The Truth About Competitive Dance No One Talks About | Adrenaline Dance Studio

Today we have a good nice special episode. We actually uh I I can't really say we're friends friends, but we're acquainted. I've known you for a long time, you know. We've hung out a couple times, you know, back in the day.

But a lot has happened since then. Uh including the growth of Adalina Dance Studios.

Oh, Lord. You know, um and you started it very young. So

I did. I did. I did.

For those people who don't know who you are, Alex, explain to them a little about yourself and what you've done in the community.

Wow. It's a that's a really big question. Um okay. So, I'm I'm Alex Anthony. Um, I've been teaching dance. I'm 37 now. So, let's backtrack this. I think I started teaching when I was 15. Um, became an assistant, worked my way up, started teaching competitively. Um, I've done backup dancing uh choreography for Pitull, one of Pitull's artists. I've uh choreographed for the Latin Billboards. Um, yeah, and it's been a crazy experience, but uh I I love what I do. I'm 13 years in the making now. Like doing my own studio and that's it.

Are you still like active in the studio? Like you go every day or you're just like one of those bosses that you just

Absolutely not. Who? Hello. No, there's no way. Ask Ask Camila here.

And we're joined by Camila, a longtime confidant that decided to get

a dentist procedure this morning [laughter] right before a podcast. So

So present yourself, please.

Hello. [laughter] My name is Camila. I'm fully back to normal, I think. I don't think I can do a duck face yet, though.

No. Oh, there you go. Did you just get lip fillers?

No.

No.

No. I got I got like like

the lip filler. Yeah.

Oh, she got some cavities.

She got them.

There's nothing.

I got to go back. I drink so much coffee. My teeth are turning yellow.

Me, too. My mom feeds me coffee like at the studio every day. I'm like

super tired.

That's how we keep it going.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, wait. Your mom works at the studio.

Oh, yeah. That was like This is a [laughter] whole

Okay. So, this is a family. It's a family business. explain a little bit about yourself and how you got uh started with Alex.

Okay. Well, I'm 19 years old. Um I started dancing there when I was nine. I started at with recreational and then I think I was there for like seven months and one of the teachers told me like, "Oh, you're ready for the comp.

You're decent. You're decent. Come on. Come on down."

And then I went into this room with big dog over here.

Big dog is crazy.

And she told me to do a couple things. It was pretty easy. And then I was on the team. I started on the intermediate team for a year. And then I was on the advanced team for seven years, eight years. And then she would consistently place top three or if not win at every competition since then. She's talking down. But she's she's good. She's a really good dancer actually.

Oh wow.

And now she works for me and it's great. And now she's choreographing with me and we're doing big girl things.

Is she a good boss?

O. Yeah.

Like are you fun? Is it fun to go to work?

Oh no. Yeah.

Okay. Good. I wouldn't put a lot of pressure.

I was going to ask you,

I mean, this is probably put you on the spot a little bit, but you get kids coming in,

the girls [clears throat] are dancing, you know, are they auditioning

for certain teams or how do you structure that? Of course.

Of course.

Like, do you feel bad like when you had to cut them? Like I couldn't I wouldn't be able to do that. How is that process of cutting them?

O my gosh. So, I we look for technique. That's like a really big thing. So if they're not pointing their toes immediately, I'm like, we got to we got to step it down a second and like let's re-evaluate the situation. So technique is a really big deal. Um, and then from there, if you've had previous experience, we kind of train you to get to the top and that's what we do. We build from the ground up.

But do you have those situations where you say, "Hey, listen. You're not going to make it. You got to work on this." And then the parent comes to you. That's terrible.

What the hell's happening with my daughter? Like

it's it's pretty.

Do you get that type of parent in there?

Yeah. And that's where I call JC and I'm like, "Hey, JC, you got to do something. [laughter] I need a big favor." Um, yeah. And and sometimes the language barrier for me, I try my best to speak Spanish and I'm not the best at it. So, it's that's

terrible. But, um, yeah, it sucks, but I I tell them that there's ways to, you know, get better and there's always next year and so forth and so on.

That's tough. Now, do you have moments where you see someone and you already know off the bat they got it or they don't?

Yes. I think that we can like look at somebody now, right, and we're like,

you ain't got it. You ain't got it, homie. Yeah. But then sometimes we see someone that has like the potential, we see like the star and we're like, oh [ __ ] they they're they're going to be good. feel like they pick up on it quickly.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And uh cuz the field is very competitive. No.

Oh, it's it's

talk to me a little bit about

like help me understand.

Look look look help me understand the seasons. How does it work? Like I always see I guess at this time of year everybody goes to ESPN Center. But for someone who doesn't follow dance like how does it work? Is it like a fiscal season or

So right now we're like in the heat of it.

