We were lucky to catch up with Karsia Slaughter recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Karsia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

When young people think about dance, many of them think of reality television. They see uncaring and overly ambitious dance teachers wanting the win, dance parents disagreeing with each other and the teacher, dancers fighting to be placed in the front of the formation, dancers half-clothed and sometimes dancing to inappropriate music and themes, and disharmony in the studio environment. This may be true at some studios, but not all of them; specifically, not mine.

Volume Performance Center in Indianapolis, Indiana is a family oriented “village” and a hub for all things dance. It does take a village to run a community and that includes our studio community as well.. We are not the “perfect’ studio, but our families view all of the children as their own. We are a competitive studio and competition companies often give our studio the SPIRIT AWARD; the studio parents fully embrace the idea that ALL of the children at the studio matter and feel it is their responsibility to nurture them all.

For example, the competition day is very long. Many of the parents and students will stay to support the other dancers, no matter the time. This is not required or mandatory. The families do this willingly. Also, many of our students play sports or perform on school dance teams. ALL of the parents attend their sporting events, plays, and performances.

If a dancer’s family is having financial trouble, all of the parents pay for the dancer who cannot afford to compete. Because to our studio, there is no other way.

So in a “me. me, me” world and dance culture, we do our best to think about “US” as a collective unit.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Karsia Slaughter and I own Volume Performance Center and Volume Dance Wear in Indianapolis, Indiana. I can’t tell you who I am without telling you about the strong women who reared me. The crazy thing is that I was probably supposed to be another statistic. My mother, Suzanne, a high school student, was 15 and half years old when she gave birth to me. We lived in a very small town, and there was very little to do. I had an absent father and my young mother worked 4 jobs to support me. I spent lots of time with my grandmother, Sheila, and my great grandmother, Sarah, who encouraged me to be artistic. When I was old enough, I took a free dance class at a community center and fell in love with movement. I would make up dances in my room all the time. One of the jobs my mother worked was at a record store; she brought home free cassette tapes so I grew up with a very diverse ear for music. This heavily influenced how I moved and created as a young person. This was just the beginning of my journey.

We could not afford formal dance classes. To give me an additional opportunity to dance, my mother moved to another part of town so I could attend a different school. In high school, I had dance 6th period for 4 years. As a high school senior, I auditioned and was chosen to be an instructor for the Universal Dance Association.

I attended college at Murray State University where I participated in the MSU Racer girl dance team and the MSU dance company. My senior year, my senior project was to create my own showcase of dance. I graduated from Murray with a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations and a minor in dance. My goals were to explore dance in California. While visiting a friend in Indianapolis, I auditioned for the arena football leagues dance team and became an Indiana Firebird Flame dancer. I remained in Indianapolis and later choreographed for the Indianapolis Colts cheerleaders. I became an “in demand” choreographer and developed a dance program in a cheerleading gym.

I later received an offer to receive a free education from Murray State so I moved back to pursue a graduate degree. While there, I started my own dance company called MOZZ. The company performed 5 different shows in 2 years. After I received my graduate degree, I moved back to Indianapolis and eventually opened my own studio in 2009.

For 16 years, my studio has accomplished things I never thought we would! We have performed at Butler Basketball halftimes, Indiana Pacer halftimes, and the Universal Soul Circus. We have been guests at the Circle City Classic pep rallies, community events, and appeared on all of our local news stations. One of the biggest accomplishments is performing on NBC’s Today Show in New York City as well as taking classes with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and the Debbie Allen Dance Company. We’ve hosted many professional choreographers in our studios well. Janet Jackson also shared our students on her Instagram page and an Indiana Senator highlighted our Today Show appearance. Many of my students have been chosen for Heat Dance Convention’s Dance Crew and the Joffrey Ballet School Intensives. In 2025, we will be featured in a docu series about African American studio owners.

As a studio owner, I have loved this experience of studio ownership and wrote a book series called “The Amazingly Awesome Adventures of Dancing Dee.”

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

No one told me that studio ownership is the “people business.” I am not really a people person; I am an introvert by nature. If someone would have told me that fact, I may have never gone into the business.

When I first opened my business, I was a terrible communicator and often just said things exactly how they were. This is an issue when you are dealing with people’s children. Telling a child that she has “no talent for dance” is not the way to keep students.

I had to “unlearn” how to be so blatantly honest with clients. I realized that the reason people want their children to dance is not always to be the very best dancer. Dance builds confidence, it’s fun, and students make friends, learning to interactive with new people. Not everyone wants to be a professional.

This was such a valuable lesson. Once I mastered it, my clientele grew by 40% the next season.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Word of mouth is powerful.
I have built a reputation in the Indianapolis community because I care about my students beyond dance class. I want to know how they are doing in school and what their goals are. I make it a habit to be the “nosy” adult in their social lives and chat with them about their experiences. People may say many things about myself and our teachers; the one thing that they definitely say to others is that we care about the students.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.volumedance.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indyvpc/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indyvpc/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@volumeperformancecenter4484

Image Credits

Most of those photos were taken by myself.
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