We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kathy Dupuy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kathy below.
Alright, Kathy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I grew up loving musical theater and dance and performing as often as I had the opportunity, in high school and before. When applying for colleges, my parents thought it would be a better idea to pick a non arts-related (“more practical”) major and, if I wanted to, I could minor in something arts related. I chose to minor in theater. I would never have imagined, while majoring in Political Science, that I would one day start and run a dance studio with its own “black box” theater! After gradulating college and starting both a household staffing company, as well as an assisted living home, I returned to my arts background about 10 years ago, and started my own dance studio! 5 years ago, I acquired a second location about 30 minutes north of my first studio location. I was determined to create a unique space where adults could enjoy dance and fitness classes, while their kids chose from the many youth classes available at the same time! We now have 10 studio classrooms in our south location and 6 in our north location, with hundreds of weekly class options.
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?
After starting a household placement service (nannies/sitters/other household staff) 28 years ago, which is still successfully running (under the day to day management of my husband, Stuart), and operates in multiple cities, has been franchised, etc., we have started and sold some other businesses, including an assisted living home, some real estate investments, and then, 10 years ago, our first dance studio location. I have always loved to dance and perform and have 4 kids who have all danced and performed at one time or other, both in school and at the studio. I wanted to create a space where parents and their children could all come and find a community to join! We provide a wide spectrum of genres, to all ages 18 months and up, recrational and competitive, dance and fitness, now at 2 locations. Personally, I love to continue to stay fit through dance, and have met so many fun people and had the opportunity to compete in ballroom, with my dance partner, Mark Moy. We hold adult showcases to give our adult dancers, who still like an opportunity to “take the stage” and perform, to get to do so in our own on site black box theater. While I don’t teach classes myself, I love building teams and enjoy getting to provide the back end support (marketing, operations, staffing, etc) so that our teachers can be freed up to do what they do best and provide a top quality dance education to our students. We have created a culture that is welcoming to all and have become a “dance hub” of sorts, opening up our space to renters and creatives in our area who need a space to operate their own programs.
Is there a mission driving your creative journey?
Our mission is to provide innovative programming, for dancers of all ages and abilities, to be able to explore and excel. Our vision is to ignite and cultivate a lifelong love of dance and the performing arts. Our values are (1) striving for excellence in every area by providing consistency, integrity, and continual improvement, (2) cultivating a community where we care for each other, as if family, and the studio, as our second home, (3) promoting, practicing, and helping to provide, balance for each of our students and families, and (4) creating a personalized experience for each of our students, considering their goals, levels and abilities.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Many creatives are more right-brained than left, which is what makes them so good at what they do! My goal is to help them exercise the left part of their brains and fill in any gaps they have in organization, administration, and the non-classroom portion of their jobs that can make them an even more well-rounded contributor and valuable team player. I enjoy learning about what motivates staff members and how I can manage to this motivation and learning their long-term goals, both professional and personal, so that I can come alongside of them and help support them in seeing these goals through to fruition. I believe that leadership starts at the top and trickles down and I can’t expect from my staff what I don’t first demonstrate myself. Servant leadership, collaboration and teachability are among the top qualities I recruit to. The right people fit in easily with the culture and the wrong ones stick out like a sore thumb and there is a natural “pruning” process, as we get all the right people on the bus (and keep them here/there!)! I’m so grateful to all of my incredibly hard working and talented team members!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.balancedancestudios, www.dancespotx.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancedancestudios/, https://www.instagram.com/thedancespotx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BalanceDanceStudios, https://www.facebook.com/thedancespotx
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/balance-dance-studios/, https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-dance-spot/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/balancedancestudios, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZJQKrEybY7FlLXy7nIUBhw
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/balance-dance-studios-austin, https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-dance-spot-round-rock?osq=the+dance+spot