We recently connected with Molly Galbrecht and have shared our conversation below.

Molly, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

The mission for our Studio came out of making a necessary change to the one that had been a part of the Studio for the five years previous.

My sister and I wanted our mission to tell our potential customers who we are, what we do and how we want to teach their dancers.

We want our dancers to come away from their time at The Studio with the confidence needed to succeed in life, whatever their endeavors, dance or otherwise. Learning to be authentic and vulnerable are skills that take time to nurture and foster. Dance has been a safe space for me to learn and grow these foundational skills through movement. Choreography is such a freeing feeling to move my body in any direction and allow it to create something beautiful. This has taught myself that I have to trust in my body and I have to be vulnerable to be courageous enough to be able to move my body. This is something I teach to all my dancers that we as humans have to constantly keep trusting in ourselves to be the most authentic versions of ourselves because how we move is what make us individually beautiful.

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.

I am Molly Galbrecht, a dance instructor and artistic director of The Studio School of Dance. My sister Diane and I co-own our dance studio and I am fortunate to be able to work along side my family.

I grew up dancing at The Studio School of Dance beginning at the age of three all the way up until I graduated high school. Looking back, my mom always tells the story of how I didn’t dance the whole month of my first dance class. It is ironic how it came full circle and dance is my career. I also danced on my school dance teams, from middle school through college. During college is when I discovered that I enjoyed teaching dance. At that time, I was trying to navigate my future plans and all I knew was I wanted to pursue teaching dance. Dance had always provided me with a since of freedom and being able to teach and allow that space for others was something I wanted to give them. After college, I went back to The Studio School of Dance to begin teaching dance classes and after a short little while, one thing lead to another and my sister and I ended up purchasing the dance studio we grew up in!

The Studio School of Dance provides dance classes to children ages 2-18 in a variety of styles such as ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, leaps and turns, pointe and contemporary. Our mission at The Studio is we strive to make bold, respectful, confident and technical dancers. Whether the dancer is looking for fun, wanting to make their dance teams, be competitive or a professional dancer, The Studio is here to offer the training under educated instructors. We strive to use appropriate music, movements and costumes for our dancers for our dance recitals, showcases and competitions.

As a dance instructor, I get to teach teach leaps and turns, tap, jazz, lyrical and our performing groups as these are my preferred styles. I enjoy teaching all age level. The younger students bring such a good energy and our older students allow me to be creative in my choreography to challenge myself to create something new. As I always state in class, dance is freedom and we are allowed to create anything we imagine.

As the artistic director, I am in charge of all the creative content we create at The Studio. I am allowed the opportunity to create two shows a year full of dance, imagination and creativity. Putting a full show together with your own choreography and the choreography from your many talented instructors brings such joy as I know I get to display our dancers hard work to all their family and friends. In the end, creating a studio where our dancers grow into beautiful dancers and become a part of our family is a feeling that can’t be described in words.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I have read many books and one that really stuck with me was Jen Sincero’s “How To Be A Badass”. Her no nonsense writing style paired with brutal honesty really hits you in the gut and makes you reevaluate all your life choices from personal to business. The brutal honesty part hit me like a mac truck last year when I got so overwhelmed in running The Studio I had to reevaluate where I wanted to be in life and what I needed to get there. So, I asked my sister/business partner to help me figure it out and relieve the load. One year later and I have found a much needed sense of balance in my life.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

After buying our Studio, I wasn’t thinking of actively marketing. Five years later I was told about a marketing company we should work with. After all, they only work with dance studios. I finally took the leap and 6 months later, the promises they made and all the effort put forth to implement what was learned are helping us grow our business. There is one phrase one of the co-owners likes to say, “If you don’t like me, I’m doing my job!”. It is meant that as we grow we will have many growing pains and with those, a little dislike for the person causing them. Change may not be my forte in business decisions, except I’m learning to embrace it for the growth of my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: studiosodance.com
• Instagram: thestudioschoolofdance
• Facebook: thestudioschoolofdance

Image Credits
Dawn Conners