YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY

Springfield, MO

Log in Subscribe

LET'S DANCE: Lauren Ashley Clark leads a class at her Nixa dance center, which has tripled its student count since opening in 2021.
Rebecca Green | SBJ
LET'S DANCE: Lauren Ashley Clark leads a class at her Nixa dance center, which has tripled its student count since opening in 2021.

Business Spotlight: Stepping Up

Nixa dance studio expands space, clients following acquisition

Posted online

Turning a childhood love of dance that started at the age of 3 into a full-time career, Lauren Ashley Clark is leading her young Nixa dance studio to new heights.

The growth of Lauren Ashley Dance Center LLC took a dramatic leap late last year when Clark acquired another Nixa business, Divinity Dance Academy, for an undisclosed price. In the deal, Clark and her staff took over instruction of Divinity’s students, which she says doubled her studio’s clientele to around 200.

“I genuinely believed that was a God thing,” she says, adding she was thinking last year about opportunities to expand her studio, which opened in 2021 at 916 N. Main St. “I just didn’t have any idea of how I wanted to do that. And it wasn’t even two weeks later that the opportunity just fell into my lap.”

The deal closed in December – right in the middle of the dance season, which Clark says typically runs nearly 10 months, beginning in August. It required a merging of schedules for students and teachers alike, a process further challenged by Clark’s second child being born months prior. 

“It was for sure intimidating, but it was also extremely exciting and really the way everything worked, it just felt completely meant to be,” she says. 

 Studio movement
Initially, Clark and staff added Divinity’s former 2,800-square-foot studio at 701 N. McCroskey St. as a second location. However, she says it became a bit too challenging for the students to bounce back and forth between the two studios. That led her to recently exit the McCroskey Street studio and focus on expansion efforts at the Main Street space. Currently leasing four suites that fill roughly 7,200 square feet in the Nixa shopping center, Clark has designs on adding another 1,800-square-foot suite.

“I would say Jan. 1 would be a good goal. But with our growth, we might be needing that extra space as soon as possible,” she says, declining to disclose annual revenue. 

Lauren Ashley Dance Center teaches classes including ballet, jazz, tap, acrobatic, contemporary and hip-hop. Classes are tailored to both recreational and competitive dancers. While Clark said the dance center primarily instructs students ages 18 months to 18 years old, the acquisition led her to start offering some adult classes in ballet and tap. Group classes are charged by the total hours of dance per week, while private lessons start at $35 for 30 minutes or $55 for an hour.

 Student teaching
Clark says she personally teaches every age at her studio, noting she’s performed nearly every style imaginable over the past 33 years. That includes performing in 2006 before a James Brown concert near Chicago shortly before his death later that year. Ballet, jazz and hip-hop were her main areas of focus when growing up in the Chicago suburbs. Her early schooling was at the Bataille Academie of the Danse in Barrington, Illinois, where she learned for over a decade from the studio’s owner, Dee Dee Johnson.  

“I just loved being on stage from the moment that I started. I think that was a big draw, was that performance aspect of it,” she says, crediting Johnson for inspiring her love of dance and desire to one day start her own studio.

“She knows how to run a business and a studio and nurture,” Clark says of Johnson. “She was kind of like a second mom to me, and she really was a good person to interview myself to get some of the ideas and influence in how I run the studio now.”

Johnson, who bought Bataille Academie at 22 years old, has owned the business for nearly four decades. She remembers Clark as a passionate student with a natural dancing ability. 

“That’s something we can’t really give. You either have that and the desire to improve that or you don’t,” she says. “Dance has always been a language for her.”

It’s no surprise to Johnson that Clark opened her own studio after years of teaching in the Chicago area, as well as Missouri, where she moved in 2008.

“I’m always happy to consult with my young teachers what I’ve learned. At the end of the day, in 38 years, you learn a lot,” Johnson says. “I have hired her and will continue to hire her to come back and do some master classes and some choreography.”

Clark says there isn’t a style the studio offers that she hasn’t taught, but she primarily focuses on its competitive program.

“Choreography is kind of my specialty,” she says, adding she began teaching in 2005. “That’s something I truly enjoy is the artistic side of it.”

While the studio has taught the same dance styles since opening, Clark says the competitive side of its offerings has expanded. It offers three levels of participation, which include multiple competitions a year in areas such as Chicago and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

“We’ve had the opportunity since we’ve grown to be able to bring in people that are from L.A. and Chicago and New York and utilize their choreography as well,” she says.

In staff meetings, Clark says she emphasizes that every student who walks through their doors is different and has varied ways of learning.

“It’s important to know each child and how they’re going to respond to your teaching methods and be able to adapt it,” she says, adding she worked hard to hire a staff with dance instruction experience for all ages. “Some kids want to be pushed, some kids need some jokes, some kids need some love and tenderness, and I think that’s really important.”

Employment for dancers and choreographers is projected to grow 5% by 2032, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. BLS data notes the median hourly wage for each profession is around $25 per hour. 

The next dance season starts the week of Aug. 12 and will be the first full one for the studio with its expanded clientele. However, the numbers don’t intimidate Clark, noting Johnson regularly runs Bataille Academie with 300-500 students. 

“I was ambitious from the day of opening this place. I had the hope and intention of us making it to 200 people as quickly as possible,” Clark says. “Did I think it was going to happen by now? Absolutely not. But we’ve literally tripled in size, and we’ve only been open three years. I was ready for it.”

Comments

No comments on this story |
Please log in to add your comment

Comments

No comments on this story |
Please log in to add your comment
Editors' Pick
Open for Business: Good Pizza Co.

Good Pizza Co. settled into a semipermanent home at Metro Eats; Trinity Electric Co. was acquired; and Cantrell Real Estate relocated.

Most Read
SBJ.net Poll
Does your organization operate a diversity, equity and inclusion program?

*

View results

Update cookies preferences