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Studio Spotlight - Club Dance · Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the table at a dance competition?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: This is Making the Impact, a dance competition podcast.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_03: Each week we'll cover a different topic related to the world of competitive dance from the perspective of the judges behind the table.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_03: In season three of Making the Impact, we've had the pleasure of showcasing some amazing studios on our studio spotlight features.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_03: Rounding out this season is Club Dance, a studio out of Mesa, Arizona, known for their student appearances on Disney's Take It Up, America's Got Talent, Dancing with the Stars, and so much more.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: Stay tuned to hear from studio owner Kelly Wilkins and our directors, Ali Sloan and Kylie Forrest, about what makes Club Dance such a special place.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Making an Impact.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Courtney Ortiz, and I'm here with my co-host, Leslie Mailer.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Hi Courtney, how's it going?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So good.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: Also so good, but a little bit sad because we only have a few more weekends of competition season left.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, and it's been a long season.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: It has been.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: It's been back to normal, and everybody's just so happy to be back, and it's almost over.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm always sad.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: I want competition season to be all year long.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: I know that's exhausting to think about, but it sounds fun.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's practically getting there.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, by the time there's like a trillion nationals and then October rolls around and conventions are starting up.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's practically a year-round at this point, but I know the ones that we work for primarily are taking place in January through May.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: So we'll just have a nice summer break and then get back into it.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that being said, we only have a few more episodes left of our podcast.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: That also flies by.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So sad about it.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: So everybody that's been tuning in and listening for all of season three, thank you for being here since the top.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: We started in September, didn't we?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: We did.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna take a hiatus over the summer because we are busy people and travel and teach and do all the things, and we need a break sometimes.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this podcasting, we love it, but it is gonna be nice to not have to uh sit down and podcast every single week.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, and schedule everybody and schedule.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: But don't you worry, we will be brainstorming all summer like we always do and coming up with new ideas and fun stuff for season four.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: Season four! What's that?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Crazy.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so ready for season four.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Can't believe that we will have done four seasons.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, wow.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we already have some really great topics coming your way in season four listeners.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So if there was a topic that you didn't hear this season, then shoot us a message or shoot us an email or join our Facebook group, which by the way, if you haven't, you should.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Making the Impact a Dance Competition Podcast Community, and you can chat with us there.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have close to 1,500 people in that group now.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if there's an episode topic that you want to hear on season four, then let us know and we might be able to make that happen for you.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_03: And we couldn't do what we do here at Making the Impact without our amazing sponsors, so we want to tell you a little bit about them.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: First up is Dance Costumes by Urzua and Urzua Dancewear.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: They offer high-end custom and semi-custom designs.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: Urzua Dancewear wants every dancer to feel confident and comfortable doing what they love.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: They're proud to offer five different size variations to cater to all dancer bodies.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: Whether you're looking for a custom costume to hit the stage next season or a new dancewear set to wear to your next convention event, Dance Costumes by Urzua and Urzua Dancewear is here to help.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: Check out all of their designs on their website and Instagram now and use our exclusive promo code IMPACT15 to receive 15% off your order.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_03: That's DanceCostumesByUrzua.com.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, and our next sponsor is Fave 4.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Fave4 is a family-friendly, high-performing hair care line made by professional moms who were once dancers and now have dancers themselves.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure all of the moms listening have experienced those tough hair changes in the dressing room that need to be slicked down and set with only a few minutes between numbers.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: From hairspray for those final touches, gel to get that sleek, slicked look, and even leave-in conditioner to brush out the knots post-competition day.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And for all of my naturally curly friends out there, I've been loving Fave4's curl cream to help define my curls.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Visit Fave4.com to learn more about their products now.
• 4:22
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• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And don't forget to use our exclusive promo code for podcast listeners only.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Use the code Impact15 in all caps at checkout to receive 15% off your very first order at Fave4.com.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: All right, listeners, and I'm sure you've heard about our brand new Making the Impact Awards that are at all IDA affiliated competitions around the country this season.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: We are so excited about this award, and all of the recipients that have been winning it have been so excited to share those awards with us by tagging photos on our Instagram and registering their awards with us over here at IDA.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if you register your award, if you're a winner of the Making the Impact Award, then we will give you a shout out live on the podcast.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a few winners that we would love to share from recent IDA-affiliated competition events.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And first up, this was from Diva Dance Competitions event in Hartford, Connecticut.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this was a small group from Thrive the Essence of Dance in Monroe, Connecticut, called Goodbye My Lover.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Also, we have a winner from Star Talent Productions in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Their large group was called Synchronized, and that's from Center Stage Dance Academy from Fort Mill, South Carolina.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_03: Next up from Spirit of Dance Awards Wuburn, Massachusetts event.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: Congratulations to Maximiliano Ortega for their solo Caught Up from Edge Studio of Dance in Canton, Massachusetts.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: And from Epic Dance Showcase in Morganton, North Carolina.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: Too Darn Hot was a large group from Starstruck Dance Studio in Denver, North Carolina.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Congrats to all of our recent winners.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we hope that you win a Making an Impact Award at an upcoming IDA affiliated competition event.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, everybody.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we are jumping into our final studio spotlight feature of season three.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we have loved getting to know so many studios from around the country.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Studios that you may have heard of, or maybe you haven't heard of, or maybe you've had a chance to compete alongside them, or maybe you follow them on Instagram and admire their work.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: We are so excited to welcome our final studio spotlight guest.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And this studio was started back in 2007, and they have dancers that have graduated that have gone on to dancing for Disney.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: They've danced on Broadway, on Dance Moms, Dancing with the Stars, and Juilliard and NYU.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: They've done it all.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: They are producing some great dancers over here.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited to welcome Kelly Wilkins, the owner, and Allie Sloan and Kylie Forrest of Club Dance.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, y'all.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Hi.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Super excited to have you guys here.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for joining us on the pod.