Like we literally go to competition next weekend and we're on on fire right now like in the sense of like rehearsals. We're there till like 10:00, 10:30 at night.

But then take me to the beginning like how what what month are you guys trying to like how what month are you recruiting?

I feel like dance never stops.

Yeah. No, it's always perpetual.

Always going. Um I mean we do auditions for our team uh probably like May, June, and then [snorts] it just starts from there and we start training.

We probably don't start our dances and like start our competitive season till September.

So May, how long do auditions last?

Um auditions last. That's a day. Boom.

That's one day. One day.

And how many kids are you seeing,

man? And I think we have over 200 kids auditioning for us and then about 130 make the cut.

Okay, got you.

Typically that's where that's where I stay cuz anything more than that I feel like I I lose people like not lose customers but I lose like keeping track on on kids and being able to see their success and their progress. So I like to keep it on the smaller end.

Gotcha. So and once you finish auditioning you create you you work on the program dances. Yep. Straight to our our routines and we train summer camp too.

Oh we have summer camp. Yes.

How does that work out? O. Um, so that's like a good too heavy.

Is it like two a days like football? I used to do football workout,

man. Monday through Friday.

No, Monday through Friday, man. We We do Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. till

3:00. We're just grinding and and doing what we can. We do all genres. Uh, we train all day. Training is our biggest thing uh in the sense of training, ballet, and conditioning. So, we do like across the floor, making sure that we have our extensions. We're we're training and making sure that we have the dancer ready for whatever stage that they're going to be competing at.

Yeah. And we overstretch a lot.

Yeah. We do a lot of stretching.

Yeah. [snorts]

So, you get to the studio, right? You just started. You you pass auditioning. You're in there. What What do the kids usually expect? You know, how is like the format of the training for the eight what are they six hours, seven hours during summer camp at least?

Yeah, it's I mean it's pretty intense. A lot of them come in not knowing. Are you doing like a pow-wow like getting everybody ready like hey guys this is we're going to do this on the agenda today [laughter] like take me into like I'm I'm a fly on the wall. I want to see how the structure is.

Okay. Um so we start with conditioning early in the morning like we're sweating it out. That's that's how we're starting. So when you come in, you put your bags down, you get ready, we stretch, you do a light warm-up and we start conditioning. Um conditioning is pretty heavy. So we're sweating. We're in there. It's it's hot.

You do like the no AC.

Oh no AC. We're in we're in there sometimes. Really really hot. We have fans. I own the fans. Okay, good.

I'm nice. Um but yeah, we train super hard and heavy in the beginning. Uh and then kind of like after lunchtime is when we start doing our choreography and teaching them how to move and stuff.

Yeah.

Okay. So then after that, is there like a like a breakout session where you're hanging out or is there any type of like social?

Yeah. Lunch. Lunch. That's what they get. Hey, where's where we're we're on top of?

That's what I'm saying. But do you guys have like that camaraderie that like I mean I felt that with my football team, you know, is does dance have that camaraderie or is it kind of like everyone for themselves? So summer camp, it's basically like an individual kind of you come to train if you want to train kind of thing. So summer camp is more of like on the recck side. But as far as competition team, yeah, we're definitely like pep talking, huddling up, uh we do team bondings, that kind of thing. That's on the competitive side. But for recside, we come, we take classes, we we're obviously nice. We're not mean to the kids and we try our best to like keep it, you know, family oriented, but at that stage it's kind of rough cuz kids are only coming in for like an hour or two, like a week. So we we see them. Sometimes we don't see them.

So, it's like a weird situation. Competition is where it's at.

So, you've been doing this for over a decade now,

right?

That sounds that sounds

Yeah, that's deep. That's deep. That's deep.

So, we're getting up we're getting up there. So, um has I don't want to say the quality, but has the attitude or of children over time changed? You know, do you see kids like more focused or less focused? You know, how have the children that have gone to your facility uh evolved over time? That's actually a really good question for you because you went through it, I think, and you were actually able to go through that and see that and experience it. Like, how do you feel it's changed from when you started cuz you're now 19 and

10 years in?

Yeah.

Yeah. I feel like when I started it was I feel like it was a like kids were really hungry back then like for like just being like the top like person. And I feel like it was really competitive, but I feel like the attitude was way better back then, too.

Things have changed for sure. I feel like this generation of dancers

after co it was like a a switch that was like

I think in general like in the whole dance community like it's it's made a huge like drop

like energy wise

a drop in the energy

attitude like attitude of kids like missing the motivation missing the hunger.

