We were lucky to catch up with Luke and Hannah Luzicka recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Luke and Hannah, thanks for joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
Our story is unique in that we are a husband and wife team who have been involved in ballet our whole lives. When Luke Luzicka retired from dancing at Kansas City Ballet, we discussed the idea of opening our own school and working within our community. We wanted to be in the Northland and wanted to go to an area where there where no other classical ballet schools. Having grown up dancing and teaching specifically classical ballet, we both felt that using our knowledge and experience to educate the next generation of dancers was the best way for us to give back to our community. When we decided to open the school, we printed flyers and mailers and hit the pavement. We also spread the word on our social media and received wonderful support from our friends, who shared our information within their own communities, resulting in the ability to open classes just a few short months after officially creating the business. We began teaching by offering class to seven students in a rented room at a local college. From there, we connected with a women’s gym who rented us a room to use and we began to teach on a daily basis. Our business grew primarily through word of mouth. We also invested heavily in outreach to local public schools, offering free workshops and classes to expose the kids to our school. When the opportunity came up to rent a commercial space we took the plunge and decided to make a go of it. We are a DIY family! We built our own studio floors, website, ballet barres and rehabbed costumes to make ends meet in the beginning. In the early days of our business, we both worked additional jobs to allow us to put every cent made back into the studio. Ironically, we decided to make the full transition to becoming full time self-employed business owners a month before the pandemic hit. Thankfully our studio survived and we are looking forward to the future. We are now offering classes and rehearsals five days a week in addition to providing two full length ballet performance opportunities to our students. The most recent addition to our program is our full length Nutcracker!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
There are a lot of dance schools in the Kansas City area, but very few (less than five) true classical ballet schools. Ballet is an art form with a clearly defined technique, as well as a rich history spanning about four years. At our school we strive to produce educated, disciplined, and technically proficient dancers. Our hope is any dancer trained at our school would have the opportunity to continue dancing after graduation, even professionally. We recently had our first two dancers graduate after having trained with us since a young age, and both are currently dancing with Sacramento Ballet! That is not to say our school is only for those seeking pre-professional training. We provide a place for everyone to dance, no matter what their personal goals may be. Some of our students train with us simply for the pleasure of dancing and participating in beautiful productions, while others hope for a career in the profession. Above all else, we hope to instill the same joy and appreciation of ballet that we hold.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When the Pandemic hit, within one week we had to completely shift our business model in order to continue to operate. During the week of shut down, we put our entire class schedule online by recording classes and rehearsals for the students to interact with at home. When it was clear a full return to normal was not going to happen quickly, we pivoted again by learning and employing the use of zoom. We became forced experts in a new technology that allowed us to teach from home and yet maintain the personal connection with our students that is so important! In small business, owners are required to wear many hats. The pandemic has taught us just how crucial that skill is as well as the importance of meeting adversity with creativity.
How’d you meet your business partner?
We grew up dancing together at Luke’s mother’s ballet school. We both briefly left Kansas City and then returned and taught for the same school. While back in KC, we reconnected and discovered we shared more interests that just ballet. We learned quickly that we enjoyed working together and shared a common interest in teaching. The rest is history…
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