• 6:57
  unknown: Yeah.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having us.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um, Kelly, I know that I was in touch with you and you were planning to fly solo, and then you were like, Can I bring Allie and Kylie along with me?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: My my other directors at the studio.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, absolutely, let's have some more friends on this episode.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm so excited that you guys could squeeze us into your busy schedule because I know we're in the in the middle of competition season right now while we're recording this.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure it's a very busy time for this for you guys at the studio.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, it is.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: We are just wrapping up our competition season, but I wanted to have them on because you know we're nothing without our faculty.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: So it takes a team effort.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Big team.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and each of you can feel free to share a little bit about you, but Kelly, if you want to start, if you want to just kind of give a little bit of a background on you, where you grew up, and anything you'd like to share, how you decided to start the studio.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other two ladies can also do the same.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: I have grown up in Arizona.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: I moved here when I was seven.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: I started out as a gymnast, and then I quickly decided that that wasn't my thing, and I wanted to join, you know, the local dance studio.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I did that, and I've been dancing really ever since.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: I started when I was about eight, and then I quickly started assisting when I was 12 and teaching soon after that.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: I was fortunate to have a studio that allowed me to foster that love of teaching.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then I actually went to nursing school and I wanted to be a nurse, and then I decided I wanted to be a dance teacher more than I wanted to be a nurse.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know, I was nursing for a couple of years and then I just decided to open my studio.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: I found a really like up-and-coming area in Arizona that had a lot of young families and just kind of took a leap of faith and opened a studio in a rural area that was really successful.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know, that's just kind of how it came about.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: I started it when I was 26 and we've been in business now 15 years.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: We just started our second location.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: So all sorts of fun things happening at clubs.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, that's awesome.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And where in Arizona are you guys?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: We are the address is technically Mesa, Arizona, but it started in Queen Creek.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: So they're just like little suburbs right next to each other.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: And our second location is also in Mesa, it's just like two miles away from our home location.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Super convenient.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh Allie and Kylie, whoever wants to go first, tell me more about you.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Did you both grow up at the studio or are you new teachers to club dance?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us more about your background.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'll start.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: So uh similar to Kelly, I started with gymnastics.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: My parents just, you know, like everyone else, tried to get me into something to stay active and it just wasn't my thing.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: But it was a big gym dance complex.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I quickly shifted and gravitated towards dance.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: I started dancing at seven, then danced competitively through on into high school and started teaching in college.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I've been teaching and working at club for the past 12 years, 12, 13 years, I think it is.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I could live my life without dance.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: I just love it.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: So this is what I do.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: Love it, cool.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: And what is your role there?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: I am one of the directors, so I run our part-time program, which is like our intermediate competitive program.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, cool.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, nice, love that.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my turn.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: I started, I did not start doing gymnastics.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: I started at three years old dancing at a local dance studio, and Kelly actually was one of my dance teachers.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_04: What?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Poor Kelly, just kidding.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: But I grew up just like all the other dancers, going to all the same conventions and competitions, traveling around the world, doing what they're doing.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then I found a love for dance team.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: I tried out for a college dance team in Utah, BYU, and I did that for three years.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: And then I fell into the role to be the assistant coach, my fourth year there, and that was really fun to, you know, kind of step into that teacher role and coaching role.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where I was like, okay, I think I want to do this.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm at Club.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think I've been there almost five years now.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: My own kids dance there, and I love it.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's awesome.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Aw, that's such a lead family.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's great.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that is so awesome.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're excited to have you and excited to learn even more about what you're offering at your studio.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: So let's jump on into the episode.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, so we have a little bit of background on everybody.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: I want to go back a little bit with Kelly.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_03: So you did you have any mentors that sort of helped you decide where to open the studio, how to open the studio, how to even do this?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, did you have anybody sort of helping you, or was this all like from your brain?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, actually, it was just all from my brain.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of a I'm kind of a risk taker.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: I have a lot of ideas on the daily.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: And Allie has to.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: I have to put up with it on the daily.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: I was just gonna say, this is her.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: This is, of course, it came from her own brain.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, I've got this.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: This is what I'm gonna do.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: This is her every day.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_03: Allie, Ali, you sound like me to Courtney.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm always the one kind of like Courtney, maybe we need to pull every tiny bit.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: One of these, right?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: So okay, that's good with it.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just, you know, I loved nursing, but I I just felt like I didn't know enough about nursing and I knew so much about dance.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Didn't really know a lot about business, but I knew so much about the dance world.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I just loved it.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I just felt like if I put all my effort into dance, then it would have to be successful, I guess.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was a risk for sure.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but worked out.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, did you have dreams of being a studio owner when you were younger?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_03: So um bold.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think so.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I always did.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe not studio owner, but like teacher and choreographer.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I what kid doesn't want to do those things?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, when I I was a young mom, and so I just kind of really did it for my family.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, on our Mother's Day episode that just released, we had our moms on the podcast, and we were just kind of reminiscing on our life growing up as a dancer and you know, pursuing that as a career and and things like that.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like I didn't really know any different besides dance growing up.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's all I did.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: I I eat, sleep, breathe, dance 24-7 in high school and you know, even through my whole youth.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I felt like I had to make a career out career out of it.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know anything else that excited me, you know, for you to like be like, Yeah, I'm gonna go to school for nursing.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: I had no clue what else I was interested in, especially at 18 years old and making like a life choice like that when gotta pick where, you know, what's your major in college?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: So much pressure.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, that I felt the same way.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Although I've always kind of known that I did, I've I've never really had that itch to own a studio.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think that so many, like, I feel like my mom is always like, you should just move home and and I can work at the front desk and you should open a studio, you know.