From “Twelve Kids and a Dream” to Season X: How 716 Dance Lab Builds a Studio Around Connection

That is how Maria and Brittany describe the beginning of 716 Dance Lab. Today, the studio is entering Season X with six studios, a new home, new staff, competitive teams, adult classes, and an inclusive classroom model. But their story is not really about adding rooms or getting bigger. It is about figuring out how to grow without losing the personal connection that made the studio matter in the first place.

a note from the interviewer, Prisha:

‘12 kids and a dream’ is a story that will FOREVER be ingrained in my memory. it was so interesting hearing from maria and brittany and how open they were about the things they’ve tried, learned, and changed along the way. i genuinely never realized how much thought could go into something as simple as a dance studio lobby, especially hearing how intentional they were with all the little details in their new renovations. and honestly, “12 kids and a dream” really resonated with me because that’s basically how i started DanceVibes and built danZING too—from a dream and my own experience as a competitive dancer. whether you want to own a studio someday or already do, i’d definitely recommend this episode because there were SO many little things i took away from it. 💜

TL;DR

•Studio ownership means constantly switching between different roles, or “wearing all the hats.”

•716 Dance Lab grew from twelve students into a six-studio space designed around organization, visibility, and community.

•The studio makes competition expectations clearer by communicating early, simplifying payments, and protecting families’ time where possible.

•Dance is used to build confidence, accountability, independence, and other everyday life skills.

•Maria and Brittany believe a studio should stay true to its own vision instead of trying to copy every other studio nearby.

The unexpected reality of owning a dance studio

For Maria, the hardest part of ownership is not necessarily the choreography or the teaching. It is moving between all the different versions of herself that the studio needs.

“It’s different being a choreographer, a teacher, and a studio owner,” she says. “That was actually a big struggle of mine—wearing all the hats and everything and being able to change the way you think in each avenue of that.”

Brittany describes a similar challenge from the business side. People who want to own studios usually already understand the dance world. What they may not expect is how much of the job happens outside the classroom: administration, parent communication, daily organization, and all the small details that keep a studio moving.

There is another complication, too. A studio serves both dancers and parents, and those groups do not always need the same things. “You have kids, and then you have the parents, and you need to make both happy,” Brittany explains. Competitive families may have different expectations from recreational families. Younger competitive parents may need different support from parents who have been part of competition for years.

That is why 716 Dance Lab thinks about the experience from several directions at once. The dancers need a place that feels like theirs. Staff need the tools and space to do their jobs. Parents need clear information, a comfortable lobby, and confidence that their children are being supported.

From “twelve kids and a dream” to a six-studio home

The studio’s growth happened in stages. 716 Dance Lab first rented space from another local studio on Friday and Saturday nights. After growing into a smaller space for a year, the studio moved into the village of Lancaster, where it stayed from 2019 until the move into its current building.

The Lancaster location had a strong community feel. It was close to schools, surrounded by retail and coffee shops, and gave parents somewhere to be while their children danced. But the space also came with a practical problem: parking. In Buffalo, where snow is part of the equation, being close to the door matters when parents are bringing children to class.

The new building carried emotional meaning for many families. It was built on the site of an old skating rink where local parents had grown up. The rink had closed about fifteen years earlier, and the space sat empty until 716 Dance Lab moved in.

For families who remembered the rink, the new studio became a full-circle moment. They had grown up in that community, and now they were bringing their own children there for dance.

The new layout allowed Maria and Brittany to create the studio they had imagined instead of adapting to rooms that had been added over time. There are now six studios, including a dedicated acro room filled with mats. The youngest dancers have rooms that open toward the lobby, while older dancers have a cubby area and access to the back studios. The design gives different age groups a more natural flow through the building.

“We were able to make our perfect setup,” Brittany says.

Why the lobby matters as much as the classroom

A major part of that setup is the lobby. During COVID, many studios closed off their waiting areas. 716 Dance Lab chose to move in the opposite direction.

The lobby includes four screens for viewing classes, a screen with rotating reminders, a front desk, old recital programs, coffee and tea, snacks, merchandise, and water fountains. It is designed to make families feel comfortable staying connected to the studio instead of simply dropping off and disappearing.

Brittany has a specific standard for the space: “Disney clean.”

“When you go to Walt Disney World, you never see trash. You never smell trash.”

That may sound like a small detail, but it captures the larger philosophy behind the building. Cleanliness, organization, and hospitality are not separate from dance education. They shape how a family feels when they walk through the door.

The lobby also makes communication more visible. Parents can see classes on the screens, speak with the owners, find reminders, and feel more aware of what is happening inside the studio. For Brittany, the space is not just a waiting room. It is part of the studio’s relationship with its families.

Designing the studio around dancers, families, and staff

The new building reflects a simple question: What does each group need?

For the dancers, that meant creating a cubby room that belongs to them. The room gives them a place they can decorate, along with details such as an LED clock that signals class changes. For the staff, it meant providing their own locker and shoe areas, plus a dedicated space with reminders.

For parents and guardians, it meant an inviting lobby, refreshments, viewing screens, and information that is easy to find.