Why would you attribute to that respect? I mean

yeah [laughter]

like the respect has

like that comes from your parents your respect comes from your family you know it's not that's not a generational thing or whatever case is but

but what you you feel like the kids now are like what more entitled

are they less competitive or they don't care

the compet like the competitive side is still there but I just feel like

it's more of like the entitledness like you said like oh I deserve first because I showed up.

Yeah just because I showed up not because I kicked my leg this high or anything like that.

Yeah. And they feel like they should already be like up here from the start. Like I feel like when I started I was a like a prop mover. Like I remember

she'd be in the back of the dance like moving a prop and she wouldn't be

My first dance with Alex. I kid you not. We had like stairs. I would move the prop the entire time

and she'd be happy as can be. Like she didn't prop once. She gave me a little solo part. I did a reach like this. I was the happiest girl ever. I went home. I cried to my mom and I go, "Mommy, she gave me a solo part. It was a reach."

But not everyone was like that. Like, yeah, I feel like people don't want to build from the ground up anymore, so people just want it handed to them.

But you know what? I I'll give you my which I do agree with you and I'll give you my perspective on that. I think

that that's not a bad thing for people who are good

because then making it easier for people to just like plow through and just okay, you're all going to be focused on other stuff. I'm going to actually get this done.

So

to for high performers or people who are really hungry,

it's like you're fasttracking. You're able to move faster on things now too, you know? which is what I like about that. You know, if everybody else wants to be lazy, that's not my problem. I end up working for us, you know. So,

and sometimes we do get those, we get kids like that, like Gabby. Gabby's a good one.

Oh, yeah. Gabby's fantastic.

Um, we get those sometimes

and right now, you know, there's information, there's everything is everywhere, you know. So,

that's what it is. [clears throat] It's a lot of like

it's an execution skill, you know. If you could if you could execute,

you have all the knowledge in the palm of your hands, you know. So, I mean, yours is a little more physical, you know. So,

but um uh yeah, that was um I expected you to say something along those lines to be honest with you. That's unfortunate, but you know what? I was asking somebody that the other day and I think it was another field and they told me no. I think it was like basketball like for boys when they were young and they told me no. I mean, I I guess it depends. They're like we see people just as hungry. He goes the opposite. I see them wanting to actually it was in Dick's house of sport. We're doing a campaign and he was saying I see these young guys now wanting to be more conscious of what they're eating. you know, they want to see more functional workouts, you know, they want to see they want to do more training. They want like I that's what he was telling me from from that side of it,

you know, like you want to see you want to see your performance get better, you know. I think that's probably the issue with your field, you know, your field the performance is very objective. It's like what she says is good, which I guess there's a line and it's going to like in sports like us, it's like, you know, your performance is 15 points, 20 points like it's something measured. It's measurable, [clears throat] you know. Yeah.

So that when I have my thing measurable, I can say, "Okay, I need to get better to do this." You know,

yours is like it's an art at the end of the day. You know what you guys are doing?

And very political.

It's very political. You think so?

For real?

Oh my god.

No way. Dance is political.

Why would you say that,

man? I mean,

why? Cuz if I'm taking my daughter to you, if I take my daughter and I pay another $1,500 on the side on the side, she's getting first place. I'm getting

I love it. That's easier than

Oh my gosh. No, I mean, as far as like competitions go, I mean, we think it's super political. Like, if you if you've been, I guess, I don't know, if you've been going to a place for a certain amount of time, obviously, they're going to go ahead and weigh you, I think, a little bit more with the points and and go more towards your side because they know who you are and they know what you bring to the table versus someone that's new. I think they won't give you like a standing chance. So, I guess,

but but I've been to your studio. You have like a thousand awards over there and and trophies and stuff. You can't even see them. I have no idea what you're talking about.

I can't you can't even fit any more trophies in there. How are you going to tell me it's political? What? you haven't been winning lately or what?

Uh, no. I mean, in general, I mean, I wasn't I wasn't attacking adrenaline. I didn't Alina. Um, you know, I just I think in general like it's just not the same like from back when she was dancing. I feel like now it's changed like what can you bring to the table that's going to help my business.

Yeah. It's very biased.

Yeah. And it's it I think it goes hand inhand with too with like the motivation of the kids too because I think that they hear about it and they find out about they're like, "Oh, I don't know this competition so I'm not going to do well."

Is there like a master organization that manages like all of the dance studios or something like something centralized or no? I don't know.

That'd be a really good idea though for someone to do that.

How about do you guys like So who throws the tournaments then?

Or who throws the competitions? It's amongst you guys yourselves.

Like if you wanted to go ahead and open up a dance competition and you can you can do it.

I would have to recruit you guys though to come and dance in it.