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think that's every dance mom's dream for their dancer to grow up and open a studio, but it's not for everyone.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm glad that you took the risk and did it, especially I think the business aspect of running a studio is what scares a lot of people because we know how to dance, we know how to teach dance, but then it's that whole other side of the business.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, definitely.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I'm curious to know, and everybody can chime in on this.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: So when you first started, what were your aspirations for the studio?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: Did you just want to have recreational programs?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_03: Did you want to build it to what it is now with all your different programs, which we'll talk about?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: Cause I know Kylie and Allie run your two main, I think, programs.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, when I first started, I wanted it.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think everyone has to start at a rec level.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: That was kind of where I just naturally wanted to start it.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then we also that year started the beginning uh intermediate competitive team.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: But they weren't, I mean, they weren't well-trained dancers because they're new, you know.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, we did start that right off the bat.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then just over the years, like quickly, probably within the first five years, we became well known in the state of Arizona, and then it kind of like grew from there.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that it became more competitive as the town that we live in started to boom.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like she said, they opened so many young families flocked to this area.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: So um enrollment started to rise, and you know, she had this great little program that started to grow, and she became quickly known for her minis.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they had these little kids that were just insanely talented, really good at acro, really great performers.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: They were just these awesome minis.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: The reason why I think we became known for our minis was because those are the kids that had trained with me.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: So when you first opened up a studio, you know, my goal was never to get kids from other studios.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not really what happened.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: I started with these four and five-year-olds that by the time they were eight became really talented.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so from there, that generation that grew up through the studio is the the kids that we became known for, really.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a slow, gradual process.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that a lot of other, I'm sure there's a lot of people listening who have either started their own studio or maybe works for a newer studio who has that exact same, not it's not a struggle, but I definitely think that if you open a studio or you gain a dancer, even, you know, if you're already a studio owner and you gain a dancer that is maybe 12 or 13 that wants to be on the competitive team that's not trained from the ground up at your studio, you're you're that dancer has to work extra hard to blend, essentially, with all of the dancers that have grown up with your training from the age of four, because it's gonna be completely different and it could be at a completely different level, and there might be completely different technical habits that you're trying to cre, you know, fix and go backwards essentially.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that a I've actually heard and a lot of my studio owner friends that I'm friends with have felt the same thing.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, all right, you know, our teens, I got my hands on them a little bit later, so they're not our strongest, but those minis are like they're gonna be something.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's it totally makes sense with that progression that you're talking about.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what's kind of cool is if you fast forward to Club Dance now, that's why I have all of these different programs.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we have the Rec program, then we have the Intermediate Competitive Program, then we have our company, and then we have a pre-professional program on top of that.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: So no matter what, I feel comfortable now where we have programs to fit everybody, but it wasn't like that day one, you know.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: I want to hear more about these programs.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me more about all of these.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you said you have your rec program now, and when did you start introducing all of these variations of programs throughout the years?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you started in 2007, you said it didn't start like that.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: So you just kind of had the rec program and then the intermediate team, you said?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the strut club team.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And what's the intermediate team?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like what is who are they still around?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: What is that?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, those kids are still around.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Allie's the director of that team.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: They dance ever anywhere between four to six hours per week.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: So they're just a part-time program.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: They take a ballet class, two jazz classes, and like an acro class.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them will take an additional jazz and ballet class during the week.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: But really, the most they dance is six hours a week.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that's actually really popular for the area that we live in because we have a lot of families who want their kids to be active, but they also don't want dance to run their life.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: They want it to be like a part-time program, you know?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: So we have that program that has uh anywhere from 120 to 150 kids, depending on the year, and they do competitions only.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: So they don't typically go to conventions, they'll just do, you know, like showbiz, showstoppers, those types of competition.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it's us just introducing them to the world of competition to see if they like it.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: And do they compete at the intermediate level there or where where do they land in terms of the levels?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we enter them in the intermediate level because essentially, you know, they're intermediate.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: They train their jazz rehearsal hours, end up only being two hours a week.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: So that's not a lot of time with these kids to put together competitive dances, the, you know, teaching them how to dance, how to perform, how to move formations, how to incorporate technique into all of that.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's just it's a lot of work.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but actually the program has grown so much, and these kids are fantastic.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: We have on top of all of these programs she's already talked about, we offer a lot of supplemental training classes.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: So, and our strut club kids are they're so hungry, you know, they want to get to that next level.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: So they they dabble a lot in those supplemental, supplemental training classes.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: So they've gotten so much better, and it just has become like a feeding program to our company, you know, like we'll give them everything they need to move up to the next level, and then they take the rec kids and move them into intermediate, and it's become this nice fluid stair step program.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_03: So and how do you how do you get admitted into the strut club?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: Are you auditioning?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_03: Are you selected?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Are you just I want to come in and auditions and then we also have um, as you guys know, every year you get kids who want to move studios or evaluations, and we get a lot of that.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: So if they can't make it to our yearly audition, we do evaluations where they can come take a class with us and see where they're at, if they fit in with our company or our rec program or our intermediate competitive program.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: So okay, so we have the strut club and we have so we have recreational program, we have the strut club, now we have company, I think that's what you said.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is that the next one?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And with that, do you have can you jump straight to company or do you have to like work your way up the ladder?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you can jump straight to company depending on like your experience and your talent level, but both of our programs, so whether you're on strut or on company, they both start around the age of five.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it kind of depends on your experience and the potential that we see in you, whether you will be with the strut club kids or the company kids.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: The company, you know, they just they dance more and they come four to seven days a week.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: It just depends on your age and how many dances you're in.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was kind of curious.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I wasn't sure if everyone started, if you want to do competitions, you know, and not just do rec and recital.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to do competitions, then do you start with strut and then work your way up to company?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or like what if you get a really talented 11-year-old that uh comes up or maybe has anyone ever jumped from like rec to company and like skipped strut entirely?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't happen very often, but we definitely like my goal is never to hold kids back.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I feel like they can handle the training and like their parents are committed and they know what to expect, then yeah, like I want to make kids the best they can be.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so I want to push them to the highest level that they can achieve at.