The studio also tries to solve questions before they become problems. Its website includes dates for the season well in advance, including class breaks, holiday parties, and themed weeks. Families can communicate through Facebook, email, the website, and a chat that goes directly to the studio phone.

Brittany calls her communication style “black and white.” The point is not to overwhelm people with information. It is to make the important information available early enough that families do not have to guess.

Making competition teams clearer and more sustainable

Competition dance can be exciting, but it can also become stressful when families do not understand the schedule, costs, and expectations until the season is already underway. 716 Dance Lab starts those conversations early.

Brittany begins talking with families about joining competition around January of the previous season. New families can connect with another parent in the lobby, ask questions, and become familiar with the commitment over time instead of receiving every detail at the last minute.

The studio also simplifies competition payments. Rather than asking families to track each competition fee separately, it averages the fees and divides them into three smaller payments. Costumes follow a flat-rate structure, and the studio keeps tuition and costume costs consistent between recreational and competitive participation. The main change is the competition fee, which is split rather than collected as one large payment at the beginning.

The team competes four times per season and stays local. Every other year, the studio offers nationals through an open number. Families who want that experience can join the open number, while families who do not want the added financial and time commitment do not have to feel pressured into it.

That distinction is important to the owners. Competition should be an option for families who want it, not a pathway that automatically demands every weekend, every expense, and every available hour.

The studio also keeps choreography inside regular weekday classes rather than adding weekend choreography days. In Buffalo, weekends with good weather are limited, and families value time together. Keeping choreography during the normal class schedule helps dancers avoid burnout and protects some of that family time.

What makes a dancer ready for competition?

For very young dancers, Maria looks first for enthusiasm.

“If they’re excited to learn in class and they’re super little, they’re excited, they’re hungry to learn, and they don’t tell us no.”

As dancers get older, the expectation changes. They do not need to be perfect, but they should be interested in continuing to grow. If a dancer is consistently stepping back in class, the competitive environment may not be the right fit at that point.

The difference between recreational and competitive participation is not presented as a measure of who cares more about dance. It is a difference in accountability. Competitive dancers are held more accountable for absences and for continuing to engage with their training.

That framing gives families a more useful question than “Is my child talented enough?” The better question is whether the dancer is excited to learn, ready to commit, and interested in growing.

How dance builds confidence and everyday life skills

For Maria, dance training is closely tied to confidence. She wants dancers to feel confident when they enter any classroom, not only a dance classroom. That confidence can carry into a job, a new school situation, or any unfamiliar environment.

The studio builds those skills through ordinary routines. Competitive students often serve as class assistants. They clock in, receive credit on their accounts, learn the expectations of the role, and are responsible for finding coverage if they will be absent. The process is intentionally similar to the structure of a first job.

Younger dancers practice independence through smaller responsibilities, such as keeping their cubbies organized and emptying out old snacks. These tasks may seem minor, but they teach dancers to manage their belongings, follow routines, and take responsibility for shared spaces.

The goal is not to turn every class into a lecture about life skills. It is to let those skills grow through habits: showing up, being prepared, organizing personal items, communicating when something changes, and following through.

The “yin and yang” behind the partnership

Maria and Brittany describe their partnership as “yin and yang.” They grew up in dance, but their professional strengths are different. Maria comes from an artistic background that includes the Disney backup dancer route. Brittany’s background is in finance and business.

That difference is central to how they run the studio. While Maria is focused on curriculum, choreography, and the artistic experience, Brittany may be thinking about staff coaching, parent communication, systems, and the business structure behind the day.

“We’re able to do both instead of just, like, overwhelmed on one avenue and then having to outsource that,” Brittany says.

They also share an experience outside dance: both worked in the same Greek restaurant. The restaurant taught them to pay attention to cleanliness, presentation, service, and the expectation that every customer should be acknowledged.

They brought that lesson into the studio. Every parent who comes through the door should be spoken to. In the old building, that was difficult because Brittany was tucked away and sometimes had to move through classes to reach people. The new lobby gives her room to connect with parents, grandparents, and guardians—and gives staff the ability to participate in that connection too.

For the owners, a dance studio is not only about what happens in the room. “It’s all about connection,” Brittany says. “With your lobby too, not just with the classroom and the choreography. Like, the people.”

Building an inclusive classroom through open communication

One of the parts of 716 Dance Lab’s work that the owners are most proud of is its inclusive classroom model. Dancers with multiple disabilities learn alongside other dancers, rather than automatically being separated.

The program began when a mother approached Maria after her child had been turned away from other studios. The family wanted the child to participate in typical classes at school and wanted dance to be part of that integration. Maria did not pretend to have all the answers. She proposed trying it with open communication.

Five years later, the studio has 11 children with Down syndrome in its typical classes. The owners also estimate that about 20 percent of their clientele is on the autism spectrum. Teachers have worked on ways to meet dancers’ needs while keeping them integrated with their peers.

Maria describes the results as deeply moving. Dancers help one another in ways that parents may not expect to see. Sometimes those moments bring parents to tears in the lobby.