Give me a phone call. Be like, "Hey, I'm doing a competition. We're going to be in Fort Lauderdale blah blah blah blah here. Here's what I can do for you and let me know if you can bring

Yeah, that's an interesting. So what when someone joins a dance competition, what is usually what's exchange? Do you guys pay to be in the STEM competition?" Yeah. Do Oh, you do pay?

Us alone? I think we put in like $60,000 per competition. Just adrenaline. That's what we pay to go to a competition.

I didn't know it was that expensive. I know I'm in the wrong business. [laughter]

We're going to do a dance studio now. Jay, write that down, bro. We're going to do a dance competition. 60 grand.

And that's just And we are worth like in the sense of routines cuz that's what it comes out to. Okay. For example, if you wanted to take a solo, that's you by yourself dancing on stage for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, right? Because you want to dance. You've been dying to dance your whole life. That's what you want to do. you are worth $195 to that competition just that two minutes and 30 seconds. If you want to be part of a group, you have to pay a h 100red bucks for a large group because that it it like starts stemming out. So anyway, at the end of the day, adrenaline is worth like 150 routines.

Okay? So you multiply 150 by the rate,

right? And that's what's going to get you your Okay, but when you're doing these competitions, there's other schools in here or other studios part of this, right? So, if I'm Pepito that takes 150 routines and the other team takes 10 routines, who's going to

who's going to win? You.

Yeah, there you go.

Yeah,

you said it.

That's why it gets a little slimy.

But okay, but don't they have like Okay, each studio can only get 10 routines. Do they do like, you know, guidelines like that?

So, now they're starting to do that and they're starting to do cut offs, but that's not that's not necessarily fair because for big studios like me, I that's not an interest for me. I don't want to just take 10 kids. That's not fair. I want to take everybody. I want to make sure that we are seen. So then you need a competition that takes for studios like yours that takes, you know, hey, I'm going to take a 100 routines of each of each of each studio.

You need competitions like that. Do those exist?

Yeah, of course. That's where we're going this weekend.

Which one is you?

Hall of Fame. We're going to Hall of Fame. We're going to Lakers.

I think I've been to that one. I've been to to those. It's it's it's giving familiarity.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I went to my my nieces and they were all dancing everything.

It's all the same. It's

honestly, listen, I'm not going to lie. It's it's the most boringest thing in the world. [gasps] Oh my god.

I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't lie, you know. Listen, I can't I can't

You know what it is for me to have my daughter in dance?

See her all year, take her to a thousand classes, pick her up from school, get Alia, get drive 4 hours to Orlando, sit down to see

30 seconds of my daughter,

but it's what we worked so hard [laughter] for.

So, it's like we get to see him. We're like, "Oh my god, this is it."

I get it. I feel great for those 30 seconds, you know, but I just invested a year into 30 seconds, you know? all that money too.

Yeah. The money [ __ ] comes and goes. But

is she happy? Was she happy?

Yeah, of course she's happy. But I'm not, you know. So then [laughter] I'm like, baby, do something that more intensive, you know, like now I do say like I do give it up to you. Like there's a lot of impressive routines there too, you know. But and and it takes a lot of like that's a real athletic sport as well. People may not think it is. Not for I did dance for two years in high school. Yeah. I was on stage and everything. I tell you more. I want you.

I did the little

Oh, you were a lifter. You were a lifter. They used you. They used. Okay. Okay. [clears throat]

But it was I saw behind the scenes and I saw it was very difficult and I It's not something that's easy. Um, so it does build a lot of character, camaraderie, you know. Um, I think uh, you know, you do become like a leader kind of in there too. Like it has those qualities in there which is great for girls, you know. But I'm talking about from a

a spectator component too, you know. It was just like one little session for 30 seconds. That's the only thing I was like, "Hey,

I I get that. I get that." And that I think that is probably the downside of it. I I guess it depends on what kind of competitions you go to, too. Um, and how many pieces the kids are

the the ASP ones. I think that's that's where they do it.

Oh, UDA. Those are the best ones. Yeah.

Yeah. There.

No. Thousands and thousands of kids. Thousands.

Oh, man. Like, why aren't you like pumped up?

I guess I'm not just, you know, like I don't know. It was cool. It was cool. It was cool. I cannot I cannot imagine doing that every year, you know. Anyways, I don't want to [ __ ] on the sport. Like

I'm like, damn.

But I know I'm but listen, I know I'm speaking for every father out there because it's conversations that we have, you know.

You know what needs to be done? Honestly, a little bit more entertainment cuz you go to these places and everything's closed. So, you're just there standing around.

Well, now they're serving alcohol at these places.

Oh, there you go.

It's like where we're going this weekend. They're at least serving it. So, we're

show Oh, let's go. You know, like that's what you want.

