We recently connected with Alex Pollard and have shared our conversation below.

Alex, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

At City Centre Dance we tend to do things quite differently in terms of operations compared to other dance studios and companies. Starting from the top-down, everyone involved within the company has extensive working experience as a professional dancer, choreographer, and instructor of at least a decade. Currently the oversaturated market of dance classes has resulted in instructors leading dance classes with little to no experience in the industry. We’ve been able to successfully keep a high standard of quality educators with years of credible experience across North America and it shows in our classes as well as in the growth of our students. From an industry pay-grade standpoint, we tend to pay above average given our unique pay structure, which is the result of the CEO being an artist first and business owner second. We have set the tone for how a company within the arts should be run across the continent.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started my dance journey quite late, at the age of fifteen, in comparison to those who start at a much younger age. I fell in love with the art after witnessing many friends showcasing their talents at school talent shows, and knew that it was something I wanted to do. I started teaching myself through YouTube videos at first as I wasn’t allowed to take formal dance classes at the time. I was fortunate to attend a performing arts high school in which I started out as a music major, and was given the opportunity to audition for the dance program a year later. Fast forward, I continued my training at top studios in Toronto, attended post-secondary for dance, trained abroad in New York, LA, Vancouver, and more which cultivated my now over-decade long career. I have been able to build a resume with credits including: Amazon Prime, Nike, Adidas, Bud Light, FOX, Hulu, The JUNOs, YTV, Indian International Film Awards, Bat Out of Hell, and much more.

I opened my company City Centre Dance in 2017, as I noticed a lack of accessible studios in suburban areas which would result in many needing to commute into larger cities for dance classes and training. We offer dance workshops, programs, and progressives in various styles such as Hip-Hop, Jazz-Funk, Heels, Contemporary, Reggaeton, Bollywood, and so much more from Beginner to Advanced Levels. Our company isn’t just a company, but is a community as we have built ever-lasting relationships with our students and have been named one of the most safe, inclusive, and welcoming communities in the Greater Toronto Area. We are continuing to expand in other cities across North America as we shift into broadening our services.

Have you ever had to pivot?

As we all know in 2020, the world and our lives as we knew it changed entirely. This also means a lot of small business owners – myself included – had to shift and figure things out in order to keep our doors open. I initially started my business as a dance studio, however once 2022 hit my lease was up and I was still feeling the affects that the pandemic had on my company. I made the difficult decision to let go of our physical location, but that didn’t mean we were closing down by any means. This was the moment where I shifted the business model into something more flexible, not only for myself, but for our members by offering primarily 6 and 10 Week Programs. We now run multiple programs throughout the year, both showcase and non-showcase programs in various cities across Ontario which has in-turn grown our company in a way that wasn’t imaginable. The pivot that I had to make was probably one of the best decisions that I could make as it has opened up a larger amount of possibilities for future growth and expansion.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

In terms of growing our clientele, social media marketing has been the best strategy for us! Understanding how to effectively use Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube has definitely changed how the everyday person is able to view and connect with our company in the most efficient way possible. On the other hand, the experience that our students have in class has resulted in a lot of referrals which has also been a huge factor in our growth and people can’t seem to get enough!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.citycentredance.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/citycentre_dance
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/citycentredance
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@citycentredance7328

Image Credits
First Photo: Richie Lubaton Photography 4-8 Photo Credits: ES Cheah Photography & Mel. J Chin Photography