SAVE OUR DANCE STUDIO

Hi my name is Christa Hurrell,
I have been a teacher and a parent at Small Fry Dance Club and Principal Creative Performing Arts Dance Studio for 11 years. I fell in love with the studio back when my oldest started dancing when she was only 18 months old, so I started teaching there a couple years later. Now my daughter is 12 years old and still dancing and now my son and youngest daughter have joined her too.

I am reaching out to you not only as a Dance Teacher, but most importantly, as a Dance Mom, in fact, just as a mom. Our Studio has not only been teaching dance, just  as our slogan says, giving kids the opportunity to become “Artists and Athletes” have been our goal and while achieving so, we have given the kids in our community, a place to express themselves, to thrive, to feel safe, to spend their time after schools and on the weekends doing what they love most. Our community can’t keep losing places like our Dance Studio. The Pandemic has taken away so much from our kids; they deserve to keep dancing, keep growing and keep welcoming new friends and families into the amazing world of Small Fry and PCPA. Please help us save our Studio or as most of our dancers call it, “our second home.”

“In 2015 I was diagnosed with cancer, my oldest one was only 5 years old and my littlest one 18 months old. I don’t know what we have done without PCPA and Small Fry. They were the perfect outlet for my kids to express themselves and to escape from the tough reality at home. I will forever be grateful for the program and for the Staff and specially Jana (the Studio owner) who never let us give up and held my kids’ hands in the most difficult time.” Daniela (Dance Mom since 2012).  


"I worked for a studio in San Mateo before the pandemic. I spent 10 years at Kirkpatrick's School of Dance and the pandemic shut down our creative space and took from us the only home any of us teachers and dancers knew. I took what was left of my dance classes and continued to teach classes in front of my driveway for a year. Then a miracle in disguise came to me in the form of an email and a Facebook message. 'Hey George. It looks like we will need a hip hop teacher, and it may be as soon as June [2021]... It could be full time and would involve more than just teaching, but also office hours.' I went in for an interview and stepped into the space and remembered saying to myself 'Huh... I didn't think I'd feel this much positivity in one space since Kirkpatrick's... It feels like home.' During the interview, I stopped midway and said 'I'm sorry, but this interview is going so well, and it's been so long since I've interviewed for a teaching job.' Stephanie, one of the directors, said 'well it's easy when the interview feels like a conversation.' Not only did I accept my current position at PCPA, but both Jana and Carlos offered me space for my kids that I have taught through the pandemic. In a matter of one year, I have never had as much faith bestowed upon me by people who literally started out as strangers and became the fastest members of my family as I have become of their family. Without PCPA, I probably would not be teaching any longer." - George Folau, Head Hip Hop Teacher

Our immediate need is to pay off back rent and get us through the summer months. We want to be able to pay all our staff. By August, we hope to be back in preschools and see our small fry numbers rise. We are grateful beyond words for all the help we have received thus far. Every amount helps! All funds will go directly to Small Fry Dance Club and Principal Creative and Performing Arts.

 

"I love to dance and every class a teacher inspires me!" -Kaitlin Hurrell age 12

Small Fry Dance Club was started back in 2007 by Jana and Carlos Chapeton. At the time, the idea was to bring dance classes to preschool classrooms around the Bay Area. What started as a handful of classes and a few dozen students grew into weekend classes, our first studio in Foster City, and now our studio in San Mateo. Our growth was always slow and methodical, and we always followed what our families needed as we expanded. We have repeatedly been voted "best dance school on the peninsula" ( We won again this year!). To date, we have had over 8000 kids participate in our dance programs!

 

We have enjoyed a lot of success over the years. Before the pandemic began, we had grown to over 800 actively enrolled dancers and were teaching at 10 locations. We were on the verge of paying off all the debt we took on to build out the studio. We were in a very good position. We were also about to make some higher-level changes to staffing that would have set us up for long-term success.

 

Then came March of 2020. All our plans were put on hold. The pandemic came and hit hard........

 

Sensing that the moment was bigger than most people were predicting, we made an immediate shift to online classes. We had our full slate of classes on Zoom within 2 weeks of the initial shelter-in-place orders. What we were hoping would be temporary, continued to drag on. We quickly started to lose enrollment and new registrations ceased.

 

When we hit the summer of 2020, we had a decision to make. It was clear we were not opening anytime soon. Those 800+ families had dropped to less than 300. Especially hard hit was our Small Fry program. Zoom was just not an option for any child under the age of 5. Some families continued to pay us tuition and remained enrolled even though they never came to class. Others, perhaps sensing the situation two years ago, donated large sums of money to the program. For that, we are forever grateful!

 

At the time the pandemic began, Small Fry Dance Club accounted for over 500 of our enrolled dancers. Since then, we have not been able to get that enrollment over 100, and at times we have had less than 50 dancers in the program. Given the preschool age group is the last age group to get vaccinated, and that we are an indoor activity, it made sense that parents shied away from returning.

 

So, when the summer of 2020 began we had a decision to make. Do we call it quits, or do we continue into Fall? We knew continuing into fall meant sticking it out through at least the following June. Ending a season mid-year was not an option for us. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone involved. We needed to be sure we could finish what we started.

 

We decided it was important to keep our staff employed. Keeping our staff would be our driving force for the next year. We looked for grants, we took PPP loans, negotiated to defer rent with our landlord, and took out an SBA loan to keep us afloat. With funding secured we moved forward with the 2020-2021 season. To date, we have not had to lay any of our teachers off. We are proud that we have made it this far.

 

The 2021 season started fully virtual and saw us return to the studio in late Spring. In June, we held our first outdoor recital at the Amphitheatre at Leo J. Ryan Park in Foster City. It was an amazing feeling to see everyone back on stage. It wasn’t the same as in past years, but it was a perfect return to the stage for us.

With summer again on the horizon, we were still not back to being profitable. There was still no clear “return to normal”. Our enrollment hadn’t improved much, but it had ticked up. We again were faced with the same question – “Do we sign on for another season, or do we close our doors?”

 

We decided to be optimistic that our fall enrollment might be bigger, and we would be able to make ends meet. We hadn’t paid a full month of rent for almost 2 years. We spoke to our landlord who agreed to continue letting us pay whatever we could in rent, with the condition that we would start paying back full rent, plus the deferred portion by the end of the year. We agreed and decided to continue.

 

Our PCPA enrollment did return to almost 100% of pre-pandemic levels. The big problem, however, and one that persists to this day, is that the Small Fry program is nowhere near the levels it was pre-pandemic. This is really where we are hurting, and we are hoping this changes in the fall. We have kept in communication with the preschools, and it seems some are open to our return.

 

So, here we are for a third consecutive summer trying to decide if we can continue. We as studio owners and teachers see no other option but to stay open and continue to be a creative outlet for our dancers. Many of our dancers have been with us since they were two years old and now fourteen years old we can't imagine them not having our studio to go to. We have built a dance family that supports our community with a beautiful outlet for toddlers to teens.

 

"All the dance teachers are supportive and everyone there is like family" -Maddy Pietsch 10 years old