After 45 years of running a dance studio in Johnson County, a Shawnee business owner is taking a step back.
In April, Kathi Nallia, known to her students as “Ms. Kathi,” decided she was going to close her dance studio, Nallia School of Dance. It now operates under new ownership as the Limelight Academy of Performing Arts, with Nallia staying on as an instructor.
“I still feel like I have a lot to offer, but there’s just a time to step back and let the younger generation take the reins,” she said.
Running the school on the principles of dance being important and personal, Nallia said she’s proud of what she accomplished.
“We kind of always balanced performance and competition. We weren’t a competition studio, but we did a couple a year just because it gives them goals to work toward. But for me, it was still always about the art,” she said.
Nallia got her start in Shawnee
Noticing her daughter was very shy, Nallia’s mother enrolled her in dance classes when she was 3.
Studying tap, ballet, jazz and acrobatics, Nallia immediately took to the art form, performing in a variety of productions in the Kansas City area, from shows at the Starlight Theatre and the Jack and Jill Players to children’s television shows.
When Nallia began teaching in her teenage years, she said she couldn’t wait to run her own studio.
“I always knew that I would rather have my own (studio) so I could control the size of the classes,” she said.
After graduating from Washington High School in Kansas City, Kansas, in the 1970s, Nallia moved to the West Coast to dance professionally. Eventually, she moved to Shawnee to open up her own studio.
“When I came back … I had some friends of my dad’s that said, ‘Oh, my daughter wants to take dance. You’ve got to open in Shawnee.’ I was like, ‘Well, I just moved to Shawnee, so that sounds good to me.’ I didn’t do any demographics or anything. I just said ‘I’m going to do it right here,'” she said.
The business moved several times
Teaching for 45 years meant Nallia not only had to be quick on her feet for dance, but also to adjust to where her business best fit in the constantly evolving city.
In its 45 years, the business moved around the city. It was first located on Johnson Drive before moving to downtown Shawnee, where it would reside for 26 years before a shooting spooked customers and Nallia away from the location. After that, it moved from Lackman Road to its final location on 62nd Terrace.
No matter where she went in the city, it felt like home and she always felt like she had the support of its residents, she said.
“I always feel like Shawnee chose me. I made the decision to open in Shawnee, but in the several moves that I’ve had to make, there was no question that I would always stay in Shawnee,” she said.
Throughout the years, Nallia dabbled with opening second locations for the studio in cities like Bonner Springs, Basehor or further west in Shawnee, before paring it back down to one studio when she realized it was detrimental to her own ethos.
“At one point in time, it got bigger. I had 150 (students) at each (studio), and I really didn’t know all my kids the way I wanted to, so I decided to pare it back to one because I didn’t feel comfortable not knowing them,” she said.
Plus, 150 students per year has always been the sweet spot, Nallia said. It was enough to support the business, while also allowing her to maintain her personal touch.
“I was always hands on. I was always here at the studio, knowing what was going on. So, so that, for me, 150 (students is where) I always felt comfortable. And that’s what we ended with,” she said.
The studio weathered many storms
Through the years, Nallia said the school faced challenges, from a variety of natural disasters to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the studio to do remote sessions.
“During COVID, we did the Zoom classes. We tried to engage (with our students), but they were dealing with so many other things outside of here that it was hard to pull it out of them,” she said.
During that time, Nallia said she struggled with the idea that the school might have to unceremoniously shut down. But like other struggles the studio experienced before, she said she didn’t want to let her students down.
“One time we had a fire, and I thought, ‘Is this a sign? Can I rebuild this? Can I do this?’ Then there was this one girl who (it) was going to be her senior year the next year, and she was upset, she was afraid I was going to close … She’s the one that kept me going,” she said, saying another girl kept her going later on, when the studio was flooded. “But really, I had to keep going for me too. And so, those were just stepping stones to get me through each crisis.”
Sitting in her former studio, Nallia said she’s glad that she stuck it out. While it took a couple of years for the studio to get back on its feet during the pandemic, everything worked out, Nallia said.
“I got goosebumps just thinking about it because they all started clicking again and had great attitudes and wanted to be here,” she said. “I’m done on a really good year.”
In May, her studio held its final recital with an emotional reunion of many of Nallia’s old students.
For Nallia, it was exciting to see who continued to pursue dance and who went on to other careers.
“I’ve had students that have their own studios all over the country, actually, and I’m proud of that, but I also am proud of my students that came back (with other jobs),” she said. “I have three or four doctors that were at the reunion, and they said it was dance that gave them the discipline and a stress reliever, they could come in and dance and forget about what exams they were going to have. They continued to dance through college, the nurses, the school teachers. I’m just as proud of them as I am of anybody that pursued dance.”
“I never really wanted to produce professional dancers. I just wanted to produce good people,” she added.
Nallia will continue dancing
While Nallia’s time running a studio has ended, she said she wants to continue dancing and helping others.
Inspired by teachers that taught her, like Marj Gumminger, Nallia said she’ll continue teaching as long as her body will allow.
“My dance teacher taught until COVID, and she was 83 and she taught until then. I don’t know if I’ll last that long, but it would be cool if I did,” she said.
One of the classes that Nallia is currently teaching is giving her the drive to keep going.
“I’ve got a group of adult ladies. My oldest one in the class is 80. She’s been dancing since she was 3,” Nallia said. “So it’s inspiring to see them keep moving. You cannot stop moving. You’ve got to keep moving.”
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