Beyond the 8 Count: What Running a Dance Studio Really Takes

TL;DR

•The biggest misconception about studio ownership is that you will spend your days dancing and teaching. The business work is just as real.

•Studio owners carry the studio home with them, but they also build unusually close, family-like relationships with their students.

•The business side does not have to compete with artistry; it can protect it by keeping teachers paid, doors open, and the studio sustainable.

•Burnout, teacher pay, continuing education, competition transparency, and competition etiquette deserve more honest discussion in dance.

•The best long-term advice is to keep learning, define how you want your studio to operate, and accept that you cannot make everyone happy.

a note from the interviewer, Prisha:

the realness of owning a dance studio is actually kind of crazy, and i loved that paige and brianne were so open about it. :)

this episode is definitely for anyone who’s curious about what’s actually happening in the dance studio space right now, especially from the perspective of people who are running one.

we also talked a lot about maintaining a positive culture and environment at your studio, which is obviously SO important.

whether you’re a studio owner or just curious about what goes on behind the scenes, i think there’s a lot to take away from this conversation. 💜

From a Dance-Studio Family to Studio Ownership

For these two studio owners (Paige and Brianne), dance was never just an after-school activity or a hobby they discovered on their own. They grew up with a mother who was both a dance-studio owner and a teacher. After 34 years, their mom retired, and both of them had already been teaching.

One moved north in Utah and found that she could not stay away from studio life. She started her own studio, even though she did not know anyone in the area. Ten years later, she was ready to be done.

Meanwhile, the other had already started Dance Nation, a competition in Utah. She had been running it for about two seasons when she found out that her family member was considering selling the studio. She was not even supposed to be in the meeting where it came up. She walked in and said, “You’re not selling.”

That moment became the first time she seriously considered becoming a studio owner herself.

It is a funny beginning, but it also captures something central to their story: studio ownership was not an abstract business idea. It was part of the family, part of their work, and part of the way they understood dance.

The Biggest Misconception About Owning a Dance Studio

If you love dance, teaching, and choreography, it is easy to assume studio ownership will give you more of all three. That is what makes the reality such a surprise.

“The biggest misconception to me is that they think we’re gonna be dancing all day and just teaching dance,” one owner says. Since people enter the industry because they love dance, it makes sense that they expect the creative part to dominate their schedule.

Then comes the blunt correction: “Which is the biggest lie.”

The creative work is still there, but it sits beside the business work. There are teachers to pay, buildings to maintain, parents to communicate with, registrations to manage, policies to uphold, and countless details that do not show up in a choreography notebook. Loving teaching and choreography can be the reason someone starts a studio, but it does not automatically prepare them to run one.

That gap between artistic confidence and business knowledge is one of the most important realities for an aspiring studio owner to understand early.

The Everyday Chaos Studio Owners Learn to Live With

The first relatable truth is that studio-owner mode does not always switch off at the end of the workday.

One owner describes going home to a husband and three kids while still carrying costumes, choreography, and other studio details in her head. There is always something waiting in the background. Even when she is physically home, part of her attention is still at the studio.

The second truth is communication fatigue. Studio owners can send an email, a text message, and a post at the studio—and still end up rereading the same information to someone face-to-face because the answer was already in the email.

It is not necessarily that the information was unclear. Sometimes people simply need to hear it directly. But the repetition adds up, especially when the same questions are answered again and again.

The third truth is more tender: you learn to love the students deeply. The owners say they did not realize how strong those relationships would become, from dancers as young as two through dancers who are 18. The role can start as teaching, but it often grows into something that feels much closer to family.

That is part of what makes studio ownership exhausting—and part of what makes it meaningful.

Why Dance Studios Become Families

Dance is a community, and a studio can become its own small family. Students may only be there for a few years, but the relationships can feel much larger than that timeframe suggests.

The family feeling becomes especially visible at competitions, where dancers, teachers, and parents spend long stretches together. The studio is not only a place where technique is taught. It is also where people learn how to show up for one another, navigate pressure, celebrate someone else’s performance, and be part of something bigger than an individual routine.

That community is one of the strongest reasons people stay connected to dance, even as their roles change from student to teacher, parent, director, or competition professional.

Hiring Dance Teachers: Red Flags That Stop the Process

When reviewing applications and interviews, the owners are looking for honesty, consistency, and a willingness to keep learning.

