We recently connected with Elya Coleman and have shared our conversation below.

Elya , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I love this question and I love my story! Our Mission at A Time to Dance is to use dance as a tool to help make an impact and a difference in the lives of the youth in our community. We believe that dance lessons teach life lessons!

My story starts about 31 years ago when I was 6 years old and took my first step into a small, one room dance studio in Hickory Creek, Texas. The room is famously called “the pink room”. There I met my first dance teacher and also the owner of that studio , Miss Pam. The most important thing I learned that day was “I am fearfully and wonderfully made!” From then on, every dance class I walked into I was reminded of my worth, my value and my purpose. I began to believe those things and it shaped my childhood into my adulthood.

To be honest I never had much raw talent as a dancer but I loved to work hard and I had passion. I was never the best dancer in the room but I was in love with dance because of I believed I was created to worship through dance, when I danced and still dance today is when I feel closest to God and that is one of the most important parts of my story!

I still walk into the pink dance room everyday because I am now the owner of that dance studio, but we have grown to four dance rooms, many dance teachers and many students. I love teaching dance and leading a team of passionate teachers whose first mission is to make a difference in the lives of our students. Our dancers learn that they can express themselves through their whole bodies, and that they they have their own stories to tell, they have their own messages to communicate through movement.

So long story, short: I hope that our dancers will have the same kind of experience that I had growing up at A Time to Dance. To walk in our doors and know that they have purpose, they belong, they are loved, and that they are wonderfully and fearfully made by God!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Elya Coleman and I own a Dance studio in Hickory Creek , Texas! We believe that dance is about so much more than just dance! Our motto from year one at the studio (which was 35 years ago) is “the dancer is more important than the dance” this is the word that the original founder gave to the studio that first year and we have always made it a vital part of our culture. When I bought A Time to Dance studio 9 years ago I had no idea what I was getting myself into, I knew I loved dance, but did I love owning a business? I have learned and grown so much from other studio owners, mentor, students and families at the studio that now I thrive on feedback and constructive criticism! I had to develop a thick skin to not take feedback personally (and that did take time) , but now when I receive feedback the first thing I do is say “thankyou!” It truly means so much to
me that others would be willing to share their concerns, ideas and thoughts with me, not because they want to hurt me but because they want what’s best for A Time To Dance Studio.

We teach dance because we want to provide a safe, loving and uplifting place for kids to be who they were created to be and grow in their character and confidence. We take our services very seriously because we are given an incredible opportunity to build up the next generation and remind them that they are full of purpose, worth and value!

On of the things I am most proud of at our studio is that we really live out what we believe, we have a set of “culture values” that are a big deal at the studio, our truly staff strives to live by them everyday.

Any advice for managing a team?

This is a great question!

1. Clear communications and expectations.

I have found that clarity, transparency and honesty truly builds a strong team. We do a lot of training, feedback and check-ins throughout each season. We begin the year off with a staff retreat where we clearly set forth our expectations . We also talk a lot about laying down a spirit of offense. We ask that if our employees start to feel “offended” by feedback that they take a moment to check in with that feeling and then communicate how they are feeling with our leadership so that we can get through any miscommunications or confusion that may have caused that feeling of offense. Employees and leadership roles are able to connect and communicate without fear or assumption and that makes the workplace so much more
Enjoyable!

2. Set boundaries and be a great example for your employees so that they have to have a healthy work-life balance . We make sure that all work communication is only done over our communication software. We try and leave work at work and make sure to respect each others home life and not expect them to work during their time off time. When I first bought the studio I had an extremely unhealthy balance of work and home life, I learned quickly that my body, mind and heart could not handle that. I wanted to enjoy what I was doing and be able to go home and enjoy my kids and family so I had to adjust and prioritize boundaries for myself and my employees. Now we all come to work ready and energized to deal with the issues and decisions of the day.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

This won’t be too surprising but Covid was a huge “pivot” for us.
In a matter of 1 week we had to completely rearrange and shift our business to a completely new business model or the other option was to close down and leave hundreds of kids without the outlet of dance during a shut down.

It was spring break when everything shut down and I remember being at the beach with my family, calling my staff and letting them know we would have a zoom meeting in 2 days to discuss how we would move forward. We decided that we would continue serving our community and shift to online dance class for the remainder of the shut down (which lasted until recital! )

I had to purchase new equipment , make policies, expectations , new programs for my staff , we did zoom teacher training on how to effectively teach dance over zoom and lots of tech support and training through the entire process!

We created a home base website with weekly activities and challenges for the students as well as updates and news to be shared.

We created fun zoom
Events and extras to keep our families engaged. We only lost about 30 families that season, every single other family stuck with us the entire year. I was able
To continue to pay my staff throughout the entire shut down because instead of giving up, we “pivoted”!

We ended up have an end of year recital where each class came 1 at a time to a stage and actually performed their dance that they had learned (OVER ZOOM) and danced together for the first time in front of an audience!

This pivot was an extreme challenge and honestly I wanted to shut down because it would have been much less work and a lot less of a risk but this pivot to a new way of teaching dance made such a great impact on our families and students that I am beyond grateful we took the risk and went all in when things looked unsure.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www. Attds.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atimetodancestudio?igsh=MXd0dXFrMXZjamJmOQ==