Toe to Toe Ballet settles into new location
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
Despite moving to a new location only 57 steps away at 57 W. Walworth St. in Elkhorn, dancers at Toe to Toe Ballet School are feeling just as home as always.
Colleen Huberty, who founded the dance school almost 10 years ago, said with good real estate prices and low lending rates the timing was perfect for the school to purchase and move into its own place.
“We knew that we wanted to stay in Elkhorn, we knew we needed a decent amount of space and everything just started to fall into place,” she said.
Huberty said they had rented their previous location from Summit Development, a partnership that had worked out very well.
With an economy that’s still struggling, Huberty said owning their own place will allow the school to keep tuition rates from rising due to rent increases.
Huberty said being in their new location will have many added benefits. Firstly, she noted the number of students who perform in Lakeland Players productions and how being in the new location will provide for quicker and safer travel between the school and the Walworth County Performing Arts Center, only a couple of doors down.
“Last year, when they did ‘Best of Broadway,’ we had probably nine dancers running between that show and our show for rehearsals,” she said.
Huberty said with some of the dancers being young, now they don’t have to worry about safely crossing Wisconsin Street.
Additionally, Huberty said though the amount of space is similar, it’s laid out a bit better considering they purchased it all at once.
“Before we had to go through the second room, through where our props and costumes were stored and then up the stairs to get to our third dance room,” she said.
“It was kind of like a maze, sort of, because we kept adding on space as we needed it,” she added, noting they started with a small space at 7 S. Wisconsin St., taking over the space where a former hair salon and Essential Yoga had previously rented.
Additionally, Huberty noted the large hallway off the waiting room, which allows a lot of space for parents to congregate and watch young children dance through one-way mirrors.
“That’s awesome, that’s really special for them,” she said. “We love for them to be able to do that and this makes it more possible for more people to see them, so it’s better for our parents too.”
She said the new building will also include a room for her teen students where they can “hangout,” do their homework and stretch before class.
Huberty said the move went incredibly smoothly. With Summit Development renting to them on a month-to-month basis towards the end, she said it allowed them to slowly move things to the new location as rooms were ready and available.
“They really worked with us to make this transition smooth,” she said.
Thus far, Huberty said from what she’s heard, people really like the new space.
“People like it, the dancers are happy,” she said, adding that they’re happy to still be downtown.
Being downtown, Huberty said it not only offers parents the ability to run for coffee, to the library or to the pharmacy, for example, but also allows for older students to walk from school.
Helping the community
Huberty said with the big move, it seemed like a good opportunity to not only increase awareness of the school, but to also help out the community in need.
Knowing there were quite a few community organizations in need and that the ballet school couldn’t afford to help them all out on its own, school personnel thought why not turn to the community. With 57 steps being the approximate distance to the new location, Huberty began to plan.
“We thought, if people in the community would be willing to donate a book to the library, we could collect 57 books for the library,” she said.
Huberty said people tend to think of the homeless shelter and food pantry around the holidays, though the sad reality is that people are still very much in need of these services year-round.
“Nobody thinks about that because we’re on summer break and we’re all enjoying our good life,” she said. “Those people who aren’t enjoying a good life still need those donations in the summer, and it’s not going to help them to wait until Christmas.”
Huberty said the school was able to collect an amazing amount to benefit local organizations like the WIC program, the Pregnancy Helpline and Matheson Memorial Library.
“We had so many books to drop off at WIC, that was amazing,” she said. “We had all kinds of diapers and things for Pregnancy Helpline. People were very generous.
“We were just thrilled with how many people and how we were able to collect items. That was really fantastic.”
Huberty said Associated Bank also pitched in, collecting mostly toilet paper and food for Chapel on the Hill, food pantry and the Open Arms Free Clinic.
About the program
Huberty said Toe to Toe Ballet School really focuses on ballet, unlike other dance programs that might touch on ballet for the dances and then transition dancers into tap and jazz dancing.
Thus, Huberty said the school encourages students to seek out other programs during the summer (like the Milwaukee Ballet summer programs).
“They can go to these sort of pre-professional programs because we’ve prepared them for that,” she said.
Huberty noted the school belongs to the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, meaning instructors can attend summer training, and most of her staff is licensed as dance teachers.
“We’re really careful of who’s teaching, because they’re kids,” she said. “I have four sons and 150 daughters. We bring them up little on to do ballet and do it well.”
Additionally, Huberty noted students in the accelerated program take a sort of mid-term, performing a solo in February, something that she says can build confidence and bonds between dancers.
“If you can do that, you can certainly give your report in class, you can stand up and give your opinion,” she said. “It makes you very sure of yourself, and not in a bad way but a good way.”
Being judged on their performance and not how they compared to other dancers, Huberty said students tend to help each other prepare for the “mid-term” performance.
New this year, Huberty said the school is now offering Confetti Line-up, a poms program headed by Elkhorn High School’s former poms coach Bonnie Hittman, who is also a judge with the Wisconsin Association of Poms/Cheer Coaches.
With the poms program in Elkhorn falling to the wayside, Huberty said they saw it as a new and exciting opportunity. The group first performed at the middle school’s March Madness fundraiser and Huberty said they’re hoping they might be able to go to other fundraisers and events throughout the county, as girls on the team come from high school’s countywide.
Huberty said they plan to hold a workshop for the girls with other area poms leaders and that Hittman would like to work towards eventually entering competitions.
For more on Toe to Toe Ballet School, visit www.toetotoeballetschool.com.