The owners are careful to describe this as a process of learning and adaptation, not as something they mastered before beginning. None of them had a specific background in this work when the first family approached them. They started with communication, paid attention to what dancers needed, and worked with teachers to make participation possible.

They also offer an adult program, allowing the studio to serve a wide range of ages. The broader message is straightforward: the studio wants dance to be a place where more people can find belonging, movement, and community.

The dream dance studio app

When asked what software they would create if they could have a dream app, Brittany wants one system that connects everything: the website, registration, retail, dance software, and check-in.

The studio currently uses Dance Studio Pro, which they say has many dance-specific benefits. But they would like those systems to communicate more easily. Adult-class check-in, in particular, is not as simple as they would like.

Maria’s wish is more teacher-focused. She has around 20 notebooks filled with choreography, formations, lesson ideas, and fundamentals. She wants a digital home for those notes that can be accessed and shared for years.

The ideal system would allow teachers to share lesson plans, attendance lists, choreography, formations, and substitute information. Instead of rebuilding a lesson plan through a string of texts, one teacher could open the app and see what another teacher had already prepared.

That idea fits the way the owners approach the rest of the studio: make information easier to find, reduce unnecessary friction, and help people work together without reinventing the wheel.

Honest advice for anyone who wants to own a studio

Maria begins with a joke: “Be ready to be overwhelmed.” Then she gets serious.

Her main advice is to stay true to the studio’s identity. Dance studios may be everywhere, but that does not mean every studio needs to look or feel the same. A marketing researcher once helped the owners look at the local market and its demographics. Maria worried that the area was oversaturated with studios. The conclusion was that there were still many children who wanted dance; the key was finding the right place to connect with them.

“There’s a studio for every kiddo,” Brittany says. “And what works for one kiddo might not work for another.”

That means a studio should be honest about who it is. Trying to follow every competitor can make it harder for families to recognize their own best fit. Maria and Brittany try to hold onto their vision, their “why,” and their niche while remaining willing to pivot when circumstances change.

They also believe in being straightforward with prospective families. It is acceptable if a family decides that another studio is a better match. Trying to convince someone that a studio is right for them does not always work in the studio’s favor. Clear information gives families the ability to choose honestly.

And then there is the reality of the workload. Owning a studio is not just arriving at four o’clock to teach for the evening. Maria recalls having three jobs while building the studio. The owners work during the day, on nights, and on weekends. The time commitment is greater than many people expect.

Finally, they recommend learning how to separate personal feelings from the work. When you see the same children every week, it is easy to keep thinking about a difficult day or wondering why a dancer seemed upset. But if every moment follows you home, the emotional weight becomes impossible to carry.

“You kinda gotta separate your feelings a little bit and kinda leave it at the studio,” Maria says. “That’s my biggest advice.”

Entering Season X without losing the personal connection

The owners are excited about what the new building makes possible: smoother traffic, more staff, additional class capacity, dedicated lobby coverage, custom cubbies, and more independence for dancers who can move through the back part of the studio on their own.

They are also excited about the people joining the next chapter. The studio has added staff members with different backgrounds, and because 716 Dance Lab does not hire outside choreographers, those teachers will bring their own experiences and creativity into the program.

For Maria and Brittany, growth is not an excuse to become less personal. It is a reason to build better systems so the personal work can continue. They want parents to see them at the front, dancers to feel ownership of their spaces, staff to feel supported, and families to know what they are signing up for.

That may be the heart of the studio’s story. 716 Dance Lab began with twelve kids and a dream, but its next season is being built with something more specific: a clear vision of what a dance studio should feel like when organization and warmth are treated as equally important.

FAQs

What is the hardest part of owning a dance studio?

According to Maria and Brittany, one of the hardest parts is wearing all the hats. Studio owners have to move between teaching, choreography, classroom management, business administration, parent communication, staffing, marketing, and facility operations.

How does 716 Dance Lab prepare families for competition teams?

The studio begins talking with families about competition around January of the previous season. It connects newer families with experienced parents, answers questions throughout the year, communicates information on its website, and divides competition fees into three smaller payments.

How many competitions does 716 Dance Lab attend each season?

The studio competes four times per season and stays local. Every other year, it offers nationals through an open number for dancers and families who choose that additional commitment.

How does the studio help prevent competition burnout?

716 Dance Lab keeps choreography inside weekday classes instead of adding weekend choreography days. The owners also structure nationals as an optional open-number commitment rather than requiring every competitive dancer to participate.

What life skills do dancers learn at 716 Dance Lab?

Dancers practice confidence, punctuality, organization, accountability, independence, and communication. Older competitive students can work as class assistants, clock in, follow role expectations, and arrange coverage when needed.

What makes 716 Dance Lab’s classroom inclusive?

The studio integrates dancers with disabilities into typical classes through open communication and teacher collaboration. The owners say they have 11 children with Down syndrome in their typical classes and work to support dancers on the autism spectrum without automatically separating them from their peers.

What advice do the owners have for someone who wants to open a dance studio?

They recommend staying true to the studio’s vision, being straightforward with families, understanding that there is a studio for every child, and preparing for a much larger time commitment than simply teaching evening classes.