One red flag is a reference list that does not match the applicant’s claimed experience. If someone lists a previous studio as a place they worked but does not include anyone from that studio as a reference, it naturally raises questions: “Why are you listing them as experience and not as a reference?”

Another red flag is taking credit for work that was not yours. The owners describe a situation where an applicant claimed a choreography award. When asked for the video, the applicant appeared in the performance—but the choreography was not hers.

That kind of claim is more than a small résumé mistake. In a field built on creative ownership and trust, it can immediately undermine confidence.

At the same time, the owners are not expecting every teacher to already be trained in every style. A teacher may not be fully educated in hip-hop, for example, and that alone is not an automatic rejection. What matters is whether the teacher is willing to learn.

The standard is not “already knows everything.” It is a genuine openness to growth—and an honest presentation of what the teacher has actually done.

Business Is Not the Enemy of Artistry

The conversation’s clearest philosophy is also its most memorable line: “The business is not keeping the artistry away, it’s protecting the artistry.”

It can feel uncomfortable to talk about money, costs, profit, payroll, or building maintenance in a creative environment. But a studio that cannot pay its teachers, keep its doors open, or maintain its space cannot sustain the art for very long.

A great idea and beautiful choreography are not enough by themselves. If the business cannot support the people and infrastructure that make the work possible, the creative side eventually pays the price.

For a studio owner who wants the business to last 10, 20, or 30 years, learning the business side is not a betrayal of dance. It is part of taking responsibility for dance’s future in that studio.

How Beyond the 8 Count Began

The owners had talked about starting a podcast for years. The idea became more urgent after they were approached by a large networking company about a television project at their studio. The timing was not right, but the people involved said something that stayed with them: “You guys have a huge story. You need to tell it somewhere.”

The podcast also grew naturally out of their family life. They have Sunday family dinners with siblings who live nearby, and conversations about the studio, the competition, students, and choreography were already happening around the table.

In that sense, Beyond the 8 Count is an extension of conversations they were having anyway—only now the discussion reaches beyond the family dinner.

They also wanted more transparency. They had heard behind-the-scenes conversations that surprised them once they began putting the pieces together. Their response was that more of those conversations should be brought into the open for the wider dance community.

The podcast is not presented as a distant industry lecture. It feels closer to people comparing notes after a long day in the studio: candid, opinionated, curious, and willing to discuss the parts of dance that are usually left backstage.

Turning Real Studio Experiences Into Content

The owners do not treat content creation as a requirement to invent a completely new idea every day. Much of what they post comes from experiences they have already had while teaching.

Their process is practical. They usually set aside a day to film a large amount of content, including TikToks and podcast material. They may talk for four hours while recording podcasts, then use the material from that day throughout the week.

Interestingly, some of the content that performs best is not the most carefully planned. It is often the idea they throw together at the last second: “Hey, let’s just do this.”

That approach works because the source material is real. Their posts about toddlers and preschool dancers, for example, come from things they have actually experienced in the classroom. A studio owner does not always need to search for a trend or manufacture a lesson. The daily work is already full of stories, patterns, funny moments, and useful observations.

A difficult class moment can become a carousel. A recurring parent question can become a short video. A teaching experience can become a conversation. The content is already there; the creative task is recognizing it and shaping it for the audience.

The Conversations the Dance Community Needs to Have

Burnout Is Bigger Than the Student Experience

Burnout is not limited to dancers. It affects students, teachers, studio directors, and parents. The toll can be mental and physical, and it can spread through the whole studio ecosystem.

That matters because dance conversations often focus on whether the student is tired, motivated, or struggling. Those are important questions, but they are not the only ones. The adult who is teaching five classes, managing a studio, answering messages at night, or coordinating competition logistics may also be operating on empty.

If the people supporting dancers are burned out, the entire community feels it. That is why burnout deserves to be discussed as a shared industry issue rather than a personal failure.

Teacher Pay and the Value of Education

Teacher pay is another topic they want handled more openly. They acknowledge that the economy is difficult and that not everyone is thriving, but they also believe compensation and the value of education need to remain part of the conversation.

Education, in their view, is not limited to earning a college degree in dance. It can mean serving as a teaching assistant, putting yourself in situations where you can learn, and continuing to build knowledge beyond what you already know.

The core idea is simple: a teacher should remain a student too. Continued learning matters artistically, technically, and professionally.

Competition Transparency

As competition operators, the owners are especially direct about transparency. They say they have never adjusted scores so that certain people win, and they were surprised by how common they learned that practice was in other parts of the industry.

