- I wanna know, how did you create a dance factory?

Like, how did you create this business?

What was your creative journey?

- Much longer story than what we have time for, but I'll boil it down to when I was like seven years old, my mom enrolled in dance classes in Gloversville, that's where I primarily grew up.

And as I was thinking about this, 'cause I think about it a lot, I think we had just moved back to New York from another state.

So I think after moving a lot, I think it was like, let's find something to do every week that's consistent.

And so I was doing that and fast forward, you know, six or so years later, we were having difficulties paying for those classes due to some personal home life deterioration.

And so my dance teacher let me work to pay for those classes.

So I was babysitting her daughter, assistant teaching, house sitting when she'd go on vacations, like watching her dogs, doing all that stuff, and that was how I was able to stay in dance, which was pretty cool but it was a lot of work.

But it definitely showed me how much dance meant to me.

And you know, fast forward after college when I ended up moving back home after graduating and moving around a bit, I went back to work for her again and as a 20 something at that point, I took on a lot more responsibility with her, with like helping to run the show, picking costumes out, and I got to learn a lot more about the business.

But at that point I also had an engineering degree and needed to pay my bills.

So... (laughs) - You went to school for engineering but became a dancer.

- Yeah, I went to school for engineering, came back, and started dancing.

So I found a job in Albany and that meant that I was driving to Gloversville like three nights a week to teach and that wasn't sustainable anymore.

So I started kind of finding my own freelance jobs in the area.

And then when I decided like, you know, I think I wanna teach more out here, I should start training again and I couldn't find anything that worked for me, that's when I decided, well maybe it's time to create the thing that I wish I could find as an adult dancer.

- And that's kind of crazy.

A lot of artists on this show and in general, they're always like, "Oh, I wanted the space, I wanted the space, but I couldn't find something that kind of fit what I needed, so therefore I'm gonna create it."

- That's cool.

- So I just love this like trend of just like, especially within upstate in New York of like, if we wanna see it, let's just create that space.

- [Nadine] Create it.

- And you did.

- Yeah.

- It's one of like the major dance studios in Troy, New York.

So with that, what's your goal with this space?

- So there's the goals that are like, I want this number of students and this income or whatever, but really, like, I always envisioned having a studio with multiple dance studios in it.

And that's 'cause I went to Broadway Dance Center, that's where I do my training is down in the city and there's like seven studios or six rooms and I'm like, "Oh, that's what I want!"

You know?

- Yeah.

- Obviously didn't start that way, but I'm actually, this fall I'm gonna be up to three rooms.

Hundreds of dancers at this point, which is amazing.

So the studio itself is doing really great and we're seeing a lot of people.

As far as the dancers coming into the space, I want a space where everyone feels like they have a safe, like, place to be in the studio.

So that's from the people who- I literally had this conversation with some of my newer students last night who feel like they're not dancers and they don't deserve to call themselves dancers, which is a lot of conversations that we have.

What constitutes a dancer?

At what point do you become one?

And do we need permission?

And so we work with people who aren't even sure where they're at on that journey to people who grew up dancing competitively and still come to the studio and feel challenged by the work they get.

So really like, all levels, all different people who get to find a safe space and feel really comfortable becoming a new version of themselves as they learn more about themselves through the confidence they build at the studio.

- Yeah!

- [Nadine] Like that's- - You already do have to build confidence in dancing.

That's a lot of confidence.

(laughs) - Yeah, but it's also like, sometimes that desire is really there.

Like, you know you wanna be a confident person and you know what it looks like, but you need the right environment.

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

To kind of foster it.

- To help foster that.

- So how do you foster that environment for dancers to feel connected, to feel safe, to feel supported?

It's a very communal environment, it feels like everyone has to work together to kind of meet a common goal.

So how do you personally achieve that?

- When dancers come into the space, we do our warmup, and then instead of me answering all their questions, I have them answer each other's questions.

So I put the music on low and I say, "You've got like five, seven minutes," whatever it kind of takes until I see that the work is done, "For you to ask each other if you have questions from last week's material."

So now instead of me spending half an hour answering everyone's questions, in about five minutes, everyone's getting their questions answered by their classmates.

- That's cool.

- Which is awesome.

And I'm there, I'm present and listening in case anyone gets misdirected or gets stuck to like jump in and make that correction or help them out.

But it's really fostered the sense of community.

Classes don't feel competitive.

Like, dancers are not competing with each other in this space, they're there supporting each other.

They're being held accountable because they know they might have to help their classmates, but they also know that someone's got their back.

So it's super cool.

- [Interviewer] And that's important too.

- So important.

