Was owning a dance studio always in the cards for my life? The real answer is, not at first but meeting two very special people forever change the trajectory of that possibility.
I’ll start with this. Dance has always been apart of my life. You can’t spell Jamaica without dance in it. I am Jamaican and dance is a huge component to every special life event even funerals. Dancing has just always been a way I expressed myself. Whether or not I believed I could do anything with this skill did not make sense to me until my freshman year of college.
My college roommate
I had a brief conversation with my college roommate recently through Facebook messaging. My roomate’s name is Michael Hensel but I call him many names such as: Superman aka Clark Kent aka the Disney Movie Guy and aka Mr. Jack Daniels. He was the 1st person to encouraged me to dance in an Open Mic Night Event during my Freshman Year at Niagara University. The real story is that I wanted to sing ‘My Girl’ by the Temptations and I was struggling bad with the notes in the 2nd verse. So he suggested I dance and it all made sense after he said it.
He expressed how proud he was of me for all the things I am doing. It made me a little emotional because I knew exactly where it was coming. He was there when I spent 8 hours on Thurdays Morning starting at 1 AM planning my semi freestyle/choreography performance that had to be 6 minutes long. While he went to bed I went down stairs to choreography/plan my performance for the first time ever in my life. Like I expressed, it took me all night to put this performance together. I didn’t realize how much work went into choreography, especially a 6 minute performance. I was exhausted when it was completed but it was one of the most fulfilling feelings I have ever experienced.
All I could say was thank you to my roommate because he recognized a special light in me when I danced and he believed I could do more with dancing rather than trying to hit a note that was out of my range.
Ms. Teach me how to Dougie
If Susie did not enter that dance studio to ask me to teach her the dougie Musicality Central would not exist.
I had been teaching for a few years at this point but I still had so much room to grow. Susie was more familiar with counting music and music theory so she challenged my feel based method of teaching. She would ask me specific questions that forced me to be accountable for my timing. For years I struggled with that. However, I knew If I wanted to do more with dance I would have to learn this skill.
To not get into granular detail, Susie K was my most consistent student. She showed up every single week without fail and continued to challenge me to get better at the skill of teaching beyond feel. After a while it was inevitable because of the natural skills she possessed with music that teaching was the next step for her. I encouraged her to start teaching and after years of saying no, she agreed that she would teach.
I would take her class and give her notes on her choreography and her delivery. With every class she got better and better. However, within that short period of time the studio that we were both teaching at began their transitioning to a new phase. That means we had to find somewhere else to teach in the interim.
That is when the idea of Musicality Central began it’s journey. We didn’t quite see it yet but circumstances created the opportunity of our own space. Before Musicality Central we hosted monthly workshops series and it was wildly successful. We identified a need in the dance community and we did everything to make it real thing.
After multiple successful workshops in the interim, finding spaces to accommodate these workshops, and experiencing the joy people experienced from those workshops we decided it was time for our own space.
Susie activated her excel superpower. She made a list and from that list we found studio 990. That is were the magic of consistency began.
When we started teaching out of Studio 990, a small studio that had a max capacity of 12 dancers, we averaged 1 student in the first 3 months. That means there were plenty of days we had no one. That gave us an opportunity to get better at teaching. Despite some days without a single student, we showed up anyway and taught each other the choreography we had for our classes.
Our consistency turned into 2 students, then 4, and before we knew it the room was not big enough accommodate our growth. That is when we considered moving to Mod Dance Studio. This is where we are now. We experienced new growth in the beginning, the pivot to online classes due to Covid, the rebuild of our following after Covid, and where we are now after yet again staying consisten to what we offer the dance community.
Thist month we celebrate 9 years, yes 9 years of Musicality Central. That is 1 year away from a decade. I am proud of what we have accomplished. We have cultivated an atmosphere using the vehicle of dance to promote growth, authenticty, genuine support, and a strong sense of community.
So my journey began with an Open Mic Nite redirection that became dance. Since that moment the trajectory of my life changed. With the help of one of my most consistent student Musicality Central became a living breathing opportunity for our Buffalo Dance Community. As we prepare to celebrate this month, I want you to remember that you won’t get the support you need at first but continue to be consistent. Show up every day passionate wirh the belief that you are living your dream and the right people will show up to make your dream a reality.