In mid-April, brand new Rapture Dance Company in Cold Spring welcomed family, friends, and everyone interested in dance classes to an open house.
First impression: the lobby smelled like fresh paint. So did the hallways and the warm and inviting hang-out room for young dancers.
The two dance studios didn’t smell like fresh paint. They smelled like the new marley floors (durable vinyl) which had just been laid.
Rapture Dance is the brain child – and baby – of CEO and artistic director Lauren Crawford, 22. She graduated from Northern Kentucky University in December 2015 with a degree in dance and a minor in entrepreneurship.
She clearly learned her lessons well (among them, spending time as an education major before ultimately switching to dance).
Crawford has been dreaming about opening her own dance studio since she was 12 when, “I started making mental notes and written notes.” Ten years later, the dream is a reality.
The goal was to “find a space the company could grow into” and Crawford bought Rapture’s home in October 2015 – a large brick bungalow-style building with ample parking on Alexandria Pike about a mile from the NKU entrance drive and just a couple of blocks from her home.
Renovation was underway by December. Crawford scraped off the wallpaper herself. She looks around her big office – which she sees as a future small studio as the company grows.
NKU has been invaluable. The entrepreneurship program “was really helpful, it helped create my business plan” and dance students are getting the opportunity to act as instructors in courses including acrobatics.
“I’m blessed beyond belief,” Crawford says.
At the open house, mom Melodie (who will be at the reception desk) and dad Jim were greeting visitors. Half a dozen young dancers, all members of the Rapture competitive dance team, were ready to lead tours.
Crawford showed off the studios, where the spring session (April 18-May 14) is underway in a sort of trial run. Crawford welcomes all dance students, age two to senior citizen. She also welcomes anyone interested in dropping in, looking around, trying a class.
Anyone who takes Crawford up on her invitation will be impressed. There’s the expected wall of mirrors, but windows bring in natural light, there are those new floors and built-in speakers.
She points out the one-way glass windows into the main studio. “It’s important to me that parents can see the instructors who are mostly from NKU and Ryle High School.”
The windows are set low enough so that even the tiniest dancers can watch and “don’t have to be held up by mom.”
The break room, Crawford says, was designed from her own experiences as a dance kid. There’s a table for doing homework or catching a bite (there’s a fridge and microwave) between classes and a fireplace to help make it feel like “a second home” and the dancers “like a second family.” The bookcases are filled with positive affirmations: “I don’t sweat, I sparkle.”
Her plan for dance competition teams is already underway, although Crawford says she’s taking her time. The senior company (ages 14-18) will compete in Mason in mid-May in solo and duet categories. Crawford began teaching when she was in high school and some students have been with her for eight years.
Middle school dance team prep (ages 9-13) begins during the summer session and she’ll be adding a “petite” team in the future.
She laughs that she was a late starter. She took her first dance class at 3 but dropped out. “I was the cry-er in the class.” She gave it another try at age 5 and stayed.
By summer session (June 6-Aug. 6), the studios that will host dozens of class choices from ballet to improv to jazz cardio to hip hop. There are also yoga and choreography sessions and parent and child classes. Registration is now open.
Instructors come from NKU, College-Conservatory of Music at University of Cincinnati, and area high schools including Ryle, Highlands, and Notre Dame Academy.
Crawford’s best advice to would-be dancers. “There’s a lot of hard work to learn the technique but the most important thing is passion and heat.”
Why name her school and studio Rapture? Just look at the mission statement: “Working to instill a feeling of intense joy and bliss with empowerment through entertainment, education, and technique.”
Rapture Dance Company, 4016 Alexandria Pike, Cold Spring. Summer session registration is now open. For class information and registration visit www.rapturedancecompany.com or call 859-609-7934. Find Rapture Dance Company on Facebook.