KEALAKEUA — It could have been the end of a chapter for students of The Dancing Tree as the performing arts school looked to close its door this past spring.
KEALAKEUA — It could have been the end of a chapter for students of The Dancing Tree as the performing arts school looked to close its door this past spring.
Instead, it was just a new beginning.
When life took Dancing Tree’s founder Seatree Osage in a different direction, parents looked around South Kona and didn’t see a lot of options for the more than 80 kids learning jazz, ballet, tap dance and other forms of self-expression through movement.
Concern gave way to brainstorming for a handful of couples whose children had begun to make dance a way of life.
“This group of serious dance parents got together because they knew how important it was for their girls to continue,” said instructor Amanda Trusty, who came to the Big Island on a hiatus from a dance career in New York City three years ago and hasn’t left.
“The girls were so close, it would have broken their hearts not to continue,” Trusty said.
This week, the fruits of the planning were evident as Hakelii Street’s newest enterprise, Kona Dance and Performing Arts, held its first class — an intensive four-week immersion in theater and music improvisation, script and song writing, dance and singing, with a new theme each week and Friday performances to showcase the past week’s lesson.
It took work to get there, but serendipity played a role, too.
Right around the time Dancing Tree was getting ready to hold its last classes, parents noticed a space for rent in a metal building across the street from the Korner Pocket Bar &Grill. It was 2,000 square feet in size, with a hardwood floor and big mirrors, and dance instruction had been held there before by the KTPS community performance cooperative.
The floor was infested with termites and the place needed a scrub and a paint job. The parents and the young dancers went right to it.
Dana Mattos led the way filling termite holes with fiberglass resin and sanding the floor. Dance is a very big thing for his daughters. Other parents pitched in and brought needed fixtures.
Heather Wickersham’s daughter has been in dance for five years.
“The kids are continuing on, and that’s good,” Wickersham said. “But then it wasn’t just about our kids, but how to open this to all of the kids of South Kona at a reasonable rate.”
The newly formed nonprofit organization offers ballet, jazz, tap, musical theater, hip hop and contemporary dance, with classes for beginners and those looking to hone existing skills. Open enrollment begins in July, with ages 3 to adult welcome.
The academy will be heavy on the major dance genres, but it will also host other forms of education like Nia, a blend of dance, martial arts and healing arts, Trusty said.
“A lot of people think dance is makeup and fancy costumes,” Wickersham said. “We’ve found it builds confidence, character, perseverance. Those are the skills we want them to have as adults.”
The Dancing Tree was South Kona’s go-to dance studio over a six-year period. But Osage, who headed up the academy of both recreational dancers and those with serious ambitions, closed the doors last month as her family prepares to relocate to the mainland.
“It wasn’t an easy decision to close the studio because I’ve been building my students’ hopes and dreams and I didn’t want to take their dreams away from them,” Osage said. “So I’m really happy this new thing is happening.”
So is Katie Wickersham, who won’t have to give up her passion for tap, ballet and a unique jazz dance style named after the renowned choreographer Bob Fosse. The youngster wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up, but she gets a charge out of entertaining people and feeling that positive reaction.
“I want to stick with dance too,” she said.
Now, she can.
Info: www.konadanceandperformingarts.org