HUDSON HEIGHTS — A Hudson Heights dance studio has taken to the internet in an attempt to raise money to buy new ballet equipment for its students.
The Broadway Performing Arts Center, which operates in the basement of the Our Saviour's Atonement Lutheran Church at 178 Bennett Ave., has launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $3,500 for new mirrors and ballet barres.
The studio, which has held classes in a single room in the church basement since 2008, taught more than 150 children between the ages of two and 13 in 2012, said co-owner Tina Casula Gross, who runs the studio with her husband, Cheyenne.
To make room for the new students, the studio expanded to a second room in the basement this past March, and Casula Gross said that the couple would like to outfit the new room with three mirrors and 20 feet of ballet barres in order to help their older students begin more advanced dance instruction.
Casula Gross, who equipped the first room with mirrors three years ago, said the mirrors were a huge part of helping youngsters learn dance moves.
"It really changed the way they danced," Casula Gross said. "You get to see what everyone is doing. It's all about imitating and copying; that's how you learn."
The campaign, which has already racked up $1,400 in donations, runs until Sept. 21.
