KAILUA-KONA — This year, Kona Dance and Performing Arts’ annual season kickoff is celebrating not just a new season, but a new space as well.
The dance studio in Kealakekua has expanded from its current 1,440-square feet building and has taken over its neighbor, allowing the dance company to go from last season’s 26 youth classes to 42, as well as five new adult classes. KDPA artistic director Amanda Trusty said the expansion was essential due to the studio’s reach all over South Kona.
“Last year, my musical theatre classes were 22 kids and my intro tap classes were 19 kids. We couldn’t even offer intro contemporary classes, we could only continue from the levels prior,” Trusty said. “The goal is, every year you have this schedule of classes that the next year those kids have a place to go. Last year was already a struggle to be able to do that. We need four musical theatre classes and we combined them into two because we only had one space.
“With the expansion, we knew that in order to continue to serve the community in the way that we wanted to, which is high-quality education, individualized attention and space for movement, we had to expand. And the place next door just happened to open up and it seemed very serendipitous.”
The expansion has been a summer-long project for KDPA’s board of directors, with the help of community volunteers.
“Our board of directors volunteered every single weekend since the second weekend of June, and funded this,” Trusty said. “We got some materials donated, but a lot of this was the board donating their own funds and their own time. And a couple of key families from Kona Dance have shown up on a regular basis to help paint and lay down the floor.”
Two new instructors, Angelia Han and Katy Raczkowski, as well as former instructor Alexis Gaines, are also new additions to the KDPA team. The five new adult classes to be offered this year include tap and ballet classes as well as a class for postpartum women and their infants.
“We offered zero evening adult classes, which is a huge problem. We offered daytime, because that’s what was available, but the keiki get the primetime,” Trusty said. “Part of our mission is to serve the entire community, not just the youth community. Because happy adults make happy children, and that makes a happy community. Making the adult classes a priority was a big reason for expansion.”
From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, KDPA will host its third annual Season Kickoff at the studio on Halekii St. The free event offers dance classes, performances, music, hair and makeup tutorials, giveaways, facepainting and physical therapy screenings from Therapydia Kona. Tap, jazz, ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, breakdance and musical theatre classes will all be offered to the public.
Trusty and the studio’s other dance instructors will be at the event to assist with class registration. Class registration for KDPA is still open, although anyone in West Hawaii is welcome to attend the kickoff, even if they don’t plan on signing up for a class.
“We’ll be able to help people with registration, ordering dance wear, answering questions about that the season will look like if they’re a new family, the end of the year dance concert, etc.” Trusty said.
Also at the kickoff will be a special appearance by 25 dancers from Legacy Dance Studio in Utah, which was recently featured on the television show “World of Dance.” Their free performance will take place at 2:30 p.m. Before the kickoff, on Aug. 9, Legacy Dance Studio will be teaching masterclassess at KDPA, open to the community for $15 a person. The classes will be divided by beginners and intermediate/advanced dancers.
“I think it’s going to be amazing for the community to see, if you build it, they will come,” Trusty said. “If we had not made so many sacrifices to make Kona Dance come to fruition, Legacy Dance Studio would not be coming here.”