Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Aikens-Holland.
Danielle, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started dancing at the age of 3 and instantly fell in love with it! I couldn’t wait to go dancing class every week! I began piano lessons at 5 years old, and I felt the same way about those! By middle school, I knew that my dream was to open my own dance studio and teach private piano lessons.
While I loved to dance, the studio I grew up in wasn’t the most positive environment, but it was the only option in our town. My friends were constantly being told that they needed to lose 20 pounds or that they would grow up to be fat like their mothers. I saw my friends smoking, taking diet pills, and starving themselves to please and be accepted by our director.
While I never got the notorious “fat talk”, the director discouraged me every chance she got and told me that I would never make it as a dancer, and the only thing I had going for me was that I was skinny. My teachers were told to ignore me in class, so I would want to quit, but one of the teachers told me about this, encouraged me, and worked with me privately so I would continue to improve. Even though it wasn’t the best situation, my passion and love for dance never lessened.
Luckily, my parents moved me to a new studio about an hour from my home before I started high school, and I fell in love with dance even more! Everyone was supportive and wanted to see others succeeding. It didn’t matter what body type you had, everyone was given a chance based on their work ethic and ability. I knew that I had to bring something like this to my hometown, where every student is valued and made to feel special.
My first opportunity to teach came when I was in high school. Several family friends approached me about teaching their children piano and dance. Before I knew it, I had 5 dance classes and over 20 piano students. This is where my business really began. I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Shortly after I got married, my husband and I started looking for space to lease for my studio. We knew it was still a couple of years down the road, as I was still in college, but we wanted to start planning financially. We both were pretty discouraged after driving around town for the day. We found several spaces, all of which were too small and far more expensive than we anticipated.
As we were getting ready to head home, I asked my husband if we could drive downtown to our square to take a look at a dance studio there. I think he only agreed because he knew how disappointed I was from all our searching that day, but we were both in for a surprise we never would have imagined. When we pulled up, we saw that the studio had closed and there was a for rent sign in the window.
We called, found out the price, and knew we had to make it happen because a deal like that wouldn’t come along again! That was February of 2002, and in August of that same year, we officially opened as Northeast Georgia School of Ballet. We quickly outgrew that space, and a year and a half later, we moved around the corner to a larger space with more potential for growth. Since then, we have to change the name, we offer more styles of dance, along with musical theater and cheer programs, and private instruction in piano, voice, and guitar.
We are the only YPAD (Youth Protection Advocates in Dance) studio in our area, we provide direction and professional dancers for Dancing for a Cause, which raises money for local charities, we have started Darby’s Dancers program for children with disabilities and brought Gainesville its first full-length production of The Nutcracker.
The studio is my passion, and the students are like my own kids. It gives me so much joy to see them accomplish things or give back to the community by sharing their talents and gifts. At Northeast Georgia School of Music and Dance, we believe that dance is for every BODY, and we love to see each student shine and excel in their own special way!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We’ve definitely encountered some struggles along the way! The same year we opened, 3 other studios opened in our area, which we didn’t know about. We have had other studios take our social media graphics we made and use them for their studio or copy our ideas, and we’ve also experienced some cyber bullying.
It has made us stronger, and honestly, we laugh about it and just move on now, but it really upset me when it first started. Another big struggle has been my health. I spent 10 years being misdiagnosed and struggling with fatigue and lack of energy. I finally received a diagnosis in 2012, and my quality of life has improved so much since then.
I do still struggle because of some of the effects from my illnesses, and that makes it hard for me to be as productive in my business as I would like, but I’m thankful to be able to do what I love every day!
Northeast Georgia School of Music and Dance – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
As the owner, I do a little bit of everything! I am the Artistic Director, so I am over the teaching staff, all productions, and anything to do with the performance and classroom side of things. I also still teach piano, ballet, and jazznastics, which are my strongest areas.
Our studio is most known for being family oriented. We want everyone to feel like they are part of our family, and that’s really where our focus is. I’m most proud of how much our studio has developed over the past 16 years.
I started this business as a college student, and it has blessed me in ways I could never have imagined. I think our family feels and instructors set us apart from the other studios in the area, along with being a More Than Just Great Dancing studio. We also bring in instructors from around the area that are like minded and focused on the progress and development of each student.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I think the moment I am most proud of is having one of our students graduate and come back to dance and teach for us. She moved to our studio in 5th grade, and we had the opportunity to watch her grow, not only as a dancer but as a person. She is so smart and focused, and many of the younger dancers look up to her. It has been so exciting for us to transition her from student to peer.
Contact Info:
- Address: 123 Green Street Gainesville, GA 30501
- Website: www.schoolofmusicanddance.org
- Phone: 678-450-8845
- Email: info@schoolofmusicanddance.org
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/negsmd
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/NortheastGeorgiaSchoolofMusicandDance
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/negsmd
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