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: But doesn't happen very often, but we definitely have done it in the past.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah one of our we have a really awesome mini right now who she actually did that.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: We tried so hard to get our mom to we're like oh have her chopper strut.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: She has so much potential let us get our hands on her and mom's like I don't know you know we're just our family life is so busy right now and they waited out another year.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: She did another year of pre-ballet is like our four to six ballet.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's like a recreational and then that next year we scooped her up and she went straight to company she was just she just had it.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know some kids just have it.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly anyways.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I like this I think that it's a nice like uh introduction even for the parents you know not only the kids but the parents who are you know getting invested into this like whole new dance world that they probably know nothing about and they can just kind of like ease in with Strut and like see the demand see how many days a week oh this is what a competition is okay nope we see the potential they have you know and then really push them into that company level.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah yeah and Kylie tell us a little bit about what you do so you're the director of the company.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah so I teach we have uh superstars rock stars minis juniors teens and seniors and I get to teach each level but I kind of mainly focus on the older kids the junior teens and seniors which I love some people you know stray away from that age teenagers but I feel like I can relate to them yeah the teenagers I love them and adore them so I teach technique jazz all those things with all the other faculty members um we all kind of you know it takes a team and I rehearse the junior teens and seniors get them ready for their competitions what else solos all the things the turns master turns impressions all the things great and how often so you said your company dancers are dancing closer to how many hours a week anywhere from 15 to 19 yeah it just kind of depends I feel like the little kids are there more than the older kids because older kids you know they're trying to balance that social life school life all of that so the younger kids are there how many more hours would you say five to seven five to seven hours than the older kids.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Wow yeah you know once quick prom comes around and high school football games and that kind of stuff yeah so that's kind of one thing that I think I do different at club is I I train my little kids pretty hard up until about junior company right before they go into high school because then I kind of like I kind of loosen the reins on them as they go into high school and I'm a little bit more lenient on their absences or rehearsal weekends or things like that.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: But because they've had the training for so long there you know we have a really successful teen and senior program as well because they stay.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I my main goal is to help them achieve what comes after high school whether it's in dance team or it's in a college or a professional dancer.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: And if I lose them in ninth grade I can't help them.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do anything for them yeah yeah yeah yeah you don't want to like like have that's that's such a I I really love hearing that because I feel like that a lot of studios probably struggle with that decision on how do I be sh do I continue to be super strict with the attendance and the requirements.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think a lot of people might approach it from a a little bit of a different mentality of okay now you're this is when it matters like now you're if you're still here by the time you're in high school you love this and you want to do this.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I you need to train harder harder harder you need to be doing this this this and that could turn off the kid from really still having the love and saying like oh gosh what did I sign up for this is too much.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: I want to go to the football game I want to hang out with my friends at school and not just my dance friends all the time.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean looking back I I felt that 100% like we would have rehearsals on Fridays and I'd always miss the things that happening at school and I started just having to be like you know what I'm not gonna go to dance tonight.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm just thinking can we have version solo rehearsal Saturday instead you know yeah I think we can all relate to that feeling and so that really totally one of the things that separates club dance from other studios is that we are we kind of start from the bottom and push hard and then when they get to that teen senior we you know we relax a little bit and we just want them to be there.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: We just want them to show up and know that they're loved and they have a safe place to come and grow and mature and you know that's that's huge for so many teens and as we all know that's a really hard time in their life.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_02: So just being there for them and being that safe space is is a big deal.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: So cool.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: I love hearing that I think that's going to be really inspiring for a lot of other teachers to hear especially coming from a successful studio.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's so interesting to just hear and that's why I think people love these episodes is because it's so interesting to hear how other people do it.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_03: Because I don't think anybody I don't know any studio that that like blatantly says this is how we do this once you get to this age because we've noticed that like they stay if you can let Lorrains go a little they'll stay longer and more of them will stay and enjoy what they're doing and what we're doing.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: So I wanted to know though within all of your competitive levels how do y'all go about uh solos, duos trios?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: How do you cast your numbers is everybody in everything I mean you have 150 kids in your intermediate strut club I'm like so how many are in the the company how many are in company just as many yeah about 170 in company wow as far as solos we allow everybody that's in either one of those teams can they can sign up for a solo so we probably have over 200 solos at our yeah it's a lot yeah can they have multiple solos yes multiple solos and I just like I'm a big believer in solos because if the parents are willing to put in the time effort and money to get individual training then it's only making my kids better in the long run.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know they will they will get them out early from school I have six dance rooms at my home location and they're full from 9 a.m to 9 p.m you know I have teachers there working with kids because at the end of the day they want to get better.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: So why not let them?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we have lots of solos it's most of the days I love it some days I don't but it's almost like how do you have enough time to like rehear I mean you just said it but like I think that's the struggle for a lot of studios is like everyone wants a solo but we don't have enough studio space and time to make these solos happen.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah I have lots of solo teachers and they're willing to come in during the day and on the weekends is primarily when we work with solos.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah nothing happens between four and nine thirty on solos that's all class time.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: As far as my castings like my group numbers I say in my packet that I give out every year that we cast club dance as like one big company.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: So you may be on mini company but that doesn't mean that you won't be in a junior dance or you won't be in a rock star dance.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I co-cast kids everywhere.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah um just kind of depending on age and how everything falls yeah so that's something that makes rehearsal time tricky.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: But that's good.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: It really does I feel like it makes our dances more successful.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: So how many dances are you registering to an event?
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: For just the company kids we have about 45 to 50 okay depending on the year we go to nationals every other year.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: So on a nationals year we'll probably have you know 15 more 15 to 20 more numbers but we typically stay around 40.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you said that for company so for strut intermediate division they are primarily only going to competitions.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas company are you saying that they go do they also go to competitions or do they primarily go to convention comps?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah they only go to conventions and competitions yeah I think it's so interesting to hear this and especially how this is broken down and this is something we've talked about like crazy this season in particular especially with the studio spotlights is just just kind of like comparing competition competitions to convention competitions and just the way the industry is evolving and changing throughout the past I would even say 10 years but especially in the last five yeah yeah definitely the last five I think with the whole addition to levels and things it's kind of introduced competition dance to some more of the recreational intermediate levels and then you kind of I feel like and I I could be it feels like this on the East Coast where Leslie and I are judging a lot but like I could be totally wrong about this.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: But that advanced highest division at competitions is usually scarce and there's not a lot of people registering that because I think all of those dancers are going to the convention competitions because the caliber of talent is a little bit better and there's no levels there and they like that.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know so whereas like the whole level breakdown it's kind of like are we even going to have anybody to compete against by the time there's all these levels and I think like the the more pre-pro dancers that are taking it serious want to make sure that like I want to dance alongside the best of the best at competition and that's where the that's where the convention comps are really coming into play.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely I um I always tell my company parents like I want them I love the classes you know I don't want to just train kids that can collect a trophy you know I want them to take their their learning from the classes and from the teachers and the choreographers that the conventions bring to them.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: The competition is just a byproduct really if we're all serious about our goal of training dancers then that's where we need to be.
