A dance studio with a mission
By Karen Carlo Ruhren
“Miss Maddie, I got a new toothbrush," a kindergartener announced while warming up in her beginning ballet/jazz combo class. With a smile, Miss Maddie responds and willingly learns more about her tiny dancer’s day, along with the stories of a dozen other classmates at the barre. It’s a typical afternoon at Studio Be in Dover, New Hampshire, where feeling confident to express yourself is implicit in the mission: “Be as you are.”
Maddie Stewart ’19, ’21 (MBA) and her older sister Lexie Stewart ’16 work hard on and off the dance floor to reinforce this mission and authentically promote their brand in the studio they built from scratch in 2021.
“Lexie and I wanted to create an environment where kids could come as they are,” said Maddie. Their studio serves girls and boys of all abilities, ages 3-18, from nearby towns and as far away as York, Maine. No pressure is put on dancers to compete, perform or load up on classes. The children can take one class per week and focus on other activities such as sports, or they can dance six days a week and join the studio’s performance team. The choice is theirs. Regardless, Maddie explained that the studio’s unique grade-level (not skill-level) categorization of classes allows kids to “be with kids in their age group and expand their friend group.”
From ballet to jazz, hip-hop, contemporary, musical theater and yoga – the variety and flexibility seem to be working. Enrollment has skyrocketed from 30 students when they opened, to the studio’s current roster of 110 dancers.
“We’re growing abundantly,” said Maddie, who believes this momentum is the result of staying true to their mission. “All of the dancers are comfortable and happy on stage.”
Maddie credits part of their success to their focus on having a vision, establishing a clear mission, fleshing out a comprehensive business plan and maintaining a consistent brand – not an easy feat for any young entrepreneurs, and especially challenging during the peak of the pandemic.
Lindsay Guarino, professor and chair for the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance, is not surprised by the Stewart sisters’ success.
“Maddie and Lexie were both such bright lights during their time in Salve dance,” said Guarino. “In addition to being talented dancers, they both so genuinely brought out the best in everyone around them. They exuded a contagious kind of joy. I’m so proud of them for carrying forward the values of Salve dance as they shape and inspire the next generation.”
“Salve’s program matured my relationship with dance and inspired me,” Maddie reflected. “Jazz, contemporary, personal movement style, rhythm, musicality...we try to introduce it all to [young dancers] in a digestible way while having fun, and they don’t even realize they learned it.”
Fun and function are synonymous at Studio Be. It’s important to the Stewart sisters to strike what Maddie calls a “cool balance” between being open to the kids’ needs as a friendly figure in their lives and being professional as a teacher. In line with Salve’s mission to cultivate compassionate leaders, the Stewarts take their positions seriously.
“We are role models,” Maddie acknowledged, “and I don’t take that lightly. These kids are impressionable so how we communicate with each other as teachers is how our students see us.”
The Stewarts continue to build relationships with families at the studio and are proud to know parents, grandparents and siblings by name.
“We just want to bring joy to people,” Maddie explained.