Archive » June 1, 2007

Dance has always been a passion for Maggie Mesikep, even before she owned Los Olivos Dance Gallery, one of the most successful and demanded dance studios in the Valley.

“I just wanted to have a school since I was 7-years-old,” Mesikep said. “And I loved the Santa Ynez Valley.”

Mesikep opened the Gallery in 1994 after graduating from UC Irvine and moving to the Valley with her husband Mike.

The two lived in the San Diego area and Rancho Cucamonga for years before Mesikep couldn’t put her dream on the back-burner anymore.

“After years of teaching dance at various studios, I knew the time was right to move up here and start my school,” Mesikep said.

The dance gallery provides children, teen and adult dance classes in Tap, Ballet, Jazz, Hip-Hop and Flamenco.

“Since our first show in June of 1995 we doubled enrollment for the first three years,” Mesikep said. “We currently have over 300 dancers in our classes. Our enrollment for our incoming 4-year-old dancers is already booked for 2008.”

The gallery has a staff of six highly trained and well-rounded instructors, whose dance experiences range from teaching at the Royal Ballet School in London, studying dance in Malaysia to learning and instructing dance at Alan Hancock College.

Mesikep attributes the success of the Gallery to three things.

“The first thing is the strong sense of community support,” Mesikep said. “The second thing is the fabulous staff, which is innovative and shares a love for dance. The third thing is the fact that the atmosphere is not competitive, yet you can still see the level and skill of the girls.”

Community members also consider the gallery and its annual Centre Stage performance to be all the rage.

“We are thrilled to have them come and use the Solvang Festival Theater every May,” Diane Devine, executive director for Solvang Theater Fest, “In fact we kind of consider the Centre Stage to be the kick-off performance to our season.”

Though Mesikep earned her Bachelors degree in dance with an emphasis in teaching and management, her joy comes from watching the students grow and blossom into dancers.

“I love the way dancing makes me soar, feel and express,” she said. “But more importantly I love to help children feel those same things as well.”

Former student Brittni Tomasini remembers her days at Los Olivos Dance Gallery.

“I had a lot of fun because I got to meet a lot of new friends,” Tomasini said. “I liked dressing up a lot, that was really fun.”

“I would recommend the school to other kids,” she added. “I think they would really enjoy it.”

Katelyn Soliman, another former student who is now attending and majoring in dance at San Diego State University, shares Tomasini’s sentiment.

“Taking classes at Los Olivos Dance Gallery prepared me to perform,” Soliman said. “I had danced at other studios, but it wasn’t till I came to the gallery that I actually learned how to have a presence on stage and put that extra emotion in and express myself through dance.”

“I consider the Gallery to be a community I will always consider home,” Soliman added.

Though Los Olivos Dance Gallery keeps growing and earning community notoriety, Mesikep envisions her dream of adding a dance company to the gallery’s repertoire.

“I’ve always dreamed of having my own performing company,” she said. “And in 10-years I hope to still be doing what I love to do, teaching children to learn to love dance.”