lb - Community Shoppers, Inc.

2B Walworth County Sunday
Sunday, November 30, 2008
DANCE STUDIO GETS TOES A-TAPPIN’
BUSINESS
PROFILE
Business name: Toe To Toe Ballet
School.
Owner: Colleen Huberty.
Address: 7 S. Wisconsin St., Elkhorn.
Hours: 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Monday
through Thursday.
Phone: (262) 723-1700.
Web site:
www.toetotoeballetschool.com.
Type of business: Dance studio.
When did the business open?
September 2004.
Why did you start this business? A
friend asked me to teach her daughter a
private ballet lesson to see if she enjoyed
dancing. This little girl grew into a class
of a dozen children, which ultimately
became our studio that now has more
than 150 students.
How did you get into this line of
work? I have danced since I was 4 years
old. I have been teaching ballet on and
off (mostly on) for more than 27 years.
What types of products or services
does your business offer? We offer
dance lessons. We specialize in ballet; it
is the most difficult and disciplined of all
dance forms. Many other dance forms
are derived from ballet, so with classical
instruction, it is relatively easy to transfer
the skills acquired in ballet to other
forms, such as jazz, modern, etc.
In addition to ballet, we offer jazz and
modern, as well as dance-team jazz and
children’s theater during the winter and
BIZ
WIRE
DIGEST
Merwin recognized: Becky Merwin of
The Rauland Agency recently received
the Seniors Real Estate Specialist designation
by the Seniors Real Estate
Specialist Council of the National
Association of Realtors.
She joins more than 16,000 real estate
professionals in North America who have
earned the designation. To earn the
BUSINESS
MATT DOLBEY/STAFF
Toe to Toe Ballet School owner Colleen Huberty poses with a group of her students. The
Elkhorn studio offers instruction in ballet, jazz and modern dance, as well as special
events and a ballet performance each spring.
summer months. We also work with the
Elkhorn Area High School dance team
and gymnasts from the Walworth
County Gymnastics and Dance Center.
What has been the biggest challenge
in your business? Until this
year, our biggest issue was space. We
honor, an associate must complete a
comprehensive course in understanding
the needs, considerations and goals of
real estate buyers and sellers age 55 and
older.
Merwin is chairwoman and past president
of the Lakes Area Realtors
Association’s Professional Standard
Committee. She also holds several other
real estate credentials.
Gateway to offer online ‘open house’:
Gateway Technical College is planning an
event to give prospective students a
chance to chat with instructors, as well as
research their career options and college
resources — all without leaving their
recently added additional space, and
now have a main dance room of almost
800 square feet, as well as a room specially
designed and decorated for our
youngest dancers and a newly expanded
waiting room for our parents. This
means that our biggest challenge now is
house.
GTC will host a virtual open house from
2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday at
www.gtc.edu/virtualopenhouse. The event
will give prospective students the opportunity
to learn more about some of GTC’s
programs and ask questions of instructors
and student-services professionals.
“We are accommodating our students’
and prospective students’ busy lifestyles
by giving them access to Gateway information
without having to come to one of
our campuses,” said GTC Executive Vice
President and Provost Zina Haywood.
GTC has campuses in Kenosha, Racine
and Walworth counties. For more information,
visit www.gtc.edu.
7x5 ad here
managing the growth of our business.
What aspect of the business do
you enjoy most? Getting to know the
families that frequent our studio, both
the dancers and their parents and siblings.
Passing on our knowledge and love
of the art of dance to a new generation of
dancers is wonderfully energizing — the
students always inspire us. Also, I love
putting together and choreographing the
spring ballet. It’s different every year.
We are finalizing plans for this spring,
and soon will announce which ballet we
will perform.
From what cities do your customers
come? Because we specialize in
ballet, our students come from all over.
Many come from Elkhorn, Delavan,
Lake Geneva, Williams Bay, Fontana
and Whitewater, but we also have students
from as far away as Eagle, East
Troy, Mukwonago and Burlington. For a
while, we had a student driving from
Delafield!
What are your future plans for the
business? We will host our Performance
Awards in December. We will again be
hosting a judge from the New York Citybased
American Academy of Ballet, who
will observe our students as they perform
and confer awards upon them
based on their performance. We are looking
forward to it. Our students always
do very well.
In addition, we are planning our winter
sessions and spring ballet, as well as
our visiting guest artists and New York
summer study programs. Longer-term,
we are actively hiring new staff as we
continue to expand our programs.
Curves celebrates one year: When
Eileen Gailloreto, owner of Curves in
Elkhorn, purchased the business one year
ago, her mission was to provide Elkhornarea
women with a complete aerobic and
strength-training workout in a fun, supportive
environment.
“It’s exciting to have been a part of the
Elkhorn community this past year, providing
women with weight-loss guidance and
a fun, doable program,” Gailloreto said.
“We feel our success in Elkhorn stems
from not only the strength of the Curves
brand, but our dedication to helping
women get fit.”
For more information, call Curves of
Elkhorn at (262) 723-3051.