• 33:17
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• 34:05
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• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of studios are figuring that out I and I think a lot I mean there's gonna be studios that love a good old competition and might see the value in convention in the classes but also are just like I want to take my 150 dances that are clean and drilled and get that trophy and say that I won first place overall you know that's great.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there's a lot of studios out there that are seeing the value in convention classes and getting to be in front of those choreographers and learning from them and watching their dancers grow and in that weekend where they're just getting spit out with a million you know classes and choreography.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the struggle is the expense of convention competitions is a lot more than you I mean parents are still paying so much money to for in entry fees, regardless if it's a convention comp or a regular comp.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that I from what I've heard from a lot of studio owner friends who want to try to start making that transition from not just doing competitions and going into the convention comps is that additional expense of the convention classes added on to the entry fees.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have any advice on that or is it just something that like the the parents know what they're signing up for when they're in company and that's what they do.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah we we give out that packet in August that kind of explains every single thing that we will ask of them this year.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: And we only go to three.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: So our company will only go to three comp conventions every year.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: If we do nationals then we'll add on a fourth in July but we kind of just do like quality over quantity that's great.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: So we save them money that way I guess.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah and I think giving them notice too that um beginning of the season packet the best thing about I'll just brag on you for a second here um about Kelly is the organization of club dance.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: Everything runs like a business there's nothing that's last minute she gives the packet in August so all of the parents know this is exactly what you can expect for the the year.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_02: We're not gonna um you know send you an email two days before and say hey you have choreography this weekend by the way it's right everything is pre-planned so it helps our parents um be able to commit to some of those more expensive events.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_02: Also in Strut Club we try to every now and then every every other year I guess we've done it the last couple years we take them to like an entry level convention.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_02: So we start to introduce them to okay this is what this is this is a convention and we really really have to hold their hands through it because they are a beginning intermediate team.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: So sometimes that's a struggle we do have some parents on that team that are like whoa no what are we paying for so we really have to talk them through this is what a convention is they're gonna learn from these teachers and usually it ends up going well but that's kind of where we start introducing them to what's to expect if you want to continue on this road of a competitive dancer at least for club dance this is what you have to expect is uh we primarily go to conventions.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_03: So anyways yeah does everybody in the studio participate in recital and how does your recital work do you have a recital?
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah it depends on the year.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay our recital is pretty much it's our rec program.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's like their big debut you know like we we teach them all year long and it's their big showcase.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: We do invite our company and strut club members but they're more like guest appearances.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that's nice I like that yeah they'll do like the opener and the closer with a couple of their numbers in between but it's definitely for the rec kids.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: I like that that's a really cool idea.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like looking back my studio did something similar where like the competition team would like close the show out for the the rec program which I think is exciting for the audience to see like oh my kid could be on that team.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah look what they you know what I mean enticement.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah totally gives them something to look forward to it tells them like where they can go if they continue taking dance classes but at the same time we just definitely focus on the recreational kids because it's like you know it's their big it's their big day.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah all the time right exactly yeah that's their big competition moment you know everyone else gets on stage year round but not those kids.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yep yeah it also keeps the shows short and sweet you know like grandpa of little two year old Susie doesn't want to sit through like the latest trends in contemporary you know what I mean like they just don't so you know I think it keeps we try to keep our shows like an hour tops we do shows so it's good and friendly for families to come and sit through you know oh that's great.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh you guys have such good stuff.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_03: What do y'all do on your non-nationals years?
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_03: Is that something that you have something in place of that or is it just sort of a break?
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah well club dance will run year round.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we usually have our recital in May then we take a couple uh weeks off and we start back in June.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: So no matter what if it's a nationals year or a non-nationals year we will train year round.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: So this summer we're not going to nationals but we'll just continue training through the summer and I think that's really important because the kids will get so much more training on those off years in the summer where they're not thinking about school they're just thinking about dance.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so it really helps us get them work on training and not be in rehearsals because those nationals years it's like the summertime during the day and stuff they're just in lots and lots of rehearsal to prep so then they're not in rehearsals then they're training.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it kind of gives the families a break you know they want to go to California.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: They don't want to go to Vegas every year for their summer break.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah that's wow the more I hear about your studio it's just I'm like this is so perfect.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's so many great things that you've figured out that make sense for all types of dancers all level dancers all age dancers but even something as simple as doing nationals every other year.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it costs a lot of money to go to nationals and I know a lot of studios that have just completely just said I'm done nationals nah not doing nationals because every competition has like five nationals now it's like is it really a nationals anymore sometimes you know sometimes I think about that that whole thing.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's a whole nother podcast.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we should do that one.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes controversial yeah you know it's just like a a regional in the summer uh sometimes depending on where you go unless you're going to like a really prestigious national so I think the expense for that is just a lot to ask but then also kind of what you said I mean the just the fact that like after recital if a studio has recital then it's immediately we're not training anymore.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're prepping for nationals.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're drilling those routines instead of let's just chill and train or hey you can go to that summer intensive or hey you can go to do that event instead and it opens up the opportunity instead of having to be locked into more rehearsal dates and another conven another event in the middle of the summer at that point.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that being said, depending on your national situation, do you allow your dancers and I guess this could be a question for like year round do you allow your dancers to go to other events like independently under your name obviously but like are they allowed to attend you know the other convention that you're not registered for that's in town this weekend do you guys give your dancers that flexibility or is it only like the ones that you agreed to and you go as a team?
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we give all of our dancers in that packet we give them the weekends that they have to block out for the whole year.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_01: So they know their rehearsal schedule in August.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: So in a typical month they'll probably have two to three open weekends where we encourage them to travel to conventions or attend whatever convention is in Phoenix that weekend or they can do really whatever they want with the majority of their weekends.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I I highly encourage that I feel like I don't want my dancers to just be clones of my faculty if I want them to go get as many classes as they can, go to as many intensives so that they just get experience from everybody, not just us.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so I try not to hold them back in those in that way so that they're only at club dance.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: I want them to go experience anything that they can that is dance related.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like you've seen a difference in their training or how they are evolving as a dancer through the years because of that, those opportunities because I I feel like that there's a lot of studios that have commitments during the weekends for their dancers which then prevents their dancers from being able to go to the convention that's in town or things like that.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: So do you feel like that by allowing your dancers to go to those events have you seen a difference in their training because you're training them from the ground up they have awesome technique and everything but do you think that's really kind of helped them grow even more something that you like recommend other studios to do?
