Backstage with Steven Becker
Backstage Dance Studio and its successor, Backstage II, are Las Vegas legends, and that's not said lightly. There are few, if any, professionals who haven't rehearsed a show, taken classes or taught there.
The original Backstage Dance Studio opened in 1973, a time when Las Vegas was still a relatively small town with a handful of major hotels, most of which had production shows whose phenomenal dancers were backed by costumes, lighting and sets - not the other way around. The dancers were the stars. They were also aware that on any given night they might have the likes of Juliet Prowse or Shirley MacLaine in the audience searching for back-up dancers to join their stage and/or touring shows.
Vegas dancers in the 70s, therefore, spent a disproportionate amount of time being seen in the right places. Backstage was the only studio devoted strictly to professionals and the classes were consistently taught by well-known choreographers and stars. Owned by dancer/choreographer Joan Palethorpe and dancer/company manager Steven Becker, Backstage was the only game in town. "The heyday of the studio, I'd say, was the mid 80s to mid 90s when you had 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Flashdance.' When 'Chorus Line' was in town. Every day you had 30 to 35 advanced students in class. Every day." Joan added, "Jane Fonda took class. Liza took class. Juliet took class."
a. Backstage II
Because of its extraordinary popularity, the original Backstage eventually outgrew its single 1,200-square-foot room. That's when Palethorpe and Becker began work on Backstage II, a 6,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility with three studios that they opened in 1992. The entire complex was designed by Becker. Yes, the need for more space was an incentive to build a new studio, but business considerations made the move paramount. "After 34 years, suddenly there was a new owner of the building that we were in. Where we'd been paying the same rent for years, and then this conglomerate out of Los Angeles wanted market value for the area. So suddenly now our rent went up about 275 percent."
"We looked at what it'd cost to rent a place and then thought, 'My God. For what we'd pay in rent and fees, we could own a place.'" Ambitious in their plans, Becker and Palethorpe wanted a two-story brick complex with a restaurant/snack bar and a separate theatre.
Easier said than done. "When we first decided to build, we had heard that the best way was to get a Small Business Administration loan, but to do that you have to come up with a whole contingency plan. 'Well, this is how we're going to advertise. This is how we're going to market it. This is how we see our future, where we're going to be at in five years. These are my qualifications as the owner. This is the staff we're going to have.' You have to present a whole business plan and then sell it to a banker who has no idea of what this is all about. But we were able to show that these are the people and this is the clientele that we have and we had the preliminary plans for the building. So they need to see that you know what you're doing before they're going to loan you all this money."
It's then that things like power, utilities, advertising, liability insurance and property taxes start to stack up. "It's nice to have your dream, 'I want a school,' but don't rely on them to come rushing to you regardless of what reputation you think you have." And don't rely on the loan to cover all the costs. As Palethorpe pointed out, "We took money out of the house because we had to own the land before we could build."
Angelo Moio teaching class
Location, of course, helps. "At the time, this location was right off the freeway, the access was right there. Everyone goes to the lake and everyone who drives by on the freeway could see us." The studio's reputation was so firmly established that the clientele tailed right along. Steven said, There have been other schools that have tried to open as adult schools and they just don't make it."
"One of the advantages to being in Las Vegas is that we do a lot of auditions and rehearsals here, which helps supplement the slow times with the adult classes. We have a broad list of clients, from starts to production shows and Broadway that have held auditions here."
They also have a page-long list of teachers that includes an Emmy winner, a Tony nominee, a dancer from Academy Award-winning movies "West Side Story" and "My Fair Lady," Star Search Grand Champions and choreographers to Liza Minnelli, Debbie Reynolds, Joel Grey, Juliet Prowse, Paula Abdul, Cher, Gladys Knight and Michael Jackson. There have been prominent dancers and choreographers like John Crutchman, Charles Kelley, Ron Lewis, Angelo Moio, Nick Navarro, Rich Rizzo, Joe Tremaine and Ben Vereen.
"It's seasonal. Suddenly a whole bunch of people are coming and you don't know why. Suddenly things drop off and you don't know why...It's an adult school and the teachers are paid per head so you don't have to worry about salaries for the instructors. Over the years we've had great, great teachers and they've always been willing to help us out in the bad times in order to reap the rewards in the good times."
And with Backstage II, they expanded into children's classes. "Over and over again, we had adults come in who had children who would go, "'Why don't you have children's classes? Would you consider having children's classes?' So we started children's classes basically by popular request." The studio now has a full range of classes - jazz, ballet, hip-hop, modern, tap, musical theatre and tumbling.
Becker summed up the success of Backstage quite well when he said, "It's been, for 34 years, primarily word of mouth. When someone new comes into town, they drop in, they ask a friend or they drop into some dancewear store and ask, 'Where do people take class?' and they say, 'Backstage.'" The legend is safe.
Backstage II audition and rehearsal clients:
Stars
Liza Minnelli
Penn & Teller
Destiny's Child
Carmen Electra
Toni Braxton
Gwen Stefani
Cruise lines
Carnival
Royal Caribbean
Holland America
Disney
Magic
Steve Wyrick
Lance Burton
Production shows
Cirque du Soleil
Lido de Paris
Legends in Concert
Midnight Fantasy
Comedy
2nd City
Broadway
Mamma Mia!
We Will Rock You
Avenue Q
Phantom of the Opera
Hairspray
The Producers
Spamalot
Television
Nearly Famous
The Real World
American Idol