We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laura Alexich a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Laura , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?
In 2019 my husband Jekyns I decided to open our dance studio. We both danced professionally for years and taught all over the country. The time felt right and we knew that joining forces would be a great way to work together in something we were both passionate about. Jekyns and I searched for spaces all over Southern California for about 6 months to a year in 2019. Finally in October 2019 he came across a space in Monrovia, CA about 10-15 minutes East of Pasadena, CA. The space was beautiful, with a huge 2,000+ square foot warehouse and connected lobby. A perfect place to build out a dance studio and start our dream from the bottom up. The process of rental and build out took us about 3.5 months. We wanted to be sure and offer a space that had custom mirrors and marley floors so that we could train dancers safely and professionally in our community. Our official opening was in February 2020, we had a lovely opening party with many friends and family gathered to celebrate our new venture! The first few weeks we were just trying to navigate our new schedule and advertise to get the new business off the ground and running. 8 weeks in, the pandemic hit and we were forced to close our doors immediately leaving us with many questions and really no answers. We closed our doors for about 3 months not sure we would be able to continue and possibly file for bankruptcy due to the unknown and we were still paying rent on an essentially empty building. In the beginning we navigated the world of online dance to the maybe 5 students we had at the time. Zoom classes were not bringing in new clients, so we took the months we were closed to sit down and plan what we would like to see the studio become once the world returned back to “normal” and community based activities were permitted again. We slowly started social distance private lessons and classes in June of 2020 and were lucky enough to have a space that provided large warehouse doors to open up the space and teach classes as safely as we could manage. All we knew was how to run a business with Covid from 2020-2022. We stayed positive and innovative for our small group of dancers offering small class sizes, daily cleaning, masking for 2 years+, livestream and outdoor performances. Amongst all of this we found out we were pregnant with our first child in April 2020! What a time to be in small business and plan for your dreams. Long story short we are still standing and happy to say we are now a school of almost 130 beautiful students and still growing. We are putting on live shows in a theater 2x a year and plan to start our non-profit ballet company in 2024 so that we can continue to build boys program and scholarships for our financially challenged and promising students. We are actually grateful for the pandemic, it taught us how to stay strong and persevere in the hardest of times.
Laura , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
In the heart of Monrovia, CA SoCal Arts opened in 2020 founded by professional artists Jekyns Pelaez and Laura Alexich a married couple aspiring to bring artistic expression and mentorship to their community. Driven by their love for dance, art, and a genuine commitment to nurturing the talents of the youth, this small business/non-profit company is slowly making its splash in Southern California. The school places a strong emphasis on mentorship-based training, creating an encouraging environment that fosters growth and development in the dancers of our future. SoCal Arts offers a range of classes including ballet, pointe, contemporary, jazz, pilates, boys classes, acting, private lessons and pas de deux taught by a highly qualified faculty from all over the country. Twice a year SoCal Arts presents two large performances showcasing the progress and artistry of their students as well as bringing in professional artists to dance along side their academy. Throughout the year, the studio hosts a series of events, creating a sense of community and camaraderie among students, parents, and instructors. The events are also a way to offer more performance opportunities to their dancers to continue helping them develop their love for stage and performing. This dance studio is not merely a place for learning dance; it is a home for artistic exploration, mentorship, and the cultivation of future dancers and performers.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
We met dancing in a performance together in 2012 in Burbank CA. The show was put on by a small pick up company in LA. We rehearsed from May-August, the final performance was held at the Ford Theater in Hollywood. It was a fun partnership and we got to work on a newly choreographed pas de deux together. We both had busy lives at the time, Jekyns was traveling back and forth from San Francisco most of rehearsal period and I was teaching and dancing in a lot of commercial work in LA. It took some time for us to warm up to the idea of dating, but managed to set up a date towards the end of the gig and found a lot of common conversation and interests. It has now been over 11 years since we starting dating, 7 years married and 2 children! We’ve enjoyed traveling, performing, and growing our business together. Life is crazy and we have a had a lot of difficult obstacles, but we do have each others best interests at heart and equally want the other to succeed in everything that we do.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Jekyns and I were lucky enough to have found a great business consultant early on in 2020. Mago (our consultant) has helped us become better business owners and partners. Its helped us manage our time better and be able to separate the artistic side and the business side of the company. The consultation company helped us create a system to bring in new clientele, keep the clientele and learn how to manage our finances as a ballet school. It gives us a common place to come back to when we notice one of the pieces of the business is not working so we can fix it more strategically and continue to grow rather than become stagnant. We are grateful for Mago and all the resources, knowledge and support he’s given us to be able to succeed not only artistically as a dance studio, but professionally as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: socal-arts.com
- Instagram: @socal_arts
- Facebook: SoCal Arts
- Yelp: SOCAL ARTS
Image Credits
John Camino Michael Higgins Liv Nelson Oliver Endahl