Here’s a Wilton business success story for you–Conservatory of Dance just celebrated its 1-year anniversary in its new Wilton Center studio, and business is booming.
“We’re up to 70 full classes a week. We had over 55 calls the first week in January, and converted at least 75 percent of them to new students. And they’re still coming,” said Christine Titus, who has owned the dance school for seven years. But it’s been the school’s move from Georgetown to Old Ridgefield Rd., next to the Wilton Library, one year ago that has opened up new vistas of success.
Since moving into the space, Titus has been able to increase student enrollment, add more classes and even change up the kinds of programming she offers, branching out into new entertainment curriculum. Most of the classes offered at the Conservatory are tailored for kids, from preschool through high school–there’s even a class that is full of itty-bitty two year olds who love to dance. Titus has scheduled a handful of adult classes too, including adult ballet, hip-hop and tap, but the school’s primary focus is on children.
One of the surprising new additions that has been very popular is the Conservatory voice classes. “I have two really fun voice classes, with a Broadway dancer-singer, and the kids love them. She has a group of 15 3rd-5th grade girls, who come right from Cider Mill, and they love it.”
That ability to have kids come right from school off the buses has been a boon, too. That, and Titus said the new space was larger than her former Georgetown location, opening up more possibilities to grow her curriculum–all thanks to the move to Wilton Center. “It’s been great to have that bus, the Cider Mill bus comes right here. So we can have 3-o’clock classes four days a week. In the Georgetown location we could never do that. And we have the third studio now, that’s been a big plus, everything has grown.”
But things had to grow to really keep paying for everything required to run the business too–from higher rents, utilities, and more. Making it as a small business in Wilton is constant work. “I can’t even tell you what it takes to heat this place, the winter has been so cold, it’s insane!” Titus laughed, only half kidding.
Jokes aside, she knows the enterprise has its strengths. “I think my business lends itself really well to being in the center of town. I’ve brought in new programs. And I knew I really had to focus on making sure we keep the quality up.” Titus is referring to the look of the studio, which is modern, bright and clean, and features windows and closed circuit TV views into each of the three dance rooms, so parents can keep an eye on how their children are doing in class.
“People hang out here now. They bring the dancers’ siblings. Location is key. And everyone says we have such a good reputation. I work really hard on that, making sure my teachers are top notch and we all have the same mission and goals for the kids.”
It seems much of the Conservatory’s success comes from word of mouth, from students who are faithful and love dancing there. Vivian McVey, whose 10-year-old daughter, Madison, has been dancing at the school for several years, can attest to that.
“Having tried two other dance schools that did not offer the range of classes and technical aspects we were looking for, we tried Conservatory of Dance based on the recommendation of a friend. My daughter and I loved Christine and everything the Conservatory had to offer so much we made the switch. Now that it’s in the heart of Wilton Center it is so much more convenient. The new studio is state of the art, the teachers are fabulous and the diversity of classes is amazing. With over ten hours of dance a week, the Conservatory is truly Madison’s home away from home and she absolutely loves it!”
Titus is also clear about what her school’s mission is: “There’s an environment here, it’s just positive and nurturing, and it’s that way for all different levels of dancers. There are girls now on our competition team, who want to go to college and dance. We have kids who come one day a week and just want to move and have fun with their friends; then we have girls who are here six days a week or 10 classes a week. I want to make good people, not just good dancers. We have good life lessons that go on here–sharing, being considerate, introduce yourselves to the new girls. It’s how do you be a good person, not who’s the better dancer.”
Even the concept of a ‘competition team’ has the element that the kids come first. “I want it to be like a little family. I want to encourage female support. Yes we had auditions, but they’re also asked to be role models. I tell them, ‘You’re going to help make the new girls comfortable.’ It’s not about the uniforms and the team track suits. It’s fun. Yes, it’s competitive, be we keep it all positive and fun.”
As for how far the team will go, Titus said, “We’re just dipping our toe into what we’re going to do with this competition thing. I was a competition dancer, I worked hard because I knew I wanted to dance for a living. But running a business takes a lot, with the move, starting a Nutcracker production, all of it. But I have a couple of young, eager teachers who said, ‘You have so many talented dancers here with great ballet training, you should have a team.’ One teacher came to me with a whole plan, it was great. So I said, ‘Let’s do it!’ She’s fabulous, and ran with it.”
The dancers who made the team have a lot of ballet training and technique as foundation, and many of them take 8 or nine classes a week. “They have a lot of training, and they don’t do anything else–they don’t play soccer, they don’t play lacrosse, they don’t horseback ride. They’re here, and they’ve chosen dance. It’s to nurture them as dancers and on what they’ve chosen to focus on.”
Ranging in ages from 9-12, the team dancers will represent the studio at competitions, just like travel soccer teams compete against other towns. “We’re only going to two competitions, one in April and one in May. Although the dancers are not novice, we’re going in as novices because we’re first-time competition goers,” Titus said.
Given how people have been so excited for the team, she plans on hopefully expanding the program next year, hoping to field three different teams, even one for mini competition dancers.
There’s even more to look forward to, as the studio stages its annual end-of-year spring show on the Clune Center stage in June. This year there are four shows–“There’s our kinder show on Saturday morning, with 140 pre-schoolers and kindergarteners, it’s the largest we’ve ever had. Then we have our big show–which is everything else, except ballet–which we’ll do twice. Then we’ve taken out all our ballet and will be doing a separate performance of Coppelia.”
This is the last week Titus can accept new registrations as well for dancers who want to be in the show, and she doesn’t like turning anyone away. “After that, I may say, ‘absolutely, come learn, you just may not be able to learn the dance for the show. But you can be a part of it if you want to.’”
Interested dancers can also look into the summer camp programs that the Conservatory runs; registration for those is opening soon.
Conservatory of Dance is located at 151 Old Ridgefield Rd., and can be reached at 203.544.8455 or online.