Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Hunt.
Rachel, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve been dancing and performing since I was a child. I discovered partner dancing rather late in life, after my second child was born. My husband took me to a free swing class at a bar where he worked. It sounds cheesy, but I actually had an epiphany that teaching partner dancing was my calling. I started searching for a studio to train me. I found one, learned everything I could, and started teaching after about 6 months.
A couple of years later, my husband and I decided to move our family to Texas to be near my mother. I continued to work as a dance teacher at a well-respected studio in Fort Worth. I taught, performed and competed for several years there.
Eventually, I was asked to manage a new studio in Cleburne, I jumped at the chance at the time since my husband and children were already involved in the community theater just around the corner from the studio. After a couple of years the owner offered to sell me the business and again, I jumped at the chance. Buying the business turned out to be much tougher than I expected. The seller and I had some very serious disagreements that resulted in law suits. It wasn’t pretty.
The economic slump had also started to really affect business, just as I was struggling to recover from the other problems. It was a real baptism by fire.
It wasn’t easy, but we survived and have now been in business almost 8 years. We’re very proud of our standing in the community and our commitment to spreading the joy of dancing to as many people as possible.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Wow. So many struggles.
At first, I spent more money on training, dance shoes, and competition dresses than I made teaching. My husband said it wasn’t so much a job as it was an expensive hobby. He was right. After a couple of years, I was making more money than he was. But then I decided to be a studio owner. That turned out to be an even more expensive hobby. There was drama with other dance teachers, odd hours, and a partner who rehearsed with me for over 4 years only to quit just when we were starting to compete.
I kept trying out new dance partners, none of which lasted more than a few months. One of which became increasingly erratic until it was revealed by a local news agency that he had a record and had been involved in a number of illegal activities.
My former boss from whom I ultimately bought the business tried to insure my failure by leaving me with a lot of debt and hiring most of my best teachers away from me. That resulted in lawyers and courts. Not fun. The great recession of 2008 finally seeped into our fairly insulated community and completely changed the nature of the business. We had to alter our price structure several times to reflect the new sense of fear that was affecting even our most well to do clients.
Through it all, my husband stood by me. Supporting my choices, listening to my worries, and providing crucial financial stability. I couldn’t do it without him.
Please tell us about Dance Across Cleburne.
Here at Dance Across Cleburne, we take people who aren’t dancers and turn them into people who are. We specialize in beginners who want to dance socially, mostly adults and teens. We teach all forms of partner dancing including ballroom, country-western, Latin, swing, and salsa.
Many of our students are couples using a child’s eventual wedding as an excuse to finally learn to dance — empty nesters and retirees who finally have time to do something fun and romantic together. We also have a lot of newly single people who turn to dance as a way to meet people while discovering something new and exciting about themselves.
Wedding couples come to us to make their first dance look graceful and interesting — even if they’ve never danced before in their lives. Almost everyone is surprised at the hidden benefits of dance. Dancing is a form of gentle exercise that isn’t boring. It’s a social event, a personal challenge, a form of artistic expression, and can be very romantic. It’s addictive in a good way, without being repetitive or dangerous.
Dancing also has a very low entry bar — if you can walk you can dance. But it also has a very high ceiling for those who want to challenge themselves. At the advanced level, dancing can be extremely competitive and athletic, not to mention beautifully artistic and expressive. At any level, dancing is just plain fun.
We teach beginners through advanced students, but my passion is reaching people who don’t think of themselves as dancers. I work with the rhythmically challenged, the congenitally awkward, and those with two left feet. I love showing people who’ve been told that they have no rhythm how to listen to the music and coordinate their steps to fit what they hear. I love giving tips on how to have better balance, how to properly lead and follow your partner, and how to spin without getting dizzy.
Coming soon is a YouTube series called 30 Second Dance Lessons — bite sized videos for people who want to get on the dance floor fast.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I recently showed a teaching contract I wrote to a young person who was considering training as a dance teacher. He was surprised at some of the provisions that were in the contract. He confided that many of them seemed crazy and unnecessary to him. I had to tell him that every clause was there because of a very specific problem that I had either seen or experienced in my years in the business. There’s nothing like the school of hard knocks.
On the bright side, I learned that the business is not the building or the mirrors or even the financial records — it’s our relationship with the students and the staff. I learned that the world is filled with good people, the few bad apples notwithstanding. I learned that my vision is the engine that attracts the right kind of people, and that I’m just too stubborn to quit. I learned that I can’t do it by myself. But I also I learned that I don’t have to.
Pricing:
- Introductory Private lesson for a single or a partnered couple — only $20!
- Date Night:including our “Dancing for Dorks” beginner class and admission to our social dance party – $25 per couple
- Unlimited group class membership (up to 6 group classes per week) only $99 per person!
Contact Info:
- Address: 210 N. Main Street
- Website: www.danceacrosscleburne.com
- Phone: 817-641-3262
- Email: danceacrosscleburne@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/danceacrosscleburne
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dancecleburne
- Twitter: twitter.com/dancecleburne
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dance-across-cleburne-cleburne
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCerJtuyMwS2CdS034qciYrg
Image Credit:
Lisa Jobe, Faye Curlee, Diane Collins
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