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely I think the more exposure the better even just in like auditioning auditioning is a huge skill.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_02: So um I think the more we can only teach them so much in a classroom um This is what to expect.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_02: Don't crash your arms.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: Stand up straight.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, listen, if your number's called, we give them all of that, but there's nothing like a real life experience of actually doing it.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_02: So the more that they've gotten to travel around and do those things, I mean, at seven, eight, nine years old, we've seen a huge difference.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure these guys would both agree.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: Of our kids are able to pick up choreography faster, get through an audition, really learn and listen versus just being shell-shocked because they go to, you know, three conventions a year, you know.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's helped them quite a bit.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: Something that I do want to ask y'all is I'm pretty certain that you I don't do you train in ballroom?
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do your dancers train in ballroom, or do you bring in guests and expose them to ballroom?
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I've seen ballroom dance on club dances Instagram.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me more about that.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_01: So what we do is we do more of like a ballroom fusion, right?
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like a ballroom jazz fusion.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: We do a lot of like Latin style.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say what we do is like you couldn't take it to a ballroom competition and compete it there.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: But what we do is we they can take it to a dance competition and compete in the ballroom category.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: If our kids want to audition for dancing with the stars or all those things, I feel like we've prepared them for that.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's more of like a Latin jazz fusion, if you will.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's fun.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_01: They love it.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's awesome.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's so fun.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: How do you find the teachers for that?
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, are there people that live there that I feel like that's the struggle.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: We actually did a Latin ballroom episode earlier this season.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that was, you know, one of the things we discussed on that episode was just like, if you want to implement ballroom into your studio, where do you find a teacher?
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because I feel like they're far and few between.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's been a struggle for me for sure.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: I've hired people that are professional dancers in the ballroom industry, and I tried to explain to them what I want, and I just wasn't getting it.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: They were walking in circles for 45 minutes out of the hour, like teaching them how to walk.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so I had a really hard time at first finding an instructor that would come teach jazz kids.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: But you know what I mean?
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like they just it wasn't beneficial to our program.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I ended up, we have so many good teachers in Arizona.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, currently, I have Erica Maherr on faculty to teach ballroom.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_01: She actually teaches at jump and she lives in Phoenix.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_01: So she's been able to come in and kind of train our kids exactly in what I'm expecting.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: So she's been amazing.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_03: I think we had this a similar conversation.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_03: I can't remember who it was who it was with, Courtney, but of like you as a studio owner know what your kids need and what your kids are going to want.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_03: So you cater to that.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, they don't want to walk in a circle for 45 minutes.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_03: I struggled, I took a couple ballroom lessons here in New York City as a trained dancer.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I was so bored.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, don't teach me how to walk.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_03: Joe Schmoe needs to learn how to walk to learn how to like do all this cool stuff.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they just want to dance to pit bull and shake up is what they want to do essentially.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_03: And to like have some style and some technique and like give me the basics of what Latin ballroom looks like, you know.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_03: And and I think we could also, you know, I think I think we did in the ballroom episode, sort of dive into okay, there's definitely purists out there of all styles that would say, absolutely not, I will not teach that at your studio because that is not even a thing.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_03: And that's also fair.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_03: And you go to Arthur Murray and you teach your ballroom class, you know, but like you have found somebody who will teach what you want and it looks amazing.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_03: I've seen it on the Instagram too.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it works.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: Works for us.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, no matter what, they're they're being introduced to something new that is going to help them.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even if they learn some of the basic terminology of what this is and what that is, and how where your weight transfers are for this step and things like that, when they do get the opportunity to start incorporating that into partnering, then it's going to be an easier transition than dancers who have never been exposed to that before.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: And let's be real, as much as I love that ballroom's at conventions, I feel for those ballroom teachers because they know that they're starting with dancers who have never done this before.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas every other genre is usually a dancer has done hip hop, a dancer has done tap, a dancer has done ballet.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: Ballrooms at one genre, conventions where they're starting from literally nothing.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: And how are you going to do a crash course of ballroom dance and make it fun, you know, in a 50-minute class?
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I feel for them.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I like the intro the introduction to it, but it would be kind of cool for more studios to be able to implement that into their studio training.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I agree.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's been so fun.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: My kids, they of course struggled with it at first, you know, because they weren't good at it.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_01: So they they kind of resisted it a little bit.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_01: But then once they figured out, oh, I can do this, and you know, Erica's had such a huge impact on really the Arizona dance community with ballroom.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of our studios in Arizona offer ballroom because of her and because of the influence that she's had in Arizona.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_03: And so you guys are Phoenix is your closest big city.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_03: That's great.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and you know, it's people who are who live close to a big city are lucky because they're gonna have people available, you know, that are willing to come out and and share their knowledge.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_03: So that's amazing.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're definitely grateful.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so we've learned all about your studio, which I think you also mentioned a pre-pro company.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't really talk about that.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: What's that briefly?
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you want to talk about pre-pro?
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_02: Pre-pro, it's an additional program, you know.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_02: Dancers, they audition to this pre-pro program, and then you know, select few will make it.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_02: And with pre-pro, the ages are it's junior teens and seniors.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_02: I would say like 13 on up as the classes, they take extra classes weekly.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_02: There might be, you know, a dance that is only pre-pro kids.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but these pre-professional dancers, you know, they're getting that extra training, but they're also, you know, if they book a job, whether it's a dance job, a modeling for a dance, you know, catalog, they're allowed to go do that and continue, you know, coming back to club and training with us.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_02: And that's so important.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's so important to have that foundation when they are auditioning in LA and New York, kind of like we talked about JT a little bit.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_02: Right now he's in New York and he's on Broadway.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, maybe when he's done with that, he'll come back and start.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think he will.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_03: He's that kind of kid.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's really awesome.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: I I've really never heard of a studio that kind of does that or has a program that's kind of geared towards that.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think because of your proximity of being close to Los Angeles, I'm sure that um a lot of dance, you know, probably the pre-pro kids probably have agents or representation of some sort that they can just hop on over on a flight to LA and go to that casting and sorry, I'm not at the studio next week, shooting a commercial.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like that, and I think a lot of studios would be uh totally open to that idea if they have a dancer that wants to go in that direction.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that it's again, it's that commitment to the team.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's the commitment in that way.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, are those pre-pro kids also in the company dances, or are they not really they are?
