Jeanne Maddox Peterson, now 89, started teaching dance at just 13, out of her parents’ living room in Astoria.

That was nearly 75 years ago, and she’s still going.

Her studio, Maddox Dance Studio, is now located in nearby Warrenton, where she moved in the 1990s.

Even at the young age of 13, teaching dance came naturally to Maddox Peterson.

“I just love to teach. I love — I guess — to tell people what to do,” she said on a recent episode of OPB’s “Think Out Loud.” “I just remember my mother always moving the furniture for me, and we danced on a carpet.”

The November 12 agenda for the Clatsop Board of Commissioners meeting declares Dec. 6, 2025, as Jeanne Maddox Peterson Day, “for her extraordinary contributions to the arts, education, and community life.” It also “celebrates the 50th performance of The Nutcracker as a milestone in Clatsop County’s rich cultural history.”

“Throughout her decades-long career,” The proclamation reads, “she has trained thousands of students and influenced the development of young people in North Coast communities, in the arts and with life skills education.”

Maddox Peterson had a professional dance career that took her to places such as Los Angeles, California, and Montreal, Canada. She was a producer for the Miss Oregon pageant for three decades. She is also the founder of Little Ballet Theater, Inc., a nonprofit scholarship foundation established in 1974.

Maddox Peterson has also produced the holiday ballet The Nutcracker for the past 50 years.

This year’s performances will take place on Dec. 6 and 7 at Astoria High School. The show has come a long way since its first run.

During the first iteration of the show in 1975, dancers performed a shortened version of The Nutcracker before the free morning cartoons for children at Astoria’s Columbian Theater, which was then called the Riviera Theatre, according to Maddox Peterson. The music played from a 78 RPM vinyl record, and the player sat on a chair.

“If anyone dared to get close to that chair that it was sitting on and made a bump, they were in deep trouble,” Maddox Peterson recalled. “We went from open reel, and then we went to cassette, CD, and finally, we have a 55-piece wonderful orchestra.”

Even after 50 years, Maddox Peterson said putting on the Nutcracker hasn’t gotten old.

“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. So it’s always due to the support of the families in every way that makes this whole beautiful project a success,” she said.

Former student Michelle Kishner Rogers took classes with Maddox Peterson beginning at age 5 in 1983. Rogers kept returning until she was 18, even though she lived in Ilwaco, Washington, and her parents had to drive her to Astoria for every class.

“My parents would drive us across the big [Astoria-]Megler bridge,” Rogers recalled. “They would drive me over half an hour and take a half an hour class, and then drive back.”

“She just really has a way of seeing each student and pushing you within yourself to be the best that you can be,” she said.

Now, Kishner Rogers is an instructor at the Maddox Dance Studio.

“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 5- and 6-year-olds that she teaches; they just flock to her. You just want to be in her light,” Kishner Rogers said.

In addition to being a dance instructor, Kishner Rogers is a physical therapist. She said her therapy clients often know about the annual performance of The Nutcracker or have a connection to Maddox Peterson herself.

“We have such a generational connection to this community through what Mrs. Peterson has created and developed,” she said. “It is really an amazing legacy to get to experience and listen to their tales of the studio that always was my second home.”

“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 it’s my day job, and I can’t do anything else.” Maddox Peterson said.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/12/07/clatsop-county-jeanne-maddox-peterson-dance-ballet-nutcracker/