It's fun. It's fun. That's good. That's good. But no, and our dads, we have like prop dads.

Oh, yeah. We have a we have a nice little prop dad community. So we all of our dads get along. You see, you'd fit right in.

Yeah. You can move some props, build your Let's go.

Let's ring her on.

I don't need to be working anymore. My daughter My daughter's 20 years old in New York going to school already.

Is she really?

Yeah. She's really

It's okay. We can lie about her age. I'm kidding. [laughter]

She's She's not a dancer. She's uh she's a artist. She does architectural design.

Oh, that's actually very cool.

That's what I'm doing right now.

Uh she's really good. She's she's good. She she went to she graduated from Gulver and then sent her over. I didn't send her. She wanted to go to New York. I wanted her to stay here, but she she now now she's saying it's so cold. I want to go back. I said, "Nope. Got to finish your four years."

Yeah. Yeah. You got to finish.

You're there already.

Nice.

So, why should parents consider going to Adila Dance Studio?

That That's such like a loaded question. Yeah.

No, I mean, you know your competition. You know your people, you know why you're different. What's you know, why why should I go to you instead of somebody else? Um, well, first of all,

besides the reason of having 10,000 trophies in your in your

Forget the trophies. Forget the trophies. Forget forget all that. Um, I think that we're so in tune like with each other's families and we're such a tight-knit group. Um, so alone just like us, especially like now Kam too that now she's able to see it like on this side cuz she works for us now and and she gets to see like both sides of how everything's like unraveled. I feel that we are such a tight-knit studio in the sense of like we're very involved with your families. We want to know how you're doing. We're we're constantly updating you on what's happening with us and vice versa. Like we want to know what's going on with everyone's family and we keep the kids in touch with their progress and the families. We tell them like what's going on, how they can get better. I feel like we're very in tune individually with each kid and each family which I feel sets us apart from all the other studios.

What would your what would you say is different from the studio? I mean, I think like from all the years that I've been there as a dancer and now as a teacher, like we're very close like group wise, like we're very like it's like a big family. Like I've never felt

and even if somebody comes in new too, like we have new kids that come all the time.

We're very welcoming. We're not like, "Hey man, like you don't deserve to be with us cuz you haven't been with us for 5 years."

Oh, and that happens in other places.

Oh yeah.

Oh, for sure. Like if you're not good enough and you don't fit the part there, they would for sure like do something about it. Or there's bullying. Like that's a big thing now.

You think there's bullying in dance studios?

Of course.

Of course.

There's bullying at school. Of course.

What? How do girls get bullied? [laughter]

Girls are mean sometimes, you know. For real.

There's a lot of mean girls.

So, give me some examples here. Like, were you bullied?

If you don't wear deodorant, if you don't wear

If you don't wear deodorant, you're out. Like, you're out.

Okay, I get that though. I get that.

You don't wear deodorant like you're out of here. We have a Some girls don't like Let it go. Like,

okay, but I get that, you know, cuz everybody else is being affected now. [laughter] It's a group thing, you know? But like, you know, if you're going to be there and like, you know, I don't know, saying things. I don't know. You know, man, there's so much drama.

You know what? It is said they're little. They're kids, you know, so they're going through the hormones and they're learning who they are and stuff and you say dumb [ __ ] you know. I said plenty of dumb stuff when I was young, you know, that I would definitely not not, you know, say or or do now because you're much more of an adult. You see light through a different way, you know?

And I think because it's so many girls, I think that's like a big thing, too. Like, I'm better than you. like, "Oh, she's wearing this. I'm going to wear that." Like, it's just like that. And then the moms are involved, so it gets real heavy.

For real.

Mhm.

Do the moms ever fight with each other?

Of course.

For sure.

You've had fights inside the studio, like arguments or

Oh my god. We've had We've had some crazy We've had some crazy situations.

Give me your craziest dance situation. Does it have to be Does it have to be in your studio? Give me your craziest dance situation, dance story.

Um, okay. Okay. So, we had a we had a parent that was talking massive massive loads of garbage about another dancer and one of the moms from the studio went to the husband found him in the bathroom, opened up the bathroom door, pulled down his pants, and punched him right in the

at a competition and said, "Don't you ever talk about my kid again." And like walked out of the bathroom and the man was like crying.

Oh my god. That's pretty crazy. I'm shocked. [laughter]

I did not expect that. I

haven't even heard this.

Like that sounds fake. That sounds fake.

And that was like out of competition and because people of course there's what happened like

I was crying in the bathroom like

but he didn't know.

I think he got he should just left. He got he didn't come back. I mean his kid stayed but you know.

Wow.