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: They are so like what happens if someone books Broadway and then the the that pre-pro kid is out of the dance.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_02: We figure it out.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_02: You figure it out, got it, got it.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_02: There's always a way.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's something great about Kelly, you know.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like any problem or not problem, but something comes up, she's so calm about it and just figures it out.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_02: Where we're all like, oh my gosh, what's gonna happen?
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_02: And we figure it out, we make it work, and you know, it might include an extra rehearsal or two, but these kids all at Club are also professional and they're part of the team, and so they're willing to do what it takes to make sure that they look good at these competitions and you know, all of that stuff.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_03: Do you guys cast understudies or is that sort of a fly by the moment thing?
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_02: No, yeah, we do.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: We have understudies.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like each dance has one, maybe two understudies that we could use.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_02: So they'll learn when a choreographer comes in, they'll learn that routine and they'll come to the rehearsals, and so they know, you know, I have to know this part, this part, or this part, which is kind of nice too.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_03: I have a question that I wanted to know about how that even happens in terms of the finances.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_03: So let's say you're a kid who's the understudy for dance A.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_03: You never get to do dance A, but you've put the time in.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_03: Like, does that cost more money or is that part of an overall fee that people pay, or what's that about?
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you're an understudy, you don't pay anything.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_01: You just come and you learn the choreography, you come to the rehearsals.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_01: If we put you in, then your fees are covered by whoever spot you're replacing.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I see.
• 53:14
  unknown: I like that.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, great.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that that just means that yeah, if you're an understudy, you you really, really care.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you're just there because you want to dance more.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_03: That's really cool.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_03: And the opportunity.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know, a lot of dancers look at it as a great opportunity to learn and grow.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_00: The understudies we we need them.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_00: The swings and the understudy, I mean, that's something that dancers need to start learning how to do at a young age because it will be easier once they step into the real world if that's something that they want to do.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_00: Especially the company kids who are training at that high level as it is, they probably might want to pursue dance in some way, shape, or form.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: And knowing already, oh, I've done that before.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_00: I've jumped in for that person before.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: I knew all the formations and the traffic patterns and things like that.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be more desirable down the road when you go to an audition and they can see how quick your brain works and how how you can adjust on the fly.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_00: And and those types of qualities and traits to have as a dancer when you enter the real world is huge.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't, I feel like that most of the time we're playing catch up when we get to the the real world.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like everyone tells me all the time, you'd be such a great swing.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_00: Your brain could handle that.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_00: You could totally do like six different tracks.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, I couldn't.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've never done that.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_00: At 33 years old, why would I want to learn now?
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like if I grew up learning that, I might feel a little more confident about it.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I think that exposing them to those types of opportunities is really, really great.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the future of club dance.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I know that you said that you opened up your second location.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_00: When did that happen?
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: We just opened our second location in January of 2022.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_01: Just this past January.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_00: I was about to say 2020.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that would have uh 2022.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: So January.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_00: So like in the middle of the season.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it wasn't by my choice, really.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually partnered with a company called Legacy Sports USA.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_01: So they basically hired me to run the dance program within this park.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's a huge park that offers all sorts of sports, dance, cheer, gymnastics, football, footsal, soccer, everything.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so we signed on to run the dance program out of this huge park that also is going to have locations in Nashville and Dallas.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of interesting.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_00: So will you go like club dance will then go to those locations as well down the road?
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we'll see.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_01: Too busy.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_01: Satellite locations.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's too soon.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_01: Too soon.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_03: It's only been like three months.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_03: That's what's is that do those programs operate on under their own sort of jurisdiction, or is it do they feed into like are they going to be part of your recital or what's how does that work?
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, out of the legacy sports location, it's primarily just recreational classes and supplemental classes.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we don't have any competition programs running out of that location.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_01: The model of the legacy location, it's for surrounding studios.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_01: If they don't offer a ballroom class, they can come there and take a ballroom class and then go train back at their home studio.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of the idea behind it.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's going to take some time to really grow into what I believe it can be.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_01: But we're off to a good start.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_01: Neat awesome.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and that allows a lot of, like you said, kind of some of your kids to drop in or people who are already committed to something else who need that extra little something that they don't get where they're wherever they are.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_03: And it maybe won't feel as sort of like taboo.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like that they're yeah, yeah.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_03: You poached my dancer.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_03: No, I didn't.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_03: She takes one class over here because you don't offer it.
• 57:12
  unknown: Exactly.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's that's the idea.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's gonna take some time in Arizona for people to warm up to it, but that's really like my goal is to get it to just an open door feel, like everybody's welcome.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_01: Just come take a class.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh not really any big deal, you know.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_01: Another thing that we've dabbled in over there is we have like this college prep program.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_01: So we run into the problem in Arizona a lot of where kids they feel like they have to choose between competitive dance and high school programs.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_01: So if you do lose a dancer, you know, that picks high school palm and they want to be on the college dance team track, then they can come to Legacy and take advanced level classes, and we will help them audition for the college dance teams of their choice.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of the idea behind the college dance team track there.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's new in Arizona, nobody's ever really done it.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_01: So to be determined on that as well.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_03: That seems like such a good niche to get into because that is, I mean, the Courtney and I do not come from that background at all, and we're hoping to do an episode on it next season, bringing in people who really do do that because it's such a big thing in some states.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, right now.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the last five years I've seen in Arizona, kids always wanted to go to USC or Juilliard.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden they're like, I want to do ASU dance team, I want to do BYU, I want to do state, Ohio State, yeah, Michigan.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so my training, I mean, it was prepping them for that track, but not really.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_01: It was prepping them for like a Juilliard USC track.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we've really had to rethink how we train our older kids because I want them to be able to go to wherever they want to go.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and just be ready for whatever gets thrown at them in any of those.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_03: Because I mean, I think college dance team, man, they're doing everything now.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's not just what it was 20 years ago.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's like, oh, you do a lyrical dance?