They reject the justification that it is acceptable because “it’s a business.” In their view, it is unethical. Studios and families can spend thousands of dollars participating, and the results should mean what they appear to mean.

Their concern is not only about who receives an award. It is about trust. If competitors cannot trust the judging process, the entire experience becomes harder to defend. They would like to see a more transparent approach across competitions.

What Running a Dance Competition Really Requires

Running a competition involves more than placing dancers on a schedule and handing out awards. The owners say they have learned a lot over the last few years and are getting better each year.

One responsibility people may not consider is protecting judges from the constant pressure surrounding scores. Judges are becoming exhausted by situations where adults respond to critique by insisting the judges are wrong or that every score is wrong. The owners say some judges no longer want to work because of that environment.

Their position is straightforward: if a dancer is paying to be critiqued onstage, the critique should be accepted as it is given, not reinterpreted into something it did not say.

That does not mean every score or comment must be treated as unquestionable. It means critique should be received professionally, and adults should model that response for dancers.

Teaching Dancers to Win Well, Lose Well, and Keep Perspective

The owners believe competitive-dance culture changes when teachers stop making winning or losing the main measurement of success.

A better question is: How is the dancer progressing from one competition to the next? If a dancer had an issue at the last competition and fixed it this time, that is a meaningful success—even if the score does not move in the expected direction.

Progress gives dancers more than a black-and-white result. It gives them something they can work toward and control.

That mindset also starts before the competition. The owners prepare students with clear expectations:

•Do not talk negatively about other dances.

•Do not treat dancers from other studios negatively.

•If someone says something rude, do not give it your attention.

•Cheer for everyone, whether you win or not.

•Bring a good attitude.

When students hear those expectations before they enter the competition, the atmosphere changes. They know that cheering for other dancers is part of how their studio behaves. Competition becomes less about defending a ranking and more about participating in a community with standards.

The owners say they can often tell how a studio will behave at a competition simply by communicating with its director. The culture begins at the top and travels down to the students.

The Dream All-in-One Studio Management App

The ideal studio-management system, in their view, would replace the patchwork of tools many owners use now. They describe juggling five, six, or seven different systems for payroll, registration, communication, and other tasks.

Their dream would be one connected app that could handle those functions in a single place. It could also support teacher development—for example, sharing a certificate or a video showing how a particular concept should be taught—and make it easier to communicate with teachers, parents, and students.

The goal is not technology for its own sake. It is less fragmentation, less repeated information, and fewer opportunities for important details to get lost across separate systems.

Advice for Studio Owners: Keep Learning and Stop Chasing Universal Approval

The owners end with advice that is both practical and difficult to follow.

First: always keep learning. Whether someone has been teaching for one year or more than 20 years, the dance world changes. Studio owners should keep educating themselves about what is emerging in business, artistry, and teaching.

Second: accept that you cannot make everyone happy.

“It’s impossible,” one owner says. The sooner a studio owner understands that, the sooner they can make clear decisions about policies, priorities, and the kind of studio they want to build.

Once those decisions are made, the advice is to stick with them rather than constantly breaking away from them to satisfy every individual reaction. That does not mean a studio can never change. In fact, they make the opposite point: it is never too late to change what is happening in your studio.

The combination is important. Have a direction, hold your boundaries, keep learning, and stay open to making a better decision when you gain new information.

FAQs

What is the biggest misconception about running a dance studio?

The biggest misconception is that studio owners spend most of their time dancing and teaching. The owners explain that business responsibilities—payroll, communication, costs, teachers, buildings, and administration—take up a major part of the work.

How can dance-studio owners balance artistry and business?

They recommend seeing business as a way to protect artistry. A studio needs enough financial and operational stability to pay teachers, maintain its building, and keep its doors open so the creative work can continue.

What are red flags when hiring a dance teacher?

The owners mention inconsistent references, claiming experience without credible references, and taking credit for choreography or awards that belong to someone else. They also value honesty and willingness to learn, even when an applicant is not trained in every style.

What should dancers be taught about competition etiquette?

Dancers should be taught not to speak negatively about other dances or dancers, not to engage with rude comments, to cheer for everyone, and to maintain a good attitude regardless of the result.

How can teachers help dancers focus less on winning and losing?

Teachers can emphasize progression from one competition to the next. Instead of treating a win or loss as the only evidence of success, they can identify what improved, what was fixed, and what the dancer is working toward.