Becky Klaiber, dance instructor and owner of Renew Dance, leads a hip-hop class at the N. Railway location earlier this week. Renew is renting from The Summit, which is no longer in business, so they are looking for a new studio space in a community building. The program keeps registration costs low, parents aren't asked to fundraise or buy costumes so that the dance program is accessible to everyone.--NEWS PHOTO EMMA BENNETT
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@MHNmocranker
With the closure of The Summit, Renew Dance Studio is now looking for a new home.
The Summit was renting out space on N. Railway Street for the dancers and for local skateboarders to use year round, but recently had to move out of the building because of financial reasons. This has left both groups looking for a new space.
“It’s disappointing to see another community space in Medicine Hat close down,” said studio owner and teacher Becky Klaiber. “The landlord is allowing us to finish up our semester here and then we’re going to be moving out in June.”
Renew has more than 200 children who take lessons and around 75 adults learning as well. The studio runs classes five days per week and is working to find a new home as quickly as possible.
“We’ve had a lot of people try to partner with us, it just hasn’t worked logistically,” said Klaiber. “Whether it’s the space or the schedule we would need – it just hasn’t ended up working out.”
Klaiber says Renew strives to be the most affordable dance studio in the city, which means they will need an inexpensive place to dance.
“Because we’re a community dance studio we sponsor a bunch of kids, and our whole vision is that everyone gets a chance to dance,” she said. “We don’t compete or have expensive costumes or make people fundraise or anything like that.
“That’s why one thing we’re looking at is a community building, so we can share those costs, but it just hasn’t worked out yet for us.”
Klaiber says the demand for Renew’s services continues to grow every semester.
“When we started it was maybe 20 kids and it’s just exploded,” she said. “I didn’t even mean to start a dance studio when we started out – it just happened organically.”
Renew has been dancing at The Summit for more than two years and Klaiber says she doesn’t know what the future holds for the group.
“We’re always looking and we’re being optimistic about everything,” she said. “Usually we have our registration for fall in full force by now but if we can’t find something I don’t think we’ll be able to run – we need to find a place and set up schedules and class times.
“It’s a scary thing to think about.”
More information on the dance studio can be found online at renewdance.com
