In The Spotlight: Raising Leaders in the Performing Arts

Robin sits down with Tamara Howe, owner of Tamara Howe School of Dance and founder of Ballet Salina in Salina, Kansas, for a conversation that covers her full path into studio ownership.

Tamara talks about growing up a self-described klutzy dancer who quit twice and came back both times, double-majoring in dance and kinesiology at the University of Wyoming, competing in the Miss America program for scholarship money, and an internship near the White House before landing in Kansas and opening her studio from two empty rooms.

She and Robin get into raising five kids inside a family business, what their sons picked up from being in the studio even when they didn't stick with dance, and how Tamara builds community through low-competition programming: one competition a year, travel experiences to places like Branson and Disney, and local trips built around professional theater.

The conversation closes on the friendships and lifelong bonds that come out of growing up in a dance studio, including Robin's own story of counting eleven EMC graduates at her son's wedding.

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Robin and Santina break down the Fall Tour, EMC's two-stop community performance series at the New Freedom Fest and the Shrewsbury Fireman’s Fall Fest.

Robin covers the logistics: rain policy and why a wet dance floor is a real safety risk, what Discovery Gym families and dance families should each expect on drop-off and pickup, and the guideline that came out of last year's chair situation, where dance families set up early and left, leaving Discovery Gym parents with nowhere to sit.

She also talks about why performing in uncontrolled outdoor conditions, heat, gravel, no stage, is worth it to the kids, and Santina adds her own take on what performing in community feels like compared to a stage show.

Robin closes out the episode handing off credit to her team, noting this is the first year she won't be at either festival and naming who's running each piece: admin, the show, the demonstration, and the crew.

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Dance Parents, purchase the Parent Playbook HERE

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Robin talks with Angela Hartley-Drube, who has run Live 2 Dance in a small Wyoming town for 20 seasons, built a multi-purpose venue during the pandemic, earned the More Than Just Great Dancing Perseverance Award, and recently won Wyoming Woman Entrepreneur of the Year.

Angela is open about living with ADD/ADHD, and she and Robin get honest about what that actually looks like day to day: no early morning routine, no five year plan, a figure it out as you go energy that turns out to be an asset in running a studio.

They talk about what it felt like for Angela to be recognized for perseverance in front of more than 300 studio owners, how she reads a room of teenagers to decide whether to keep them at the barre or pivot the lesson, and how she designed her venue, Arts and Celebrations by the Creek, with rolling bars and removable walls so the same space can host dance classes, weddings, graduation parties, and aerial classes.

Angela also shares the story of her daughter wanting to pursue Cirque du Soleil and what it took to step back and let her find her own path. The conversation wanders into a Cirque du Soleil tour of five Las Vegas venues, why wall mounted ballet barres are a mistake, and Angela's tips for scoring comped hotel rooms in Vegas.

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Robin and Santina tackle a topic that's been landing in Robin's DSO Collective Instagram DMs all season: dance parents venting about how they or their kids have been treated at their studios.

Instead of picking a side, they make the case that studio owners, teachers, and parents are on the same team, and walk through where communication tends to break down, usually when a hard car ride home turns into an 11pm email.

Robin lays out how a parent's role in advocating for their dancer should shift by age, from speaking for a preschooler entirely on their own, to sitting alongside an elementary schooler, to stepping back and coaching a middle schooler to speak up, to letting a high schooler handle it directly.

The conversation closes with Robin introducing a short guide she and her DSO Collective partners built for studio owners, paired with a companion booklet that gives parents language for the moments that catch them off guard, like a rough performance, a hard car ride home, or a disappointing audition result.

Get Your Resources:

Dance Parents, purchase the Parent Playbook HERE

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Robin sits down with fellow studio owner and friend Marty, who gave up an engineering acceptance at the University of Washington for a community college business degree and a life running the basement studio she once trained in as a kid.

Forty plus years later, she's still building on that legacy.

The conversation covers what that early pivot cost her and what it gave back, how Marty stepped back from day to day ownership without losing what made the studio hers, and how she stays visible to families even when she isn't in the building five days a week.

They dig into the teen teaching assistant debate, the pushback from dance parents, and why a seventeen year old trained in your culture can outperform a polished resume. Marty also talks about raising creative kids inside the business, her daughter now directing the competition team, her son building guitars with his dad, and why only one of her children wanted to come back to the studio.

Robin and Marty compare notes on trying to keep up with AI and marketing automation while leaning hard on human connection instead.

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Work With Robin:

Rising Leaders Training Course

Dance Mentorship & Consulting

 

Robin sits down with Santina to break down the Dream Team Training Retreat, EMC's annual four-day team event held at a rented Airbnb outside the studio.