And when it gets like that

since it's like people from like everywhere like it's not just Miami like when

Yeah. Another big thing too, like people like studio hop too, which is also like that gets nasty because once you are a studio hopper, quote unquote, um you get kind of like marked.

You guys are so funny. You guys have like these terms studio hopping.

Yeah. Like you're a hopper. Like that's a hopper. Get out of here. I don't want I don't want to talk to you. You've been everywhere. Yeah. You've been everywhere. So it's like it's not I don't know. Like for me like I love

You want consistency and loyalty, you know?

Yes. That is like the biggest thing I think in dance too. Like the more loyal you are, the higher you're going to get ranked at a studio. Like Camila has never danced anywhere else. Now she's like,

"What would you do if going somewhere else?"

I'd kill her. [laughter and snorts]

Have you ever been recruited?

No, I don't think so.

No.

I mean,

I've gotten some DMs. Yes.

Yeah, you have. And like backstage,

they try to poach you and stuff, right? It happens to me, too. [laughter]

For dance? Cuz that one time or

No, not for dance. For the agency, people always trying to DM people saying they want to work with them.

Yeah. Yeah. It's the same thing. like the dance studio directors will be backstage like watching her while I'm like right next to her like prepping her and they'll be like hey good job that was like a really good job but like size you up like hey you looks really good. Yeah, I go I mean I'm not gonna lie, I go to places and if I see someone working good at an event or something, I'll say, "Listen, how's it going? Good. Are you looking for work?" I straight up tell them and I I I brought people like that.

I feel like that's nicer, you know?

Yeah. Than just like I'm literally about to like

like if she's going like she's already like she's like at her house like that's her house. Like she's already home right now and you're going to go inside the kid's house and be like, "Hey, I know you're home, but hey, you want to come with me instead?" It's like ew, man. Like we're in the middle of it. Like what are you doing? How has social media affected the dance world or dance studios? Because I'm sure you have a lot of young girls. They're going to the dance studio. I'm sure they're posting. Like, how has that affected the maybe the camaraderie or the the your industry or at all?

I think it goes back to that entitlement, too, because a lot of kids just post like their first places and they won't post like the work behind it. So, a lot of kids think that the first places or the second places or third places, you know, top three, that's what we all want to aim for. They think that it's so easy because Fanita did it and Fanita is not posting that she was at the studio for 24 hours this week and not posting her grind and not posting how many classes she takes and not doing all that. So a lot of the kids will take from that

like oh if she got it and she got first place and look she barely works for it like I can do the same thing. So I feel like that is a big deal. Um

yeah a lot of people don't show like the hard work that they put in. They just it's just like the trophies and the nice stuff.

Yeah. It's your highlight reel. Yeah. Yeah, but that's understandable because everyone should at this point, you know, you know, that's how social media is.

And then the commentary too. I feel like that's another thing too, like when people comment,

they comment just to like get the comment back from you, but then when they see you in person, they won't even look at you.

For real. Yeah. Yeah.

But that's also like I feel like with dance studios too, like we all, and this is such like a touchy subject because I'm sure every studio can relate. We are all so nice and bubbly on social media, but when we all go to competition, none of us talk to each other. We don't look at each other. We won't even say hello. We won't even congratulate each other. And it's like so nasty, but I feel like social media, I don't know if it's I don't think it's helped at all because I think it makes it worse. It amplifies it.

You know what it is though? The thing is that um I think I I I would assume it has something to do with, you know, bringing students in, you know. No,

a lot of the students

because if they start like Exactly. Like if you start being camaraderie with your competition, you know, you might feel like they may peel away from your students or cuz there's money involved, you know, at the end of the day. That's the only thing I could attribute to that. But other I mean game face and we're focused and I don't want to talk to you, I'm down with that, you know, like that's

that's kind of what we do. I I kind of just like lock in with the kids and like prep them backstage and like if someone wants to come and say hi, which they do. Um which I feel like is more of like our out of state friends.

Yeah, [laughter] of course. Yeah. They're like all friendly and stuff, you know, cuz they don't have to see you back competing. Especially Miami is a very competitive market, you know. How many dance studios do you think there are here?

Oh my god. We can throw a rock and there's like at least in our vicinity there's at every every block there's there's started it wasn't like that.

No man, it's it's it's blown up. I mean it's a it's a great thing. I I love that. I love that it's blown up. But yeah, when I started there was nothing. Especially in my area, there is nothing in my area and I'm on one.

Is dance considered a sport?

Oh my [sighs] god.

I would say so.

It was a sport, right? Come on, man.

No, I'm asking. Why would you ask? Of

course it is. It is.

