Today we’d like to introduce you to Marisa Mailhes
Hi Marisa, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My dance journey began when I was 5 years old and told my parents I wanted to take dance classes. I began dancing at the Cherrilane School of Dance in Dallas, where I trained for 13 years in various dance styles, including ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, and hip hop. My early love for performing was really sparked when I landed the role of a regular cast member on the television show Barney and Friends, where I not only danced but also explored acting and singing. This experience was pivotal, opening doors to many opportunities in the dance, acting, and modeling worlds throughout my childhood. As a teenager I began assisting my dance teacher in classes and grew to really love the teaching world and have always loved working with kids.
I went on to study dance at Texas A&M University, where I had the unique opportunity to graduate with the first-ever University Studies, Dance Concentration degree, along with minors in communications and business. My college years deepened my passion for contemporary dance and choreography, and I was fortunate to perform with both the EmSu Dance Company and professionally with the Armstrong Bergeron Dance Company. I had the opportunity to travel across the US to perform.
Teaching has always been a significant part of my journey and a passion that continued to grow over time. Over the years, I taught at various studios across Texas, eventually finding a home at Expressions Dance and Music in College Station, where I grew immensely as a dance educator and choreographer. After graduation I came back to the Dallas area and knew I wanted to work in the youth activities space, but wasn’t sure where to start. All roads led me to the Wylie area. It was obvious that this area was a growing area of young families and had a need for more variety in youth activities, specifically in dance. This led to the opening of Red Door Dance in summer of 2010.
Starting with a small group of dedicated students, Red Door Dance Academy was born. It was just me teaching, doing all the admin, cleaning the studio, marketing, selling dancewear and every other job in between. I was a one-man show to start, but Red Door has grown tremendously over the years. My vision was to create a space where children of all ages and abilities could be inspired to move, dance, and express their creativity. Today, Red Door continues to thrive, fulfilling its mission to bring professional, high-quality dance education to the North Texas area.
Red Door is now in its 15th season of inspiring young dancers and serving the community!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I have been very blessed with a wonderful support system including my family, specifically my husband and my parents, my friends, and many mentors. While, I know we have a had a wonderful road to get here, it is not without some bumps and difficulties along the way.
The biggest struggles have been
– knowing when to expand and when to sit still. I am not one who likes to sit still, but expansion can be expensive (and stressful). We have been able to build our own building (although we have now grown out of that as well) in order to offer more class options to the community, but expanding comes with a lot of financial stress, time stress and decision fatigue.
– The pandemic- this was quite a stressful time for everyone I know, but specifically for someone in the services industry. Our whole business model requires groups of people to gather together. Because I had the most supportive and dedicated team at the time of the pandemic, we were able to completely flip our business model on its head within a week and make it through.
– Being somewhat in the public “eye”. We know we are dealing with people’s most valueable things- their children, their time and their money, so I understand that a lot is at stake when you trust a company to teach your child anything. This can come with some criticism. Learning the lesson- “you can’t please everyone” is hard for a people pleaser.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
In the most simpliest terms: Red Door Dance offers dance instruction to children, but we really do SO much more than that. We teach dance to recereational dancers as well as competitive dancers for those who want more intense training as well as offer dance to dancers with disabilities. We truly think everybody deserves to benefit from dance.
Here is a punblication I wrote for our website that explains what sets us apart and why I am so proud of all the work we do at Red Door.
A quick google search for dance studios will populate many options for families to choose from. A google search for kids activities will pull up an even larger list of options to choose from, but Red Door Dance is not like the other places on those lists. There is something special about Red Door and you can feel it when you walk in, you can feel it in your first class, you can feel it in your 200th class.
The most important thing to us is building up the whole child. Yes, we are a dance studio and yes our staff is highly trained in each of their expertises. Our dancers will get a wonderful dance education through our programs, but that is only the start of what you get when you walk through our doors.Our students are not just dancers to us, they are people. Being a More Than Just Great Dancing studio, we live by the words “we don’t teach kids to be great dancers. We teach dance to make great kids” spoken by Misty Lown. Red Door takes each student’s unique journey as an opportunity to teach life long skills, create cherished memories and provide valuable experiences.
The teachers and staff at Red Door are dedicated to our mission to inspire children to move and be creative and through dance, teach them valuable life lessons, build confidence and create successful humans.
When asking our staff and students “What is one word you think of when you think of Red Door” here are some of the answers I got:
Home
Family
Freedom
Stability
Friends
Confidence
Comfort
This list is evidence of our mission coming to life. Our reason for existing. Our reason for wanting to spread our love of dance to as many kids as we can. It is our great hope as an organization, as a business, as a community, we can reach more students who can learn the lessons we have to teach, create the memories and have the experiences.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I don’t believe luck plays much into it at all. I do think everyone is dealt a differnt hand and some have more difficulties to overcome than others. I will say that I know I am incredibly blessed to have my health, to have people around me who support me (I could never run a business and be a mother and wife without many many other people’s help) and to have been able to turn my dream and passion into a successful career. I believe we all have to play with the hand we are dealt and everyone has the opportunity to make something of themselves. Everyone has the opportunity to create the life you want. Many times compromises or sacrifices (so many sacrifces!) are made to make this happen.
Pricing:
- $96/month for a 1 hour a week dance class
- Darby’s Dancers program, which is dance class for those with mental or physical disabilities is free of charge
- Monthly tuition goes up based on how much the dancer is dancing per week
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.DanceRedDoor.com
- Instagram: @reddoordance
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rddawylie
Image Credits
Megan McCluskey
Marcie Parker, Gallery Moments Photography
