape not only skilled dancers, but thoughtful, resilient, imaginative artists.
Ten years gives us perspective. It also gives us permission to evolve. Season Ten is both a celebration of what has been built and a commitment to what comes next: deeper mentorship, stronger storytelling, broader creative experiences, and an environment where artists are challenged to develop the skills and self-knowledge necessary for a changing industry.
The industry will continue to change. Platforms will change. Opportunities will change. The definition of a career will change. Our responsibility is to help artists develop something that can travel with them through all of it.
Cory M. Miller is a creative director, filmmaker, entrepreneur and former professional skater based in Southern California. He is the co-founder of The Brea Space and creator of The Space TV, where he works alongside his wife, Krista Miller, developing and mentoring the next generation of artists.
His career has moved through professional action sports, Hollywood stunt work, filmmaking, photography and creative direction—experiences that now inform his approach to mentorship and artist development.
Cory co-hosts Inside the Space with the Millers with Krista, where they explore creativity, family, careers, personal growth and the realities behind building a life in the entertainment industry.