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_00: With good technique.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_03: With good technique, exactly.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's so different.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think Larkin expressed that same thing though when they were on the podcast that a lot of their dancers are heading into the dance team route after.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's definitely interesting.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a world that I'm very unfamiliar with.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm interested to learn more.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited for us to do that podcast next season.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_02: Something also that's really cool is like where I grew up, we weren't introduced to not even just dance team, but like all the other opportunities.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_02: So at Club, it's kind of nice to be like, oh, I can do this or I can do that, or this dancer was doing that.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you know, I would like to do that too.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel like here at Club Dance, you are, you know, open to like, okay, this is what I'm gonna do in the future, and I can continue dancing as well, which is really cool.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of the things, like any examples off the top of your head of students in like in those scenarios that you just talked about?
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_02: So like we have right now, I feel like we have three dancers at ASU dance team.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_02: So they did it a dance team route.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_02: We have one who's at pace in New York, USC, USC, we got yes, Julia, Juilliard, who else?
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_02: NYU, NYU.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_02: We've had, you know, some you know, dance on cruise ships.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like it's you're open to whatever.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the auditions, we've supported them in, you know, uh dancing and parades at Disney.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_02: There's all sorts of different tracks you can take, you know?
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's just refreshing to hear that because I think that a lot of studios or owners might have never gone on to that pro world before on their own or have had students that have been interested in doing that.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_00: So they struggle with really guiding them on that next chapter.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think that the usual thing is you go to dance, you graduate, you go to college, you graduate, and then then I don't know what, maybe you become a teacher, maybe you become a, you know, pro.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_00: But like not everyone becomes a pro.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I think those dancers that want to go that direction, I think a lot of studio owners I know a lot have come to me and said, I don't even know how to guide my dancer.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: What you did this.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me how I can, what should they do?
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_00: Where do they start?
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_00: Type of thing.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: So for you guys to be so open with what those opportunities are and exposing them to that and having them see other dancers doing that as well from the studio, I think is really eye-opening, even for the parents as well, to see.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we also have um our assistant program.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_02: So for some of those kids that maybe don't necessarily want to go to college, it's not their jam.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_02: They want to stay here, they like teaching, they like choreographing.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe they want to teach baby Disney princess combo class.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we have an assistant program that they can start assisting our faculty that we teach them how to teach.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of made this great revolving door that um we have 18-year-olds coming in every year that they're ready.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_02: We give them, okay, you're gonna try this.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_02: You get to teach beginning jazz this year and then um mentor them through that.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_02: And it's been really great to watch, you know, not all of them stick with it.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_02: Some of them are like, oh, that's not as great as I thought it would be.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_02: See you later.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_02: But um, we found some really great teachers.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, people that we would have never thought they're not advanced enough to become a professional dancer, but the best teacher, you know, that I've met this season.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's just cool, you know, to see how there's just so many different tracks in dance you can take.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just another program.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_01: We're actually able able to hire a bunch of them over at our legacy location.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we're able to give them jobs and kind of teach them, continue to help them.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_03: What a great, what I mean, what a great legacy of of your 15 years in business that's like just gonna keep on going.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, what's what does the future look like?
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_03: I so we yeah you're gonna be you're gonna be at this new facility, which may end up in other states eventually, maybe.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and what else?
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_03: Anything else?
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's I mean, that's kind of it.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a lot.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's a lot.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_02: Anything else when she tries to, and we're like, no, no good.
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_02: This is it.
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right, reeler back in.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, yeah, definitely.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to keep training kids and helping them achieve their goals, whatever it is.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it sounds like you're doing just that.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it sounds like that you have, even though you said from the beginning, like you didn't know much about business, I am just sitting here blown away by what you've created and just hearing all of these different programs and opportunities that you're providing to your dancers out there in Arizona.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I definitely think you're like such a smart businesswoman.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure that so many teachers listening to this podcast are gonna be like, wow, that's a great one.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna, I'm gonna implement that next season, you know, because I mean that's really how we all learn and grow, is just from experience and and hearing other people's stories and picking other people's brains a little bit.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for kind of giving us a little inside look as to as to like what club dance is all about.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_02: This was so fun.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are awesome.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for joining us.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of listeners are gonna love this episode.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, by the way, Kelly, happy birthday! Is your birthday today?
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_00: The podcast launches today.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I forgot to say that at the very beginning.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_00: So exciting.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, as the birthday queen, how we usually lead out in our episodes is just one final thought or bit of advice to any studio owners out there, any dance parents, dancers, whoever you want to chat to out in podcast land, to lead us out on our final studio spotlight episode of season three with Club Dance.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I just want to say that um we always say at Club Dance that it's consistent effort over time.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want to become a good dancer, it takes years of hard work and training.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_01: So just keep working hard and keep going.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_00: We hope you enjoyed our final studio spotlight episode of season three featuring club dance.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to follow them on social media.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can find them on Instagram at Club Dance Official and Club Dance underscore legacy sports.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about Club Dance, visit their website at ClubDance Studio.com.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_03: Don't forget to follow Making the Impact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcast, Google Podcasts, and pretty much everywhere you listen to podcasts.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to check out IBA Affiliated Competition Spirit of Dance Awards.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_00: Spirit of Dance Awards has competition events throughout New England and the tri-state area.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_00: They are committed to providing a fun, fair, and exciting venue for dancers of all levels to showcase their talent and passion in a positive environment.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_00: They are thrilled to offer their spirit class to the dancers with special considerations and are especially proud of their Trophies for a Cause program, in which studios have the opportunity to donate the funds that would have been spent on trophies to a charity of their choice.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_00: At SDA, you will find their judges to be highly qualified and knowledgeable dance professionals exclusively from the roster of judges and impact dance adjudicators.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_00: At each event, they provide designated studio dressing areas, director and teacher VIP perks, scholarships, choreography awards, cash prizes, and so much more.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_00: Also be sure to check out the SDA class experience held during the fall each season.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_00: Their guest faculty is compromised of some of today's top professional dancers and choreographers, from television, stage, screen, Broadway, and even So You Think You Can Dance.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Spirit of Dance Awards and to check out their 2022 tour dates, head to their website now at SpiritofdanceAwards.com.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_00: We hope to see you at one of their upcoming events.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_03: Season three is wrapping up, but we have a few more episodes on the way, including summer intensives, dancing in heels, and a special listener requested episode.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_00: We hope you're still enjoying season three.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next week.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_00: Until then, keep dancing.