Melissa Nein is probably best known for teaching the region’s kids the art of dance at the Boothbay Region YMCA, but the whole story behind how she got here, and why she stayed, is fascinating. Originally from Somers, Connecticut, Nein summered here from a young age with her parents and two brothers.

“My parents bought a little log cabin up here,” said Nein. “I ended up meeting my husband (in Boothbay Harbor), so I moved here after college – not intending to stay, whatsoever – life just sort of happened in a really great way and now I’ll never go back,” said Nein.

Nein was working summers at Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop when she met her husband, Jason. The two became inseparable during the summers and braved a five-year long distance relationship while she finished high school and attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

After she graduated, Melissa and Jason Nein finally married and she moved to Boothbay Harbor because he had a job. Though she said her husband was excited for the prospects of moving to Connecticut, neither of them would have had a job, so their living situation presented itself. They expected to only be in Maine long enough to save some money and get jobs in Connecticut, but when she got the job at the Y, it felt like it was meant to be, she said.

She recalled: “I can do dance in a little town in Maine? Really?”

Even though her moving to Boothbay Harbor was perfect for the couple, she said it was not all easy.

“Being so far away from anything, having to drive an hour to get anywhere,” said Nein. “Once I clicked into that job, though, and started to meet people it was like a whole different world.”

What about New York City, the be all-end all of every dancer’s dream?

“I did a semester studying in New York City when I went to Trinity. I never really wanted to go abroad, but my first night there I called my mom and said ‘um, apparently I’ve gone abroad because I’m in a different country, now.’ New York City was like, big and scary, a different country.”

Nein studied theater and dance and saw a show almost every night in the Big Apple and considered it a valuable education.

“The best thing about it just in terms of that whole life was that I realized that that was not the life for me, that I’m not a city girl. I absolutely love to visit it, but that kind of pace and that kind of competitive atmosphere just was not my personality.”

Glad to be able to say she would never wonder if she “should have gone for it,” Nein said she has no doubt, whatsoever, that what she is doing now is what she is supposed to be doing. Besides teaching dance at the YMCA, she owns Nein’s Designs, where she makes handbags and totes. She also works at Molly’s On Board Fabrics in Edgecomb.

Th Neins have three daughters – ages 10, 13, and 16 – all of whom dance, though the oldest is beginning to branch out, their mother said.

“As my kids have been getting older, I’ve been working more and more and more outside the house,” Nein said, often going over 40 hours when she finds the time to add it all up.

In a twist of irony, Nein said her two brothers are big city dwellers, one living in Seoul, South Korea the other in – you guessed it – New York City. While Nein’s father often visits her brother in Seoul and the two backpack in various Southeast Asian countries, Nein said she and her father enjoy kayaking together when her parents make their annual summer trip to Boothbay Harbor.

Asked what her favorite form of dance is, Nein said ballet, after a great deal of deliberation. Much like a painter would deflect a question on his or her favorite color, Nein walked back her choice just a little bit, just enough to fit the entire spectrum citing modern jazz and modern contemporary dance also as favorites.

“I really like hip-hop, too,” Nein said, cringing. “It’s so fun. Everything hip-hop is the opposite of ballet.”

Because it is so difficult to find music to dance to, she is typically democratic allowing her dancers to choose from a handful of songs which are often painstaking to find. However, Nein feels it is important to allow her students to be a part of the process of choosing music – and attire – so they are comfortable and inspired.

“Then they feel like they’re really part of it, like they own it, like it’s theirs. They get so much more excited.”

“Music is one of the tough things in this job because nine-tenths of it is very inappropriate or suggestive,” Nein said. “I’ve been using a lot of Christian music throughout the years … In general it at least is appropriate and has good positive themes that I can use. Hip hop is the toughest … (and) once in a while there are some songs that are just so great, you’ve got to dance to it.”

Nein said the most rewarding moment working with her students comes with that click of enlightenment, when something makes sense all in one instant both conceptually and physically.

“I guess what comes from that is their confidence. To me, that’s a big thing for everybody, really, but for girls. It’s just so hard to feel confident in general, but especially with the body. For them to dance fully and feel good about themselves – that’s the best part for me. I just want them to feel good about themselves.”