With new location, dance studio expands to include performing arts
July 21, 2023
Since moving to a new location, BritZa Performing Arts Studio has added programming to go with its expanded name.
Formerly known as BritZa Studios, which was founded in 1985, the new studio opened earlier this year at 1500 E. 77th St.
Owner Amanda Hahn, a former student of BritZa, said she aims to provide a safe space for children and adults to learn, create and perform.
Hahn, the director, owner and lead instructor, began dancing at the studio at age 3. She became an instructor at BritZa Studios in 2006 and transitioned to owner in 2013.
By 2021, Hahn became the full-time owner of BritZa and introduced ideas for expanding the offerings beyond just dance classes at BritZa Performing Arts Studio.
“We wanted to expand into more from just dance to performing arts. We added singing and acting classes,” Hahn said. “We’re giving kids (more space) and opportunity to find it within them.”
The larger studio is a more efficient use of space and more accessible for those with special needs, she said. The studio employs approximately 10 staff members and seasonal or part-time employees/volunteers throughout the year.
At BritZa, there are two large studios. One of them converts into a black box theater. Additionally, there are medium-sized and small-sized studios. BritZa also has a retail store that sells items necessary for classes and local vendor items. Hahn said the increased studio space is ideal for BritZa’s growth in terms of class size and variety.
With the expanded space, BritZa offers an array of performing art options, including ballet, jazz, tap, musical theater, lyrical dance, hip hop, contemporary dance and pointe for walking-aged children through high school. BritZa also offers adult ballet classes.
In addition to dance, BritZa has singing classes, showtime theater classes, puppetry making, summer musicals and choreography camps. Hahn said she plans to add more classes like makeup design and other avenues of theater.
“We’d like to get the word out there that we’ve added to our offering of classes and that we’re super family-friendly,” Hahn said. “And it’s age appropriate. Music choices, costumes and movements are age appropriate.”
Hahn said she wants the studio to become a place students can leave emotional baggage at the door and get a break from the heaviness of life. The studio values the emotional, physical and mental health of its students, she said, and she sees how movement positively affects those aspects of well-being in her students.
“Dance and movement create new pathways in the brain,” Hahn said.
For instance, one student living with Parkinson’s disease couldn’t physically walk through the doorway without a heavy beat of music playing in the studio, she said. The student and Hahn then would march into the studio together.
“This whole thing is so much bigger than learning (dance) steps,” Hahn said. “What movement does for your brain is incredible.”
Hahn said the student was no longer shaky when inside the studio and was a whole new person when engaging in dance.
“We appreciate our students as humans and want them to grow up to be lovely humans,” Hahn said.