And I have an app, too, for the studio where dancers who are at the studio actually can be part of the app and literally they'll post in the app, "Hey, I'm missing class this week.

Does anyone wanna come have dinner with me, hang out in my living room and teach me?"

And so they're actually communicating.

- Oh, that's amazing.

So it's like multi-layered of how you like, keep the connection and the spirit going.

Awesome.

And that kind of relates to your mentorship program that I wanna make sure we talk about a little bit.

How do you... Choral Ball?

So it's actually Choreo Ball.

- Choreo Ball, okay.

- [Nadine] Yeah.

Yeah.

- Choreo ball, okay.

So like, give us some like information, give us some background on that and why it's important.

- Yeah, so it's loosely modeled off an event called Carnival, colon, A Choreographer's Ball, which happens in cities all across the world and it's where choreographers get to present like, experimental works of art.

Choreographers who are working in the field and oftentimes are creating for a client who wanna just like, create a piece that feels authentic.

And I really liked that and I wanted to marry an idea like that with an event for charity.

So domestic violence is something that's very like, near and dear to my personal experience and my heart, and so I wanted to create an event similar to the Carnival, so I call it Choreo Ball.

And we do it for charity, so proceeds for tickets go to the Unity House Domestic Violence Program.

- [Interviewer] That's great.

- But the program itself is that our dancers, which are actually 95% adult, 5% or less in my studio is children.

So our adult dancers get to apply to create and present choreography in April under mentorship.

And so they basically are committing to presenting a piece, working with other students, other adult students in the studio 'cause I don't allow solos because community building is really important to me.

- Yeah.

Can't be solo in that.

- Yeah, exactly.

(both laugh) And then they are assigned a mentor and so the mentor is one of the staff.

So it's either myself or one of my employees.

And that mentor meets with them at the beginning of the process and throughout the process to help guide them on anything that they need as they're creating their choreography for the first time ever.

- [Interviewer] Wow.

- So we have, you know, we'll help them with everything from personal issues, like, oh, we have someone who's just showing up late all the time or whatever, to picking out costumes that work for them to reworking parts of the choreography that from our own experience we know might need reworking, to getting them through, like, getting stuck, you know, like getting writer's block, but dancer's block.

- Oh, okay.

So it's a full mentorship.

- [Narrator] It's a full mentorship.

You're really giving them a lot, okay.

- Yeah, helping them learn how to edit, we talk to them about lighting, staging, I tell them at different parts of the stage, like, how an audience might perceive the emotion.

So we really talk through a lot and by the end of it, they have a piece to present.

- Oh, that's amazing.

So it's important.

So I would say this is really important for emerging dancers because they are learning all those pieces.

They're learning from step one all the way to the end, to how to choreograph a full set.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

It's super cool because I actually have- Two of my current staff members, actually, started working for me as a result of what I saw from them at Choreo Ball, as well as during that five to seven minutes of class time where they get to teach each other.

So it helps me see like, my dancers grow into teachers and choreographers and then present to them opportunities if they want to work at the studio as I see their growth and interest.

So that's been really cool.

And then I think it's important for dancers who really wanna learn more about their own voice in dance to take classes from different instructors.

- If you were to have a dancer leave your studio, what is one thing you want them to take with them, carry them?

What do you want them to carry out of that space?

- Curiosity.

- Curiosity.

Now why curiosity?

What's that about?

- Because my hope is that if they are leaving the studio for something, if it's not like moving or injury or something, that it's because they're just, they just are hungry to learn more, that they maybe didn't feel like they were getting, or in a space that they didn't feel like they were getting it in.

And so to me, that's just curiosity.

Like, literally, "What else is out there for me to learn?"

- Yeah, that's amazing.

Well, thank you.

Thank you for talking to us about the Troy Dance Factory.

- Thank you.

- Do a little shout out, I know you do Full Out Fest.

You wanna mention how you're doing Full Out Fest, give you a little promo for that before we end this interview.

- Full Out Fest is August 11th this year, it's going to be at Riverfront Park in Troy as it has been.

And the rain day's August 18th, we've got probably about 15 vendors, I don't know how many dances, but maybe like 25 or so dances that we'll have.

And then, you know, food and drink vendors, the artists, I've got a lot of artists that I'm reviewing to, you know, hopefully offer that platform to as well.

So, you know, rappers, singers, songwriters, bands.

So it's gonna be another really, hopefully, beautiful time.

- [Interviewer] Awesome.

- But August 11th.

- There you go.

Troy Dance Factory, doing a lot for the community.

Thank you so much, Nadine, for stopping by today.

- Thank you.

I appreciate this very much.