But it's not like is is it in the Olympics and stuff too or no? Oh,

well, rhythmic gymnastics is

okay. Okay,

I'll take that. But they should. Don't they do like break dancing now in Olympia?

They do break dancing. Remember that lady last year that went crazy that she got stuck and stuff? Yeah. [laughter]

Then every was like and she started wiggling on the floor.

That was awesome,

man. When you get Of course.

Yes, bro. Dance. The swimmers that are in the in the water, the dance swimming. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? That's impressive. That's impressive.

You see dance is all around.

Dance is all around. Dance is around.

Do you guys teach like salsa dances and stuff? That's always such a big question. I'm always like, "No, we should. You should teach that."

I would like to learn salsa and stuff like that, you know?

I think you should be the head teacher for that.

I would be terrible at

be part of the be very bad. [laughter]

I I I practiced like a month right here across the street. Uh Arthur Murray.

Oh my god. Shout out to Arthur Murray. They've been there forever. Like across our practiced for like a month with my wife before our wedding, practicing our wedding dance, right?

And it was cool. Honestly, I did enjoy it a lot, but I wasn't very good. You know, I had to like [snorts] redo and redo and I think I have like an issue with like short-term memory.

So,

that's a big that's a big thing. That's a big thing. You have a couple dancers I forget choreography.

Yeah. It's like you know I gota But it was a lot of fun though. I did enjoy it. I did enjoy it. I didn't but they were about to start to teach me laa and stuff like that. So, I'm like [laughter]

we can't come anymore, you know,

but I should go back. But, I mean, I think it's fun if you guys The thing is that's a little bit of a mission for you to have space for salsa classes. We're going to do that.

We're Yeah, you're you're you're totally right. Yeah, we're we're pretty slammed. Um and we're very heavy

on moving from Kendall,

man. You know,

cuz you right now are located in Miller Square.

Yes. Miller Square. If you're in the middle,

you were on the original side of Miller Square and then you went to the other side.

Yes. And if West kind of like that's the hood like everyone know like that's like the the armpit of Miami. I feel like everyone knows ex like everyone's there. So I was there like when it was like the old school that everyone everyone knew like $1. I was there. That was me. I'm kidding. No, man. [laughter] changing out to LA Fitness and

yeah, so I was I was there for that second part, but before they made the Ross, I know the Ross has been there for a while, but um yeah, man, I've been in that shopping center for 13 years.

Yeah, they're updating the Publix.

Yeah, they're they're updating the whole entire place.

It it's it's getting a whole facelift, that's for sure.

A facelift.

Yeah, it's not I was a good comparison.

So then,

um I Nothing I I just I think that I would like to eventually get out of there and probably go to more of like a warehouse vibe.

Warehouse vibe like by the Bird Road District. I would love to do something like that or even more towards uh the Pinerest area.

The Pankress area would be nice.

Yeah, I live in Palmetto Bay. So,

but there's no there's no warehouses in Pancress

actually. Kind of.

There is.

There's now like a new little area back there by the falls

around there.

Um but I got to look around. I honestly haven't I haven't done my research enough. Um

but let's see.

That's a big move, too.

It is. It is. It's scary cuz I'm scared for so long. Yeah. You've been there for so long and I think that place is beautiful. Looks nice and stuff.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, it's a nice place, you know.

Yes. Yes. Alex, for any person or parent out there that is thinking of putting their child in a dance studio, why should they go to you?

Um, for sure we're different. We're dynamic. I feel like we expose the kids to a lot of opportunities, too. Um, we've taken kids to perform at heat games. Uh, we've done football games before. Um, sometimes we do little bits with uh some local celebrities. I know Mr. Red has come by a couple times and hung out with the kids and that's always been a really cool thing for the kids to look up to too. Um, but definitely we're a very dynamic, fun, family oriented place compared to some of the other studios around. So, I think that that definitely puts us above the bar.

Yeah. I just feel like we're [laughter] very family oriented and I feel like we build our dancers from

from the ground up. That's for sure. Yeah.

So, when if somebody So, can people can sign up all year long?

Uh, yeah, absolutely. Uh, uh, on www.adeland.com adrenalance.com if you'd like to.

But but okay, competition season is only that that moment,

but you could always sign up to a studio all year long.

Yeah, you can always sign up. We've got it running.

And like for the regular kids that are in competition, what's their routine like? What's their their flow?

Um, so a lot of kids sign up for one or two classes. Uh, we've got everything from hip-hop to jazz, contemporary, lyrical, ballet, tap. We do tap for the little kids.

Acro

acrobatics, which is awesome. Um, and we also do like technique and conditioning to prep you for competition if that's something that, you know, your child is interested in. Um but yeah, a lot of kids take one to two classes. It varies. Sometimes they like to do a contemporary class mixed in with the ballet. Um but yeah, that's that's pretty much what the re

is there any like benefits you see from dance that you see the kids like over time once they start?