She walks through how each day serves a different purpose: Thursday's Holiday Celebration planning meeting, led start to finish by artistic director Elisabeth Simmons.

Friday's Director's Dinner, where Robin hands out awards and rethinks what a gift-giver she wants to be.

Saturday's full training day, including a live pivot after realizing the group needed more interaction; and Sunday's Rising Leaders Brunch, restructured into breakout groups so student teachers could share their own classroom strategies.

Robin also talks about Alli's path at EMC, hired for personality over skill set and given room to grow without micromanagement, and why she collects debrief feedback every year to change the format for next time.

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What happens when a professional ballet career ends before you're ready and how do you turn that heartbreak into your greatest strength as a teacher and studio owner?

This week, Robin sits down with Jess Keller, owner and artistic director of Palm Beach Academy of Dance Arts in South Florida, for a conversation that feels less like an interview and more like coffee with a friend who just happens to have lived one of the most fascinating journeys in dance.

Jess opens up about training at the School of American Ballet, moving to Miami at 16 to attend Miami City Ballet School (yes, in an apartment, without her parents), and dancing professionally with Miami City Ballet, before being told mid-Giselle weekend that her contract wasn't being renewed. She shares what that moment felt like, how it broke her relationship with ballet for a time, and how walking away from dance and into a classroom actually set her up to become the studio leader she is today.

From elementary school teacher to math coach to ESE specialist, Jess's career in education didn't just fill the gap, it completely shaped how she sees dancers: as whole humans first. You'll hear how motherhood softened her teaching, how her professional experience drives her to build the resilience in students that she wishes someone had built in her, and what she's working toward for the next chapter of her studio.

Robin and Jess also get into the dream of studio ownership, building equity, buying land, designing your ideal space, and the unexpected gift of finding community with other studio owners who get it.

If you've ever felt like your "detour" was actually your path, this one's for you.

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This week, Miss Robin walks you through every Specialty Class EMC is offering for the upcoming season, the extras that go beyond your regular package and give your dancer more ways to grow.

From Contemporary and AcroDance to The Musical Experience, Supplemental Ballet and Pointe, Precision Tap, Leaps and Turns, and our beloved Daddy-Daughter and Adagio Partnering classes, she covers what each one is, who it's for, and when it meets.

You'll hear how we've built a clean Thursday-night pathway from 5:00 to 9:00 for technique dancers who want more, with no conflicting choices to wrestle over.

Several of these classes perform at our Holiday Celebration, Open Marley Festival, the Spring Concert, and our Fall Tour, while a few are skills-only, non-performing classes designed purely to build strength and technique.

Talk it over with your dancer, and if you have questions, email Miss Kathy at kathyjones@danceemc.com or stop by the front desk. We'll help you find the right fit.

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This is the episode Robin has been building toward for years.

For a long time, the name Tara Gladden has appeared quietly at EMC Performing Arts Studio, on scholarship awards, in essays, in the hearts of students who've wondered about the girl behind the honor. Today, we finally tell her story.

Robin is joined by her cousin Shawn Gladden, Tara's brother, for a conversation that is raw, honest, and long overdue.

Tara Allison Gladden was a shy, gentle fifteen-year-old from Columbia, Maryland: a soccer player, an animal lover, a girl just beginning to find herself through dance. In the summer of 1993, she was murdered.

But this is not a simple story about a teenage girl and a bad boyfriend. This is the story of a pedophile and sex trafficker; a calculating 26-year-old man who preyed on young girls at suburban malls, groomed Tara over months by making her feel seen and special, systematically turned her against her family, and ultimately silenced her when she found the courage to stand up to him.

Shawn walks us through all of it: who Tara was before she disappeared from herself, the agonizing three weeks the family spent searching, the media circus, the reward fund raised on a median strip in the summer heat, the moment a neighbor's cruelty cut deeper than almost anything else, and the day they found out she had been there all along… on her sixteenth birthday.

He also talks about what it cost him. What it cost his parents. What it does to a family when a chapter this devastating can never fully close.

And then, what grew from it.

The Tara Gladden Scholarship Fund began with the funds donated by Robin and her husband, Walter, was fueled by the reward money that was never paid out and has grown, with the help of the Columbia Foundation and a community that still remembers, into a living tribute that funds dance training for young women at EMC. The mission is simple and deeply personal: give girls the confidence, community, and sense of self-worth that Tara needed and didn't have when she was most vulnerable.

This episode is not easy listening. But it is essential listening, especially if you are raising a daughter, teaching one, or trying to protect one.

Donation Information 

If you'd like to honor Tara's memory and support young dancers in need, donations to the Tara Gladden Scholarship Fund are welcome.

To apply for the scholarship, applications open each November.

Website

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This week, the conversation between Robin and Santina, touches on all things understanding the Rungs of the Ladder within EMC. 

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