Absolutely. I mean I see their I mean alone their their body what they look like. I you see them more toned out. Um definitely the responsibility of coming to class remembering their routines that's for sure. What they taught uh the class prior they got to remember all that kind of stuff. also like balance balancing school.

Oh yeah, that's a lot. That's a lot.

A lot. Like I remember me growing up like

I would I would have to remember dances. I would have to like get the team together like just like bonding and then also remembering all my dances. I used to be in like

and then go home and do actual homework for school

and then go home and and then wake up at 5 in the morning to go to school the next day. But I loved it. I like the drive and like the motivation is like like adrenaline has helped me like with that. And now that I'm like obviously working at school and I have another job, like I feel like that has helped me a lot. Like just balancing everything being adult.

She's not paying you enough to have one job.

No, it's just [laughter]

Thank you. I don't know. It's just it's a little like side gig.

I was just messing with you.

Yeah. [laughter]

What are you doing? Like social media or something on the

Yeah. No way. What type of marketing?

I'm working with Za with the app.

Za?

Yeah,

dude. We work with Za. Were you on the call?

I'm a student ambassador. I like

Oh, I've seen you in the videos and stuff like that.

Yeah, I run them.

Okay. So, we're going to be working with you. We're going to be working.

I run them. I run them. Yes, I run them. I'm like, "Hey guys, over here."

No, no. JC has everybody plugged in.

Yeah.

Yeah. I can tell. I can tell.

Everybody knows.

Impressive. JC's a good guy. Honestly, shout out to him.

I love JC.

He's a good person.

He's a good stepdad.

And he's got he's gotten really skinny, too.

Oh my god. You saw that? I need to know that.

All right, last question.

Scary. You got to let me know your top three restaurants.

Starting with number three.

Okay.

Wait. Each like each of us.

You guys can consolidate together.

You can do you can do number three.

Okay. Go. Give me number three.

Dietto.

Devietto.

Yes. I've actually never been there. Italian restaurant.

Where?

Oh.

Hey, listen. I just started driving so I don't I don't know.

Okay.

To the streets. [laughter]

What do you like about it?

I just the food and then honestly like the aesthetic of it. the whole like interior like is so nice.

So that's the problem with with the kids. They they just use GPS. They don't even know where they're at.

Yeah. Yeah. I know. That's how I got here today.

Alex number two.

Om golden rule.

Gold. Where are these places?

Bye. Hello man. On US one and

170. Yeah,

man. It actually crappy situation quickly. The place got burned down a year ago. I don't know what happened. like a firework. Someone blew a firework up in the air and the whole place is in a tiki hut which the vibe is so cho. There's a like a koi pond in there. It's a very cool laid-back atmosphere, but they've got music and it's super nice and it's great for families. But they are under a huge tiki hut and I guess someone with a firework bleed the firework and it caught on fire like a year ago. So the whole place got shut down, but they just rebuilt it and it's phenomenal. Great seafood run by an amazing family. Wow. Love that place.

You've been going for a long time.

Yeah.

Golden Rule.

Golden Rule Seafood.

Wow, man. I got to go there. See, I love I love

And I got my number one. I got my number one restaurant.

What's your number one?

Eileen's Osteria.

The best.

Eileen's Auststeria.

Yes.

Where?

What? Where have you been?

I don't know. I'm I'm always working, man. I'm always here. If people ask, I'm here,

man. Shout out to those people. They are amazing. Number one. Number two, best Italian food on the planet.

That's a very u big big big statement.

Yes. And I love Italian food. But where but where are they in US1?

H they are hidden on Old Cutler and 168 cuz I live on 168 and Old Cutler. I live right there. So they're on my street.

That's fine.

But they are in the back there by Daring Estate all the way by the water. And it is such a great beautiful little hole in the wall restaurant. Like very cozy, very nice. The best Italian food, best customer service.

But do you got to go through like you got to go through during your state? Go through gates and stuff.

No man no man no just walk right in like it's available for the regular like Yeah. for the regulars,

but during a stage is just a bonus. But yeah, it's it's right there and you can walk to the people's dock is what it's called after. And you get to see the water.

Super nice. I've never heard of that.

It's actually very romantic.

Wow.

We should have done this on Valentine's Day and like done this. Yeah. But you got to go quick cuz they're always uh pretty reserved. So, but they are

Well, they're going to they're going to get traffic now.

Ladies, it was a real pleasure having you here. Nice to see you again. Nice to meet you. Good work. Keep keep going. I think she needs a race.

Damn, man.